Page 134 of Festive in Death

“Is it my fault? Is this my fault because I let him come here? I had sex with him.”

“You didn’t have sex with him, Mrs. Schubert,” Eve corrected. “Ziegler drugged you and he raped you. That’s not sex. And the person who killed Catiana and attacked your sister is at fault. No one else. Did you know Catiana intended to go to your sister’s home this evening?”

“No. No. I thought she was going home to get ready for her date. I don’t know why she went there.”

“You said she and Copley rarely interacted. Was there friction?”

“Not friction.” Schubert rose to shrug out of his coat, laid it over his wife’s. “JJ can be a dick with women, especially those he views as subordinates, but that sort of thing rolls off of Catiana’s back. I apologized to her more than once, but she’d just laugh it off.”

“Apologized for what?”

“Oh, he’d tell her to get him a drink, as if she were waitstaff. It wasn’t so much what he said, but the tone. Master to servant. I’ve spoken to him about it a number of times, and he feigns ignorance. Since Cate could laugh it off, I let it go rather than stir up family conflict.”

“She didn’t like him. She never actually said so,” Martella said thickly. “She never would, but she didn’t. She’s family, too, Lance.”

“I know, Tella. I know.”

“You don’t like him, either,” Eve observed. “Either of you.”

“He’s family,” Schubert said simply as his wife wept quietly on his shoulder. “You don’t get to choose. Tella and Tash are close. He’s Tash’s husband. I might consider him a bit of a dick, as I said, but I can’t conceive of him doing any of this. You think he killed Ziegler, too.”

Rather than answer, Eve changed tacks. “You and Catiana must have talked about Ziegler. What he’d done, his murder. And now that it’s come out your sister and he had an intimate arrangement, you must have talked about that.”

“We were surprised, all of us,” Schubert confirmed. “But then... he’s her type.”

“Oh, Lance.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but good-looking users seem to be Tash’s type.”

“Did the three of you talk about that situation today?”

“Actually, I didn’t really talk to Cate today, just in passing as she was getting ready to go as I got back from Florida.”

“We did. Cate and I did.” Struggling with tears, Martella burrowed closer to her husband. “I was a little angry that Tash hadn’t told me, even when she knew how horrible I felt when I thought I’d cheated on Lance. I told Cate, and she calmed me down. She does that. She did... Oh God.”

“I’m going to get you some brandy.” Schubert kissed her temple before he rose.

“You and Catiana talked about the situation,” Eve prompted.

“We did. It was all so... so sordid, really. What happened to me. Cate and Lance, they’ve both been so supportive. And Tash, too. So I was upset when Tash finally told me she’d had an affair with Trey, and that JJ was having one with some stripper. I can understand, really, I can, how Tash would turn to Trey. A kind of revenge, I guess.”

“So Catiana knew the details.”

“I told her. She was like my sister, too. She’s family. Her poor mom. Oh, Lance, her mother.”

“We’ll be there for her.” He handed Martella a snifter, swirled his own. “Catiana would never insert herself in Tash’s marital business. Never.”

“Was she invited to the party at the Quigley-Copley residence the night Ziegler was killed?”

“Yes. Well, more, really. Tash asked her to help out with the prep. Cate’s a whiz with party preparations. So she was over there a good part of the day. Family,” she repeated. “Tash and Cate were good friends, were close. She must have gone there tonight to talk to Tash about something. I don’t know. I can’t imagine the rest. I just can’t. It doesn’t seem real.”

“You knew about your sister-in-law’s relationship with Ziegler,” she said to Schubert.

“I just found out.”

“And Copley? To your knowledge when did he learn about it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if he knew or not. He certainly didn’t tell me, or show any signs of it. But then, I didn’t know he was having an affair himself. It’s not the way we live, Tella and I. We don’t live that way.”

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