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“That should all be cleared through the lawyer. He can’t keep Agatha isolated from her next of kin like this. She has a right to see you—and Oscar.”

Tucker rolled his eyes.“Good luck with that. Dad is so busy with his shoot I could be mugged and killed and he probably wouldn’t even notice.”

“Yeah, I got that impression,” said Odelia thoughtfully. “He doesn’t seem very concerned about your mom, does he?”

“In Dad’s world everything revolves around himself. He doesn’t give a hoot about anyone else, unless they can bring him more fame and fortune. And a wife in prison is a liability, not an asset, so as far as he’s concerned, she can rot in hell.”

“Baby!” the girlfriend now yelled. “How much longer is this going to take!”

“I’m coming!” he said.

“Oh, one more thing,” said Odelia as Tucker made to close the door on her. “Your mom told me she gave you a knife as a present some time ago.” She took out her phone and showed him the drawing she’d made of the knife, then zoomed in on the dragon. “Do you remember what happened to it?”

He studied the drawing for a few moments, clearly having a hard time getting his foggy brain to function properly.“Um… I think I still have it lying around somewhere. Probably stuck it in a drawer in my room at home.”

“So you didn’t bring it to Paris?”

“Of course not. Why would I want to bring a knife to Paris? Besides, if I had, they’d have confiscated it at the airport. They don’t like people carrying weapons through customs.”

“Not even in your regular luggage?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s possible,” he allowed. “But like I said, I didn’t bring a knife, and definitely not that knife.”

“Maybe your dad brought it?” she insisted.

He laughed.“Dad! He’s terrified of anything that might delay his flight or get him kicked off the plane. He wouldn’t even bring a tube of toothpaste or a tub of lotion and wouldn’t allow me to bring one either. Said they’re stricter here in Europe than they are in the States, which I don’t think is even remotely true.”

“Tucker!” the woman’s voice demanded.

“Gotta go,” Tucker quickly said, and then closed the door.

“Well, looks like he didn’t bring a knife to Paris,” said Max, sitting faithfully at her feet, as was Dooley.

“Why is that knife so important, Odelia?” asked Dooley.

“Because it’s the murder weapon,” said Odelia, “and it’s very distinctive and belonged to Agatha. She got it as a present from the production crew in Morocco.”

“Hopefully someone will be able to produce that knife, and prove once and for all that Agatha didn’t kill Astra,” said Max.

Odelia nodded thoughtfully as she walked away.“I need to get my hands on that forensic evidence,” she said. “Hopefully Chase will be able to use his contacts to get us some results on that front.”

“So what now?” asked Max.

“Now we go back to set, and talk to Oscar.”

“You think he took that knife from his son and brought it to Paris?”

“It’s possible,” said Odelia. “He’s still one of my best suspects, apart from that cat burglar.”

“Yeah, Barney’s theory is all fine and dandy,” said Max. “But that doesn’t explain how a random cat burglar could come into the possession of Agatha’s knife.”

And that, thought Odelia, not for the first time, was the crux of the matter.

CHAPTER 30

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Once again, we were on set. Not to film a particular part, mind you, but simply to interview people, as we like to do. I guess the only way to find out the truth about what happened is to talk to people, and then talk to them again, and hopefully at some point they’ll crack and tell you the truth. Because the ugly truth is that people lie. Some of them because they’re the ones who committed the crime, others because they’ve got something to hide, and some out of sheer habit or because they get confused or forgetful.

Therefore a detective’s main task is to keep digging until they manage to weed out all the lies and confusion and hit the rich vein of truth concealed underneath.

Which is why we were now talking to Oscar Kinetic for the third time since we made the man’s acquaintance. Because Odelia was convinced he hadn’t told us everything.

The creator-writer-producer-director was busy as always, running around the set like a madman, though I was convinced he knew exactly what he was doing, or else he wouldn’t have been able to create such a hot property like theHearts& Roses franchise, and so we were obliged to run after him, trying to keep up.

“He’s like the Energizer Bunny,” said Dooley. “He can’t sit still for one second!”

And he was right. Just looking at the guy made me feel tired already!

“So I talked to your son just now,” said Odelia, as she followed in the man’s wake, as he made his way from the makeup department, where he’d personally overseen the process of getting one of the minor stars ready for his next take, to the street set where the next scene was being prepared by the set designers. “And he told me that he got that knife from his mom as a present.”