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leave marks. Was Paolina wearing such shoes when you last saw her?” Carolyn thought not. “Perhaps then someone held her by the ankles and dropped her over,” I suggested, wondering if Carolyn was strong enough to do that. I had read that American women went to gyms and lifted weights. Perhaps under that pretty, if not particularly stylish, outfit, my new acquaintance was a muscular Amazon. Had my poor countrywoman so shocked Signora Blue that the signora had tossed her over the pool railing in a passion of outraged virtue?
    “We must investigate this ourselves,” I suggested. An adventure, I thought with delight, knowing that I’d have few enough for the next few years. And with my mother-in-law coming to Sorrento to look after the children—but where was she? Violetta was so feckless. She’d probably gotten lost on her way here, or met some attractive man who made her forget completely her offer to entertain Andrea and Giulia. Well, Lorenzo would have to find his mother, I decided, feeling that I deserved to have an adventure before I settled down with the new baby.
    Carolyn was looking at me dubiously. She probably thought that I was too fat to have any fun, and who could blame her for thinking that when I hadn’t even been able to get myself off the floor? Sometimes, I must admit, I felt I might be carrying a baby elephant, which would mean I had, what—another year or so of pregnancy?
    “I had thought I might ask around,” Carolyn admitted. “See if I can find any clues.”
    Interesting. Was she trying to divert suspicion from herself? “But how can you ask questions when you don’t speak Italian? I will help you. I can talk to the maids. Hotel maids know everything. They may know who her lover was.” Or if you were the person with her last night before she plunged to her death , I thought.
    “But won’t your husband disapprove?” Carolyn asked. “It might be dangerous, and you’re—ah—”
    “Pregnant? All the better. No one in Italy would harm a pregnant woman. You’ll need not only my help but also my protection. What adventures we’ll have. Something to while away the days while our husbands are talking about little chemicals too small to see and too nasty to taste.”
    “But you have your children with you,” Carolyn protested.
    We both looked at my babies. Giulia had curled up on the carpet and fallen asleep, while Andrea had taken her doll and was bossing it around in the stern voice of his Carabinieri. What darlings they were. Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to expose them to a possibly dangerous woman. “My mother-in-law is on her way to watch the children,” I told Carolyn. And to watch me, I thought. Violetta was so sure that I would be unfaithful to her son and provide her with bastard grandchildren if she didn’t keep her eye on me. Such foolishness. I adored my Lorenzo. Why would I want another lover when I had him? Of course, one doesn’t say that to one’s mother-in-law, even in Italy.
    It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Violetta might be suspicious of me because I wasn’t from Lucca, but rather from wicked, wicked Rome. I giggled at the thought, and Carolyn smiled at me. Or perhaps the fact that Violetta herself had had a series of discreet affairs since the death of Lorenzo’s father made her think I might do the same, even though I wasn’t a widow.
    My goodness. Carolyn had just agreed to accept my help in searching out the cause of Paolina’s death. She too claimed to think it would be stimulating, as long as I thought it was safe for me to join in. Poof. Of course I thought I’d be safe. I’d never endanger my baby. Signora Carolyn Blue would do well to consider her own safety. If she’d killed Paolina, I’d ferret out her secret and report her to the hapless Sorrento division of the Polizia di Stato.
    I’d awakened in the car as we reached Sorrento to find a member of the Polizia Municipale trying to give my Lorenzo a traffic ticket for some