a steady boyfriend, among other things. But what the hell.”
Theo thought for a moment, but thinking was like wading through piranha-infested porridge. “Are the police really after me?”
“ ‘Fraid so,” she replied. “For which, I have to say, you’ve got Uncle Bill to thank. His bright idea for keeping you from wandering off. I’ll talk to him about it,” she added, “because I think it’s a bit mean, framing someone for murder. He doesn’t usually do stuff like that, but he’s been under a lot of pressure since Pieter died, what with all the money and everything.”
She made it sound like he’d borrowed a lawn mower and brought it back with one of the little plastic knobs broken off. “Where on earth did he get that much money, anyhow?”
“Oh, it’s not his. Well, not really his. He’s got this hedge fund thing. I’m not entirely sure what that means.”
“It’s where a lot of rich people put money in a fund to buy hedges,” Theo said. “Then they sell the blackberries and make an absolute killing. Of course you know what a hedge fund is.”
She glowered at him, then shrugged. “Anyway,” she said, “he took a bunch of money out of that, and then he borrowed some from Nordstrom and the Duchene woman, but that’s nearly all used up now. Which shouldn’t be a problem, provided we can get this thing working.”
“It’d help if you knew what it was,” Theo said warily. “I mean, it makes a difference, where the mathsy stuff’s concerned.”
“Does it?”
“Oh yes. You need a completely different set of equations if it’s supposed to be a quantum particle accelerator, say, than if what you’re trying to build is the last word in pencil-sharpeners. As you well know.” He tried to fix her with a steely glare, but it was a bit like trying to nail custard to a wall. “Admit it,” he said. “You were the girl on the train.”
“What train?”
“You can’t only vanish, you can change what you look like as well. And that’s creepy.”
She gave him a puzzled look. “What girl on what train? I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t ever travel on trains, I get motion sickness.”
The horrible possibility that she was telling the truth seeped into his mind like water through a ceiling. Nevertheless, he told her about the girl on the train; her beauty, her friendliness, her interest in quantum physics and the bloodcurdling manner of her departure. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
But instead of guilty or defiant, she just looked confused. “Sorry,” she said, “definitely not me. Until very recently I thought string theory was trying to explain how balls of wool get knots in them without you even touching them. And I’ve spent half my life trying to change how I look, and I still can’t get my hair to stay straight for more than ten minutes. Which means,” she added with a frown, “there’s somebody else out there who knows about all this stuff.” She looked at him. “That’s bad.”
“And who can disappear?”
“Apparently. Honestly,” she said, looking straight at him, “it wasn’t me. And if it wasn’t me, it had to have been someone else. That’s logic, that is.”
He didn’t want to believe her, but he didn’t seem to have any choice. “If you say so,” he said. “All I’m interested in is what you want me to do. And if I do it, will your uncle call off the police so I can get out of here?”
She actually looked hurt when he said that. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I always said we should be straight with you instead of messing you around, but Uncle Bill reckoned if we did that, you’d want a huge great cut of the profits.”
Theo told her where Uncle Bill could insert the profits, and she replied that that would certainly call for an innovative approach to money-laundering before they’d be able to spend it. “I know we haven’t exactly got off to a good start,” she went on, “but that’s no reason why we can’t make friends and cooperate. Anyway, you can’t leave. You know too much now.” She got to her feet and gathered up an armful of towels. “While you’re deciding what you’re going to do, you can help me with all this lot.”
“Why? This isn’t a hotel.”
“No, but Uncle Bill would like to think you still think it is. I’m not supposed to have told you anything, remember?”
“That still doesn’t mean I have to fold towels.”
“If you