“Or maybe she was prevented from going through with it,” Laurie opined.
Laurie broke the brief silence that followed. “You seem pretty confident that the only thing I’m doing is duplicating work you finished three years ago.”
“I’ve got no big ego about these things, Laurie. I want answers, whether they come from me or from a television program like yours,” Hon said. “It’s a little funny to hear about you walking through the same exact steps I took.” He looked at Leo. “You’ve been in police work most of your life. You know how some cases are.”
“My nine-year-old son can’t wait to join the police force.” Laurie smiled. “He told us he was planning to get the records of unsolved cases and solve them one by one.”
“The Farley name goes on,” Hon said. “Anyway, the son-in-law, Peter, remained poker-faced when I asked him about impending changes to the will.”
“That didn’t seem suspicious to you?”
Hon shrugged. “I figure, someone willing to kill their mom—or mother-in-law—for money would just as soon lie and tell me, absolutely not, she’d never change her will. I think Anna and Peter are all about protecting the Wakeling name. If Mrs. Wakeling was going to change the will, they may not want the public to know about it. Their fortune would seem like ill-gotten gains, so to speak. So, if they don’t think it’s relevant to her murder, they find a way not to talk about it. This is what I meant when I said it would be interesting to see them getting cross-examined on TV.”
“But you didn’t consider them suspects?” Leo asked.
“Technically, everyone’s conceivably a suspect until the case is solved,” Hon said matter-of-factly.
“They don’t have alibis, right?” Laurie asked.
“No. Multiple witnesses placed them all in the main hall when rumors began to spread about a death, but anyone could have made it from the roof back down to the crowd very quickly. Anna said she had gone to the ladies’ room, and Peter and Carter were both working their way around the crowd, saying hello to various guests. It was impossible to pin down anyone’s location to the very second. Did someone explain to you that the video cameras were down that night for servicing?”
Laurie nodded. “I met with the head of museum security yesterday, a guy named Sean Duncan.”
“He’s a good man. Runs a tight ship there,” Hon said emphatically. “Unfortunately, he didn’t have much firsthand interaction with the Wakelings on the night of the gala. The guard assigned as Virginia Wakeling’s contact no longer works there. His name is Marco Nelson.”
“I assume you must have interviewed him?” Laurie asked.
“Oh sure. He was the last one to see Mrs. Wakeling alive, other than her killer, of course. I was surprised when the Met let him go.”
“He was fired?” Laurie exclaimed. “Sean made it sound like Nelson had moved on to private security where he could make more money.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it, but he was encouraged to look elsewhere. Bob Grundel—that was Sean’s predecessor as the head of security—told me Marco was suspected of stealing high-end merchandise from the museum’s retail store. Apparently, he was dating one of the assistant managers and had a tendency to sign up for purse-checking duty on nights when she was working. The theory is she was sneaking items out under his watch. A straight arrow like Sean would probably set up a sting operation and build a case. The former boss played his hunch by giving both of them a warning they might want to look for work elsewhere. Or at least that’s what I’m told.” Hon shrugged, knowing he was repeating gossip he’d learned on the job.
“You said before that Marco was the last to see Mrs. Wakeling, except for her killer,” Leo said. “Is there a reason you used the singular of that word? Is it possible more than one person was involved?”
“I should have said ‘killer or killers.’ Correction duly noted.” Hon looked at Laurie. “You have a theory?”
“As you said, everyone’s a suspect. But I saw the roof. It’s highly unlikely a woman would have had the strength to push Mrs. Wakeling over that wide ledge. ‘Push’ may not even be the right word to describe what happened. That railing is three and a half feet high and there is shrubbery on the other side of it. Whoever did this pushed her over the railing and then shoved her off the shrubbery. Or she was lifted up and thrown over in one motion. But I suppose if either Anna or Virginia’s assistant, Penny, were involved, they could have had a male accomplice.”
“You’re casting a wide net. The personal assistant?” Hon asked.
“Ivan thinks Penny may have been worried about getting fired if Virginia and Ivan had gotten married. He apparently had strong thoughts about her work ethic, or lack thereof. And my understanding is that she did inherit under the will. He didn’t understand why Penny didn’t defend him to the police. According to him, she was in a position to know they were a happy couple, and that he wasn’t using Ginny for money. And by the way, Ivan called Mrs. Wakeling ‘Ginny,’?” Laurie said, her tone reflective.
“Well, he’s right about one thing: that is definitely not the impression that Penny gave us. She was right in step with the rest of the family. She said that Ivan was in a rush to get married, and she thought it obvious that his motives were financial. Even if he had signed a prenuptial agreement, he would have been far more comfortable as Mr. Virginia Wakeling than as a personal trainer,” Hon replied.
“Maybe she was just backing up the Wakeling family because she wanted to stay in their employ,” Leo suggested.
“Or here’s a simpler theory: maybe all of them were telling the truth about Ivan. He was using that woman for her money, and when she found out he was stealing from her, she was going to expose him,” Hon suggested.
Laurie was all the more certain that they needed to find Mrs. Wakeling’s former assistant before they started filming. “We haven’t been able to locate Penny. Can you help with that, by any chance?”
“Last time I spoke to her, she was working at Wakeling Development.”
“Not anymore.”
“Afraid I can’t help you, then.”
Detective Hon was already doing her father a favor by even meeting with her. She couldn’t expect him to turn over private location information about a citizen for her. “What about the nephew, Tom Wakeling? Did you look into him?” she asked.
Hon wiped his hands on paper napkins as he finished his last bite of food before answering. “Oh, I went there all right. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, it was real clear to me that he resented the rich half of that family. He said he went to the gala that night to impress his date, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he sort of enjoyed making his fancy aunt and cousins uncomfortable by bringing a date who clearly didn’t fit in. I take it the feeling was mutual. As I recall, he only inherited fifty thousand dollars from his aunt. Not exactly nothing, but more like pocket change given the fortune at stake.”