“Oh my,” Lila muttered, but there was something utterly satisfying in watching Smith not react to Ann’s lascivious expression and then turn his attention to Beatrice, who rolled her eyes. “I bet that happens all the time,” Lila said dryly. “Smith, you need to scar up your face a bit.”
Ann blushed more deeply, but Vi cut in. “Was your mother with you? When you were wherever you were?”
“We were at the silent pictures,” Jane told Vi. “We were there with friends, and they are not the type to lie for us even though we might lie for each other.”
“And your mother?” Vi asked very precisely.
“She wasn’t there,” Jane replied.
“Jane!” Ann snapped.
“Mother didn’t kill Jason,” Tobias said. “Leave Jane alone.”
“Where was your mother?” Rita turned to Tobias.
“She stayed home. She doesn’t like to go out with ‘young’ people, but she did want us to go.”
Jane snorted and Ann carefully looked away.
“It was a because of a girl!” Rita said. “Your mother has an eye on another girl for you.”
“She didn’t come,” Tobias muttered.
“She usually doesn’t,” Jane laughed. “Reverend and Mother and a few others make these events and then push us all to go. Somehow she rarely attends.”
Vi shook her head. “So these friends…” Vi frowned and then asked, “Are we referring to Miss Sinclair?”
They all nodded.
“Now isn’t she a bit…older?” Vi asked and then frowned at herself.
That wasn’t what she really wanted to know. At least as far as the case went. Miss Sinclair was clearly a woman who would rule her house, and Vi guessed that Tobias Watkins would prefer to not be ruled by his wife, after being controlled by his mother, and too often his grandmother. The side of herself who found the human race entertaining very much wanted to know what Tobias really thought of Miss Sinclair.
“Mother says that doesn’t matter.” Tobias cleared his throat, and Vi could see that he didn’t agree. Lila started giggling again until Kate kicked towards her.
“She’s still in her cups,” Kate told them apologetically. “Ignore Lila, please.”
“What matters is that your partner for life is the right partner for you,” Rita told Tobias and then turned her attention to the two sisters. “Marrying to please a parent is a terrible mistake.”
“Marrying to please anyone other than yourself is a mistake,” Jane said. This time the telling comment was directed to Ann, and it was the paler of the sisters who blushed furiously.
“Who do you think killed your cousin?” Rita asked, her gaze fixed on Jane.
Jane considered, clearly running through options in her head. Vi had to wonder if those options were people Jane wanted to hide or people she actually thought might have killed her cousin.
“My vote is Grandmother,” Jane finally said.
“Jane!” Ann squeaked.
Tobias, however, nodded.
“Toby!” Ann snapped.
“She can’t even tell you and Jane apart,” Tobias told Ann. “Don’t defend her.”
“Maybe she won’t be so bad now,” Ann tried and both of her siblings groaned.
“You don’t want her in your life,” Vi told Ann. “I met her, I saw her horrible cuckoo clock collection, and she left your cousin—her favorite grandchild—rotting in the office while she embroidered and waited for a private investigator to arrive.”
“What?” Jane demanded, leaning in. “What are you talking about?”
“Your cousin died in the office, she called here over and over again rather than calling for the constables, and while she waited for my husband to answer the telephone and arrive she was embroidering.”
“What?” Tobias demanded next, glancing at his sisters and then infuriatingly at Smith for confirmation.
Vi’s anger had Lila drunkenly grinning while Rita bit her bottom lip in humor.
“That can’t be true,” Ann said firmly and then rose, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know where we were, you know we have an alibi, I think we’re finished here. Come, Toby. Jane. We never should have come here for these—these—lies.”
Before they closed the door behind them, Smith said loudly, “That one in white has a future of being just like her grandmother.”
The horrified scoff was cut off by the careful closing of the front door and then Lila burst into loud, drunken laughter.
“You’re horrible,” Vi told Smith.
“You were thinking the same thing, and she’ll be better for it from hearing it said. It’ll weigh in her mind and she’ll be determined to fight that inclination towards pressing her handkerchief to her eyes and tormenting her children with the genetic cruelty of her mother and grandmother.”
Chapter 16
Smith grinned that devil’s grin as he stared after the trio of siblings. His gaze landed on her arm where the bruise braceleted her bicep. “I am sorry about that.”
Vi nodded, bored by the apology, and waved his barely sincere comment off. “I don’t care about that. How did you get them here?”
“Beatrice told me I had to.” Smith reached out and tapped Beatrice’s nose. “Did she look jealous?”
The question had been directed to Lila, who shook her head, giggled, and then said, “I’m going to end up with a headache, aren’t I?”
“Both of us will,” Rita answered. The lack of a laugh along with Lila was painful. “I don’t care.”
“Neither do I,” Lila crowed. A moment later, she giggled again and added, “At least right now.”
“You weren’t jealous?” Smith asked Beatrice.
She sent an exasperated look to the heavens. “Smith, that girl liked your angel face. She’d have been terrified to actually know you as you are.”
“Hear, hear.” Lila hiccupped and then laughed into her hand, snorted, and then groaned. “Quick, a handkerchief.”
“Oh Lila,” Kate said, handing her the handkerchief she’d squirreled away.
“Make a mental note of what you heard,” Smith said. “The next to arrive is the reverend’s daughter. She had to come when she was supposed to be volunteering at the nearby orphanage.”
“Is that a trick she pulls often?” Rita asked.
“It’s clever,” Lila laughed. “Oh excuse me dear Father, I can’t attend you now as I have to
