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idea.”
    “Did she mention whether she was expecting news of any kind when she left to pick up her messages?”
    “I don’t think so. As you know, the cabanas don’t have phones, so it’s quite usual for guests to go to the main building to see if anyone’s tried to make contact.”
    “Why don’t the cabanas have phones?”
    “It’s considered obtrusive. And I must say, I don’t miss having one when I’m here.”
    Rex mentally added a visit to reception to his list of things to do. Perhaps someone had left a message for a rendezvous with Sabine. “What if an urgent message came through?” he asked Nora. “How would it reach you?”
    “A member of the staff would deliver a note. That’s what happened with the von Muellers. Gaby missed her connection and called the resort to let her parents know she’d be on a later flight.” Nora rummaged in her beach bag and drew out a comb. “Any messages to do with Sabine’s acting work go to Vernon, since he acts as her manager.” She said this with some vexation.
    “You don’t approve?”
    “Ah, well, it’s water under the bridge now, but a few years ago Sabine was supposed to play the lead role at our theatre in Dublin. When she was offered a part in a Broadway production, Vernon finagled her out of her contract with us, and the play went bust. We couldn’t get another crowd-drawing actress to fill the role in time. Sabine was ambitious. She’d been trying to get into film. She felt the lure of Hollywood and no doubt thought exposure on Broadway would help.”
    “Was she extremely talented?”
    “She had stage presence,” Nora conceded. “How that would have translated onto screen, I can’t tell you. I suppose, at twenty-eight, she decided it was now or never. You can cover a multitude of sins under stage makeup and lighting, but the camera isn’t so forgiving. She probably thought she could always return to the stage later.”
    “And your impressions of Sabine Durand as a person?” Rex asked as Nora applied suntan lotion to her face with the aid of a tortoiseshell compact similar to the one described in Toni Weeks’ statement.
    “She was straight out of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca . In fact, it would not surprise me if Sabine did style herself after some literary character. She was not your typical flesh-and-blood woman. I’d be very surprised if a shark would bother to go after her as the police seem to think. She was very will-o’-the-wisp.”
    “What do you think happened to her?”
    Nora shrugged. “She knew a lot of men. Any one of them could have killed her out of jealousy.”
    Rex watched as she dropped the compact back in her beach bag. “Did you get that item here?” he asked. “I’d like to get one for a friend.”
    “In Philipsburg. I’ll try and remember which shop and let you know.”
    At that moment, Elizabeth returned with her raft. “Hope I didn’t come back too soon,” she said looking from one to the other as she patted herself down with her yellow resort towel.
    Rex gave up his seat. “Your timing is perfect. I have a few errands to run.”
    “I was thinking,” Elizabeth said. “If you’re still here at the end of the month, there’s a Full Moon Party in Grand Case on the thirtieth. You can see the stars for miles around.”
    “’Tis true enough,” Nora chirped in. “There’s no better place for stargazing than in the Caribbean, away from all the artificial light and pollution of big cities.”
    Rex told them he would attend if he could, though he secretly wished Moira Wilcox could be there with him. Stargazing was not an activity meant for one. He wondered what the night skies looked like in war-torn Baghdad, where his girlfriend was involved in humanitarian work restoring schools and bringing mobile water purification plants to the residents. In May, five British nationals had been abducted from a government building in the center of the city. He had not heard from Moira in two months. Fearing she had