Bell, Book, and Scandal

out before going home.“
    By agreeing to sit in the smoking section next to the bar at the back of the restaurant, they avoided having to be around a great many badly behaved children. The area was all but deserted.
    Jane and Felicity had exhausted the discussions of Jeeps. After the three women looked over the menu, the conversation, which they knew this time was private, reverted to Vernetta and her epubbed book.
    “Jane and I mildly disagree about what Vernetta said when we met with her, Gaylord, Zac, and Sophie,“ Shelley said.
    “What’s the disagreement?“ Felicity asked.
    Jane said, “It’s this—I didn’t believe her denial of the plagiarism. She obviously didn’t know what it was called. She knew she’d done it, although she claimed there was nothing wrong with what she did because the book was out of print. But she was very convincingly angry at being accused of the ‘accidents’ that befell Sophie and Zac.“
    “Zac’s experience clearly wasn’t an accident,“ Felicity said. “Why did you mention Sophie along with him?“
    Jane replied, “I think somebody poisoned her. But not enough to kill her. I suspect it was in the candies Vernetta had sent to Sophie’s suite. I think she added something to them and put the package back together very carefully before she sent them to Sophie’s suite.“
    “Why would she do that?“ Shelley asked. “Sophie was the open door to her fame and fortune.“
    “Maybe she was afraid with all these writing folks surrounding Sophie here, someone would tip Sophie off to what she’d done. She probably just wanted to put her out of commission for a while until the conference was over,“ Jane said. “She underestimated Sophie’s powers of endurance.“
    “That could be true,“ Shelley admitted. “But why would Vernetta or Gaylord attack Zac?“
    “If Sophie realized the book Zac had given her was important and it was missing, she probably asked him to bring her another one. Vernetta could have overheard this, or merely assumed she’d do so.“
    “That means she had to be the one who knew who wrote the book. Do we know she did?“ Felicity asked.
    “Apparently it was written under a pseudonym but Zac always copyrighted in his real name,“ Jane explained. “And she had to have had an old version of it from a used-book store in order to copy it.“
    “But how would she have known Sophie knew the book was missing?“
    “Because she’d stolen it in the first place,“ Jane said. Then she stopped dead and said, “Wait. There was something said...“
    “Is this another of your Frederic Remington moments?“ Shelley asked.“I’m afraid so.“
    They had to stop so Shelley could explain to Felicity what this strange remark meant. Jane paid no attention. She was racking her brains for what had fleetingly passed through her mind and instantly disappeared.
     

Twenty-five
     
    Jane was determined to put the insight aside. What did it matter? If Zac and Sophie didn’t care what had happened to them, why was it really any of her business to convince them otherwise? She’d heard of both of them in the brochure and the advance bulletins. But that was all. They weren’t friends. They weren’t even enemies.
    She supposed she considered Vernetta an enemy. That woman was not a moral person. Then why should she have any interest in what Vernetta may or may not have done? Except that Jane felt strongly that plagiarism was a bad thing, if not actually sinful and criminal. She and Shelley had done what they could—which was significant—to prove Vernetta was guilty of it. Now it was time to let it go.
    She had no reason to even think about it anymore. Whatever happened to any of them was no longer relevant to her. Her only concern was that she and Shelley not be publicly named as the women who had figured it out, and Felicity had taken care of that. At least as far as Miss Mystery knew.
    She drove Shelley and Felicity back to the hotel after dinner. The lobby was sparsely populated. According to the conference booklet, there was only one activity going on—a roundtable discussion of everybody’s favorite mysteries. Felicity wanted to attend just in case someone mentioned her. Jane and Shelley tagged along on the understanding that they’d only stay a little while. When two people had cited Felicity as their favorite mystery writer, they felt they’d done their duty, and headed back to the lobby intending to go back to the suite and maybe order up a