As far as Riley was concerned, this interview had just widened the suspect pool to include everyone who’d ever had the misfortune to meet the woman.
Marina sagged against the side of the building. “I feel much better now. I’ve been holding that in for six years.”
“So about the glitter bomb,” Riley said, trying to steer them back on course.
A muffled crash came from inside the building, and she sent up a prayer to her spirit guides that her entourage was not involved.
“Oh, yes. The glitter bomb. Mrs. Hornberger sends me to the post office every day to check for packages.”
Inside, someone shouted something Riley couldn’t make out.
“Do you remember what day the package arrived?”
“I believe it was a Tuesday. Yes. Two Tuesdays before she met her maker.”
“Were you there when she opened the package?”
Marina nodded. “Yes. On Tuesdays after I go to the post office, I scrub the floors, clean the pool, change the bed linens, iron the draperies on the second floor, and make a home-cooked meal that Mrs. Hornberger could pretend she made.”
Riley blinked. “Uh, just a quick clarification, where were you on the day Mrs. Hornberger was murdered?”
“I was at my great-uncle’s farm for my cousin’s wedding.” She looked suddenly guilty. “Mrs. Hornberger said I wasn’t allowed to attend because she needed me to re-organize her makeup supplies. But Mr. Hornberger took me aside and told me to take the day off and that he’d take care of it.”
Riley tried to imagine Teddy Hornberger “taking care of it.” But the image of him cramming a thong down his dead wife’s throat just didn’t compute. “Okay. So you picked up the package at the post office and brought it to the Hornberger residence. What happened next?”
“Mrs. Hornberger preferred to open all of her business-related mail in the bedroom so she could film it. I was scrubbing the deep end of the pool when I heard the explosion and the screaming.”
Riley held up a finger. “Hang on, are you saying there’s video of the glitter bomb?”
Marina nodded. “There was. I would not be surprised if Mrs. Hornberger demanded that Yvette delete it.”
She wondered if Kellen’s team had recovered any memory cards or if they’d been missing along with the rest of the electronics.
“So the glitter bomb exploded, and what did you do?”
Marina’s cheeks flushed red. “I finished cleaning the pool.”
Riley didn’t quite hide her smile. “And then?”
“When I went inside, there was red glitter everywhere. Mrs. Hornberger was standing in the middle of her bedroom screaming. There was glitter in her mouth, and she kept spitting it out. It was magnificent.”
Riley could see it. The short, sharp burst and the instant hurricane of glitter exploding into the air.
The shrill scream. The flapping of bejeweled hands.“What is this? I don’t understand! This isn’t a free sample of moisturizer!”
“I called a cleaning crew, and they arrived an hour later. It took them two days to clean it all up, and she still made them come back the next week because she kept finding glitter in new places like the refrigerator and the garage.”
“What happened to the package the glitter bomb came in?”
“The cleaning crew disposed of it.”
There was more shouting coming from inside the farmers’ market now.
“Do you recall a return address or anything special about the packaging?” Riley asked.
Marina shook her head. “I’m sorry, no.”
Behind them, a woman with a stroller and a crying toddler barreled through the door into the parking lot.
