Wilton Residence
Giles Hollow Road, 2:15 p.m.
“Hello?”
Speak of the devil.
Vera had wandered into the kitchen for more water, suffering only two bouts of dizziness on the journey, when she heard Valeri Erwin’s voice at the front door.
“Hello?” Erwin called out again.
“Kitchen.” Vera winced as she turned to face the footsteps hurrying her way.
Too bad Bent was outside, going over the search results with his deputies. Vera would bet money Erwin had told the deputy standing guard out front that she was expected. Otherwise he would surely have asked Bent before allowing her to enter the house. At this point Vera wouldn’t put a thing past the woman.
Erwin rushed into the huge kitchen. She made a surprised face. “I thought you’d be at home in bed. Are you holding up okay?”
Looking at the butterfly strip on the woman’s forehead annoyed Vera all the more. She glanced at her shoulder bag. Exactly the right size for a brick or nice-size rock, in Vera’s opinion. All she’d had to do was swing it hard enough. Vera could easily see the plan playing out. Erwin slammed Vera in the head, then took a quick look at hernotes and made a hasty mess of the room. Finally, Erwin tossed the brick somehow—maybe in the shrubs around Vera’s front porch—and proceeded to injure herself on a doorframe or some such thing just in time for Vera to come around. Maybe Vera was reaching, but it wasn’t impossible ... except that nothing casually tossed into her shrubs or yard near the front door had been found.
“I’m fine.” Vera stretched her lips into a smile. “How are you? Any issues with balance or nausea?” Another blast of irritation soared through her. Of course not. The woman was barely nicked.
“Nothing like that.” Erwin shrugged. “I guess I was lucky.”
“Yes you were.” Vera leaned against the counter, deciding to save her strength for more important challenges. “What brings you here? Did you remember something about this morning’s intruder or about Mr. Wilton’s business dealings?” Vera’s gaze narrowed. “I hope you didn’t talk to the reporters outside the gate.”
“Of course I didn’t. And no, I didn’t remember anything new.” Valeri shuffled over to the island and climbed onto a stool. She dumped her bag unceremoniously onto the stool next to her. “Honestly, I was just afraid.” She shuddered to punctuate her statement. “After what happened, I’m terrified someone will break into my place and try to kill me.” She braced her elbows on the shiny marble counter and rested her head in her hands. “This is the only place I feel safe.”
Vera saw right through her explanation. Erwin needed to keep her thumb on the pulse of the investigation—even if it meant lying to get past a deputy.
“Nothing new comes to mind about Alicia or the trouble you sensed between her and Thomas?” The other staff members had basically confirmed her allegations, but that didn’t prove the wife had killed her husband. It only suggested Wilton had made a bad decision when it came to his love life, or that they were merely having trouble meshing their lives, as couples sometimes do.
“I’m sure the staff told you that she was up to something. I mean, the woman was always sneaking around. You couldn’t trust anythingshe said.” She nodded to Vera. “I firmly believe Thomas had realized she was keeping secrets from him. I’m thinking that’s why he set up the weekend get-together. To handle the situation. He probably intended to get to the bottom of things with the other man and then Alicia would be gone—along with her trashy friends.”
It took Vera a moment to open her mouth without laughing at the idea. “When a man believes his wife is cheating, I’m thinking he might not be interested in handling the situation by getting naked with her potential lover. Personally, I believe the party was a setup of a different kind. One that included murdering Thomas Wilton.”
“Please,” Erwin scoffed. “I’m not sure Alicia is that smart.” She sent a pointed look in Vera’s direction. “I mean, she was really good at spending money and being mean to us lesser humans, but anything else ...” She shrugged. “I can’t see it.”
Vera mounted a stool on her side of the expansive island with its arrangement of glossy copper pots hanging overhead. “Maybe. But whether she planned it or someone else did, my biggest issue with the scenario is that Thomas fell for it. He was a genius, right? I keep thinking that maybe the whole thing came to fruition via someone he trusted.” Her gaze settled firmly on Erwin. “Someone whose loyalty he would never have questioned.”
Erwin slid off her stool. “I need a cola.” At the fridge, she glanced over at Vera. “You want one?”
“Sure.” The sugar might do her good.
Erwin prowled in the massive fridge for a bit, then returned to the island and slid a canned soft drink across the counter to Vera. She settled on her stool once more and opened her own drink.
Vera took a long swallow of the fizzy, sugary drink. “I spoke with Nola Childers’s mother this morning.”
“Really? How is she doing?” Erwin hid her surprise well, but Vera spotted the slightest flicker of alarm.
“She and her husband are doing all right. She was sad that she hadn’t heard from you since the funeral.”
Erwin looked away for a moment. “It was just too difficult to go back. Losing Nola was the worst thing to ever happen to me. But the idea that I could have helped her if I hadn’t drunk so much that I passed out on the sofa ...” She pressed her lips together for a moment. “I just couldn’t face her parents again after the funeral. I felt way too guilty.”
“Why do you suppose Nola drank so much that night?” Vera sipped her cola. “Her mother said it was completely unlike her.” Maybe she didn’t say those exact words, but the understanding was there.
“That was my fault too. I kept pouring the champagne. Then we moved on to a second bottle.” She drew in a big breath. “I never mentioned that part to her parents. I didn’t want to hurt them, because the truth was that Nola drank more than they realized. She was a regular party girl. But she was careful. She didn’t want anyone to know. Her folks are really religious.”
How convenient. Particularly since Nola wasn’t around to confirm or deny.
