Amy Lavigne > Recent Status Updates

(cont.)
At this wedding, Prince Phillip's brother, Henry, is present. Henry and Alex have a bit of a rivalry going. Alex has always been compared to Henry, dubbed the American Prince. It irks Alex because, to him, Henry is his complete opposite.

Henry seems to understand the political game. At his brother's wedding, he asks June to dance. This seems to be a play to show that there are no hard feelings between them.

Chapter one - In this first chapter we meet Alex. He seems like your typical American. He is the son of the President of the United States and he seems to have this cocky air to him. He and his sister, June, are in all the tabloids. It is obvious they can't do anything without someone seeing and taking a photo.

They are invited to Prince Phillip's marriage in England. Begrudgingly, they will go with their mother.

To Tuppence he has ruined her plan. But Tommy has one of his own. He goes to Lady Laura’s bedroom and grabs the bar of soap. Inspector Marriot has already taken the “old hen” away. The pearl Tommy insists is in the bar of soap. Inspector Marriot seems to have seen this all before and explains just how it is done. They have solved the case! Though it is not Lady Laura as we suspect, it is Elise!

The girl turns grey practically at the thought and assures Tuppence she will not leave. Tuppence is all but convinced now that the girl has taken the pearl. She even begins to tell her that she suspected her from the start. She was interrupted by Tommy. She hadn’t hear the doorbell, but Tommy had returned with Inspector Marriot. This freaks the girl out and she runs down the stairs, just as Mr Rennie joins them.

After lunch Tuppence continues her search of the house. She is slightly disturbed by the fact that Tommy and Mr Rennie have not returned. Once she had investigated another room she runs into Miss Kingston Bruce. She seems ready to go out however Tuppence tells her she can not leave. The young lady insists she can not be stopped. Tuppence agrees she can not stop her but she can go to the police.

It is at this lunch that Tuppence finally gets introduced to Lady Laura. The Lady doesn’t seem all that impressed with Tuppence and is watching her closely. After lunch, Lady Laura approaches Tuppence and wishes for an update. Tuppence indulges her with theories about the parlour maid as Tommy had wished, though she is quite certain Lady Laura isn’t involved in the disappearance of the pearl.

Mr. Rennie believes that Miss Kingston Bruce was acting odd when she visited him. He was concerned that she may want to confide in him but she hadn’t. This whole revelation is interrupted by Colonel Kingston Bruce inviting Tuppence for lunch. Though he stops short when he sees Mr. Rennie. It is clear the two have some tension. Mr. Rennie leaves though Tuppence begs him to return later.

Mr. Rennie seems at an impass. He states to her, I wonder how much you know. And then oddly enough asks if Sir Vincent is actually engaged to be married. Tuppence tells him it is quite true, she knows for a fact. Suddenly Mr. Rennie seems to open up more. He begins to speak of politics before Tuppence brings him back to the pearl. She wants to know why he believes Miss Kingston Bruce has taken it.

Mr. Rennie is slightly unsure of why this woman is answering the door and when she ushers him into an empty room he is quite annoyed. He again tells her he is there to see Miss Kingston Bruce. When Tuppence denies him, he gets quite angry and demands to know who she is. Tuppence assures him and takes a guess that Miss Kingston Bruce went to see him that morning before going to see her and Tommy.

Tommy’s conviction worries Tuppence. He is quite sure he knows something, but she is not. Tuppence hasn’t pieced everything together yet and she worries her husband may be jumping the gun. She is still watching out the window when a man approaches the door. Tuppence races to the door to get it. The man is there to see Miss Kingston Bruce. Though Tuppence recognizes him.

The door continues to draw Tommy’s attention. He even inspects it and doesn’t see what could have caused the issue they saw. Once he dismisses Elise he talks to Tuppence and gives her instructions to help set his plan in motion. Tuppence warns him however that the daughter of the Kingston Bruces is also suspicious, it took her two hours to get to their office that morning, which is ridiculous.

As they talk the door slams shut. Tuppence thinks it could have been the wind, however when Elise goes to open the door, it will not open. She believes someone may have slammed it shut. Elise then grabs a towel and tries again and suddenly the door opens to reveal no one in the bedroom at all. It is curious, but Tommy goes about ordering the ladies around to get the photographs he wants.

Lady Laura’s room is across the hall from the room Tommy and Tuppence are in at the moment and they slip across to look around. The door was ajar and it was a beautiful little room with its own bathroom. A “slim dark girl” named Elise, Lady Laura’s maid was in there and she seemed shocked to see the couple. She is busy cleaning the bath. Tommy goes to talk to her and ask her for her assistance with taking photos.

Tuppence believes that the servants were not involved. However, the French maid had a story to tell. The French maid of Lady Laura insists that she went to tea with some friends of the Kingston Bruces last time she was in town and she returned with a teaspoon in her mouth. Tuppence believes that Lady Laura is broke and makes a show of staying with people who still cater to her because of her title.

The Colonel agrees and allows Tommy full run of the house. He tells him to search everywhere if he must to find it. They start in Mrs Betts' room. Tommy assures Mrs Betts that Tuppence will search her clothes if she has no objections and the woman doesn’t. Once they are alone, Tommy admits that he doesn’t believe they will find the pearl, but he believes they should keep appearances up.

Mrs Betts doesn’t seem to be impressed with Tommy. Though she shows Tommy the broken pendant and Mr Betts makes sure to inform him of the value of the pearl. Tommy asks Tuppence to get him his camera, a special device he tells them that he invented himself. He continues to take photos while Tuppence talks to the staff. Once done he talks to the Colonel and insists the pearl is either in the house or not in the house.

Once that is done, Tommy insists on seeing where the pendent was, and asking questions to Mrs Betts and the servants. As they walk to the drawing-room they can overhear a conversation between the Colonel’s wife and daughter. Mrs Kingston Bruce believes it is the socialist Mr Rennie who took it but the daughter insists that she was watching him carefully. They all go in search of Mrs Betts for Tommy to speak with.

(Part 2)

He also feels the need to add that no one has left the house (though he doesn’t mention his daughter who left of course to call upon Tommy and Tuppence). He also tells the pair his daughter volunteered to go to them about this case.

Something seems odd about the whole thing. Mrs. Betts wants to call the police, they searched and can not find the pearl. But Colonel Kingston Bruce dissuaded her from doing so. He didn’t want the publicity, and his wife and daughter agreed. That’s when they recalled Sir Vincent talking about the Detective Agency that specializes in keeping things quiet.

He also talked about his dinner guests from the previous night. He tells the couple that Mr & Mrs Betts had dinner with him, his wife and his daughter and Lady Laura. Also, a young man named Sir Vincent and Mr Rennie. When asked about Mr Rennie, the Colonel doesn’t have many nice things to say. He clearly states that he doesn’t trust the man and in fact, he thinks that the socialist Mr Rennie may be the thief.

The following day pieces of her pendant were where she had left them but the large pink pearl was missing. The parlour maid, Gladys Hill found the pendent the next morning. The Colonel doesn’t believe she is guilty. She had been in the household for years and had never been a problem. He went on to talk about the other members of his household and the maid that travelled with Lady Barton.

He tells Tommy and Tuppence that he has American (the Hamilton-Betts) friends that wanted to desperately meet the Lady. And so he invited them to his home. Ms Hamilton-Betts was wearing a pendant that broke that night and she took it off. She laid it on the table meaning to take it with her when she retired for the evening but forgot to do so.

The house they come upon is quite impressive. The house seems to have had work done on its grounds and gables. The homeowner, Colonel Kingston-Bruce opens the door. He ushers them in and tells them of his need for their services. He is quite distressed by what has happened. His dear friend, Lady Laura Barton, was staying with them and is quite popular due to her husband’s speech he recently delivered.

Once the young lady is gone, Tommy and Tuppence talk about how odd of a character this girl was. They finish cleaning and decide to take a ride out to the house and see what is going on there. Tuppence realizes that the lady is smart and unhappy. It seems that Tuppence already seems to have the family pegged. It is unclear though if she is just putting Tommy on.

This remark makes Tommy feel like perhaps the pearl isn’t stolen but simply missing. The girl tends to agree. He tells Miss Kingston Bruce that he is quite busy at the moment and she doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight. In fact, Tuppence notices that there is a gleam of satisfaction in her eye. She doesn’t seem too pleased when Tommy informs her he can squeeze in a quick visit to her home and see what he finds.

Ironically the detective agency had come up over dinner the night before and Miss Kingston Bruce was sent by her mother to see if Mr. Blunt would investigate the disappearance. Miss Kingston Bruce doesn’t seem pleased to be there, and when asked if they called the police she replies that they did not. She believes it would be idiotic to call the police if the pearl had simply rolled away.

As Tommy talks with the woman, you can tell he is trying his hand at being Sherlock Holmes. He talks to her about travelling on a bus (he sees a blue ticket on her), but she denies that she took the bus and insists she took a taxi. This seems odd, but they continue. Miss Kingston-Bruce tells Tommy that a lady staying at her home has lost a pink pearl.

Tommy and Tuppence have a system in their office. They have a peephole they use to observe their clients while Albert, the office boy, keeps them waiting. Typically the line is that Mr Blunt is on the phone with Scotland Yard. We know this isn’t true. This client is a woman, she is described as “around Tuppence’s age”, tall with a haggard face and tired eyes though she was dressed in clothes “cheap and striking”

Tuppence is quick to point out that some of the detectives in the books they have may not have done overly well in the real world. But she also points out that Tommy doesn’t have some of the knowledge the detectives in those books do either (she points out Tommy isn’t a professional). But Tommy isn’t dissuaded, he tells her of a new camera he has and that he can hardly wait to start taking photos of footprints.