7c6cdd7d45cb035b54aafd3ac9eb9cc8

Sandy shook her head.“It’s all a little weird to me, but I guess you’re right. I don’t know how the police operate in small towns like Hampton Cove. But you were asking me about why I decided to divorce Kirk. Well, mainly because he couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants, I guess. I kept walking in on him withhis secretaries, the kitchen maid, the housekeeper, the cook, the woman who does the cleaning and one time even with the gardener, though I think he made a mistake there and hadn’t noticed in the darkness of the garden shed that our gardener was actually a buff Mexican male named Pedro.”

“So you’re telling us that your husband was—”

“A horndog, yes. Of the very worst kind. He was addicted to sex and had to have sex at least six times a day, preferably with a different woman every time. When it first happened, on our honeymoon in Bali, and I walked in on him with the barmaid, he told me it would never happen again and I believed him, but when it kept happening, he promised me he’d go into therapy for his sex addiction and asked me to stand by his side and help him through what was obviously a very difficult time in his life. So I did, but when I discovered he’d been having sex with his therapist, his therapist’s secretary, and his therapist’s mother, I figured enough was enough and I filed for divorce. Which he refused to grant me.”

“He refused to divorce you?” asked Vesta, who’d been listening with rapt attention. She’d heard about people like Kirk Weaver but had never actually met one in the flesh.

“He claimed he still loved me and all those flings, as he called them, were meaningless in the grand scheme of our marriage, which he considered a holy bond that couldn’t be broken by man—or me. But now I understand how all this talk of great bonds only meant to hide the ugly truth.”

“Which was?” Scarlett prompted.

“That the man was flat broke! And the moment the divorce went through I’d have discovered his financial situation and so would the rest of the world.”

“And he didn’t want that to happen.”

“My husband was a well-known media personality. He didn’t want his failure as a businessman to be widely known.”

“So he denied you your divorce and yesterday morning you decided to end this marriage once and for all by stabbing him through the heart with a big knife,” said Scarlett, nodding. “Makes sense. I can see why you did it. But murder is not the way.”

“You really think I’d kill Kirk?” asked Sandy, incredulous.

“I do, and it’s fine. I can sympathize,” said Scarlett, placing a long-nailed hand on the woman’s arm. “And I’m sure that a jury will be extremely sympathetic to your plight.”

“Look, I don’t know where you got this crazy idea but I didn’t kill my husband, all right? I didn’t like the guy, and I thought he was human scum, but I didn’t kill him.”

“But you thought about it.”

Sandy hesitated. A waiter had come up and placed their orders on the table: more hot cocoa for Vesta, a cappuccino for Scarlett and chamomile tea for Sandy, presumably to calm her nerves, frayed to the utmost from her recent visit to the lawyer’s office.

The moment the waiter had withdrawn, Sandy said,“Yes, I did think about killing Kirk. Many times. In fact each time I caught him with another woman I imagined stabbing him like the filthy pig that he was. But did I act upon those revenge fantasies? No, of course I didn’t. The way I wanted to get even with the bastard was by divorcing him andtaking all of his money. Only now it turns out there wasn’t any money to be had. The man was broke! Completely broke. He even left a chest full of debts behind.”

“So where were you yesterday morning around eleven?” asked Vesta.

“Good question,” said Scarlett admiringly. “Where were you? Tell us that, if you can.”

“I was brunching at the hotel across the street. And you can ask any waiter and they’ll confirm my story. And after brunch I went shopping for new clothes. I still figured the settlement would make me a rich woman.” She scoffed. “Huh! What a fool I was!”

Chapter 19

When Sandy had left to return to her hotel, Vesta and Scarlett discussed the interview.“You did great, Vesta,” said Scarlett. “You asked all the right questions and really made her sweat.”

“Thanks,” said Vesta, touched by this unexpected compliment from one who probably hadn’t paid her a compliment since the days when Ronald Reagan was president. “I picked up a few tips and tricks from my granddaughter. Odelia is great at this kind of stuff. And of course it doesn’t hurt that my son is a cop.”

“So what do you think? Was she lying when she told us she never came near her husband?”

“Well, you heard her. She has a solid alibi. The brunch thing and the shopping. Very easy for us to check.”

“But maybe she figures we won’t. Maybe she snuck out at some point, made her way across town, snuck into Allison Gray’s house and killed Kirk and then got back.”