Page 171 of Original Sin

‘I wasn’t too surprised,’ said Carson. ‘Someone called me up about this business a few weeks ago.’

‘So I keep hearing,’ replied Tess with a smile. ‘Could I ask who it was?’

‘Don’t know. They left a message on my machine, but I’ve been in Oregon for the last few weeks visiting my son.’

Tess nodded, feeling a sense of relief. Perhaps no one else had got to the bottom of this story.

‘So you work for the Asgills?’ he asked.

‘I work for Meredith Asgill, yes. I’m the family publicist. And, as I’m sure you’ll have gathered, the Olivia Martin story has resurfaced.’

Carson shrugged. ‘Bound to happen when her daughter’s marrying that old money guy. The one from the television?’

Carson smiled at Tess’s surprised reaction. ‘Hey, I’m retired,’ he laughed, ‘I ain’t dead. We get the newspapers here too, you know.’

Tess blushed a little.

‘So can you tell me what happened back then?’

‘Well, I ain’t too sure I’m gonna be able to tell you anything you ain’t already read,’ he shrugged. He rolled his neck and his eyes took on a faraway look. ‘After the wedding dinner, there was a big party out at Riverview. This was the Saturday night. According to witnesses, Olivia Martin was drunk and little high on something. About half a dozen guests said they saw her glassy–eyed and not too stable on her feet. She’d come to the party on her own and was staying in cottage twelve, I believe. The last people to see Olivia alive were Meredith’s folks, at about eleven p.m., when Olivia came to say thank you for the evening. No one saw her leave or go into her cottage, she just disappeared.’

Tess nodded. That was the version of the story everyone knew.

‘So when was she reported missing?’

‘The Tuesday, almost three days later. The day after the wedding, the Sunday, Meredith’s family threw a brunch for the guests that had stayed overnight at Riverview, in the main house or in those little shotgun cottages around the grounds. Olivia didn’t arrive at the meal, but people assumed she was just sleeping off a hangover. It wasn’t until that evening that one of the maids noticed that all Olivia’s belongings were still in cottage twelve. She reported it to Meredith’s mother, who did nothing about it until the next day.’

‘Why not?’

Carson shrugged.

‘A pretty actress doesn’t come home after a party, I guess you don’t panic immediately. You think maybe she met a guy, went back to his place. Plus, she’s from that Hollywood world, maybe a little erratic – who cares if you’ve left all your stuff at your host’s house? Actresses, models aren’t known as the most reliable people. Anyways, Meredith’s mother called Howard in Capri on the Monday and they decide to call the police if she’s not turned up the next morning.’

‘Which she didn’t.’

Carson shook his head. ‘So we didn’t get to cottage twelve until eleven a.m. on Tuesday morning. Her bedside cabinet is covered with barbiturates and there’s a half–drunk bottle of vodka in the bathroom. And have you seen the proximity of the river to cottage twelve? It’s maybe a hundred yards. The Mississippi is almost a mile wide in this part of Louisiana and the currents are strong. A body has got a fifty–fifty chance of floating out into the Gulf of Mexico and never being recovered.’

‘So you think she fell in?’

‘Fell in, walked in, we’ll never know.’

‘Olivia’s sister didn’t think she just disappeared,’ she said repeating Alicia’s claim.

‘She didn’t believe Olivia had commited suicide. Family tend not to want to believe that.’

He paused, ‘What we know is that Olivia had a history of depression. We know a television contract got cancelled shortly before she went missing. Then there’s the dolls by her bed, the liquor…..We also know there’s been no activity on her bank accounts or social security number ever since, so it’s unlikely she’s alive.’

‘You say fell or walked into the river. What about pushed? Or thrown in?’

Carson’s eyes searched Tess’s. After a couple of seconds he nodded. ‘It’s possible, but there was no sign of a struggle in the cottage. No one saw or heard anything unusual and we interviewed maybe a hundred guests at the party. We even brought dogs into the grounds, but we got nothing.’

‘What about the rumour that Howard was having an affair with her? He was getting married, Olivia might have started being difficult … ’

Carson smiled slightly. ‘Howard Asgill was with his wife all night. Anyway, not one person came to us to say that Howard was having an affair with Olivia. And even if he was, it doesn’t mean to say he killed her.’

He wiped his hands on his handkerchief and Tess could tell that his patience was wearing thin.

‘Miss Garrett,’ he sighed, ‘it’s our job to find out the truth and to bring people to justice and I spent my whole career trying to do that. But sometimes we go looking for things and they just ain’t there.’