"I think it was Laura Fairchild." Cinnamon whispered to me at breakfast the next morning.
"What was? Who?"
Cinnamon drew closer to me before answering, even though we were alone. Howard was in the kitchen getting his breakfast. Ice. Rose. and Steven were not yet down.
"On Rose's fire escape last night," she said. "I thought about it for quite a while before I fell asleep last night. I went over and over what I saw and I'm convinced that the bare feet I saw were the feet of a woman." she concluded.
"The feet of a woman? I don't understand. And anyway, why Laura Fairchild?"
"Who else could it have been? It wasn't Mrs. Churchwell or Mrs. Ivers, and it certainly wasn't Madame Senetsky. The other servants don't sleep here."
"But Laura Fairchild? Why would she do such a thing? And what about the ascot that belongs to Edmond Senetsky, that had his cologne on it?"
She shook her head.
"I can't answer any of that yet, but I don't want to do anything or say anything until I can, especially to Madame Senetsky."
We both looked up as Rose entered. She looked tired, but somewhat excited.
"My brother Evan contacted me early this morning," she whispered as Howard returned to the table. "I asked him to use his computer to do some research on Madame Senetsky and her husband after Howard told us that fantastic story."
"So?" Cinnamon asked.
Rose revealed some pages she had printed off her computer. "What's that?" Howard asked.
"Notes on yesterday's food and wine lecture. Howard. Don't you remember? Were having a test this afternoon about it?" Cinnamon said,
He froze for a moment and looked from Rose to me and then to Cinnamon.
"You're kidding. right?"
'Of course not. Howard. We don't fool around when it comes to our careers." she replied.
He stared and then he shook his head and sat. "You're all wacky." he muttered and started to eat.
After a moment we returned to the pages. I looked over Cinnamon's shoulder and began to read.
It was a reprint of some news stories about Madame Senetsky's husband Marshall and his apparently very unexpected suicide. Friends and business associates were quoted as being taken by complete surprise, one associate claiming he had just been talking to him on the phone a short while earlier and had no indication of unhappiness. Madame Senetsky had no comment and avoided the press.
According to the news stories. Marshall Senetsky's body was found slumped over his desk in this very house. He had shot himself and had not, according to the articles, left any note explaining his action. However, because of the forensic evidence, the police investigation had concluded it was suicide.
Some people conjectured about the Senetsky fortune, but evidence indicated there were no serious financial difficulties. All of the articles mentioned that surviving him were his wife and son Edmond, who at the time was only nineteen years old. There was no mention of the daughter who had died.
"Evan is going to continue to dig for us," Rose whispered. She glanced toward Howard, who was pretending not to try to hear what we said.
"Wait until later," Cinnamon told Rose, her eyes on Howard. She folded the pages and handed than back to Rose, who went for her breakfast.
Before Ice and Steven arrived. I left for my early session with Mr. Berman. My lesson went well, and he gave me the music he wanted me to prepare for our next session. Essentially, we had completed what he had called the basics and were now going to begin a study of more involved compositions.
On my way back upstairs, I ran into Rose, who looked very distraught. She was rushing to get to her dance session, but she looked frantic, her face already as flushed as it would be at the end of her exercises.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Oh. I'm so stupid. Honey. I don't know how I could have forgotten it. but I did and when I went back, it was gone."
"What?"
"Those pages on Madame Senetsky's husband's suicide," she said. "I put them beside my chair on the floor and ate my breakfast. Then Steven and Ice arrived and Ms. Fairchild burst in to give us the weekend's schedule. Yours is up in your room. I got so involved listening to it because there's not a moment in there for me to meet up with my boyfriend Barry. We're all going to a play on Friday night and then a matinee on Saturday. That night we go to a dinner with Madame Senetsky at Monsieur