Page 49 of She Didn’t See It Coming
On Sunday morning, Alice looks down at the Albany Daily Press in dismay. On the front page toward the bottom is the headline: Local Murder Case Takes Interesting Turn .
She stands inside the front door in her bathrobe and reads the article with mounting fury.
Sam Frost has been questioned and released by police. Another man, Derek Gardner, whom the victim knew, has also been questioned and released.
“What the fuck?” Alice yells from the front hall.
Derek comes quickly. “What is it?”
She shoves the newspaper at him. “I can’t fucking believe it!”
Derek takes the paper from her and reads, then looks up at her, his jaw tight. He clearly doesn’t like it either. Still, Derek says, “That case is dead in the water. There’s no way they can find any evidence now. This is just muckraking by the newspaper. We ought to sue them.”
“We should. Those bastards!”
“This will blow over,” Derek says. “It won’t go anywhere, it can’t, and they’ll move on to something else.”
Alice seethes. She’s furious at the newspaper.
Furious at Derek because this is all his fault.
His calmness only stokes her rage. But he doesn’t know what she’s afraid of.
She knows they can’t get her for killing her mother.
Not unless Derek turns on her and tells the truth, and he wouldn’t do that.
But she can’t afford to have the police look any more closely into their past. Into her past. Because there are things hiding there that even Derek doesn’t know about.
She needs to nip this in the bud.
Her cell phone buzzes in the pocket of her bathrobe. She looks at the phone and glances up at Derek. “It’s Detective Salter.”
···
Jayne had read the newspaper article too. “How did they find out?” Jayne mused to Michael at the breakfast table. “We certainly didn’t say anything about the hit-and-run.”
“Any good reporter could have found out about it. It wouldn’t be hard.”
“You’re right. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.
If anything, it turns the heat up on them a little.
” She rose from the table. “I’ve got to go.
” She kissed him and drove to the station and called Alice Gardner.
She wanted to speak to Alice again and now, after the newspaper article, was probably a good time.
···
When Alice arrives, dressed more casually this time in flattering jeans, a pale-pink cashmere sweater, and high-heeled black boots, she seems to be in a mood. There’s no smile on her lovely face, and after Alice sits down at the table facing her and Kilgour, she folds her arms across her chest.
“Good morning, Alice,” Jayne says.
“For you, maybe,” Alice says. “Have you seen today’s newspaper?”
“Actually yes, I have. I’m sorry, but I don’t control the press.”
“Why am I here?” Alice asks.
“I want to know why you approached Sam Frost’s sister-in-law, Lizzie, outside the condominium yesterday. What were you doing there?”
“I don’t know. I was curious, I suppose. I went to the condo, and I saw her come out. I thought she might be fun to talk to.”
“And what did you two talk about?”
“I can’t remember. Turns out she wasn’t that interesting.”
Jayne sighs heavily. “She told us you were threatening. That you threatened Sam.”
“Threatened him? How?”
“You said you wanted her to deliver a message to Sam. To tell him that he wouldn’t get away with it.”
“I hardly see that as a threat.”
“Lizzie asked me to tell you to stay away from her, so I’m delivering that message,” Jayne says. Alice merely shrugs.
There’s something about Alice that makes the small hairs on the back of Jayne’s neck stir. Something about her eyes; there’s a coldness behind them in brief, unguarded moments. Jayne feels as if this woman is pretending to be someone she’s not.
Jayne suddenly decides to go out on a limb; she hadn’t planned on it, but something compels her.
“We’ve received some new information,” she says.
Alice regards her coolly, waiting. “We have a witness who saw someone in the elevator on the day of the murder, at the relevant time, with a large suitcase. And we have a description.”
Alice remains silent. Jayne wonders what’s going through her mind. She climbs farther out on the limb and adds, “The person with the suitcase was a woman.”
Alice smiles broadly at her now. “A woman. I see. And from the way you’re looking at me, I’m guessing you think it might have been me?” She tilts her head at her and laughs. “Oh dear, we really are trying to throw all the spaghetti against the wall to see if anything sticks, aren’t we?”
Jayne ignores her and leans in closer. “Right now, the only eyewitness we have puts a woman with a large suitcase in the elevator at approximately one thirty on the day of the murder. I’m guessing you weren’t too happy about your husband’s affair with Bryden Frost. Where were you last Tuesday between noon and five? ”
The look that Alice gives her now makes the hairs on the back of Jayne’s neck stir again. Jayne thinks she might be looking at a killer.