Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 122, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 745 & 746, September/October 2003

“And were you surprised?”

“Naturally,” said Scott, looking over at his wife. “We both were.”

“Do you have any idea how Valerie knew?”

“I’m afraid not. We certainly didn’t tell her.”

“Well, you couldn’t tell her if you didn’t know yourselves, could you? You must have worked closely with Jacqui, though. Did she ever let anything slip?”

“Nothing. Look, Mr. Lang, I’m very sorry about Tony and everything. I’ve known him for a number of years and count him as a good friend as well as a business colleague, but don’t you think the police know what they’re about? He and Valerie did have a terrific row — we all witnessed that — and not long afterwards, she was dead. It makes sense. Any one of us could snap under pressure like that.”

“Indeed we could,” I said. “Any one of us. Where did you go after you left the restaurant?”

“We dropped Jacqui off at her apartment, then we went home,” Ginny answered.

“Did anything unusual happen on the way?”

“No. Scott had had too much to drink, so I drove.”

“Where’s home?”

Scott answered this time. “Scarborough, down near the bluffs.”

“So you weren’t too far away from Tony and Valerie’s place?”

Scott’s bonhomie vanished in an instant, and he stuck his chin out. Ginny looked on coolly. “What are you getting at?” Scott said. “You come around here asking damnfool questions, and then you start accusing me of murdering Valerie?”

“I haven’t accused you of anything,” I said.

“You know what I mean. You certainly implied it.”

“I merely implied that someone other than Tony could have done it.” I looked at Ginny. “Did either of you go out after you got home?”

Ginny looked down at her hands folded on her lap before answering, “No.”

“Of course we didn’t,” Scott snapped. But something was wrong. Ginny didn’t want to look me in the eye, and Scott was blustering. Was she protecting him?

I took the safety-deposit-box key from my pocket. “Have either of you seen this before?”

They both looked genuinely puzzled. “No,” said Scott.

“Never,” said Ginny.

“Okay. Thanks for your time.” I pocketed the key and headed back to my car.

Tony Caldwell’s photographic studio was located in that urban wasteland of movie studios and sound stages between Eastern Avenue and the Gardiner, where Toronto pretends to be New York, London, and even a distant galaxy. At least parking in one of the vast empty lots was easier than around Spadina, which had cost me a small fortune. The studio had an empty feel to it, but Ray Dasgupta was in the office working at the computer. He stopped and looked up when I knocked and entered. I told him who I was and what I was doing.

“You probably think it’s odd, me working here while all this is going on,” he said.

“I suppose it takes your mind off other things,” I said. “And no doubt there’s work to be done.”

“Mostly bookkeeping.”

“What’s going to happen to the studio now?”

“I don’t know. Tony was the real creative energy behind us. I’m not much more than a glorified administrator. Oh, I know a shutter speed from an f-stop, but that’s about as far as it goes. Tony has a flair for striking up relationships with his models...” He paused. “That wasn’t meant to come out the way it did,” he said. “I mean behind the camera.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “But seeing as you mention it, how much do you know about these other relationships?”

Ray sucked on his lower lip, frowning.

“It’s not that tough a question, Ray,” I said. “Jacqui wasn’t the first, was she?”

“How do you know?”

“Never mind. But if anyone ought to know, it’s you, his partner. How many? How long?”

Ray squirmed in his chair. “Always,” he said. “As long as I’ve known him, Tony’s been chasing women. He couldn’t seem to help himself.”

“And Valerie didn’t know?”

“I don’t know whether she suspected or not, but she never acted as if she did. Not in public.”

“And you think she would have done something if she’d known?”

“Yes. Valerie is a proud woman, and jealous, too, not someone to take an affair lightly. She might not have divorced Tony. After all, she’d given up her own career, and she liked the lifestyle, but...”

“Maybe she’d have killed him?”

“But he’s not the one who’s dead, is he?”

Still, it was another possible scenario. Maybe Jacqui was the last straw. Perhaps there’d been a struggle, Valerie with the knife, trying to kill Tony, and things had turned around. That didn’t help me much, though, as he hadn’t even tried to claim self-defense. “What do you think of Jacqui?” I asked.

Ray’s lip curled. “Jumped-up little slut. It’s not as if she can’t have any man she wants. Why Tony? Why steal her best friend’s husband?”

“And Valerie?”

Ray looked away, clearly disturbed by the question.

“Ray? Something you want to tell me?”

“Look, I... I would never have... I mean...”

“Were you in love with her, Ray?”

His silence told me all I needed to know.

“Was it you who told Valerie about Tony and Jacqui?”