I still had no idea what Shizuru was talking about, but figured that I'd find out on the way. She rang for the housekeeper, and in a few minutes the matronly, apple-cheeked woman appeared.

"How may I help you, miss?"

"I just have two questions."

"Anything, miss. We're all hoping that you'll be able to clear up this terrible business. Poor Miss Alyssa! To have all this happen now, when it's not even two years since her sister's passing." The woman shook her head sadly. I thought it was telling that her thoughts were for Alyssa and not for the murdered man, though it might just have been the sensible attitude of caring for the living while the dead were beyond human concerns.

"Very well. In the first place, are the servants here at Odessa literate?"

She beamed with pride.

"Yes we are, Miss. The late Mrs. Searrs, God rest her soul, believed everyone should have a basic education and made sure to start right at home, and it's been kept up since."

"I'm glad to hear it. In that case, can you tell me how long the chambermaid named Nina has worked here?"

"Nina? Oh, nigh on five years now. She started in the scullery when she was just a wee thing, you see, and since she was a good worker, she's been moved to better positions as she's aged."

"Can you tell me where she is now?"

"Well, things are all at sixes and sevens, what with the police running about everywhere." She said the word with distaste, as if the minions of the law were some kind of blot on the house's social status. It wasn't an uncommon attitude, among masters and servants both. Shizuru had once explained it all to me, with references to historical opposition to a professional police and its association with a standing army, combined with the incompetence of the watchmen and the embedded dishonesty of the "thief-takers" who worked for blood-money from before the time of Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police. Most of it had gone in one ear and out the other, since it amounted to "nice households don't want the police around." I wondered if that extended to someone like Armitage, with her blue blood.

"I can only imagine," Shizuru replied gently. "A house-party is a difficult enough matter without adding all these extra people, who insist on going through everything for evidence and preventing your staff from doing a proper job."

"We won't let that stop us, though," the woman said firmly. "Miss Alyssa has already been through so much tragedy, the least we can do is make sure everything is properly taken care of for her in her home." She drew herself up proudly. "Even if there are police constables in the way and the mistress's guardian murdered like that."

"Then Nina would be working now?"

She nodded.

"Yes, indeed. She'll be changing the linens on the guest beds, like as not."

"I see. Thank you very much."

"Will that be all, then, miss?"

"Yes, it will. I'm sorry to have taken you away from your duties when you're so busy."

"Thank you, miss." She bobbed her head and started towards the door, then stopped and turned back to Shizuru, her composure cracking.

"Miss, you can't be thinking that Nina would be involved in anything like murder, can you? She's a good, kind girl who would never do something so awful, particularly to the head of the household. It just isn't possible!"

Shizuru didn't contradict her or explain our belief that murdering Smith might well have been in Alyssa's best interests. All she said was, "I appreciate knowing your opinion of her. It helps to know those involved in a case from the point of view of those who know them. As an outsider, I can only see them as if they were players on a stage, and that limits me."

She seemed to take this favorably.

"Thank you, miss."

Shizuru shook her head.

"No, thank you for all your help, and for answering what must seem like meaningless questions."

The housekeeper drew herself up proudly.

"Well, I know my duty to the mistress, I'm sure," she declared.

With that, she left the room.

"Interesting, isn't it," Shizuru mused, "the way she definitely considers herself to be working for Alyssa, even though it was Smith who controlled the staff and could hire or dismiss whom he liked. Generally speaking, the attitudes of the butler and housekeeper will also be those held by the lower staff, and the better-run the household the more likely that is to hold true."

I wasn't particularly interested in that, not while there was something more important.

"Never mind that, Shizuru. Are you trying to tell me that it was Nina who left the ledger for Trepoff?"

"It was obvious that she wrote the note," Shizuru said. "I can only claim that the oddity of a guilty man trying, in essence, to make his position worse had distracted me."

Since it wasn't particularly self-evident to me, I didn't feel all that happy about Shizuru's claiming that it was.

"It can't be too obvious, since Armitage missed it too," I pointed out.

"Natsuki is now holding me to the standard of a Scotland Yard inspector?" she gasped, then pouted.

"Idiot," I muttered, the only proper response for her teasing. "But what was it that told you? Was it because she'd built up the fire in Trepoff's room, trying to finish the job of destroying the evidence? And why would she do it, anyway? That loyalty to Alyssa you were talking about? A kind of, I don't know, servants' conspiracy to make away with the wicked guardian? Wait, no, you don't need to correct me this time," I realized the flaw at once. "If the servants as a group were responsible, they could have made away with Smith at any time, especially when there weren't a bunch of guests underfoot and they could alibi each other so it would be seen as an accident or a burglar's work. They wouldn't need to involve Trepoff at all; that would just serve to overcomplicate matters.

Shizuru nodded.

"That's very true."

"But Nina has feelings for Trepoff...so maybe she alone found the incriminating evidence and gave it to him because she thought of him first? But no, why not give it to him in person? There'd be no chance of a mistake, then, plus it'd give her a good chance to be with the man she cared for, working together on something important to them both. She's not likely to miss that."

"That is also quite true," Shizuru agreed. We were on our way back to the guest rooms, and I supposed that I'd get my answer soon enough when she confronted Nina, but I couldn't keep myself from trying. Besides which, it irked me to keep hearing her agree with my comments on what was wrong with my ideas. I kept thinking it over, and then something else struck me.

"Wait a second, Shizuru. You said that it was Nina who gave the ledger to Trepoff, but that doesn't seem right. Sure, Nina can read and write and probably do figures too since the housekeeper said she'd had a 'basic education,' but we're talking about complicated financial records, records of a business that handles more money than some Continental governments. I mean, you'd have to be the Rothschilds or some of those American 'robber barons' to rival the Searrs Foundation. I know I'd never be able to sort through a ledger like that and spot the things that meant Smith was embezzling, but the ledger was annotated in red ink! You said that Trepoff told you it was given to him that way, didn't you?"

"Yes, he did."

"There's no way a housemaid could have done that! You'd need education, experience in accounting, an understanding of business practice...if Nina could do all that then she's some kind of financial savant who should be managing investments for the Foundation, not making beds!"

"I agree."

"You do? But if you agree, then how can it be Nina who gave Trepoff the ledger?"

"You are misinterpreting my words, Natsuki." She smiled at me. "But I shall let you think it over until we talk with Nina, when it will become clear to you."

I sighed. But then, that was Shizuru for you. I wondered what it was I'd misinterpreted; she'd seemed pretty clear.

The house guests seemed to be nowhere in sight, and I wondered if because of the police investigation it had been decided to eschew the formality of dressing for dinner and dine en famille, or if instead they'd just pushed the meal back. Come to think of it, though, Trepoff had mentioned that the dinner hour had been late, Town hours rather than the earlier time usually seen in the country. For whatever reason, though, the only people in the guest rooms were maids, busily changing the linens and attending to other matters of the guests' comfort.

We found Nina easily enough, in the room appointed to the Beaumonts. She squeaked in surprise when Shizuru spoke, as we'd slipped in quietly.

"Pardon me, Nina."

"Oh! Miss Viola! I'm sorry that I didn't hear you. Um...I'm not doing something that I'm not supposed to again, am I?" A slight hint of defiance crept into her voice at the very end, as if she was sure of her ground and tired of being criticized.

"No, you're not, but we do need to speak with you."

"What about, miss?"

"There are several things, actually. But let us start with the matter of Mr. Trepoff's room, since you brought it up. The Count dai Artai's interruption and the mention of uncomfortable subjects cut our discussion short, but are you aware that after that, we discovered important evidence in the fireplace? A ledger-book that someone had tried to burn?"

She flinched.

"I didn't know anything about a book!" she protested.

"And yet, if you'd been able to build up the fire as you tried to do, that evidence would have been completely destroyed. Evidence which, I may add, might well be the difference that saves Mr. Trepoff from hanging."

The shot hit home with lethal accuracy. The girl's eyes went as wide as saucers, her face grew ash-pale, and she lifted her trembling hands to her cheeks.

"No...no, you're not saying...I couldn't! I couldn't do that to him, I couldn't!" she stammered and wailed.

"You were building a fire," Shizuru pressed on remorselessly. "A fire that would have destroyed the evidence. A fire in a room that you had been forbidden to enter on orders of the police." There was a constable on guard there now, on Armitage's orders, in case anyone else had the same lack of respect for her instructions.

"It was cold! I just...I just wanted Mr. Trepoff to be comfortable, that's all! I wasn't trying to destroy evidence. I didn't even know that there was anything there!"

"Mr. Trepoff? Not the other guests, then?"

"I...That is..." She blushed brightly, turning as red as anyone I'd seen who was not me. Shizuru had that kind of effect on people.

"Count dai Artai, in his inimitable way, is right, isn't he? You do care for Mr. Trepoff, don't you?" she said, more gently. "He is a handsome enough gentleman, and he's had quite an exciting past, from what people say. Did it start when he was courting Miss Searrs, perhaps?"

"I...it..."

"There'd be no harm in it, of course, a girl's hopes. We've all had those kind of dreams, you know, a passion conceived for someone we know that we have no chance to form a genuine contact with." That rather surprised me to hear; was she telling the truth or just spinning a tale for Nina's benefit? "But then it changed, didn't it? Miss Searrs died. While she was still alive, you only watched from afar. A prince and princess, after all, are well-suited for one another. But when the princess passed on, you began to dream, didn't you, Nina?"

"I don't know what...what you mean, Miss Viola."

Shizuru ignored her denial, something that didn't take a detective's skill to deduce was a lie.

"It's a common enough story, the servant girl who catches the prince's eye—and in reality, such things are not completely impossible. After all, Mr. Trepoff is not royalty, but a foreign adventurer, of charming manner and good family but more distinguished in his connections than his birth. That his heart might find room in it for a serving-girl would not be ruled out just out of hand."

Given Trepoff and Nina's difference in age, I certainly hoped it could be ruled out. Still, Shizuru wasn't describing what would happen, just the way it had played out in Nina's mind. I hadn't had any girlish romantic dreams of my own at her age, but I could see how the maid might have done so.

"That's not—it isn't—"

"Nina," Shizuru chided, "it's not a nice thing to tell lies. And Mr. Trepoff has been arrested for murder. You can't hold back any of the truth now, not if you want to help him."

That plea did it, as I'm sure Shizuru had known it would. Nina hung her head.

"It's true, Miss Viola. I...I do love Mr. Trepoff. But he's always been a perfect gentleman!" she hastened to explain. "He's never tried...he never made any kind of advances to me or to the other girls, truly!"

"Of course; you wouldn't have fallen in love with a cad, after all," Shizuru observed. "Still, his visits to Odessa would become less common over time, without Miss Searrs to draw him here. You were aware of this, knowing that any given visit might be the last time you saw him. So, in the words of Shakespeare, you screwed your courage to the sticking place and decided to act. You poured your feelings out on paper and wrote Mr. Trepoff a love note."

Now I understood what Shizuru had been getting at! The language on the package label had of course been that of a love letter, not a conspirator or informant. Of course Miyu Greer wouldn't have written to him with that kind of salutation. Shizuru couldn't be sure it was the maid, since there were several other ladies present, but given Nina's known feelings, easy access to the room, and surprising literacy, it was certainly the most likely possibility.

That didn't explain why she'd called it a "note," though. I mean, a package was not a note, unless Shizuru was working her way around to it, admission by admission. She and I did, after all, have very different interrogation styles. Then again, my style of questioning someone usually involved a bribe, a firearm, or both. How Shizuru could get people to reveal sensitive or personal information without any incentives (and often without even knowing they were doing it) continually impressed me.

Nina let out a deep sigh.

"I did," she admitted.

"I take it that you placed it in his room?"

She nodded.

"It was easy to do so in the course of my duties; I slipped away for a couple of minutes and left it on his pillow."

"And when did you do this?"

"Sometime around half past three," Nina answered. "The clock in the library downstairs chimed the half-hour just as I was getting back to what I was supposed to be doing."

"I see. Now, I presume that Mr. Trepoff has not had a chance to speak with you about your note, since he scarcely had a free moment before the shooting."

"No, he hasn't." Nina smiled sadly at her. "But...I don't truly expect anything from him, not really. I mean, I hoped, I really did, but...I know that it's a dream, not a serious ideal. What's most important is that I found the courage to let him know of my feelings, that I'm not hiding and praying for him to notice me."

I had to approve of that. I mean, why should a girl wait for some stupid guy to notice her like he was picking out a sweet from a shop? Though it took a lot of courage to open yourself up that way. Whom am I kidding? I thought. If I ever fell in love, I probably wouldn't even notice for a year, and as for telling that person, I'm more lucky to open up to Shizuru about my past!

"So that's the last you know about it, then? You gave him the note at half past three, and since then there's been nothing?"

She nodded.

"That's right, Miss Viola. Does...does this help Mr. Trepoff in any way?"

"It very well may. At the least, it helps to clarify the sequence of events for me and supports his story."

"Of course it does! Mr. Trepoff would never lie to the police!"

"He did keep several details back until Shizuru found proof of what he was hiding," I pointed out.

"That isn't the same thing as a lie," Nina defended him at once.

"Not in this case," Shizuru said, "when his omissions did nothing to deceive anyone. In any event, thank you very much, Nina, for your candor."

"Yes, Miss Viola." It was clearly a dismissal and Nina took it as one, bobbing a curtsey and turning to go resume her duties. Shizuru let her get nearly to the door before she spoke up again.

"Oh, Nina, I did have one more question. You said that you built up the fire in Mr. Trepoff's room because it was getting cold, but obviously he didn't have a chance to complain about it since he was in police custody during last night and all day today. I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable myself in the guest wing"—I had no doubt that was true; I hadn't even noticed the temperature myself—"so I doubt that it came to you on your own. Did someone mention to you that the room was cold?"

"Yes, miss, or, well, no, not exactly, but in a manner of speaking."

"You overheard someone?"

"Yes, Miss Viola. You know how some people will speak in front of servants as if we aren't even in the room?"

"I do."

"Well, I was passing through one of the downstairs halls this afternoon when I heard Mr. Coxley complaining to the Count dai Artai about the inconvenience of having to be confined to the house. The Count responded that he didn't see how Mr. Coxley could want to go outside in the cold weather when it was already so chilly inside, that his bedroom was like ice when he dressed that morning. Mr. Coxley made a joke about hot-blooded Italians not being suited for an English winter—begging your pardon, miss—but it made me think about how Mr. Trepoff's room is next to the Count's."

"I see. Thank you, Nina."

When the girl had gone, I turned to Shizuru.

"Not one word about how the 'hot-blooded Italian' I live with handles the cold much better than I do," I warned.

"I wouldn't think of it," she said, her angelic face fooling no one. Seeing my look of patent disbelief, she added, "No, seriously, I wouldn't. At least, not when I can see Inspector Armitage's reaction to the solution of the crime."