Flash

made an effort to appear enthusiastic.
    "Great," she said. "Give it to me, and I'll pass it along to Jasper. He'll contact his private investigator."
    "My money is on Beatrice Hanford." Zara handed Olivia a thick sheaf of neatly typed pages that had been stapled together at the corner. "She was always insanely jealous of me. It got worse after I got the part of Sybil on
Crystal Cove
."
    "I'll tell Jasper to put Beatrice Hanford at the top of the list." She hesitated. "You haven't had any more messages from the blackmailer, have you?"
    "No, thank heavens. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time."
    It was more likely that the extortionist had turned his attention to his juicier prey, Olivia thought. But she said nothing. She had a feeling that Zara would be disappointed if she found out that the blackmailer had lost interest in her.
    Olivia dropped Zara's list into her satchel. "Everything set for our staff to start work first thing in the morning at the Enfield Mansion?"
    "Yes. I've also talked to the manager of the catering company to make certain that there were no glitches there."
    "Thanks. Send Bolivar in here, will you? I want to go over the lighting plans one more time."
    "Right away." Zara paused in the doorway. "Did I tell you that your mother called last night?"
    "No." Olivia went back to her pile of messages.
    "We had a lovely chat. She wanted to know how things were going at Glow."
    Olivia looked up, frowning. "Why didn't she call me, in that case?"
    "Because," Zara said pointedly, "she wanted to know, specifically, what was going on between you and Jasper Sloan, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't get the whole truth out of you."
    Olivia drummed her fingers on the desktop. "Someone blabbed. Aunt Rose, probably."
    "Could have been any number of people, knowing this family." Zara gave her a commiserating smile. "Don't worry, dear. I downplayed the gossip as much as I could. Told her not to worry."
    Olivia sighed. "Everything okay down in Tucson?"
    "Oh, yes. Candace was a trifle annoyed with your father because he played golf yesterday without his hat. She says she's always having to remind him to wear sunscreen and a hat when he goes out on the course."
    "His hat." Olivia heard a crackling sound.
    She looked down and saw that she had just crumpled a yellow sticky note in one hand. She did not see the message that was scrawled on it.
    What she saw was a sudden, sharp mental image of the crushable, wide-brimmed hat her mother had given to her father to carry in his back pocket. She had bought it for him after the dermatologist had removed some rough patches of skin caused by exposure to the sun. The diagnosis was an extremely common one, actinic keratoses. Not dangerous, but left untreated such patches could eventually change into skin cancers.
    Melwood Gill had been badly shaken by a recent brush with skin cancer.
    Melwood Gill, blackmailer?
Impossible
. Not Melwood. She was leaping to wild conclusions. Intuition was all well and good, but you couldn't rely on it for something as vitally important as this.
    Logic was needed here.
    Jasper's words echoed in her ears.
Blackmail is always personal
.
    The blackmailer knew a lot about both her schedule and Jasper's. He had information that had probably been known only to Rollie. Melwood had worked at Glow for more than twenty years. Rollie had relied on him. Given his position in the accounting department, it was likely that Melwood knew more about Rollie and Glow, Inc., than anyone else in the company. If he
had
been embezzling funds for several months, there was no telling how much snooping he had done.
    Anyone who was capable of embezzling from an employer who trusted him was capable of going through a dead man's files.
    Capable of blackmail?
    "Olivia?" Zara looked concerned. "Something wrong, dear?"
    "No." Olivia forced a quick, reassuring smile. "Nothing. I was just thinking about tomorrow night."
    "Don't worry. The Camelot Blue event will be a smashing success. You'll see." Zara wafted out through the door, silk scarf trailing behind her.
    Olivia waited until she was alone. Then she snatched up the phone.
    "Mr. Sloan's office."
    "Aunt Rose, it's me, Olivia. This is going to seem like a bizarre question, but I was wondering if you've ever noticed Melwood Gill wearing a hat since he had his skin cancer surgery?"
    "A hat? Well, yes, of course. The surgery gave him quite a scare, you know. He told me that he's extremely careful these days. He never goes outside