more than capable of dealing with him or her.’’
‘‘I guess you’re right,’’ Crenshaw muttered. He rubbed his forehead as if his head ached.
I had noticed Sophie slipping out of the room when Marylou spoke, and now she returned with a cup of coffee for Crenshaw. ‘‘Drink this,’’ she told him. ‘‘This will help.’’
Crenshaw stared at her for a moment, but he accepted the cup. He sipped from it, then grimaced. ‘‘There’s no sugar in it.’’
‘‘Drink it anyway,’’ Sophie said. ‘‘It will do you good.’’ Her tone and her stance brooked no opposition to her instructions.
‘‘Deputy Ainsworth will be here any minute now,’’ I said, watching Crenshaw as I spoke. ‘‘We can tell him our suspicions about Basil Dumont, and he can take it from there.’’
Crenshaw nodded. ‘‘You’re right. I was just letting my temper get away from me. I can’t stand the thought that that weenie is alive and trying to take over Avery’s gigs. It burns the hell out of me that he might get away with it.’’
‘‘We all certainly appreciate your loyalty to your client,’’ Marylou said.
‘‘He was more than that,’’ Crenshaw said, his voice soft. He pressed his handkerchief to his eyes again.
A knock on the door ended what could have become an increasingly awkward interlude. Sophie jumped up from her chair and almost ran to the door. She held it open for Deputy Ainsworth and his subordinate, Deputy Jordan, to enter.
‘‘Ladies,’’ Ainsworth said, nodding at us. ‘‘Mr. Crenshaw.’’ We all nodded back at him.
‘‘You said you had something to show me, Mrs. Diamond?’’ Ainsworth stared at me, and I wanted to squirm like a guilty child.
I had been thinking about what to do and say when Ainsworth appeared. For the moment, I didn’t think anyone else should know about the card I had found. I wanted Haskell Crenshaw out of the room when I revealed the king of spades to Ainsworth. The fewer people who knew about it, the better—that was my reasoning.
‘‘Yes,’’ I said, ‘‘but before we get to that, we have something we think you should know. Mr. Crenshaw can explain the significance of it.’’
Crenshaw shot me an odd look before he addressed the deputy. ‘‘These ladies told me that Basil Dumont has been asked to take over a nationally syndicated bridge column. He made that announcement to them a little earlier today.’’
Ainsworth appeared to be hanging on to his temper by a thread. ‘‘Why is that important?’’
Crenshaw breathed deeply before answering. ‘‘Avery Trowbridge was all set to take over that column. They were going to fax the contracts right here to the hotel. Today, as a matter of fact.’’
I was watching Ainsworth’s face closely while he spoke to Crenshaw, and at the word ‘‘fax,’’ Ainsworth cut a glance sideways at his subordinate, Deputy Jordan, who stood near him in his line of sight. I followed his gaze, and I saw Jordan nod, almost imperceptibly.
Ainsworth’s eyes focused on Crenshaw. ‘‘So you’re trying to tell me that Mr. Dumont might have killed Trowbridge so he could take over this column?’’ He didn’t sound quite as surprised as I would have expected.
Crenshaw stood up and stepped forward a few paces, until he was only two feet away from the deputy. ‘‘I don’t think you understand what was at stake here, Deputy. Avery Trowbridge was a big name in the bridge world, and he was only going to get bigger once he was writing this column. It’s read all over the world. It gives whoever writes it a very high profile, and that leads to a lot of lucrative gigs. Avery was going to start making even more money once his name was on that column.’’
‘‘You would have, too, wouldn’t you?’’ Ainsworth asked.
Crenshaw nodded. ‘‘Yes, I would have.’’
‘‘That makes it sound more plausible,’’ Ainsworth said.
‘‘You’re damn right it’s plausible,’’ Crenshaw responded, the heat rising in his voice. ‘‘That weenie Dumont never could compete with Avery—alive, that is. With Avery out of the way, the field is clear now. He got tired of always being second choice, and that’s why he killed Avery. The minute Avery was dead, he must have called the syndicate to offer his services, but I’ll bet you he didn’t tell them Avery was murdered. ’’
‘‘This will certainly bear investigating,’’ Ainsworth said. ‘‘I appreciate the information, Mr. Crenshaw. Do you have anything more to add to it?’’
Crenshaw shook his head. ‘‘No, that’s it, I guess.’’
‘‘Right,’’ Ainsworth said. ‘‘Then perhaps you’ll excuse me while I talk to these ladies. And don’t talk about what you’ve