Amanda looked confused. Dupre laughed. 'You didn't know, did you?'
'Know what?'
'About Ally. It's why she took Lori's kid. She wasn't in love with me. Lori was her lover.'
'But she told me that you and she . . .'
'What? That we screwed?'
Amanda nodded.
'We did, once--a threesome with Lori, actually. But it was clear that they were a lot more interested in each other than they were in me, so . . .' Jon shrugged.
But Amanda had stopped listening moments before. Ally and Lori had been lovers . Suddenly everything made sense.
'What's wrong?' Dupre asked.
'Ally must have been furious with you for sending Lori to Senator Travis.'
'Jesus, was she ever. Ally went off the deep end when they discovered the body.'
'She forgave you, though, didn't she?' Amanda asked.
'After I was busted. She came to the jail and told me she'd do anything to get me out. I guess she meant what she said.'
Amanda felt so stupid. Suddenly, a heavily made-up redhead in a skintight, low-cut dress pushed through the crowd and latched onto Dupre's arm. Amanda noticed that her pupils were the size of wagon wheels. Dupre saw her checking them, and colored.
'Who's this?' the redhead asked suspiciously.
'Maggie, meet my attorney, Amanda Jaffe.'
Maggie nodded and flashed Amanda a proprietary glare.
'Nice meeting you,' Amanda said. 'See you around, Jon.'
Kate Ross was waiting for Amanda outside the door to the restroom.
'What did Dupre want?' she asked.
'Just to say hello.'
'That pencil he's with had a cocaine mustache when she left the little girls' room.'
'I'm his lawyer, Kate, not his mother.'
'Touche.'
'I want to run something by you,' Amanda said. There were no other women waiting, but she checked around her to make certain that no one could overhear them. 'Jon said something that got me thinking. Did you know that Ally Bennett and Lori Andrews were lovers?'
'No shit!'
'Maybe The Vaughn Street Glee Club wasn't responsible for Senator Travis's murder. They had the motive to kill him--he was out of control and putting the conspiracy in danger--but think about the MO.'
'You're right. It wasn't the same.'
Amanda nodded. 'The club sedated its victims to fool the police into thinking that a murder was a suicide. But there was never any question that Travis was murdered.'
'And look at how he was murdered,' Kate said, more to herself than to Amanda. 'The person who killed Travis hated him.'
Kate was quiet for a moment. 'Are you thinking that Ally killed Travis to avenge Lori Andrews?'
Amanda nodded. 'Carl Rittenhouse told Tim about a phone call that Travis got the night he died, telling him that Jon Dupre wanted to make it up to him for the incident at the Westmont. A police report says that a call was made from Jon's house to the senator's house that evening. We know that Ally was the only person with Jon after Joyce Hamada and Cheryl Riggio left, and Hamada said that he had passed out.'
'So you think Bennett made the call, lured Travis to the A-frame, drugged him, and beat him to death?'
'It's possible. I mean, it all makes sense. Even Wendell Hayes's attempt to murder Jon. Hayes and the others thought that Dupre had murdered one of their own. Maybe they were trying to kill him to avenge the death of a member of their secret circle.'
'Wait a minute. What about the earring? Dupre's earring was found at Travis's cabin. How did it get there?'
'Ally blamed Jon for sending Lori to the senator after the way he beat her the first time. I think she doped Jon, too, then took the earring from Jon's house and planted it to frame him. But once he was arrested, she regretted what she'd done and tried to save him.'
'I guess it's possible,' Kate said. 'But can you prove it?'
'I'm not even going to try. My job was to clear Jon. I don't have to find Travis's killer. That's a job for the police.'
'And you're not going to help them, are you?'
'Travis was scum. He murdered Lori Andrews and he got what he deserved. Whether it was Jon who killed him, or The Glee Club, or Ally Bennett, it can remain a mystery, as far as I'm concerned.'
