Page 28 of A Murder at Kew Gardens

I watched them a moment. Then I turned my attention to the room. The atmosphere had changed. Music had a way of setting tongues loose. The perfect condition for an investigation.

Somewhere in this room, Crane had listened and gathered secrets. And perhaps, one of them had killed him. I hoped someone knew why.

I accepted a glass of ratafia from a passing footman and made my first circuit of the room.

Murder investigations would be considerably easier if one could simply ask, Did anyone happen to know who directed the victim's blackmailing enterprise? Unfortunately, society required a gentler approach.

I stopped beside two ladies discussing Mr. Bellweather's performance.

"He plays with such feeling," one said.

"He certainly plays.”

However Mr. Bellweather's feelings might be judged, they were unlikely to assist my investigation. At the first opportunity, I said, "Did you hear about poor Sir Basil?”

"Oh, yes,” one of the ladies said. "Poor man."

The dead acquired many virtues they had never possessed in life.

“You knew him?" I asked.

"Not well, no. He was simply…there."

"Everywhere," her companion agreed.

"He attended Lady Drummond's dinners."

"And Mrs. Beckett's readings."

"And the Whitmores' musicales."

I nodded. "He was very sociable, then."

The two ladies exchanged a glance.

"Not exactly."

"He had a talent for attaching himself to people."

"To useful people," the other corrected.

I tucked that observation away.

"And did he have close friends?"

"Oh, I should not think so."

"No, he was too…adaptable."

I thanked them and resumed my circuit of the room.

For several minutes I collected little beyond confirmations that Crane had possessed an astonishing gift for appearing wherever influential people gathered and disappearing before anyone could remember precisely who had invited him.

Then I found myself beside three older ladies seated near the fire.

One of them was saying, with considerable satisfaction, that she had disliked Sir Basil from the beginning.

"I never trusted him," she declared.