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“What knife?” the man grunted annoyedly. He’d only agreed to yet another grilling after Odelia had told him she’d managed to convince his wife to take legal advice and talk to the lawyer her husband had arranged for her. For a moment he’d looked somewhere close to grateful, but that moment had long passed.

“The knife that was used to murder Astra.”

Oscar winced at the mention of the word‘murder.’ “Okay, so Agatha gave my son a knife. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It’s exactly this knife that the French police are using to accuse your wife of murder, Mr. Kinetic. So if we can prove that the knife is still at your home in LA, where it always was, it will considerably weaken their case, and maybe blow it out of the water entirely.”

“Okay, fine. So why don’t you go and explain all that to my wife’s lawyer?”

“Well, the thing is that nobody seems to know what happened to the knife. Your wife gave it to Tucker, but Tucker can’t remember what he did with it. He assumes it’s in a drawer somewhere in his room back home, but he can’t be sure. So I was wondering, when was the last time you saw the knife, sir?”

She studied him closely, and so did I. You can always tell when a person is lying. There is a certain tell. It’s to do with the way they pucker up their forehead, you see, when they answer your question. It only lasts for a fraction of a second, but if you look closely, you can sometimes catch it.

So I intently stared at the man’s face now, as he thought for a moment. Then he said, “Didn’t you already ask me about this knife?”

“Yes, but at the time I didn’t know your son had it.”

“Look, I don’t know anything about no knife. Knives are not on my radar. I’m not a knife thrower and I’m not a knife collector either. So will you please stop asking me these stupid questions already and just get my wife out of jail? God!”

“So you didn’t bring the knife to Paris in your luggage?”

“No! Why would I want to bring a knife to Paris! I’m not a hitman for the mob! I don’t need a knife. I don’t want a knife. I got nothing to do with this mess! Now please leave me alone, will you? Can’t you see I’ve got a shoot to run? Buzz off!”

And buzz off he did, setting a new speed record in sprinting away from us, looking even more harried than usual.

“Nice guy,” I said. “Really pleasant.”

“Yeah, but was he lying, you think?” asked Odelia. “I couldn’t tell, to be honest.”

“I couldn’t tell either,” I had to confess. “He’s very good at deflecting, though. He gets upset and starts screaming and by the time you’ve recovered from the shock, there’s no way of knowing if he lied or not.”

“I think he was lying,” said Dooley.

“You do?”

“Oh, absolutely. His face was all scrunched up, so he must have been lying.”

“His face was scrunched up because he was angry. Not because he was lying.”

“Could be both,” said Dooley.

“Yeah, could be both,” I agreed. Which brought us exactly nowhere.

A tall black woman passed us, and Odelia said,“Excuse me. Aren’t you Sukey Gumieniak?”

The woman smiled.“Yes, that’s me. Who wants to know?”

“My name is Odelia Kingsley,” said Odelia. “And I’m investigating the murder of Astra Jacobs on behalf of the owners of the Fritz-Parlton Hotel. Could I talk to you for a moment? I won’t take more than a few minutes of your time, I promise.”

“Oh, sure,” said the woman. She looked around. “Let’s sit over there.” She was pointing to a sidewalk caf?, which looked very cozy and very Parisian indeed. It was part of the set, of course, so not real. But it certainly looked real enough. Even better than real, probably.

“Aren’t we going to be in anybody’s way?” asked Odelia.

“No, no. The shoot isn’t scheduled to start for another hour. So we’ve got time.”

She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, so I didn’t think she had a scene to shoot soon. Though her face was made up, so maybe that T-shirt and jeans were her clothes in the scene.

“Okay, so what did you want to ask me?” asked Sukey, who seemed very nice indeed. Much nicer than her costars at any rate.

“Okay, so I’m trying to get to the bottom of Astra’s murder—”

“Dreadful business. Absolutely terrible,” said the actress, shaking her head. “I didn’t know her personally, but I had huge admiration for her as a person and an actress.”

“You didn’t personally know her?”

“No, we never actually met. Though I would have liked to, of course. She’s one of my absolute heroes. The way she put this show on the map is simply amazing.”

“Yeah, I was a big fan, too,” said Odelia.

“She had such presence, you know. The moment she appeared on screen, your eyes were simply drawn to her. I always thought she was the real star of the show. The one who made it work. Too bad she left when she did.” Then she laughed. “Though I probably should be grateful. If she hadn’t left,I wouldn’t be here.”

“Yes, you’re replacing Astra, aren’t you?”

“Well, not exactly. Astra’s character hasn’t been recast, so I play a completely different character. But I do take her place in the group, that much is true.”

“So you’re part of the foursome now.”