Summary

In Interlocutrix, it is March 19, 1977. Jacob Rigolet, on behalf of his employer, attends the art auction held at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is there to bid on the 1863 landscape Forest of Fontainbleau by Eugene Cuvelier. When the Robert Capa photograph, Death on a Leipzig Balcony, taken April 18, 1945, comes up for bidding, Jacob and the audience are stunned when Jacob’s mother, Nora Ives Rigolet, suddenly appears and hurls a bottle of black ink at the photo. The photo is protected by its glass frame. Jacob is stunned because his mother is supposed to be in Nova Scotia Rest Hospital across the harbor in Dartmouth. She is recovering from a nervous breakdown.

Nora's act of throwing ink at the photograph is investigated by the police. The investigation is spearheaded by Detective Martha Crauchet, who also happens to be Jacob’s...