"They argued, yes."
"What about?"
Lucinda hesitated, and Gloria stepped into the breach.
"Jessie caught Webb and Roanna carrying on in the kitchen."
Booley's gray eyebrows rose. Not much surprised him anymore, but he felt mildly astonished at this. Dubiously, he glanced at the frail, huddled little form across the room. Roanna seemed, if not childish, still oddly childlike, and he wouldn't have figured Webb for being a man who was turned on by that.
"Carrying on, how?"
"Carrying on, that's how," Gloria said, her voice rising.
"My God, Booley, do you want me to draw you a picture?" The idea of Webb having sex with Roanna in the kitchen struck him as even more unlikely. He was never surprised at the depth of stupidity supposedly smart people could exhibit, but this didn't ring true. Odd, that he could see Webb committing murder, but not fooling around with his little cousin.
Well, he'd get the true story about the kitchen episode from Roanna. He wanted something else from these three.
"So they were arguing. Did the argument turn violent?"
"Sure did," Harlan replied, only too eager to take the spotlight again.
"They were upstairs, but Jessie was screaming so loud we could hear every word. Then Webb yelled at her to get a divorce, that he'd do anything to get rid of her, and there was the sound of glass breaking. Then Webb came storming downstairs and left."
"Did any of you see Jessie after that, or maybe hear her in the bathroom?"
"Nope, not a sound," Harlan said, and Gloria shook her head. No one had tried to talk to Jessie, knowing from experience that it was better to let her cool down first or her fury would erupt on the erstwhile mediator. Lucinda's expression was one of growing disbelief and horror as she realized where Booley's questioning was headed. "No," she said violently, shaking her head in denial.
"Booley, no! You can't suspect Webb!"
"I have to," he replied, trying to keep his voice gentle.
"They were arguing, violently. Now, we all know Webb has quite a temper when he's stirred up. No one saw or heard a peep out of Jessie after he left. It's a sad fact, but any time a woman's killed, it's usually her husband or a boyfriend who does it. This hurts me bad, Lucinda, but the truth is Webb is the most likely suspect."
She was still shaking her head, and tears were dribbling down her wrinkled cheeks again.
"He couldn't. Not Webb." Her voice was pleading.
"I hope not, but I have to check it out. Now, what time was it when Webb left, as near as you can remember?" Lucinda was silent. Harlan and Gloria looked at each other.
"Eight?" Gloria finally offered, uncertainty in her voice.
"About that," Harlan said, nodding.
"That movie I wanted to watch just had come on."
Eight o'clock. Booley considered that, chewing on his lower lip as he did so. e1yde O'Dell, the coroner, had been doing his job for just about as long as Booley had been doing his, and was damn good at guessing the time of death. He had both the experience and the knack for adding the degree of rigor with the temperature factor and coming up with pretty close to the right answer. Clyde had put the time of Jessie's death at "Oh, ten o'clock or thereabouts," with a rocking motion of his hand to indicate the actual time could slip either way. Eight o'clock was a mite early, and though it was still within the realm of possibility, that did throw a bit of doubt into the mix. He had to make damn sure of his case before he presented it to the county prosecutor, because old Simmons was too slick a politician to take on a case involving the Davenports and Tallants unless he was sure he could make it stick.
"Did anyone hear a car or anything later on? Did Webb maybe come back?"
"I didn't hear anything," Harlan said.
"I didn't either," Gloria confirmed.
Chapter 4
"You'd have to be driving a transfer truck before we could hear it in here, unless maybe we were in bed and the balcony doors were open."
Lucinda rubbed her eyes. Booley had the feeling she wished her sister and brother-in-law would shut the hell up.
"We can't normally hear anyone driving up," she said.
"The house is very well insulated, and the shrubbery deadens the sound, too." "So he could have returned and you wouldn't necessarily have known it."
Lucinda opened her mouth, then closed it without replying. The answer was obvious. The upstairs balcony that circled the huge, elegant old house was accessible from the outside stairs on Webb and Jessie's side of the house. Moreover, each bedroom had double French doors that opened onto the balcony; it would have been ridiculously easy for anyone to go up those stairs and enter the bedroom without anyone else in the house seeing them. From a security standpoint, Davencourt was a nightmare.
Well, maybe Loyal had heard something. His apartment in the stables probably wasn't as soundproof as this massive old house.
Yvonne left Roanna's side and came to stand right in front of Booley.
"I heard what you've been saying," she said quietly, her tone even despite the way her green eyes were boring a hole in him.
"You're barking up the wrong tree, Booley Watts. My son didn't kill Jessie. No matter how mad he was, he wouldn't have hurt her."
"Under normal circumstances, I'd agree with you," Booley replied.
"But she was threatening to have Lucinda cut him out of her will, and we all know what Davencourt means to-" "Bullshit," Yvonne said firmly, ignoring the way Gloria's mouth tightened like a prune.
"Webb wouldn't believe that for a second. Jessie always exaggerated when she was mad."