Glenda turns cold eyes on Olivia. ‘Amanda. Why would you ask that?’
‘I don’t know,’ Olivia says quickly. ‘He probably barely knew her.’
‘Then why mention her?’
Olivia shakes her head, backtracking. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.’
‘Maybe you should leave, Olivia,’ Glenda says.
‘Don’t hate me, Glenda, please,’ Olivia begs. ‘I didn’t want to tell you, but I thought if it was me, I’d want to know.’
Glenda replies acidly, ‘Or maybe you thought you could shift the attention away from Paul, is that it? One more possible suspect. Are you going to tell the police about this?’ She looks at Olivia’s face. ‘My God, you are going to tell the police!’
Olivia sits in front of her, biting her lips.
‘Get out,’ Glenda says.
Olivia scrambles to her feet.
Glenda doesn’t even get out of her chair as Olivia turns to leave. Glenda hears the front door close, and then the house is silent. She feels terribly alone.
For a long time she doesn’t move. Then she springs from her chair and climbs the stairs to the spare bedroom they use as an office. She sits down at the desk and turns on the computer. She tries everything she can think of, which isn’t much. She can’t find the hidden emails. But she believes that they’re there. And though she wishes she didn’t, she believes Raleigh is telling the truth.
Finally, fighting back tears of frustration, she gives up and collapses onto the spare bed against the wall. And then she reaches for her phone to call her husband.
Webb hears someone tapping at his office door. An officer pops his head in. ‘Paul Sharpe here to see you, sir.’
Surprised, Webb says, ‘Show him into an interview room. I’ll be right in.’ He sees Moen on the way; she’s coming toward him down the hall. ‘Paul Sharpe just came in. Let’s go.’ She changes direction and falls in beside him. As they enter the interview room, Webb hopes this might be a breakthrough in the case. He can sense the same anticipation in Moen.
‘Mr Sharpe,’ he says, having reminded him of his rights and turned on the tape, ‘is there something new you want to tell us?’
‘Yes.’
Webb looks at him inquiringly and waits. He doesn’t look like a man about to confess to murder. And he hasn’t brought his lawyer with him.
‘I might be completely wrong about this,’ Sharpe begins, ‘but I thought I should let you know. I’ve learned that a friend of mine was cheating on his wife. And I think he may have been seeing Amanda Pierce.’
‘And why are you just telling us this now?’
‘I just found out.’
‘How did you find out?’
Sharpe looks uncomfortable. ‘I’d rather not say.’
Webb looks back at him, mildly annoyed, and exhales heavily. ‘Why are you wasting my valuable time, Mr Sharpe?’ He doesn’t answer, merely looks stubborn. ‘What makes you think this man was seeing Amanda Pierce?’
Sharpe says nervously, ‘He knows our cabin. He’s been there.’
‘Who?’
‘Keith Newell.’
The name is familiar. ‘Right, his fingerprints were in your cabin; we eliminated him.’
Sharpe nods. ‘He and his wife visit us there every year.’
‘And you now think he was seeing Amanda, but won’t tell us why you think so?’
‘I don’t know that he was seeing Amanda, but he was seeing someone. He was having an affair. I don’t know who with. And he knows where we keep the hidden key. I told him, when he was out at the cabin last summer.’
Webb chews the inside of his cheek. ‘I see.’
‘Look on his home computer,’ Sharpe says. ‘Look for the emails to his girlfriend. Maybe you can figure out if it was her.’
‘And how do you know about these emails? Did he tell you about them?’
‘No.’ Paul Sharpe looks away. ‘But I know they’re there.’
‘Keith,’ Glenda says tersely into the phone. ‘I think you’d better come home.’
‘What? Why? I’m just heading into a meeting.’
‘Olivia was here this morning. She says Raleigh broke into our house. He got into our computer.’
‘What? What the hell are you talking about? Why would Raleigh do that?’
She hears the fear in his usually calm voice. She ignores his question. ‘What are you hiding on our computer? Emails to another woman? To Amanda Pierce?’ Her voice climbs.
The stunned silence on the other end of the line tells her everything she needs to know. She could kill him.
‘I’ll be right home,’ Keith says, sounding panicky.
Chapter Thirty-six
DETECTIVE WEBB KNOCKS on the door firmly. He’s obtained a warrant to search Keith Newell’s computer. The two men with him and Moen are tech experts; they’ll get his computer and other electronics.
A woman answers the door. ‘Mrs Newell?’ Webb asks, holding up his badge. He notes the woman’s pallor; she’s clearly been crying.
‘Yes,’ she says.
‘Is your husband at home?’ They’d already called his office, expecting to find him there – wanting to question him – but were told he’d been called home suddenly. Webb notes her reluctance to answer.
Finally she says, ‘Yes, he is.’
‘We’d like to talk to him,’ Webb tells her.
She seems to know what this is about. She opens the door without saying anything further.
Webb steps into a front hallway, and she leads them into the living room. ‘I’ll get him,’ she says.
Webb wonders if Keith Newell is at the computer, hurriedly deleting files. It doesn’t matter. They can recover just about anything.
A few moments later, Keith Newell comes down the stairs looking nervous.
Webb says, ‘I’m Detective Webb and this is Detective Moen. We’d like you to come down to the police station to answer a few questions.’
‘About what? Who are they?’ Keith says, indicating the two silent techs.
‘They’re the technicians who are here to get your computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and so on.’
‘You can’t do that.’
‘Actually, I can. I have a warrant.’ Webb holds it up, sees the fear in the man’s eyes.
Keith Newell looks from him to his wife, obviously feeling cornered.
They leave the techs behind in the house with Newell’s wife, and drive him to the police station. There they lead him into an interview room and advise him of his rights. He says he doesn’t need a lawyer. He says he’s done nothing wrong. ‘So,’ Webb begins. ‘Did you know Amanda Pierce?’
Newell looks warily at them. ‘Yes, I knew her.’
‘Were you having an affair with her?’
Newell looks as if he’s poised on the edge of a precipice. The panic in his face tells Webb the truth, no matter what he might say next. But Newell says, ‘Yes, I was having an affair with her. But I didn’t kill her.’
‘Tell us about it.’
‘We didn’t want anyone to know. Her husband was very jealous. He made her life miserable at times. She wanted to leave him.’