I was the worst amateur investigator on the planet.
“The minute I saw that necklace,” Althea said, practically crooning now, “I knew I had to have it. But I wasn’t about to give him money for it. No, in that very moment, I knew what I would have to do to get it. I used a little reverse psychology, told him not to sell it, but to give it to his wife. He told me he’d never been married and had no children, but he had a beautiful niece he could bequeath it to.”
“Oh,” Jane sighed, and I knew another little piece of her heart had just broken.
“What would you have done if he were married?” I wondered.
She shrugged. “I’d have had to get rid of his wife.”
Of course she would. I didn’t know what to say to that matter-of-fact response.
“Anyway, Jesse told me how pleased he was to receive such unselfish advice.” She snickered. “He also told me how attractive he thought I was. He gave me his phone number. Shortly after that, I called him and our romance began.”
“That was two years ago?” I asked.
“I had a long-range plan,” she said. “We used to stay at my house, but then I started telling him I wanted to come see him in Lighthouse Cove. He was reluctant because he knew people would talk, but I told him I’d come by boat and no one would ever see me.”
“That must’ve appealed to him.”
“You know it,” she said in her self-congratulatory tone. “The man loved boats. And secrets. And me.” She flashed us a coy smile. “He wanted to buy a half interest in my boat, so I let him.”
Jane and I exchanged a quick glance. That was why Jesse had sold off three of the jewels in the necklace. He wanted to pay Althea for his half of the boat.
She told us she began staying at his house and drugging him to sleep every night so she could search for the necklace. She laughed. “Every morning he would tell me how well he slept. But then one night, he woke up too soon. He saw me going through his drawers, so I told him a little white lie, gave him a hug and a triple dose of sleeping pills.” She shrugged. “It killed him. Too bad, too. I liked him. He was a pretty simple guy with his little white boxer shorts and that salty navy language he used sometimes. He treated me right, though.”
I could feel Jane seething. “You will pay for that,” she said.
I didn’t blame Jane for going off, but I needed Althea to stay cool and keep talking. I prayed that Eric would get my e-mail message soon and track me down here. Maybe the police were waiting outside Jesse’s house right now. If only.
I needed more from her. “Once Jesse was dead, you started searching for real, right? You punched a hole in the wall and pulled up the floorboard.”
“I couldn’t very well do that while he was alive,” she said. “And once he was gone, I knew I had a limited window of opportunity. I started with his office because he spent a lot of time in there. And the kitchen was as likely a hiding place as any. I started getting anxious because he’d been dead for hours now. I checked all the bookshelves and the medicine cabinet and I even searched the basement, but I didn’t like going down there.”
Good thing, I thought, but didn’t mention that the basement was where I’d found the necklace.
“How did you get inside after Jane had the locks changed?”
She snorted a laugh. “It was pitifully easy to lift her keys from her purse.”
Jane gasped. “You stole my keys?”
“Don’t worry, princess,” she crooned sarcastically. “I brought them back after I made copies.”
“Why did you hurt Bob?” I asked. I was desperate to keep her talking.
“Who says I did?”
“Oh, please. His falling into a diabetic coma has you written all over it.” Especially after playing the Scooby-Doo game with Mac, I thought.
She patted her hair, apparently taking my accusation as a compliment.
“I was charmed by Bob, despite myself,” she said. “Jesse apparently boasted of our affair to Ned and Bob, and Bob began living vicariously through his stories. At Jesse’s funeral, Bob introduced himself and told me that he’d already fallen in love with me.”
Ugh. Poor Bob. But then, we had all been fooled by Althea’s personable outer shell.
“I had hoped for a little break after Jesse died, and then Andrew suddenly showed up. I just didn’t have time for Bob.” She chuckled again. “I told him I was grieving, and he understood. He said that whenever I was ready, he wanted to court me. Such a sweet, old-fashioned concept.”
She said it derisively and again, I felt pity for Bob.
“Unfortunately Bob became obsessed and started following me. He saw me go into Andrew’s hotel room but never saw me leave.” She scowled. “When he heard that someone had died in that room, he put two and two together and approached me. I seriously didn’t think he had that much on the ball, but there you go.”