“Did you ever ask her outright?”
“I did the day I heard the voice in the bedroom, and she refused to let me look so I could know no one was in there. She got all outraged, but it felt like cover to me.”
“Did you hang around to see who came out?”
He shook his head. “I’d come home during lunch period because I’d forgotten to bring my clean PE clothes. I couldn’t stay.”
“Ah. Did you ever search to see if you could find proof?”
“You mean, dig through her drawers or something?” Matt looked surprised. “What would I have looked for? Like, condoms? But how would I know she and Dad weren’t using them?”
“You might have found the drawing,” Tony pointed out.
Matt went still. “Where was it?”
“In a stiff paper portfolio with some other unframed art. It was in a box that also held some framed prints that Beth thinks might have been displayed in the house at some point.”
“I saw that box on Sunday when Beth was taking a look in it.” He sounded wooden. “Even if I’d noticed it back then, I wouldn’t have thought of looking through it. My mother’s taste in art leaned toward cute and pink.” He rose to his feet. “I did not see the drawing. I did not kill my mother. I wouldn’t—” He swallowed, as if at the taste of bile. “This is the last time we talk without my lawyer being present.”
“Matt, my job is to explore all possibilities, however unlikely. This was…a passing thought.”
“It’s a shitty one. And that’s all I have to say.” He turned and strode away, never looking back.
Tony drained the rest of his coffee. It had gotten so he was more surprised by generosity than he was by utter selfishness. Had his cynicism made him unlikable? Probably. Was that how Beth saw him? But, if so, why had she responded so passionately?
And, God, how had he lost control to the point of doing something so stupid?
Thoughts dark, he sat unmoving longer than he should have. He roused only when his phone rang. Mamá. No doubt to remind him he’d been shirking his family duties this week.
* * *
TONY REAPPEARED A LITTLE after two, seeming withdrawn, even troubled, which scared Beth. He had little to say and mostly watched as she went through one box after another—although he did insist on bringing them to her and taking them away according to her direction. It would be one thing if she were as tiny as Emily—Wait. Had she really just thought that?
Yes, and it had slid through her mind with such comfortable familiarity, Beth had to recognize what a mess she was beneath her steady facade.
After something like an hour, she ignored the carton he’d just set at her feet.
“Is something wrong?” More wrong?
He turned to her with a brooding look. “I went by the jeweler’s.”
Apprehensive, she asked, “What did they say?”
“Top quality diamonds set in platinum. Retail value altogether, in the neighborhood of twenty thousand dollars.”
Her mouth fell open. “Oh, dear lord,” she finally said.
“Not the quarter of a million dollars’ worth draped on an actress walking the red carpet for the Oscars, but a lot of money for most people around here.”
Momentarily distracted, she blurted, “How do you know that? About the Oscar ceremonies?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes a sister or a niece will stick one of those celebrity magazines under my nose.”
“Mom and Dad never would have spent that kind of money on jewelry. And they didn’t have the kind of friends who did either.”
“I didn’t think so.” The watchful dark eyes never left her face. “Did your parents have the money? Was it a question of priorities?”
“It’s true they could have bought nicer things if they hadn’t had three kids. Mom insisted on starting a savings account for each of us as soon as we were born.”
“How do you know it was her?”
“I…assumed. I mean, she was the practical one. Except…”
“Except?” Tony prompted.
“Dad was different when we were little. He was more engaged. We did stuff as a family. I imagine it was usually at Mom’s instigation, but he seemed to have fun when we went to the county fair or swimming at the lake. He had his head in the clouds, but… I think it was when Mom started to get so aggravated at him that he withdrew. Once Mom left—died—then he was even worse. It was as if she was his link. You know?”