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“Talk to your lawyer if you want. If you do the deposition, you can return the suitcase.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

August 3-4, 1996

Late Saturday Afternoon/Sunday morning

“Is this Virginia Marker?” I asked when she picked up the phone. I’d called as soon I walked into the house.

“It is. Who is calling, please?” she asked. She had a very faint accent, really only a hint of one. Once it might have been Italian or Greek. There wasn’t enough left to be sure.

As I explained who I was and why I was calling, I tried to make myself comfortable on the couch. But as tired as I was, from almost two days sitting in my car I couldn’t get comfortable.

“I have not thought of Vera in many years,” I heard her say.

“Did you see her much around the time she was murdered?”

“No. No I did not.”

“You were close friends, though?”

“For a time, perhaps.”

“Did something happen to your friendship?”

“Oh no. People wander apart.” She waited a moment and then asked, “Was that you? Have you been calling our telephone and hanging up?”

“Maybe once,” I lied. “Do you know anyone from that period named Gigi?”

“That is a name short for Georgette, is it not?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“I cannot think of anyone with that name.”

John came in through the front door. I waved at him, and he waved back. He went through the living room and then upstairs.

“Can you tell me more about Vera?” I asked Virginia. “How did you meet her?”

“I am not even certain. Hmmm… Well… maybe she was dating a friend of my husband, Manny. That might have been it.”

I had the feeling she was lying. In fact, I was pretty sure of it.

“You don’t remember this friend’s name?”

“Oh no, I do not.”

“Was it at a party or in a bar? A double date?”

“It was fifty years ago. I do not remember.”

“Did you belong to a group called The Sisters of Artemis?”

“No.”

“Do you remember hearing about them?”

“Is this a group for women who hunt? I do not like hunting.”