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the body.”
    “You discovered the body,” he corrected. “I just happened to be around at the time.”
    “A technicality. Michael, aren’t you the least bit curious about what’s happened here tonight?”
    “Curious, yes. Anxious to get involved, no. You seem to forget I have a caseload as tall as the Freedom Tower as it is. I don’t need to chase ambulances, like some starving attorney. You also seem to forget that every time
you
stick
your
nose into one of these incidents, your ex-husband and your boss go through the roof. Do you enjoy taunting them?”
    “Hal DeWitt and Vincent Gates have absolutely nothing to do with this. Liza is my friend and I want to help her solve this thing quickly so she can minimize the damage to the cause. It’s rare to get a coalition of environmentalists all working together this way and I want it to be successful for Liza’s sake. Maybe I even owe it to Tessa Lafferty, too,” she said, warming to the noble sound of that.
    “Why? Because you didn’t contradict Liza when she described the woman as an idiot, a statement, I might add, that could put your friend on the short list of suspects? I read all the time about the nasty, vicious competitiveness that fund-raising spawns. Vizcaya itself got its share of headlines just a year or so ago because two groups of supporters couldn’t agree on anything. You’re not on this committee. You’re not responsible for your friend’s actions. Therefore, as far as I can see, Tessa Lafferty’s death has nothing to do with you. Play it smart for once and keep it that way.”
    Molly realized she couldn’t very well tell him she was feeling guilty because she herself had coveted that diamond ring Tessa was wearing. She vaguely recalled from long ago Sunday school lessons that coveting what your neighbor had was a significant sin. It was probably not one that a man who dealt in homicides could relate to very easily. Admittedly, it was also a pretty flimsy excuse for involvement in a murder investigation. Protecting Liza was another matter altogether. Liza had stood by her when she’d been under suspicion in the murder of their condo president. Molly owed it to Liza to do the same for her now.
    Momentarily thwarted from doing any significant, obvious sleuthing, however, she gazed around the central courtyard where the police had gathered everyone who fit into the open space. Others were crammed into the surrounding rooms, much to the distress of the museum’s curator. A few guests had been allowed onto the terrace under the watchful eye of two policemen.
    With Michael looking on, Molly moved through the crowd, conducting what she hoped was a casual search for Liza. When she finally spotted her across the terrace going over the guest list with a uniformed officer, Molly sighed. “Thank God,” she murmured.
    “You didn’t really think she’d skipped, did you?” Michael asked, clearly surprised by her apparent lack of faith.
    “No, of course not,” she said loyally.
    He regarded her intently. “Molly, was something going on between Liza and the Lafferty woman that the police should know about?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “Molly?”
    “You already know Liza detested her. Isn’t that enough?”
    “I suppose,” he said skeptically.
    Desperate to change the subject, Molly pointed out Tessa’s husband to Michael. “See. He’s right over there. Isn’t the husband always the prime suspect in a case like this?”
    Sixty-year-old Roger Lafferty didn’t look like a man who’d just committed a murder. He looked stunned. He was sitting on a stone bench, surrounded by friends. His normally jovial, round face looked suddenly tired and crumpled, as if all of the air had been squeezed out of him.
    “How was the marriage?” Michael asked.
    “Okay as far as I know, though how he managed to stay married to her is beyond me. From what I’ve heard, Tessa was not easy to live with even before she turned menopausal. Since then, she’s been a