The Baron by Sally Goldenbaum Read Free Book Online Page A

each guest was instructed to write down his or her conjecture about who did it and why.
    “You haven’t many clues, Contessa,” the niece said. “What have you been doing all afternoon?”
    “Keeping her Baron out of mischief,” a familiar voice intoned near her ear.
    Halley felt shivers travel down her neck.
    The group laughed, and Don Siciliano jovially slapped Nick on the back. “Ah, to be young again!”
    “Don Siciliano, you are certainly not old,” Halley offered, at a loss as to what else to say.
    “Thank you, my dear, thank you. But you’ll notice I wasn’t paired with a ravishing contessa!” His lined eyes sparkled with enjoyment. “It was a concentrated attempt to avoid cardiac arrest this weekend.”
    “Ah, Don Siciliano, they say sex is good for the heart muscle,” the blonde in the black dress said teasingly.
    Halley felt the flush travel up between her breasts. She knew it coated her neck and wondered if she’d soon break out all over in a sweat. “Isn’t the table lovely?” she said quickly.
    “It is. Let’s take a closer look.” Nick took her arm and smoothly led her away from the group. “Contessa, I do believe you’re blushing.”
    “Nonsense.”
    “Would you like another cocktail?”
    “No thank you. I have to drive home.”
    “I’d be happy to dr—”
    “No!” Halley looked up, startled. It was the real world he was talking about now. It was intruding, and she felt suddenly sad. “I mean, I have my car here, you see. But thank you for offering.”
    “You know we’ll be ending the masquerade shortly, Contessa. That bothers you, doesn’t it?”
    Halley looked up into his eyes and smiled sadly.“Honestly? Yes, I guess it does. It has been a lovely weekend. Reality will change that.”
    “Why?”
    “Well because it will that’s all.”
    “I want to see you again, Contessa.”
    “See me …?”
    “Yes. You yourself admitted it was a wonderful weekend.”
    “
Lovely
. I said it was a lovely weekend.”
    Nick smiled and spread his fingers through the thick, lustrous hair at her neck. “All right.
Lovely
weekend.”
    “But it was the Baron and the Contessa who were having a lovely weekend.”
    “And you don’t think the real people behind the Baron and the Contessa would like each other?”
    “Maybe,” Halley said with a soft smile. “But their worlds wouldn’t be a fantasyland like this. They might find that in the light of—”
    “Good evening, lovely guests!” Herb’s melodious baritone hushed the crowd, and Halley’s words were left dangling. She felt relieved. What else was there to say?
    “While we are enjoying our cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, our detective would like to have a word with us. Monsieur?” Herb stepped back and let the short, mustached actor take center stage.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for us to weed out the chaff from the wheat.” He nodded to a large man playing his assistant. “Please collect the ballots, Charles.”
    The crowd murmured in anticipation as pieces of paper were dropped into a silver bowl.
    “We have amongst us a murderer,” the actor said in heavily accented English. His small, round eyes searched the group.
    Nick’s fingers rubbed lightly along the side of Halley’s neck, and she sighed softly.
    “I see some of you are not disturbed by this.” The detective raised his bushy eyebrows and looked at Halley and Nick in mock seriousness. “Perhaps that should make us suspicious.…”
    A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. “The Baron stood to inherit a bundle,” one guest said.
    “But he doesn’t wear lipstick, and we found a tube of lipstick near the body,” another said.
    “But what about the Contessa?” Joanna, the has-been actress, countered.
    “But the
motive?
” Otto Bailey asked.
    “Ah, I can see you have all put deep thought into this,” the detective said. “Marvelous! And we shall see shortly who is to win Mr. Harrington’s grand reward of a week aboard his