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outside, smoking, directly in front of the entrance to the maze which remained lit after Hayes had closed the flood lights inside the labyrinth. The entrance to the maze was always in full view of the French windows and it’s like looking out on a lit stage from inside the house.
    “Minutes later the alarm was sounded and the search was on. No one could have walked or carried Marlena through that entrance and to the goal without being seen.”
    Father tugged on his mustache. Lawyers like to tally the facts and come up with a logical solution. In the case of Marlena Marvel’s untimely death the facts, as witnessed by dozens of people, only exacerbated the mystery. “There’s got to be an answer, Archy, unless you believe in magic, and I don’t.”
    “Neither do I, sir.”
    “Are you going to take the case?”
    “Hayes thinks he’s hired me, but I don’t know if I want to get involved with him and his traveling carnival. Also, these are early days, very early days. We don’t know how Marlena Marvel died and we don’t know the intimate circumstances of the Hayes household, both of which the police, I’m sure, are now working to learn. I do know that Hayes is a bully and a boor whom I would be more inclined to suspect than work for. When the police complete their investigation he might need a lawyer more than a private investigator.”
    “Don’t give him my card,” father cautioned.
    Before leaving I said, “Did I mention that both Laddy Taylor and Carolyn Taylor were at the party?”
    That piqued his interest even more than the murder. “Really?”
    “Lieutenant Eberhart told me that Laddy has been pestering the police to investigate his father’s death.”
    “And what was their response?”
    “That Linton Taylor has had a serious heart condition for years and died of a severe angina attack. His doctor found nothing unusual in his death.”
    “Just what I told him,” father said. “I made it perfectly clear that there were no grounds to contest his father’s will, especially since he and his father had been estranged for many years.”
    I described the scene I had witnessed between Laddy and Carolyn at the end of the evening.
    “If he continues to harass her, she may have cause to petition the police to keep him from approaching her,” father said.
    “I hope it doesn’t get nasty.”
    “It already is, Archy. Hell hath no fury like a disenfranchised heir.”
    On that ominous note I took my leave only to be stopped by Mrs. Trelawney on the way to the elevator. “This expense report you dropped on my desk,” she began, removing her pince-nez and waving the said report in the air.
    “What about it, Mrs. Trelawney?”
    “The item entitled dinner at Acquario.”
    “Do you have a problem with it, Mrs. Trelawney?”
    “How many people did you feed?”
    “We were two.”
    “Then I have a problem with it and will authorize payment of one half the amount presented, which could feed a family of ten for a year.”
    “And I will let it be known that you drink in private and have a passion for South American soccer players.”
    “You’re incorrigible, Archy McNally.”
    “Only when provoked. Also, it may interest you to know the expense was incurred yesterday in pursuit of information regarding Matthew Hayes who is today’s headline from coast to coast.”
    “Are you saying you anticipated that woman’s demise?”
    “I am saying, Mrs. Trelawney, that I am worth every cent of that expense report, and then some.”
    “I heard you were there last night. Your name was mentioned on Breakfast with Mack and Marge. They were there, too, and the reporter Joe Gallo who was their guest this morning. The three of them talked of nothing else but the party and the maze and the discovery of the body. The show is going to be repeated this evening by popular demand.”
    It didn’t surprise me that Mrs. Trelawney was a fan of Breakfast with Mack and Marge. A woman of her ilk was just the charismatic Mack