“I did,” I said. “He had a file for Gil but no documents yet, only notes. I took pics so I could get out quickly. Let me pull them up.”
I accessed the images and started scanning the notes, reading the relevant parts out loud. The bottom line was that Gwyn had been telling the truth—Gil had been filing for divorce. And as part of that filing, he wanted to change his will, yet again, this time leaving everything to Liam, which brought into question his plans for a future with Gwyn but that wasn’t exactly surprising. Per the prenuptial agreement, Tiffany would leave the marriage with what she brought into it and earned during the marriage. So basically, nothing.
“Hello motive,” Gertie said when I finished.
“Is it?” I asked. “If Tiffany was already planning to leave Gil, she wasn’t going to get anything on the way out. She had to know the contents of the prenuptial.”
“True,” Ida Belle said. “But what if she started making plans to leave, then realized her very limited skill set wouldn’t pay for much of a living? Tiffany appears to be driven by an overwhelming need for security. If she could be rid of Gil but still have the security of the money, that would be the ultimate solution.”
I nodded. “I could see that. She starts looking at apartments and comparing that to what she can make as unskilled labor and realizes that her days of comfort are over. She’ll be struggling just to keep a roof overhead and food on the table.”
“I wonder if Tiffany knew he was filing,” Gertie said.
“No way to know unless she admits it,” I said.
“It was incredibly bad timing for her to kill him now if she didn’t,” Gertie said. “Because the cops will never believe she didn’t know. Then on the other hand, we’re assuming she’s the lead suspect because she has the most to gain and lose, but what if she didn’t do it?”
“When Detective Casey finds this out, it’s definitely not going to look good for her,” I agreed. “Especially if Casey also finds out she’s been plotting to leave. The assumption will be that her plans were for after his death, not before.”
“But that’s not what she said,” Gertie said. “When she had that phone conversation with whoever she went and met, it sounded like she was planning to leave before he died.”
“If you were Detective Casey, would you believe that?” Ida Belle asked.
Gertie frowned. “No. I guess I wouldn’t.”
“Besides,” I said, “we have no way of knowing if she was telling that other person the truth either. The reality is, we have a lot of moving parts, a lot of secrets, a lot of lies, and more than one person with motive.”
“Two, right?” Gertie asked.
“Maybe three,” I said. “Maybe more that we don’t know about.”
Gertie looked confused. “Tiffany and Liam…but who else?”
“Gwyn,” I said. “We only have her word that he was leaving Tiffany for her. But what if his plan was to leave Tiffany but that’s where it ended. He was changing his will to leave everything to Liam. That doesn’t sound like he was making moves to settle down with another woman. Maybe Gwyn found out that Gil’s plans didn’t include her like she’d thought.”
Ida Belle nodded. “And even though she claimed she didn’t know about Tiffany and Liam’s relationship prior to Tiffany marrying Gil, that might not be true. If she knew the truth then she had reason to distrust anything Gil said. Working with the troupe, she could have snooped in his belongings when he was on stage or overheard a conversation with his attorney.”
“Or with another woman,” Gertie said. “If he had one extra and it looked like he wasn’t settling down with her then who’s to say he doesn’t have another?”
“Or was at least on the lookout for one,” I said. “And then there’s a fourth prospect.”
“Who?” Gertie asked.
“Judith,” I said.
“Why Judith?” Gertie asked.
“Well, Gil told Judith about his first will change,” I said. “What if he told her about the divorce and Judith took that opportunity to tell him how she really felt? What if he told her about Gwyn? Even if he had no plans for a future with Gwyn, she would be a good excuse for not telling Judith the truth—that he didn’t want to be with her.”
Ida Belle nodded. “And maybe Judith didn’t want to watch the love of her life set up house with another young woman. After all these years, if she finally thought she was going to get her opening, only to find out that slot was already filled or that she was never going to get a chance, it would have been a huge blow.”
“But enough of a blow to kill him?” Gertie asked. “Judith seems so settled and normal. I just can’t picture it.”
I shrugged. “She’s still a woman who’s been in love with the same man most of her life. She’s not getting any younger, and my guess is it gets lonely out on the farm with no other family around, and it’s hard to maintain friendships with all the hours she has to put in every day. Judith may not be an extrovert but she’s no River, either.”
Gertie sighed. “I know you’re right. Jeez, I’m usually the one who leaps to the crime of passion. I guess I just don’t want it to be Judith.”
“I don’t think any of us do,” Ida Belle said. “Or Liam.”
Nobody said they didn’t want it to be Tiffany. Which wasn’t quite the same thing as wanting her to be the perp. It was more like, if it was one of the three, then Tiffany was the one they were most willing to sacrifice. Given what she’d done to Liam, I got it.
“There’s something else that’s bothering me,” I said. “Gwyn said Gil had been edgy lately and didn’t want her staying after rehearsal. But why? Was he trying to protect Gwyn because he thought someone was after him? And if that’s the case, then why was he the last to leave the night he was killed? Shouldn’t he have been out there pulling away with everyone else?”
“All good questions,” Ida Belle said. “Maybe he forgot something and went back for it.”
“Maybe,” I said. And it was certainly possible, but it still didn’t feel right.
I stared out the windshield as we sped down the highway, mulling over everything I’d learned tonight. There was something bothering me but I couldn’t figure out what. Something hovering right at the edge of my field of vision. Something off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
And for some reason, I knew it was important.
We made it back to Sinful about the time the festival was closing for the night. Ida Belle dropped me off at home and I practically sprinted for the shower so I could take one last pass at the glitter, figuring Carter would be on my front porch as soon as he wrapped up his festival duties. I knew he was suspicious about all my trips to New Orleans, especially when we hadn’t attended the festivities that Ida Belle and Gertie never missed. I also figured he’d want to complain about being cut out of the investigation by Detective Casey. So far, he hadn’t mentioned it, but I knew it had been festering there all day, just ready to boil over once he was off duty and clutching a beer.