Bell, Book, and Scandal

any harm in it.“
    “I understand,“ Jane said, still in a calm but firm voice. “It was a good way to confront them with the fact that they’d stolen Sophie’s copy of Zac’s book, right?“
    “It never crossed my mind to say that. I have no idea where the book went. Ms. Smith probably just threw it away.“
    “Shelley, I think that’s another thing you might want to ask Ms. Smith.“
    “No!“ Corwin said in an angrier voice than last time. “Get out of here, you nosy bitches.“ He picked his suitcase back up and headed for Sophie’s room to fetch her luggage.
    Jane didn’t move. She said, barely loud enough for him to hear from the next room, “I’ll tell you what really happened. Or I’ll follow you down and tell you in front of Sophie Smith if that’s what you prefer.“
    Corwin strolled back into the room, having regained his wits. “What happens next if I agree to listen?“
    “Absolutely nothing,“ Jane said with what she hoped was a cheerful smile. “You’ll leave this room with the luggage and cope with what you’ve done all by yourself. And my guess is that you didn’t invite them up after the dessert party. You invited them while Ms. Smith was out shopping that first morning to set up both the poisoned chocolates and the theft of Zac’s book.“
    He thought a moment, then slumped into the sofa opposite them, rubbing his eyes. When he looked up, he said, “I despise Sophie. She treats me like a dog on a leash and won’t let go of me.“
    “We know that,“ Shelley put in, since it finally seemed to be going well for Jane.
    “I received Vernetta’s manuscript and it was so awful I couldn’t believe it found its way past the first reader,“ Corwin said. “But something about the early part caught my attention. Way back when I was a lowly copy editor, I’d been forced to edit Zac’s book, and a couple of especially bad phrases seemed familiar.“
    “That’s how I found it, too, sort of,“ Shelley said.
    Jane nudged her slightly so as to give her the hint to not interrupt Corwin’s train of thought now that he’d decided to confess.
    He went on, “I thought it was a way to escape from Sophie without her being able to convince anyone else in the business that I was a horrible employee. That’s what she’d have done to me for certain if I’d quit.“
    Both Jane and Shelley nodded agreement.
    “The stroke of luck was that Sophie didn’t read it. She said it was too long and she was too busy,“ Corwin went on. “She glanced through it for about two minutes and suggested I ask the guy who owns the publishing company how he felt about it. She thought he’d be flattered that the great Sophie Smith asked his opinion. And he was flattered. Of course, he’d probably never read anything except corporate reports, so he didn’t read it either, simply approved the huge advance I’d told Sophie she’d have to pay to gain the publicity to make a bestseller of it.“
    He stood up and said, “I need a drink of water,“ then left the room for a moment.
    When he returned a moment later, he went on, “I thought I was home free until Zac handed Sophie a copy of his book. As soon as she went to the hospital, I threw it in the trash bin outside the front of the hotel and buried it under some newspapers.
    “When Sophie called later and wanted me to bring it over to her at the hospital, I said I couldn’t find it, and thought I’d dodged the bullet. Until she told me to tell Zac to find her another copy. God knows why she wanted it. She knows Zac is a terrible writer. I didn’t hear, however, what he said to her to convince her she needed to read it.“
    “So you had to attack Zac when he brought back another copy?“ Jane said mildly, even though the very words revolted her.
    His face grew very red instantly and he nearly shouted, “I did not attack him. I’d seen where he parked his van and knew how far away he lived and waited for him to come back to the same spot, which was in sort of a secret parking area most people didn’t know about. As he parked, I walked up to the van, but then suddenly he ducked down and disappeared. This alarmed me, and I jerked open the door. He was apparently leaning way over and holding on to the handle to keep his balance and he fell out of the van.“
    “Is this really true?“ Jane asked.
    “I’d swear to it on anything you want me to. That’s how it happened. It was a stupid accident. I leaned over him and took his pulse, pushed