Page 92 of Passions in Death
Angie’s eyes cleared as she looked at Eve. “I hadn’t thought of that. I hadn’t thought of it that way. Ask me anything.”
“We’re going to record this,” Eve told her as Peabody came in with tubes of water. “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, in Interview with Angie Decker regarding the investigation into the murder of Erin Albright.”
Angie shuddered once. “God, hearing it like that. Just hearing it. ‘The murder of Erin Albright.’”
She let out a long breath. “Ask me anything,” she repeated.
“Again, Angie, thanks for coming in. You helped plan the party at the Down and Dirty.”
“Yes. Becca and I—Becca DiNuzio and I are—were going to stand up for Erin and Shauna at the wedding. We decided, when they asked us, we’d plan out the events together. The bridal shop trip, the bridal shower, the pre-wedding bash. Help with the invitations and so on.”
“You and Erin were very close friends, but she didn’t tell you about the trip to Maui?”
“No.” After cracking the tube, Angie drank. “Erin loved surprises. She loved the big reveal. I knew how much she’d wished she could take Shauna to Hawaii, since it was Shauna’s dream honeymoon. But Shauna’s very practical and Erin tries to be. Mostly succeeds, so they agreed they’d put it off, save until they could do it right. I had no idea she’d sold enough paintings to pull it off, or that she’d booked the trip.”
Visibly, Angie struggled back more tears.
“She would have wanted to surprise me, too. Well, all of us. Shauna at the center, and the rest of us surrounding her. That’s so Erin. The costume? God, that was Erin, too. Do it large or forget about it, make it fun or what’s the point?”
She drank again.
“Do you know just one more sorrow in all this? That trip? Shauna’s had that dream since she was a little girl. Now she’ll never be able to go. It would break her heart all over again to go. So that dream’s dead, too. Maybe that’s a small, silly thing, but—”
“No, it’s not,” Peabody said. “It’s not small or silly.”
“She’s holding up right now. She’s so angry, and that’s helping her hold up. I need to find my anger again, but right now? I’m too fucking tired to be angry.”
“Shauna’s staying with you.”
“She doesn’t want to go back to their apartment. I can’t blame her, as I’m going to have a hard time going there myself. But I want to help Erin’s family get her things. Becca’s gotten some of Shauna’s. Shauna’s going to sublet it, look for another place. She can stay with me until.”
“That’s generous. You’ve only known her about a year.”
“Erin loved her,” Angie said simply. “And she loved Erin. She needs a safe place, and I have the room. Erin would expect it of me.”
“Becca doesn’t have the room?”
“Becca and Greg? No, not really. They’d squeeze her in, absolutely they’d do that. But I have the room—a dedicated guest room, and two baths. Shauna and I have gotten to be good friends over the last year or so, with the foundation we both loved Erin.”
“Why do you think Erin asked Donna to bring the case to the D&D, and not you?”
“There’s a question I’ve asked myself over and over since we found out about the case, and I realized you think whoever did bring it killed her. If she’d have asked me…”
Angie shook her head. “No point going there. I think she asked Donna because they saw each other nearly every day, shared the studio space, and that’s where Erin brought the case so Shauna didn’t stumble over the surprise. And Donna thought she had a few days after the wedding before her sister had the baby.”
“Seems like babies come when they want to,” Peabody commented.
“Yeah.” As Becca had, Angie turned the tube around and around. “Donna started worrying there when her sister let her know at the last visit, the midwife said it could be any day.”
“Oh?” This was fresh, Eve thought. “When was that?”
“I… I’m not sure. No, wait. It had to be last Friday. I happened to talk to Donna right after she got the news from her sister. I remember because she was so excited about the baby, but really worried about the party, and said she had to let Erin know.”
Angie lifted her hands. “At the time I thought she overreacted—and she can do that,” Angie added with a smile. “But I didn’t know she was supposed to bring the overnight case in for Erin.”
“You don’t seem surprised or shaken by the fact we believe one of your group killed Erin.”
Angie met Eve’s gaze levelly. “I suppose because I have to believe that, too. At first I had to think it was someone else, in the club, working at the club. But what sense is there in that? Someone gets in that room with her, kills her that way, and for what? The hardly anything she had of value? Some stranger just happens to get into that room when she’s in there, or going in?”
