Act of Darkness(77)

“I want to make tea,” Janet said plaintively.

Victoria put out her hand, grabbed Janet around the wrist, and pulled her close. “Listen,” she said. “You can’t just fold up now and die.”

“I’m not folding up and dying,” Janet said. “If I was going to do that, I’d have done it when—”

“When Stephanie died,” Victoria said. “I know that. I know what you did after Stephanie died. But that woman killed your husband, Janet, and no matter what you thought of him, you’ve got every right to make sure she goes to jail.”

It took Bennis a second to realize that Victoria was still talking about Patchen Rawls. It took Patchen no time at all. She jumped.

“I didn’t think anything of Stephen,” Janet was saying in a weak little voice. “I didn’t think—”

“I didn’t kill Stephen,” Patchen said. “What would I do that for? He was going to leave her and come with me.”

Victoria swung around, still clinging to Janet’s wrist. “No, he wasn’t,” she said. “You little liar. He wouldn’t get a divorce for you and you know it. And you killed him.”

“He would too have gotten a divorce for me,” Patchen said. “He told me so. A hundred times.”

“Bull dung,” Victoria said. “I heard him talking just this morning in this very room, to Dan Chester. They were talking about just what they were going to do to get rid of you.”

Dan Chester came to life again. Bennis thought it was as if he were like one of those voice-activated dolls, perfectly still when there was no sound to animate him, jerky and hyperactive when there was.

“You might have heard that conversation,” he said, “but if you did, you didn’t hear it here. We talked about it in Stephen’s own room.”

“If Stephen said he wanted to get rid of me,” Patchen said, “he was only trying to mollify Dan Chester. Dan was always threatening him. That was all it was. If it happened at all.”

“It happened,” Dan Chester said.

“I know it happened,” Victoria said. “But that isn’t all, Patchen sweetheart. You were in his room. I saw you there.”

“You couldn’t have.”

“I saw you come out,” Victoria said. “I was in the foyer and you came onto the balcony.”

“That was early this morning,” Patchen said. “That was—very early this morning. You know—”

“It wasn’t very early this morning,” Victoria told her. “It was at quarter of one. Stephen was down here in the dining room talking to Janet, and then he went up. I didn’t see him but I know he must have gone. He wasn’t down here. You must have been watching for him, because there you were, hopping along and letting yourself in.”

“I wasn’t—” Patchen started.

But Clare Markey was sitting up, looking interested. “Yes, you were,” she said, sounding surprised. “You passed my door. I had it open. I don’t know why—”

“Spying,” Patchen said viciously.

Clare ignored her. “You passed my room and you knocked on Stephen’s door. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I just assumed—”

“I didn’t knock on Stephen’s door,” Patchen said. “I may have gone down there, but I didn’t knock. His door was open.”

“You knocked,” Clare said, a little uncertain. “It took a while—”

“How long did I stay there, then?”

“Well, I went to the bathroom—”

“I only stayed a second. And I didn’t knock.”

“But I heard a knock,” Clare said.

“Oh, look,” Bennis said, jumping in, desperate for anything that would get this conversation cooled off. This was terrible. “Look, let’s just all calm down—”

They had all turned to stare at her. Victoria Harte was giving her one of those looks meant to kill, or at least meant to be an announcement of murder.

“I’m just trying to get everybody calmed down,” Bennis said desperately. “There’s no point in us getting ourselves all worked up, not with the police in the house. I know. I—”

“You,” Victoria said, “ought to keep your mouth shut.”

“Sex didn’t mean anything to Stephen,” Janet Harte Fox said. “That’s what I can never make anybody understand.”

“I didn’t say sex meant anything to Stephen,” Victoria said. “I said sex meant something to her.” She pointed at Patchen with a long red fingernail, the way she would have pointed at something she wanted to buy that was out of reach on a shelf. “And I have more to go on, Janet, than that she was in Stephen’s room. She was always trying to get into Stephen’s room. It’s what’s in her room that matters.”