“That’s true,” Shelley said. “He didn’t.”
Sarah leaned far across the table, so that in spite of the fact that she couldn’t see Shelley’s face—Shelley was still turned away—she could breathe down the side of Shelley’s neck.
“Do you know what else they thought was strange?” she said. “You. You didn’t complain. Max just left the studio and disappeared, and you didn’t say a thing.”
“I was busy.”
“You were busy putting the sets together, but you couldn’t do that without Max, could you? You should have been hollering the place down.”
“Is this your own bright idea?” Shelley asked coldly.
Sarah shook her head. “It was Demarkian’s. At least, that’s who I heard talking about it. And talking about you.”
“Demarkian is a fraud.”
“He solved that murder the nuns had a few months ago,” Sarah said. “And he solved the murder of Donald McAdam back around Thanksgiving.”
“He horned in on a perfectly legitimate police investigation and made himself look good to the media,” Shelley said sharply.
“Lotte and DeAnna have asked him to look into the deaths of Maria Gonzalez and Max Dey. Officially, you understand. For the program. He’s going to be a consultant.”
“Lotte and DeAnna need to have their heads examined.”
“Demarkian said figuring out where Max was after he left the studio with that chair is the most important part of this case. I heard him. He said figuring out where Max was then is the key to everything.”
“That’s just wonderful. I hope he finds what he’s looking for.”
“Oh, he will. Gregor Demarkian always finds what he’s looking for. That’s the point of Gregor Demarkian.”
The waitress had arrived with Sarah’s hot fudge brownie. Shelley watched horrified as it was lowered onto the table at Sarah’s place, a mountain of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles and maraschino cherries. It looked like an illustration from that children’s game Candy Land, where every move brought players in closer contact with sugar. Sugar. Shelley was nauseated by the very thought of sugar.
“My God but that’s disgusting,” she said.
Sarah shoved an overflowing spoonful of whipped cream and sprinkles and cherry into her mouth.
“I’ll tell you what’s disgusting,” she told Shelley. “You. You’re disgusting. The things you do. The things you think you can get away with.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing you have to worry about, you think.”
“Sarah.”
“You shouldn’t leave the evidence lying around where people can find it,” Sarah said. “You shouldn’t think everybody’s as blind as a bat. You shouldn’t think everybody’s as dumb as your husband, either.”
“What are you talking about?”
This time, when Sarah dug her spoon into her hot fudge brownie, it came up dripping with ice cream and fudge as well as whipped cream and sprinkles. Sarah shoved the entire mess into her mouth—and it all got in there, Shelley noted, all of it, the woman had an enormous mouth—and grinned.
“Under the circumstances,” Sarah said, swallowing, “considering who’s dead and everything, and who you’ve been sleeping with, and how one thing might relate to the other, I think it would be a really good idea if I went and told all this to Gregor Demarkian.”
It was like having a hot flash. It really was. Shelley had never had a hot flash, but she was sure that this must be what it was like. The world going red. Getting up out of your chair and onto your feet and not remembering doing it. She was going crazy.
“You little bitch,” she said.
Sarah made another attack on her hot fudge brownie. “He was sleeping with Maria, too. On and off. I’ll bet Gregor Demarkian would like to know that, too.”
“Why don’t you just rent the electronic billboard in Times Square and announce it on that?”
“They’re both dead,” Sarah said pleasantly, “and nobody knows why. Maybe this is why.”
“If it is, you’re being very stupid, Sarah. If it is, you’re asking to get your head smashed in.”
“I won’t get my head smashed in. I’m too careful to get my head smashed in. You should have been more careful.”
“Maybe I’ll just kill you right here.”
“Maybe you won’t.”
“You shouldn’t lie to people, Sarah. Max wasn’t sleeping with Maria Gonzalez. He tried and she turned him down. She was a good Catholic virgin. He told me.”