“I’ll tell all in London,” Thomas promised. “Now, let’s plan our weekend,” he went on briskly. “We’ve got to fit in a lot when you finish adventuring and teaching and we actually manage to meet.”
“We most certainly do,” Laura agreed, and began to make suggestions.
***************
Laura reveled in the luxury of having time to wash and even dry her hair, pulled out her favorite outfit, the multi-colored tunic with a jeweled belt and slim trousers she had first worn for a memorable dinner with Thomas last summer, and went down for the gathering. She was still puzzling over the numbers Violet had given her. Lady Longtree, William, Alan, Claudine, Richard, Rachel, Violet and herself made eight. Hans made nine, if he wasn’t still under arrest. She should have asked about that, too. But who were the others?
Alan walked in the door at just that moment. He had a pack on his back, and was followed by the red-haired lady, who now had her long russet tresses piled atop her head. She too had a pack on her back. Laura stared in astonishment at the four small feet that stuck out the bottom of the packs.
“I should like you to meet my wife, Rose,” Alan said with a grin. “I gather you have seen her once or twice before – and the twins.”
“I never thought of that,” Laura admitted as she greeted Rose. “I guess I’m so used to looking for devious clues that I don’t think of the obvious answer.”
“An occupational hazard, I fear,” Alan agreed.
“You do run unusually eventful tours,” Laura teased him. “I remember hoping I wouldn’t be bored and I certainly wasn’t. There was never a dull moment, and a good deal of unusual entertainment.”
Alan rolled his eyes. “Violet keeps recruiting me for cases that involve travel but I fear this must be the last. In my former life I was a carefree bachelor and leaping about the world at a moment’s notice was easy, but now…” He gestured toward the twins.
Laura laughed. “I can see the conflict. Perhaps you had better stick to a less dramatic way of life for a while.” She sighed. “I’m afraid my own life is going to seem awfully dull after this. I’m becoming addicted to adventure.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Rose warned with a mischievous smile. “Violet is a great recruiter.”
“I most certainly am,” Violet agreed, appearing beside them. “And Laura is an excellent candidate. Hi, Rosie darling. I’m glad you’ve finally met Laura. She was convinced you were Alan’s paramour – and a villain, since she found one of your long red hairs in that scarf you loaned me.
“Rather more aptly named than me, don’t you think?” Violet added.
Laura gulped. “You mean she’s your -”
“My baby sister,” Violet agreed. “And Alan’s wife and the proud mother of twins who make their life confusing but are quite adorable, if you like babies.”
“I do.” Rachel had joined them. Her long blond hair was twisted into a chignon, and her lithe body was encased in a stunning rose-colored suit. A tall good-looking man in a tan trench coat was behind her. Laura regarded him uncertainly. He was beautifully dressed, his elegant appearance marred only by the fact that one arm was in a sling and a faint bruise still clung to one cheek. He also looked familiar.
“We have met, I believe,” he teased her. “I don’t usually dress like this but Rachel made me. She said she wanted to see your face.”
Rachel laughed. “It was worth it. Yes, this is the trench coat man, as you termed him, superior attitude and all. He also happens to be my husband, Detective Sergeant Carlson. He is recovering from various wounds incurred in the line of duty. He was a bit nervous when I got assigned to you after him.”
“Oh for goodness sake! I really do apologize.” Laura was mortified. Who else had she misjudged?
He smiled at her. “Actually, you paid me a compliment. Your reaction meant my disguise was working. Normally I prefer jeans.”
Laura winced. “The other one who followed me we called the jeans man,” she explained. “He turned out to be Roger Brown.”
“Then I shall know better than to wear jeans around you,” he replied amicably. “And I really am glad to meet you in person.”
Richard and Claudine, looking beautiful in flowing ivory silk, arrived next. Their exchange of greetings was interrupted by the arrival of William, this time dressed in an actual suit, and Lady Longtree, who was definitely Olivia now. Her small frame was swathed in a deep blue dress that hung gracefully to her ankles and accentuated the brilliance of her eyes. A streak of white showed against her dark hair, but her face was unlined. She wasn’t wearing a hat. Laura felt curiously intimidated. Here indeed was the well-known barrister, the woman whose verbal skills were respected all over the country.
“Don’t pull that on me,” Olivia instructed, watching Laura’s face closely. “I really am not very frightening, am I Hans?” she added to the man beside her.
“No, sometimes you aren’t,” he replied, his blue eyes twinkling. ”At other times, one must admit…”
“Well, I’m not in court now,” she interrupted crossly, and Hans laughed.
Laura turned to greet him and her eyes widened in shock. He was the same size as Hans and had the same coloring, but he wasn’t the Hans she had known. This man had an air of authority about him, understated but obvious, that hadn’t been there before, and his accent was subtly different.
“Our dominant male,” William murmured. “I told you he would appear.”
Hans smiled. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said to Laura. “I am very glad finally to have the opportunity. I also have the advantage of knowing quite a lot about you, while you have been sadly deceived about me, thanks to my impersonator.”
“He got mugged on the way to the airport to join the tour,” William explained, “and someone stole his identity.”
Hans rubbed his head, which was no longer covered in bandages but bore fading evidence of multiple scratches and bruises. “They weren’t gentle about it, either. Took me a while to recover enough to know who I was.”
“Mrs. Takara plans well ahead,” Olivia added. “She wanted her own spy in our midst. Unfortunately for Hans, she had a look-alike for him, so he was chosen. What she didn’t know – couldn’t possibly know since she thought I was my mother – was that Hans and I are close friends. I was a bit baffled at first, but once I checked out the fake one at closer quarters, the deception was obvious, so we had him picked up.”
Laura smiled to herself. So that was what the midnight tryst had been about! But how had Olivia managed to achieve closer quarters as Lady Longtree?
That fascinating speculation was interrupted when a young woman holding a baby hurtled into the room. William caught her in his arms and they danced around the room in an exuberance of high spirits, tears of joy and exclamations of delight.
After that, the party roared. Alan appeared with exactly the right drink in his hand for each of them, waiters with canapés appeared like magic, and as they all sat down to dinner it occurred to Laura for the first time to wonder who was footing the bill for all of this. The hotel had said nothing about charges.
Hans was sitting beside her. “Lovely party they’ve laid on,” he said, as if he had intuited her question.
“I wondered about that,” Laura admitted. “Who are they?”
He chuckled. “An excellent question. They are quite an illustrious line-up. My organization helped and I believe Olivia talked some of her barrister friends into making contributions, as did Violet. There are a number of powerful people in this country who wanted the perpetrators, as well as the wealthy tyrants who were their clients, put out of business. So for once there was an adequate budget.”
William, who was on his other side, asked him a question and a lively discussion of music ensued. Laura took the opportunity to observe everyone. William looked as if a burden had been lifted from his young shoulders, Olivia was holding court with her vivacious wit and quick intellect; Rachel and her husband were listening intently and try
ing not to seem awed. Claudine, she noticed, put in an occasional and well-received comment. Richard looked as if he were storing it all up for future articles.
And Violet; like herself, Violet was watching. Laura smiled. This was where she had come in, seeing Violet across the room surveying the people around her with those hawk-like amber eyes that missed nothing.
When dinner was over, they all filed into the big room with the French doors for coffee. The atmosphere was completely different now. Soft evening light filtered through the doors, and the floral scents of honeysuckle and roses floated in the air.
Violet came to stand beside her. “You will come back to see me?” she asked gruffly. “I have to be able to count on that.”
“Yes. I will.” Laura’s eyes brightened. “Maybe I ought to work on a few more cases so I’ll get better at seeing through people’s disguises. I seem to have missed almost all of them on this one.”
“You’ve been a great help regardless,” Violet answered. “But if you really do want to practice your people-watching skills,” she continued with a wicked gleam in her eyes, “I might be able to suggest a creative job in a lovely spot. First, do you ski?”
Laura gaped at her. “I used to, downhill that is, and I suppose I could pick it up again. I’ve done mostly cross-country recently.”
Violet looked delighted. “Better and better,” she murmured. “Have you ever thought of taking a winter vacation in Switzerland?”
“I certainly have,” Laura answered, mystified by this line of questioning, “but I’m afraid it’s beyond my budget so far.”
Violet waved a dismissive hand. “Hans has a place in the mountains where you can stay, and we’ll make sure you’re paid. Now,” she went on briskly, “the people involved in the conference – which is in your field since it involves restrictions on girls’ education in various parts of the world - will be spread all over town but we’ll try to put the most at risk ones in the same hotel. On second thought, maybe you should stay there. Yes, that would be best. At any rate, I shall work it all out.” She frowned, thinking furiously and muttering unintelligibly.
Laura laughed. “Violet, you are a dynamo. A wonderful dynamo. And yes, I haven’t the faintest idea what you are talking about or getting me into, but whatever it is, I will do it gladly.”
“It could be dangerous,” Violet warned.
“It could,” Laura agreed. “But that’s not what I’ll remember when I’m too old to take risks. It’s the challenge, the camaraderie, the… the aliveness,” she burst out. “That’s what it is, the aliveness.”
Violet grinned. “Good. Then our only difficulty will be keeping you alive in reality.”
She sighed. “The party is breaking up and I must return to my suspects. But never fear. I shall be in touch in a few weeks. We have a great deal of planning to do.”
So saying, she pulled Laura into a bear hug, held her for a long moment and whisked out the door.
Olivia, now wearing the feathered hat Laura had first seen in the Baths, came up to her. Perhaps she missed her role as Lady Longtree, Laura thought, and was playing the part one last time.
Olivia’s eyes twinkled with merriment. “I overheard some of that,” she said ingeniously, “and just in case you fear that life might be dull until Violet ropes you in again, I thought I would let you know that Hans and I will be in New York soon, where we will help to organize the conference on education for girls. Your expertise on gender issues would be a great help. So goodnight, my dear, and sleep well. We shall not have to say adieu.”
With a smile and a wave, she went back to William and Maria. Laura stood looking after her and felt excitement rise. Between Thomas the insouciant art sleuth, Olivia the indomitable prosecutor, and Violet the gimlet-eyed detective, life after the tour hardly looked dull. In fact, so many adventures beckoned that she wondered when she would find the time to do her work.
In between karate lessons, she decided, and hurried up to her room to call New York and make the necessary arrangements.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR, JOAN DAHR LAMBERT:
I hope you have enjoyed WADING INTO MURDER (formerly titled Babes in the Baths), the second book in the Laura Morland Mystery Series. WALKING INTO MURDER, the first book, is available on kindle and in paperback. The third book, SKIING INTO MURDER, will soon follow.
SKIING INTO MURDER:
In her next adventure, Laura is invited to attend an international conference on Equal Education for Girls Across the World in the magnificent, snowy mountains of Switzerland. Violet, her delightful friend from WADING INTO MURDER, will also attend the conference in her role as a detective. Threats have been made to kidnap the children of conference participants, and Violet wants Laura to help her figure out who among the illustrious conference guests might be involved in this nefarious plot. She is astounded when without even trying, Laura once again stumbles – or in this case simply looks out a window - into the midst of a crime in progress.
Laura dives into the mystery with her usual incautious abandon. First, she is the sole witness to a murder she didn’t know had happened, then she is plowed down by a body as she skis down an icy slope, and soon she is skiing for her life as well as the lives of the children for whom she is responsible. In these efforts she is ably assisted by another irresistible cast of characters, like the long-legged Dutch twins and their arch-enemy the all-too-upper-class English lad who bedevils them, and the wondrous pair of African ladies whose humor and grace enchant Laura – and the incomparable Violet, and even, in a delightfully unexpected appearance, Lady Longtree and her retinue, more old friends from WADING INTO MURDER.
A great deal of the action in SKIING INTO MURDER is on skis (on which Laura feels singularly inept), though it must be said that quite a few of her clues are garnered at glamorous international parties held in places like Zermatt and Murren, second homes to the rich and famous. The manacle-filled cellars and high turrets of the Castle of Chillon, immortalized by Tennyson’s poem of that name, are also the scene of some frantic action - at least it is frantic from Laura’s point of view as she once again stages a near-miraculous escape through icy water from a villain who wants to extract information by torture.
Be sure to watch for SKIING INTO MURDER!
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