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“Someone needs to speak to Jane,” Nora informed Ellery.

“You mean me? Okay. I’ll try.” After his encounter with Jane earlier that day, he wasn’t sure how far he’d get. But he was curious as to what she’d been doing skulking outside Lara’s suite at the Seacrest Inn.

Kingston asked, “Do we know if she left a will?”

Mrs. Ferris gave another of those unnerving gasps. “Perhaps she left something in a safety deposit box!”

“Like what, dear?” Nora inquired with slightly strained patience.

“Her will.Orthe information for which someone was willing to kill her.”

“We don’t yet know that either of those things exist.”

“Perhaps Jane will know.”

“I’ll ask,” Ellery put in. “But I know she—September, that is—was hard up financially. Dylan was paying her rent and probably more.”

“Jane’s hard up too,” Hermione remarked.

“No wonder she sunk her claws so deep into him,” Stanley said. “A man of Carter’s age and experience should have known better.”

“Really, Stanley?Sunk her claws?” Hermione repeated.

“Don’tStanleyme. The woman was a gold-digger. Anyone could see it.”

Ellery’s head was starting to ache. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maybe she was in someone’s way?”

“Janet’s!” Mrs. Ferris said.

Ellery opened his mouth, but really, was that any sillier than any of the other suggestions posed so far? The fact of the matter was, he couldn’t see a whole lot of motive for anyone needing to get September out of the way by any means necessary.

He said, “Okay, maybe there wasn’t a motive as we understand motive.”

“What does that mean?” Stanley asked the room at large. “Young feller’s got concussion!”

“I mean, maybe it was a crime of passion.” Ellery caught Mrs. Ferris’s eye and said quickly, “Notthatkind of passion. Not lust. I mean heat-of-the-moment type passion. Because her murder wasn’t premeditated. We know that for a fact. September’s murderer used a weapon of opportunity.”

“The hammer.” Edna shivered.

“Exactly. Her killer didn’t go there planning to kill her.”

Stanley said, “Could have planned to strangle her. Decided the hammer was easier. It takes a lot of strength to throttle someone.” He held his hands out and flexed them menacingly.

Edna and Hermione exchanged disapproving looks.

Ellery surreptitiously checked his phone. No messages from Jack. No messages from anyone.

He wanted to get over to Loon Landing to talk to Arti Rathbone before the Fish and Chippies went on. He wanted to be there when Lara performed, not least because that would doubtlessly be the best time to catch Jane. She would surely want to see Lara perform “Angel Beneath the Waves.” Even Ellery was curious to see how the final version of the song turned out.

He’d been hoping this summoning of the troops would prove more useful than it had so far. Since Jane’s departure, Mrs. Ferris had begun to take a much more dynamic role in the group, with, he couldn’t help feeling, mixed results. Certainly, Mrs. Ferris brought a…a unique point of view to the discussions, but Ellery wasn’t convinced her input was entirely helpful.

In fact, he was thinking he should probably give this up as a lost cause and get over to the festival grounds ASAP.

Nora, who didn’t miss much, seemed to pick up on his mood. She said briskly, “Let me do some additional fact finding. We can regroup tomorrow. Turning our attention to the question of who might want Lara Fairplay out of the way…”

There were murmurs of agreement and hasty flipping of pages. Ellery didn’t think he imagined that air of relief from the others.

“Money. Sex. Power.” That, naturally, was Mrs. Ferris.