“Sabrina and Luke Andros,” Theodosia told her. “Their names are on your list and I’m not very familiar with them. Is Luke Andros the yacht guy? That’s what Drayton thought, anyway.”
“That’s right,” Brooke said. “Luke Andros owns Gold Coast Yachts. Apparently they specialize in custom and high-end yachts.”
“And you invited him and his wife to your jewelry event?”
“Actually, they were kind of a last-minute addition. Luke Andros came into my shop last week looking for a tasty bauble to buy for his wife. When he found out about my upcoming show, he asked if they could attend.”
“So what else do you know about Andros?”
“Just that he and his wife are relatively new in town,” Brooke said. “They opened Gold Coast Yachts something like eight months ago.”
“What else?”
“Well, I’ve been told the two of them wasted no time in doing a fair amount of social climbing.”
“Trying to buy their way in,” Theodosia said. It wasn’t unheard of.
“More like trying to impress their way in,” Brooke said. “Because they didn’t buy a single thing from me.”
“And they were both there last night? I remember talking to Sabrina but not to her husband.”
“No, he couldn’t make it.”
“Interesting,” Theodosia said. She put a second check mark next to Luke and Sabrina Andros’s name just as Drayton came back with a fresh pot of tea.
“Is something going on?” Brooke asked. She sounded a little breathless. Anxious. “Did you find something?”
“No, I’m just trying to familiarize myself with your guest list,” Theodosia told her. “In case I want to do a couple of low-key interviews.”
“There’s something I should tell you about,” Brooke said. “Something we kind of stumbled upon this morning.”
Theodosia perked up. “What’s that?”
“We had a party crasher last night.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“No. But when the police had me look at the surveillance tapes an hour ago, there he was.”
“And you’re sure he wasn’t on your guest list?”
“Positive,” Brooke said. “But the police have promised to track him down. I guess they’re going to take a screenshot and run it against driver’s licenses or something.”
“Let me know what happens, okay?” Theodosia said.
“Absolutely,” Brooke said.
“What?” Drayton asked once Theodosia had hung up.
“There was a party crasher last night.”
“Does Brooke know who he was?”
“No, but the police are looking into it.” She hesitated. “And we should probably do a quick check on Sabrina and Luke Andros. Just to kind of clear them.”
“Why is that?”
“A couple of reasons. Brooke says they’re fairly new in town and serious social climbers.”
Drayton frowned. “What else?”
“Because Sabrina showed up last night, but Luke didn’t.”
“Okay,” Drayton said. “That’s mildly interesting.”
“And because their high-end yacht business puts them squarely in contact with high-end people.”
“I hear what you’re saying. But how exactly are we supposed to compile a dossier on those two?” His eyebrows twitched. “Go purchase a yacht?”
Theodosia thought for a minute. “Maybe we could call Delaine?” Delaine Dish was a society mainstay, gadabout, and prolific fund-raiser. She owned Cotton Duck, an exclusive boutique, and professed to be one of Theodosia’s very best friends. “I mean, Delaine knows everybody.”
“It’s funny you should say that, because Delaine just came in a few minutes ago for afternoon tea,” Drayton said.
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Go see for yourself.”
Theodosia did. She rushed out past the kitchen and peeked around the corner into the tea room. Delaine was sitting at the small table next to the stone fireplace. She was dressed in a stylish eggplant-colored suit, and her dark hair was swept up into a messy but very cute topknot that set off her heart-shaped face to perfection. She fidgeted nervously as she talked into her cell phone and shared her thoughts and observations with anyone in the nearby vicinity who would listen.
“What did Delaine order?” Theodosia asked.
“A chicken salad sandwich. Oh, and I brought her a pot of Mokalbari East Assam.”
“That Assam is fairly high in caffeine,” Theodosia said. She needed Delaine to be grounded when she talked to her.
Drayton shrugged. “A finer cut always means more caffeine extraction.”
“So what isn’t a caffeine bomb that’ll send Delaine into orbit? I know, let’s trade her out for a pot of Lapsang souchong.”
“Fine with me,” Drayton said.
? ? ?
“The-o-do-sia,” Delaine purred when she caught sight of her friend. She leaned across the table and gripped Theodosia’s hand. Her carefully made-up face looked sweet, but her dark eyes glittered with intensity. “I read all about that horrible robbery in the paper this morning. Awful. Just awful for poor dear Brooke to lose her niece like that. And you were really there?”
“I’m afraid so.”