Page 19 of What Happened Last Night

She trailed off, and I gave her a moment, waiting to see if she would say more. She went back to quietly sipping her coffee and I took a drink of mine. It was strong and good, and I took another drink, letting Carlotta gather her thoughts for a bit longer.

“So, you confronted him about it?” I asked.

Carlotta nodded.

“Yes. William was at work one day and he had left his laptop on. I didn’t go on to intentionally check up on him. I wanted to check my emails. Or maybe I did want to check up on him. I don’t know. Maybe some part of me did. Anyway, his own inbox was open and there was an unread email from Candy. I couldn’t help myself, Detective. I read it. And I instantly wished I hadn’t. It was full of such filth I won’t even repeat it. I found myself going back through the whole thread, and I felt sick to the bottom of my stomach when I saw the things he was saying to her. Yet still, I told myself it was nothing, that it would just fizzle out like all the others. Stupid, huh?”

She looked up at me, and I gave her what I hoped was a sympathetic look. I found it hard to understand how she could turn a blind eye to all of this. I mean, she was successful, richer than William. It wasn't like she was hanging around for the lifestyle he could give her. I guessed she wasn’t lying when she said she loved him. She loved him enough to pretend he wasn’t cheating on her at that point.

“A week or so after that, she turned up on our doorstep. Candy. I told you in my interview that she came for a file. And that was her cover story. But I knew it was just that, a story. She came to size me up, check out the competition. And that’s when I knew this wouldn’t just fizzle out. Candy wasn’t messing around. She actually wanted William for herself. That’s when I finally confronted him. We had a big fight, but he agreed to call it off, and he did.”

“How can you be so sure?” I asked. “That he called it off, I mean. I’m sorry to be so blunt, Carlotta, but if William was happy to cheat on you, why do you think he wouldn’t just continue to see Candy behind your back?”

“Because once he called it off, her gloves came off. She was unhinged, Detective, and she was willing to fight for what she saw as her man. She called him at all hours, and I heard some of the voicemails she left. Voicemails that were full of scathing threats and the rantings of someone who has gone off the deep end. She went into full-on stalker mode, and I even caught her hanging around at the bottom of the driveway when she knew William was at work.”

I raised an eyebrow. This was certainly painting a very different picture of Candy than the one I had in my head. She sure sounded like she had gone off the deep end. If this was true, it put a whole new slant on the murder. Candy had broken into the Aldens’ home, that much I knew for a fact. What if she had come to attack the couple? She could have wanted to hurt William for dumping her, or she could have wanted to hurt Carlotta, blaming her for the relationship with William coming to an end. It was starting to seem like the murder could have been done in self-defense.

I didn’t think Carlotta was lying. She seemed so ... so broken. Like she had finally decided to just lay all of her shit bare. Of course, she could still be playing a very convincing role. Suddenly, though, I felt a little bit more optimistic about the autopsy. Maybe it would reveal something I didn’t know, after all. Maybe it would reveal that Candy had been killed in self-defense. It wouldn’t help me to know which of the couple had actually killed her, but it would certainly change the tone and the direction of the case.

“Look, Detective, I’m sorry I didn’t mention this earlier, but it’s not easy telling a complete stranger that your husband betrayed you. And that you were stupid enough to put up with it and stick around,” Carlotta said in a quiet voice, pulling me out of my head and back into the room with her.

“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “I understand. And Carlotta? You did the right thing by telling me about this now.”

She shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t look overly convinced that she had done the right thing, and that made me sway more toward believing her story. People didn’t have regrets about telling you a story they made up to make themselves look less guilty.

She was shrinking back in on herself, and I knew I wouldn’t get anything else out of her today. She had given me plenty to think about, though, and hopefully, the records from the phone company would back up her story.

I stood up, and Carlotta blinked up at me, looking almost like she was seeing me there for the first time. William had really done a number on her. She caught herself and smiled at me, getting up too.

“I should really be getting back to the precinct,” I said, deciding now wasn't the time to ask to see the crime scene. “Thank you for your honesty today. Now I’ll let you get back to your painting.”

She nodded and walked me to the door. I stepped out and said goodbye and went back to my car. I had just started the engine when my cellphone rang. I turned the engine back off and pulled my cellphone from my pocket. It was Officer Stanford.

“Hey,” I said into the phone, taking her call.

“I’ve got the records,” she said.

“Anything to report?” I asked.

“William Alden knew Candy a whole lot better than he has implied. There are hundreds of calls and texts between them. It’s weird, though, because in the last few weeks, there’s no calls or texts from William to Candy. There are calls from her to him, always in the middle of the night, though.”

Carlotta was telling me the truth then, and it sounds like she was right that William had told her the truth about ending things with Candy. So Candy really was stalking certainly William and perhaps both of the couple.

I quickly filled Detective Stanford in on everything Carlotta had told me. When I was done, she whistled softly through her teeth.

“That autopsy just got a lot more important, huh?” she said.

“Yeah. It might just show that Candy was killed in self-defense,” I said.

“Did you ask to see the bedroom?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “Carlotta was very forthcoming with the information, and if she’s going to keep talking, I wanted to keep her on our side. Plus, I noticed from outside of the house that the window was already fixed, so anything I might have found would likely be gone. And even if I did find something, the likelihood of proving it wasn’t caused by the glazers is almost zero.”

“You have to wonder, don’t you?” Officer Stanford said in a thoughtful voice. “On the one hand, the couple seems reasonably open. Especially Carlotta. But then they do shit like this that makes me feel like they’re desperately trying to cover something up. I mean, a kid died on their lawn. Replacing the glass would hardly be my first priority.”

Chapter Eleven

William

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