“No.” A resolute shake of her head. “Thomas had no enemies.”
Vera studied Erwin’s face carefully. Her expression and her answers clearly showed she admired and respected Thomas Wilton. Now to see if she felt the same way about his new wife. The subject required a careful approach. Just because the murder weapon was near the wife didn’t make her the murderer. They needed some sort of perspective into the Wilton marriage.
“What about Mrs. Wilton? How were things between her and her husband?”
Erwin’s expression closed as tightly as a vault at Fort Knox. “I haven’t known Alicia very long. She shares very little information of any kind with me.”
So, she didn’t like the new wife. She could have good reason, or she could simply be jealous. “But you have an opinion of her?” Vera pressed. “You see her every day. Perform tasks for her, I’m sure.”
A vague shrug. “She’s okay, I guess.”
“Mr. Wilton’s first wife died ...” Vera opted for a different course. “Two years ago?”
“Yes. It was a very sad time. Thomas was devastated. Then six months ago he met Alicia on a business trip to Vegas, and two weeks later they were married.”
Interesting. For eighteen months, Erwin had had the man to herself. Sharing with the new wife may have caused some friction.
“How did his first wife die?”
“A fall from her horse caused a brain injury. She thought she was fine, and twenty-four hours later she was dead.” Erwin hugged herself as if the memory chilled her. “It was so unexpected and so horrible. She was only forty-three and a well-trained equestrian. A renowned dressage rider. It was awful. Just awful. Thomas was so upset, he got rid of all the horses. Even the one she loved so much. He said he couldn’t bear to look at them. We all felt so bad for him.”
“I imagine so.” Vera slipped back a page in her notepad. “I’m sure you were all equally happy for him when he found a new wife.”
Something like anger filled Erwin’s eyes before she could blink it away. “Alicia isnothinglike Lena.”
Vera left that to simmer for a bit. “You have no idea who the other couple at the cabin was? We’ve identified the male victim as Seth Parson. But we still have nothing on the female.”
Erwin stared for a long moment, as if she hadn’t understood the question. “I don’t—didn’t know either of them.”
The pause and the sudden blank expression said otherwise. “Did Mr. Wilton make a habit of inviting strangers to his most private sanctuary?”
Erwin chewed her lip, stared at her hands. “I think Alicia knew the man. I had seen her talking to him before. In town.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “When and where did you see her with him?”
More stalling. Erwin studied her cuticles. Chewed her lip some more. “I saw them in town once at that Mexican place on the square. They were having lunch. When Alicia saw me, she got all hyper, telling me how he was an old friend from her days in New Orleans and how he was just passing through on his way back home.”
“Did she ever mention him again?”
Erwin shook her head. “But I saw them once outside that gas station on the corner of Highway 64 and Wilson Parkway. It looked to me like they were arguing.”
“When was this?” A new anticipation seared through Vera’s veins.
“Last Thursday. I remember because I was out running errands and picking up beer for their big weekend party. When I saw Alicia there, I wondered why she didn’t pick it up herself. They sell beer at that gas station.”
“But you’d never seen the other woman before?” Vera needed something on her.
Another shake of her head. “No. Sorry.”
“Did you have reason to believe Alicia was having an affair?”
Another long pause, then a shrug. “I can’t say for sure, but she and Thomas had been, I don’t know, kind of at odds a lot lately.”
“Arguing? Shouting? Throwing things? Or giving each other the silent treatment?” Specific details mattered in a homicide investigation. Vera needed a better grasp on the Wiltons’ relationship. Difficult to get when half the couple was dead and the other was in a coma.
“Just a lot of tension. I could feel it. Thomas preferred keeping his private life private, so there was no yelling or anything like that.”
“Did you and Alicia have any disagreements?” Vera couldn’t ignore the possibility. Erwin was a reasonably attractive young woman who revered her boss. The new woman in his life may not have sat well with her. Or vice versa. Wilton had bought Erwin this house—a historic home on Washington Street. The place had years ago been renovated into four apartments, but it was all Erwin’s to use or rent out now, thanks to the generosity of her boss. A new wife might be suspicious of such generosity.
