I hadn’t expected Kathryn to handle Bellamy’s interrogation for me. It was clear she’d snapped over what happened at the bar. I didn’t blame her.
Kathryn pushed the bathroom door open, and we found Maddie on the other side. She was standing with a man I’d seen at Bellamy’s table at the start of the night. It appeared she’d infiltrated the senator’s posse as planned, but in a curious turn of events, I’d beaten her to the senator himself.
The man standing next to Maddie approached Kathryn and put his arm around her. “You all right? What happened between you and Marshall at the bar? He said it was an accident. No one believes him.”
Kathryn shrugged him off. “Don’t worry about what happened. I’m fine.”
“Are you?” he asked. “You seem agitated.”
Kathryn turned toward me. “Sloane, this is Blake Langston, my younger brother.”
I said hello, and he did the same.
“Your friend Madison told me you’ve always wanted to meet the senator,” he said. “From the looks of it, you have.”
“She’s not here to meet him,” Kathryn said. “She’s here to talk to him about Rebecca Barlow. Remember her? And don’t bother saying you don’t. I know she was one of Marshall’s hordes of women. I saw them together with my own two eyes.”
I looked at Blake. “How do you know Rebecca?”
“He knows them all, I’d say,” Kathryn said. “My brother works for Marshall. Security detail. He hired him after Marshall was stabbed a couple years back.”
“Did you know about Marshall’s relationship with Rebecca?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t call it a relationship,” Blake said.
“Then what would you call it?”
“Friends with benefits, perhaps,” Kathryn quipped. “Although I’m sure Marshall benefitted a lot more than she did. Even with the Viagra, he’s not up to par these days.”
“Come on, Kate,” Blake said.
“You come on,” Kathryn said. “What do you know about Rebecca? Tell me Marshall didn’t have anything to do with her death.”
Blake looked at Kathryn like he was shocked by the suggestion. “Of course not. He saw her for a few months, tops. It isn’t what you think.”
“What would you know about what I think?”
“I know Marshall and Rebecca called it quits before she died,” Blake said.
“How can you be so sure?” Kathryn asked. “How, Blake? Now’s not the time to withhold information.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter, and unless you want me to march over to his table right now and ask him in front of a room full of his friends, you’ll tell the lot of us what we need to know this minute.”
Blake turned his attention to me. “Who are you?”
“I’m a private detective. I’ve been hired to look into Rebecca’s death.”
“Why?”
Kathryn rolled her eyes. “You’re stalling, Blake, and I’ve had enough of it. If you’re more concerned with protecting that dirtbag over your own sister, I never would have suggested you come work for Marshall in the first place.”
Blake shook his head. “Hold on a minute. If you think my allegiance is to him and not you, you’re wrong. Whatever scandal he gets caught up in, you get caught up in it too. All I’ve ever wanted to do is to protect you.”
Kathryn’s expression softened. She placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder and said, “Did you ever consider I might be tired of being protected, of living in the shadow of his actions? I’ve chosen to look the other way far too long. I worried too much about what would happen if the real Marshall Bellamy was exposed and how I would be affected when it happened. Tonight, I’ve decided I’m done pretending. I won’t put myself through this hell any longer.”
Blake bowed his head and let loose a long, exhausted breath. “I’m sorry, Kate. I thought I was looking out for you. I never meant to deceive you.”
“You did what you thought was right, and I love you for it. What I need now is honesty. How do you know Marshall was no longer seeing Rebecca when she died?”
Blake loosened his tie, undid a few buttons on his shirt, and ran a hand across his sweaty brow. “Rebecca dropped him a while back when she met someone else.”
“Do you know who?” I asked.
“Marshall said it was someone she knew. Someone from her past. That’s all she told him. She didn’t give up the other guy’s name.”
“Just because Marshall and Rebecca were no longer together doesn’t mean he had nothing to do with her death,” I said. “His jealousy over the new guy could have driven him to seek revenge.”
“Other than the fact they dated, what evidence do you have?” Kathryn asked.
“It’s just a theory. I found some notes Rebecca wrote before she died. They were written to the man she’d been dating, a man she called Bunny. We haven’t identified him yet. In the note it was clear Rebecca thought she could win him back because they were having a baby together.”
“She was pregnant?” Kathryn asked.
I nodded. “Almost three months along. The way I see it, even if Marshall was no longer dating her, they could have still hooked up after the affair ended.”
“It wouldn’t matter if they had,” Kathryn said. “The baby’s not Marshall’s, and he’s not Bunny.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Kathryn and Blake exchanged knowing glances, and I was about to find out why.
“I’m one-hundred-percent positive,” she said. “Marshall can’t have children. He’s sterile.”