Edie laid the papers on the desk and then pulled out a brand-new spiral notebook. She opened the notebook to the first page, which was blank. 'When Dave Holman is working a homicide, I know he always keeps a casebook,' Edie added, picking up a pen. 'I think we should do the same thing. I'm going to write down everything so we don't forget details. So tell me. What's April like?'
Under any other circumstance, Ali might have found her mother's businesslike approach amusing, but this wasn't funny. As Edie sat with her pen poised over paper, it was clear she wanted answers.
'Very young, very pretty, very pregnant,' Ali said finally.
'And she was supposed to get married today,' Edie said.
Ali nodded.
'Is she considered a suspect in Paul's murder?' Edie wanted to know.
'Probably not,' Ali said. 'No motive. Had the divorce been finalized and the wedding ceremony performed, it might be a different story, but when the will was read this morning, I was still Paul's legal wife and primary beneficiary. If April was going to knock him off, surely she would have been smart enough to wait until they were actually married.'
'Is she that smart?' Edie asked.
Ali thought about what Helga had saidabout April being smart enough to throw herself on Ali's mercy. 'I think so,' Ali responded.
'Who else would have a motive then?' Edie asked. She was approaching the problem in her accustomed mannerwith no nonsense and plenty of common sense. 'Is there a chance there's another man in the picture?' she added. 'If money isn't the motivating factor, maybe something else islike jealousy, for example. From what I see on TV, jealousy works.'
Ali had thought about April Gaddis and Paul Grayson primarily in terms of the two of them cheating on her. The idea that they might have been cheating on each other had never crossed her mind.
'It's possible, I suppose,' Ali said dubiously. She wasn't entirely convinced.
'Of course it is,' Edie declared. 'If Paul would cheat on you, he'd cheat on her, too. That's what your father says: Once a cheat, always a cheat. So the first thing we have to do is find out everything there is to know about April Gaddis.'
'We should ask Christopher about that,' Ali said. 'He knew about April long before I did. She's related to some friend of his. April was working for Paul as his administrative assistant, but I don't know which came first, the chicken or the eggthe job or the affair. I think it's likely that he got her the job so she could earn enough money to support herself. That way there wouldn't be a paper trail linking money from him to her.'
'Right, a little prenuptial nepotism never hurt anybody,' Edie observed. 'So I'll ask Christopher about April.'
'I met her mother,' Ali supplied.
'April's mother?' Edie asked. 'You have?'
'Her name's Monique Ragsdale. She came to the house this morning to meet with the attorneys. She claims she's looking out for the interests of the baby. I suspect she's mostly looking out for herself. She came hoping we'd agree to a postmortem divorce decree.'
'You can't divorce someone after they're dead, can you?'
'Helga doesn't think so,' Ali said.
There was a knock on the door. When Ali opened it, the room service trolley was waiting out in the hallway, and so was Dave Holman. His broad-shouldered, military bearing was something Ali really needed about thensomething she welcomed. Reaching past the waiter, she gave Dave a brief but heartfelt hug.
'Thanks for coming,' she said.
'Wouldn't have missed it,' he said.
While the waiter set up a table out on the deck, Dave prowled the room. 'This one's a little nicer than mine,' he said. 'There's no room service at Motel 6, but there's a Denny's up the block, so I'll live.' He peered over Edie's shoulder at the notebook.
'Just trying to get an idea of who all's involved,' she explained.
'Good work,' he said.
All through lunch, Edie and Dave continued to pepper Ali with questions while Edie took copious notes. Once again Ali recalled what Victor had told her: 'Anything you say amp;' But surely what she told her own mother and her good friend Dave couldn't hurt her, could it? Especially since everything she said was the truth.
They were just finishing lunch when the phone rang. 'Ted Grantham here,' he said. 'This is a bit awkward, but amp;'
'What is it?'
'April called while Les and I were having lunch,' he said. 'I didn't get the message until I came back to the office. She said she was having a problem with her mother about planning the funeral. She wanted to talk to you about it if you wouldn't mind coming back up to the house to see her.'
'Of course,' Ali said. 'I'll be glad to.'
'Glad to what?' Edie asked when Ali got off the phone.
'April wants me to come back up to the house and talk about funeral arrangements.'
'With you?' Dave demanded.
'Yes. With me.' Ali was already searching the room for her purse and her keys.
'How come?' Dave wanted to know.
'Because she's twenty-five years old and doesn't know how to go about handling all those details.'
'Shouldn't her mother help her with that?' Dave asked.
'April doesn't want her mother involved.'
'Wait a minute,' Dave said. 'Your dead ex-husband's girlfriend is arguing with her own mother about Paul Grayson's funeral arrangements, and she expects you to walk right into the middle of it? What's wrong with this picture?'
'You don't understand,' Ali said. 'You haven't met Monique Ragsdale. I have.'
'I do understand,' Dave said. 'All too well. Stay out of it, Ali. Run, do not walk, in the opposite direction.'
Ali looked at Dave. He was a nice enough man, but he had no idea what it was like to be pregnant with someone's baby and to have that person snatched out of your life. No matter who April Gaddis was or whose baby she was carrying, at this point it was impossible for Ali to feel anything but compassion for her.
'April asked for my help. I'm going to give it to her,' Ali said.
'Well then,' Edie declared. 'If you're going, so are we.'
'All right,' Dave said glumly. 'But when it all goes to hell, just rememberI told you so.'
Ali called down to the desk for her car. 'This is Ali Reynolds,' she added after relaying her valet parking ticket number to the bell captain. 'Are there still reporters down there looking for me?'
'Yes,' he replied. 'I'm afraid there are.'
'Is there a chance you could smuggle me out of the building without my being seen?'
'Sure. I could come up and get you in the service elevator and take you out the back way, through the kitchen.'
'Would you?'
'Of course.'
Dave shook his head the whole way down in the service elevator and raised a disapproving eyebrow at the size of the tip Ali handed over to the bellman, but the ploy worked. Ali was relieved that in the paparazzi bidding wars, her tip was large enough to allow them to exit the hotel without meeting up with even one of the waiting reporters.
With Edie in the backseat of the Cayenne, Ali drove back up the hill to Robert Lane. The broken front gate was still open, but filming had ended for the day. The Sumo Sudoku RVs were nowhere in evidence. The film crews had pulled up stakes and gone home, too. Leading the way to the front door, Ali was surprised to find it ajar. The DO NOT DISTURB sign had been removed. She paused long enough to ring the bell, but no one answered.
The entire entryway was awash in banks of floral bouquets, even more than had been there earlier.
'Hello?' Ali called. 'April? Anybody home?'
There was no answer.
With Dave and Edie trailing behind, Ali ventured farther into the house. They found Monique Ragsdale lying
