after moving into the crane mansion, esme finds herself deeply attracted to fox, and vice versa; after esme's long list of conquests and the end of fox's messy marriage to kay bennett, the two believe that they have found true love with one another. the two have just consummated their relationship when fox is shot in the chest by an unknown assailant, resulting in his death on september 17. esme is deeply traumatized by fox's death and briefly goes into mourning. in an attempt to cheer herself up, esme sleeps with two men (pete and jake), but they both are murdered following their sexual outings with esme. esme is devastated by her lovers' deaths and becomes determined to catch their murderer. after fox, pete, and jake's deaths, esme decides to sleep with julian crane, fancy's father, believing that no one will dare to try to murder someone as powerful as julian; the attacker does attempt murder, but fails. esme gets the idea to sleep with evil people — namely alistair crane, fancy's grandfather — in order to bring about their deaths. alistair sees through esme's act, however, and is attempting to rape her when he is stabbed in the back and the attempted murderer is revealed to the audience as viki, who fears being sent away to boarding school if esme marries.