service. I teach chemistry at the university.”
“Patty Weiss,” said the countess without any trace of a German accent. “I’m a student.”
“George O’Leary, accountant,” the bodyguard said.
“And I’m Marty Draper,” said the antiques dealer. “I own an art gallery, and I do sell antiques through it.”
“And who is Margo Laurent?” Dana asked.
“Ah,” said Ralph Finegold. “That we can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Dana asked.
“Can’t. We have no idea who she is,” Patty said.
“We got a call on the Queen Anne Players’ answering machine, last Thursday,” Ralph said. “The woman had a French accent and she said she was willing to pay twenty thousand dollars and expenses if we would role-play a mystery. That definitely got our attention.
“I called her back and she said she wanted to play a practical joke on a friend who was a real private eye. She said that two of us would have to go to Isla de Muerta. One of us would wait in a summer home for you and the other person would wait outside and shoot into the house. George and I went up and Captain Leone took us across. He runs the only taxi service to the island.”
“So he’s for real?” Dana said.
“Yeah,” George laughed. “You couldn’t invent a character like that.”
“The Stantons were in on the prank, too,” Ralph said. “Mr. Stanton unlocked the house where we met and hid George after he shot at you.”
“That was pretty stupid,” Dana said to O’Leary. “You could have hurt one of us and I would have shot you for real if I’d caught up with you.”
George shook his head. “You were never in danger. I was in the army and I’m a very good shot. If you examined the bullet holes, you would have seen that they were very high and very wide.
“I also had the distances worked out and I left my car engine running. I was pretty sure you wouldn’t just charge out, and I was pretty certain you wouldn’t get to me before I drove off.”
Dana didn’t challenge him. The incident was in the past and there was no way to know what would have happened if she’d reacted a little quicker.
“What was the point of the joke?” Dana asked, still mystified.
“We don’t know,” Marty answered. “We were just told to run you around until Friday. Then we wouldn’t have to do anything else.”
“Why Friday?” Dana asked.
“Laurent didn’t say,” Ralph answered.
“How did you choose your characters?” Dana asked.
“Laurent sent us a scenario with a sketch of every character and what we were supposed to do,” Marty said. “The condo on Victoria and the house on the island were arranged in advance. I had to find an office to rent and I had to get the stenciling put on the door. Otherwise, we just played our parts.”
“And you did a good job,” Dana admitted.
“Not good enough,” Patty said ruefully. “How did you figure it out?”
“You may be phony mystery characters but I’m a real live private eye. Though I do have to admit you had me going for a while. Then I realized that the plot and your characters were right out of a potboiler. So I tailed you and George here from the condo on Victoria.”
“Do you have any idea who Laurent is or why she’s playing a practical joke on you?” Ralph asked.
“I haven’t a clue. I live outside of Washington, D.C. Laurent—or whoever she is—met me at a D.C. restaurant and told me she’d pay me twenty-five grand plus expenses to recover this Ottoman Scepter.”
Ralph whistled. “You got twenty-five grand and expenses and we got twenty and expenses. That’s an expensive joke.”
“Exactly what I’ve been thinking, but I may have dug up a clue as to the person behind it. The house on the island and the condo on Victoria are both owned by Horace Blair, and Blair is a multimillionaire. Do any of you know him?”
“I do,” Marty Draper said.
“How?” Dana asked.
“I haven’t seen the Blairs in a while, but I’ve sold them art for their home on Isla de Muerta. His wife, Carrie, has been in the gallery a few times.”
“This makes no sense,” Dana said.
“Do you think Horace has it in for you? Was he involved in some case you worked on?” Patty asked.
“I’ve never met Horace Blair. I’ve never even heard of him. And I can’t think of any case I worked on where his name came up. Besides, this prank doesn’t smell like revenge. I’ll come away with almost twenty-five thou for a few