Page 16 of Again with Feeling

Millie perked right up. She was practically vibrating with excitement. “A SECRET!”

The tourists in the next booth turned around. A guy with a wispy attempt at a mustache stared, his mouth hanging open.

I gave the group a little wave, and slowly, they turned back to their drinks.

That was when Keme kicked me.

“Ow! What didIdo?”

But he just scowled at me.

“It’s all very strange,” Fox said as though nothing had happened. “And the case against Vivienne certainly seems thin. Any defense lawyer worth their salt should be able to create reasonable doubt. I mean, Richard’s relationship with his wife should be enough all on its own—the ongoing arguments, their fight the night of the murder, the fact that she was having an affair.”

“Was she having the affair with Neil?” Indira asked.

I blinked. “That possibility hadn’t occurred to me.”

“Maybe that’s why they’re married,” Millie said.

I blinked again. In the background, Dolly was begging Jolene not to steal her man. “Neil and—what’s her name? Jane?”

Millie nodded.

“They’re not married,” I said. “Neil and Vivienne were married, but they got divorced. And Richard and Jane were married, but Richard died.”

“No, Neil and Jane are married NOW.” She held up her phone. “They’re old, so they put everything on Facebook.”

I snatched the phone from her—which, I noted in my peripheral vision, earned me another dark look from Keme—and studied the screen. It was Neil Carver’s Facebook page, and sure enough, it showed that he’d married Jane Lundgren Carver in 1990.

“Five years after Richard disappeared,” I said.

“After he died,” Bobby said. He frowned. “That’s strange.”

Indira frowned. “I’m not sure it is. After all, Candy told you that the four of them were all close in high school. Vivienne had moved away. Richard was gone. I don’t think it’s all that unusual for two people who were already close and both dealing with different kinds of loss to find comfort in each other.”

Millie shot up in her seat again. “OR THEY KILLED HIM TOGETHER!”

“Usually, we try not to sound so gleeful,” I muttered with another apologetic wave for the people in the next booth. Wispy Mustache Guy had spilled his drink on himself.

“That certainly seems like a possibility,” Fox said, “but why? I mean, if they were having an affair and wanted to be together, Jane could have divorced Richard and married Neil. It was the 1980s, not the 1880s.”

“An argument,” I said. “Candy told us Richard and Jane were fighting constantly. They had a fight the night Richard disappeared. Jane left the house that night, according to Candy, but maybe when she came back, the fight picked up again and got out of hand.”

Keme said, “Orhedid it.”

“That’s a good point,” Indira said. “It’s equally likely that Richard argued with Neil about the affair. Like you said, Dash, things might have escalated. He certainly seems to have stepped into Richard’s life—the jewelry, the house, the wife.”

“Except there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a physical altercation,” Bobby said. “Remember? The medical examiner didn’t find anything.”

Waving the words away, Fox said, “She poisoned him. A little antifreeze in his coffee every morning.”

“Aren’t we forgetting someone?” Bobby waited, and when no one spoke, he said, “We’ve already got a suspect we know is guilty of multiple homicides. I’m not saying that automatically makes her guilty, but she’s got to be a consideration.”

I shrugged. “I know, but I can’t figure out why Vivienne would ask me to investigate if she’s the one who killed Richard. I mean, why not leave it alone? Or let the police investigate and try to build a case? It’s not like it’s going to matter one way or another, with the sentences she’s already facing.”

“I think itdoesmatter, though,” Indira said. “I’m not saying it means Vivienne’s innocent, but Vivienne cared—cares—deeply about her appearance. I don’t think she was exaggerating when she said she didn’t want to be known as a kin slayer.”

“Plus, she might want revenge,” Millie said. “Oh, Dash, maybe she wants revenge on you too, and THIS IS PART OF THE PLAN!”

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