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“But I think Jane was the closest to a real friend.”

Ellery nodded, stared at the newspaper on the coffee table. “Is it possible she could have been seeing someone else?”

“No, no,” Dylan said at once.

Janet was clearly biting her tongue.

Dylan added bitterly, “She wouldn’t jeopardize her meal ticket.”

Ouch. Ellery had no idea what to say to that. He suspected Dylan was right.

Dylan glared at Ellery. “I suppose Jack imagines September’s criminal past gives me an even greater motive for murder.”

“I don’t think so. He said to me,you might find this helpful. He knows I’m going to do everything I can to help clear your name.”

“Bless you, Ellery.” Dylan reached across the table and gripped Ellery’s hand. “I know that too.”

“I have another question, but this is unrelated to your situation.”

“Anything I can do to help,” Dylan assured him.

“Does the Sing the Plank festival have insurance?”

Dylan looked confused. “Insurance? Of course.”

Janet said, “Do you mean, are the performers insured?”

“I mean, if a performer is killed on stage because of a faulty trap door or a falling light fixture, what happens?” He already knew the answer, but he needed to verify.

“The family or record label or management company would almost certainly sue the festival. And if it can be proven festival organizers breached their duty to take reasonable safety measures, the injured party would collect a large chunk of change.”

“How large a chunk of change?” Ellery asked.

Dylan frowned. “If we’re talking about Lara Fairplay, and I assume we are, somewhere north of a million dollars.”

Jocasta phoned as Ellery was scrunching behind the wheel of his Volkswagen.

“Hi! I don’t know if this is helpful or not, but I just saw the newspaper.”

Not incredibly helpful, but okay.

“Oh?” Ellery prompted.

“We’d heard about Mr. Carter’s girlfriend, but we didn’t actually watch the news or anything. Lara won’t have the TV on or newspapers lying around. She doesn’t like that energy.”

“No news is good news, I guess.”

“Exactly. Anyway, Idolike to look at the newspaper sometimes, and I was reading yourScuttlebutt Weeklythis morning.”

“Right, right.” Ellery tried to control his impatience.

Jocasta exclaimed, “I know her! I knew her.”

“Who?”

“Sibyl. Well, I guess she was calling herself September. She was one of Lara’s backup singers a long, long time ago.”

“You knew September when she was Sibyl Simon?”