“Four and a half years ago, you told the sheriff Pan Wade came here the week before she was killed. Why did she come here?” Maggie asked.
Charlotte shook her head.
The two of them were in a glassed-in room Maggie suspected was the sunroom described in the statement by the youngster from the landscaping crew.
When she and Dallas and Carson had arrived, they were admitted by Allarene. The Rambler Farm household was finishing dessert. The judge welcomed them all into the dining room. But Charlotte insisted she and Maggie withdraw, while “the gentlemen enjoy their cigars and brandy.”
Good Lord, what century was this woman from?
Not that Maggie objected. Talking to Charlotte solo suited her fine.
She’d started by asking about Wade’s alibi for Pan’s murder.
“I have no idea if he was with Laurel,” Charlotte said coolly. “They were not at the meeting for the charity auction. I was.”
More questions didn’t garner more details, so she’d moved on to Charlotte seeing Pan shortly before her murder.
“What are you denying? That you said that? That Pan came here the week before she died, because we have other statements—”
“I did not say it to the sheriff. That would have been tolerable. Instead, he sent an underling to get my statement.”
Definitely not this century.
“What did Pan talk about?”
“I’ve said all this before.”
Maggie could try to hammer at Charlotte, or she could finesse. “We find having people repeat information frequently brings up more detail. Especially with people who have a lot on their minds — many responsibilities. Someone with many other things to deal with can’t remember everything the first time. Repetition brings more out with people like you.”
Charlotte bought it. “She said she came by to visit. But it wasn’t long before it became clear she was troubled. About her marriage to Rick. She cried.”
“She confided in you because you’d known each other so long?”
“Yes.”
“Any other reason?”
Charlotte gazed at Maggie’s face, but she had no sense of the other woman probing past the surface.
When Charlotte didn’t answer, Maggie suggested, “Perhaps she confided in you because of your connection — an indirect connection — with the immediate cause of her marital problems? If there’d been gossip — and you’re far too socially astute to think there wasn’t — when the gossip reached Pan, she might naturally come to you and—”
“I hope you are not saying I was the one who told Pan — or anyone else — her husband was screwing Laurel all over this county.”
Maggie had actually been angling toward the idea of Pan coming to Charlotte as a source of information. But this was too damned interesting a thread not to follow.
“It would make sense. Your sister, your friend. Who better to let the wronged wife—” This past century stuff was contagious. “—know the situation?”
“Who better? Laurel.”
“What?”
“Laurel,” Charlotte repeated distinctly, as if Maggie’s hearing were the bar to her understanding.
“Laurel told Pan about the affair?”
Charlotte’s mouth stretched. “Affair is far too genteel. But, yes, Laurel told Pan.”
“Why?”
“To get Pan out of the way, of course.”
Was the woman saying her sister killed Pan Wade?
Charlotte continued, “Laurel went after Wade. But she wanted marriage. To get that, she prepared to remove the obstacle that he already had a wife. She wanted that marriage to break up. Since word wasn’t getting around fast enough — or Pan wasn’t catching on fast enough — Laurel told her. She advised Pan to give Wade his freedom so we can find happiness together.” The woman added evenly, “Pan said Laurel also showed her pictures — photographs of Laurel and Rick in the act.”
Maggie closed her mouth, tried again. “Laurel must have been happy when it looked like Pan would leave with Carson.”
“At first. But then Rick became the issue. He said he was done with her and wanted Pan back.”
Giving Laurel a motive to kill Pan.
But then who would have killed her?
Unless Rick found out she’d killed Pan, and wanted revenge.
The same motive applied to Carson.
Revenge would explain the similarities in the crime scenes — and the dissimilarities.
“She must have been furious — Laurel, I mean,” Maggie said. “How did she intend to get him to change his mind?”
Charlotte gave her a scornful look. “I told you we were not prone to sisterly confidences. She didn’t tell me what she had in mind. But it was clear by the trial she’d tired of waiting for Rick. She’d set her sights on Eugene Tagner.”