Clarissa returned with a silver coffee service that looked freshly polished, which made me wonder where Clarissa’s household help might be. Milady didn’t strike me as someone who would perform her own polishing. Maybe she’d given the help the day off so she could continue her dalliance undisturbed. She wasn’t expecting me or Tinkie.
“What is it you want?” she asked.
“Why do you dislike Kathleen so much?” Tinkie asked the question.
“What does it matter? She’s dead.” Clarissa poured the coffee with a steady hand.
“Call it curiosity. Why?” Tinkie persisted.
“She showed up in town expecting to be the toast of the city. She was too big for her britches, as the common people would say.”
My hold on the fine china coffee cup tightened to the point I thought I might snap the delicate little handle off the cup. I put it down, though tossing the hot liquid on Clarissa was tempting. She was just so damn superior, and if there was anything that got under my skin, it was the attitude that one person was superior to another because of money.
“She’s a beautiful woman,” I said. “Seems she would have been an asset to your social set.”
“She didn’t have the … spine. She was a milquetoast. She made it clear she thought she was better than we were.”
“Because she didn’t want to sleep with other people’s husbands?” It had to be said.
“Because she judged others. On a superficial basis. She was … tedious. And that, Sarah Booth, is the most unforgivable of sins. You’re bordering on tedious.”
“Heaven forbid.” I made an aghast face, and Tinkie laughed out loud.
“Look, Clarissa, Sarah Booth and I don’t care what goes on between consenting adults. Have at it. But you’ve hired us to find the person responsible for dangerous actions. It seems to me that Kathleen’s being pushed overboard—or attempting to knock you into the river—might be considered the most dangerous action so far. You were almost drowned and Kathleen is still missing. Now we have to determine if you were the target or Kathleen. I don’t exactly see that as a tedious endeavor.” Tinkie put her untouched coffee cup on the small table in front of the sofa. “If you don’t want to cooperate, we can leave.”
Clarissa sighed. “Look, the simple truth is that Kathleen wanted to run with the big dogs, but she couldn’t keep up. She was mired in old-school beliefs. She wanted all of us to abide by her views and values.”
It was clear to me that Clarissa expected everyone to abide by her rules, while she had no intention of respecting anyone else’s rules. She was a perfect example of a narcissist, and a narcissist, as I’d learned the hard way, was capable of almost anything. A person suffering from this personality disorder could convince themselves that whatever they wanted or did was the right thing.
“I think Tulla may be behind all of these attacks.” I didn’t really believe that, but I wanted to see Clarissa’s reaction. Which wasn’t what I expected.
“Can you prove it? If so, have her arrested.”
“I can’t prove it yet,” I said. “What I need from you is a reading of Tulla’s personality. Why would she take actions like this, even to the point of willingly shocking herself? I mean, that is the perfect explanation of how she was shocked and no one else.”
“And how, exactly, do you explain Kathleen’s trying to drown me? Tulla had nothing to do with that,” Clarissa said. “Were it not for that very handsome sheriff you brought to town, I’d likely be dead.”
“Keep it up and you will be,” Tinkie said just loud enough for me to hear.
“Did Kathleen truly attack you, or did she lose her balance when the boat lurched?” This was the heart of what I wanted to hear.
“I was leaning on the rail, watching the fireworks. I was staring out into the river. I don’t remember Kathleen or anyone else being nearby. When the boat lurched, I stumbled and hit the rail pretty hard. Before I could regain my balance, Kathleen came hurtling out of the darkness. She knocked me over the rail.”
“It could have been an accident?” Tinkie asked.
“Out of all the people on the boat, Kathleen grabs me and takes me over the side? Hardly an accident.”
“You actually believe Kathleen wanted to drown you? At the risk of drowning herself?” Tinkie asked.
Clarissa hesitated. “I believe she wanted to knock me into the river. I don’t know that drowning was her end goal.”
“Once you hit the water, what happened?” I asked. “Did she cling on to you? Did she make any efforts to push you under the water?”
Clarissa shook her head. “No. She let go of me before we hit the water.”
“And you didn’t clutch on to her?” I asked.
She gave me a dark smile. “You think I drowned her?”
“Covering all bases,” I said. “That’s what you paid me to do.”
“Look, Kathleen was a fly in the pudding. You don’t go all nuclear on a fly. She wasn’t worth the effort to kill her. That’s just a blunt fact.”
Perhaps. But I no longer doubted that Clarissa was capable of eliminating whatever stood in the way of what she wanted. What, exactly, did she want? I didn’t believe she’d been truthful with me or Tinkie about why she hired us. It was far more likely that her intentions were to put the blame for all of this on someone else—someone whose fall from grace would benefit Clarissa.
“Once Bricey and Bart parted ways, was the path clear for Tulla to go after Bart?”
“Absolutely. Tulla never seemed to mind picking up where Bricey and I finished. Keep in mind that his wife, Sunny, was long done with him.”
Oh, the cat was out to play now! “I’m sure the pool of eligible partners demands that the men be recycled. It is a
