Part 24 (2/2)
”Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
They walked up to the arched door, which was carved mahogany, and knocked with the bra.s.s knocker. Though the sound echoed inside the house, no one answered.
”I think I hear something around back,” Savannah said.
Dirk listened for a moment, and the sound of some sort of machine became even louder.
”I hear it, too. Let's go.”
They walked around the house to the rear and followed the sound to a large garage shaped like a barn. Looking inside the open doors, they could see it had been converted to a workshop.
Inside, wearing stained jeans and a tee-s.h.i.+rt bearing a Victorian house as a logo on the front, was a slender woman with dark brown, short, curly hair. She was wearing an industrial-grade dust mask and was working over the top of an oak table with an electric sander. Dust was flying everywhere.
”Excuse me,” Savannah said. Not surprisingly, the woman didn't hear her and continued to sand. ”Hey! Excuse me!” she shouted.
This time, the woman heard. She turned off her sander and set it on a nearby workhorse table.
”Hi,” she said as she walked over to greet them, wiping her dusty palms on her jeans.
Savannah held out her hand. ”I'm Savannah Reid. This is my husband, Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter.”
At the mention of Dirk's rank, an expression of fear flickered across the woman's face, but she smiled nervously and shook their hands. ”I'm Opal Parson. Sorry for the mess.” She waved an arm, indicating the cluttered workroom, filled with half-done projects. ”But contrary to popular opinion, interior decorating isn't always glamorous. In fact, it seldom is.”
”I'm sure the end result is worth all the drudgery,” Savannah said. ”I wish I knew how to do what you do.” She pointed to a gorgeous claw-foot armoire, which was half-restored. ”Like knowing how to rescue a lovely thing like that. It must be fulfilling.”
”It is. It's most satisfying.” She looked from Savannah to Dirk. For a long, uncomfortable moment, no one said anything, and slowly the fake, friendly smile disappeared from her face. ”But you didn't come here to talk about restoring furniture, did you?”
”No, Ms. Parson, we didn't,” Savannah said.
Suddenly she looked tired, defeated. ”I was wondering when someone was going to come question me. Figured it was just a matter of time.” She tossed her mask down onto the table. ”Let's get out of here,” she said. ”If I'm going to do this, I need some fresh air.”
Opal led Savannah and Dirk up a small hill behind her house to a charming gazebo. Inside, she invited them to sit in comfortable wicker chairs. She sat across from them in the same type of chair, but she looked quite uncomfortable.
”Go ahead,” Opal said, brus.h.i.+ng some stray curls out of her eyes. ”Tell me why you're here.”
”It's about Amelia Northrop,” Savannah told her.
”Like I didn't already know that.” Opal sighed.
”You did some work for her.”
”Yes. I did.”
”I'm a.s.suming you didn't decorate that big gla.s.s box of theirs,” Dirk chimed in.
Savannah shot him a be-quiet look.
”No, I did not decorate that monstrosity, I'm happy to say.”
Savannah drew a deep breath. ”So the work you did for Amelia came under the heading of 'Unfaithful Spouse Investigation'?”
Opal looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. They were trembling. ”I'm very uneasy about this,” she said. Her voice was shaking as badly as her hands. ”Normally, I'm very conscientious when it comes to client confidentiality. I pride myself on being highly discreet.”
”I understand,” Savannah replied. ”Being a PI myself, I feel the same way.”
”I have always believed that confidentiality extends even after a client's death.”
Savannah was starting to get worried about where this might be headed. ”Normally, I would agree,” she said. ”I suppose it would depend upon the circ.u.mstances.”
”I'm afraid the circ.u.mstances of this case require me to break that rule.” Opal closed her eyes as though feeling some sort of internal stab of pain. ”Because I'm afraid that I may have inadvertently done something that led to a tragedy.”
”Tell us about it,” Dirk coaxed gently. ”You'll feel better if you do.”
”Oh, I don't know. I think it's going to take a lot more than that to make me feel better, but here goes.”
She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. Her voice became a flat monotone as she told them her story.
”Amelia Northrop came to me, here at my house. In fact, we sat right here in this gazebo while she poured her heart out to me. She had a strong suspicion that her husband, William, was being unfaithful to her. She had suspected it for some time and wanted to know for sure, once and for all.
”Frequently people come to me because they actually want to catch their cheating mate. They want out of the marriage, and they're looking for a good reason to leave.
”But Amelia wasn't like that. I think she truly wanted to hear me report back to her that she was mistaken, that he was as good a husband as she had hoped he was.”
”Let me guess,” Dirk said, ”he was a rat fink.”
She nodded. ”He was. No doubt about it. I had the pictures, the video, and the audio recordings. She demanded to see and listen to everything I had. She was devastated.”
”I can imagine,” Savannah said, thinking of the beautiful woman whose bright smile and bubbly personality lit up the television screen every night at 11:00.
Thousands of men gazed at that beauty every night and wanted her. And yet, for the man who had her, she wasn't enough.
”I've been doing this for years, but I think her grief was the deepest I've ever seen. She felt so terribly betrayed. And she was angry. Horribly angry.
”I couldn't console her. She left here, sobbing hysterically. I remember worrying if she would even be able to drive, considering her state of mind.”
”Did you hear anything more from her?” Savannah asked.
”No. The next night, I was delivering a sofa, which I had reupholstered, to a client, and that's when I'd heard that William Northrop was in the hospital. That he'd been shot.”
”Do you think she did it?” Savannah asked.
”Well, yes. It certainly occurred to me that she might have. I mean, what are the odds?”
Savannah looked over at Dirk and saw he was as intrigued by this news as she was.
”I suppose it might have been a coincidence,” Savannah said, testing her.
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