She shrugged. “Because Lena said Jose should take care of it for her. He always did things like that for her.”
Vera had a feeling she knew where the ball had been dropped. “Who told Jose to take care of it?”
Erwin blinked. “What?”
“Did Lena tell him, or were you supposed to tell him?”
A frown furrowed its way across her brow. “I don’t know. I ordered the parts she told me to order.”
Vera’s instincts were right. “But when the parts came in, you didn’t mention this to Jose, did you?”
Erwin pouted. “I don’t remember. Thomas kept me very busy. I didn’t have time to deal with Lena’s needs. She should have taken care of it herself. Besides, it wasn’t my fault she didn’t check or that she was thrown off and injured. Or,” she ground out, “that she didn’t go to the doctor when she should have because she was too proud to admit to anyone that she’d fallen off her stupid horse.”
Vera nodded. Maybe not exactly murder. But exactly what a psychopath would do. “There’s something else you’ve been hiding all this time. I want to know what it is.”
“You’re supposed to tell me something,” she tossed back at Vera. “Tit for tat, Ms. Boyett.”
Vera gave her a nod. “Gill Jamison confessed to killing Thomas, Seth Parson, and Sandy Owens.”
Erwin scoffed. “No surprise there.”
“Why did you leave that note? Weren’t you afraid he would come after you?”
She turned her hands up. “It was looking more and more like he was going to get away with it, and I couldn’t prove what I believed. I needed him to make a move you”—she glared at Vera—“would notice.”
“We certainly appreciate your help, but you could have just told me.” It was obvious to Vera that Erwin couldn’t stand knowing what she knew and believing that no one else did.
Erwin shrugged. “I guess I didn’t really think it through.”
“But there’s more, right? More secrets you’ve been keeping that we didn’t figure out.” Vera needed her talking. Bragging. Showing off all that she knew and Vera didn’t. Playing to her ego was the fastest way to make that happen.
Erwin puffed out a breath. “Fine. I guess it doesn’t matter now, anyway. I was in love with him. Thomas. I thought after Lena died, he would want me. I did everything for him. He told me over and over that he didn’t know what he would do without me, and then he didn’t want me. Not for a wife. I think the others—Helen and Renata for sure—knew how I felt. I figured they would try to use it against me. When I found that phone, I knew they were trying to frame me.”
Vera nodded. “You did use that phone to lure Seth Parson up here in hopes of breaking up Thomas and Alicia’s marriage, didn’t you?”
“You can’t prove that,” she countered, her expression cocky.
“Probably not.” Vera cleared her throat. “How about I give you one more thing and then you give me one more?”
Erwin shrugged as if she suddenly found the whole game boring. “Why not?”
“Alicia said Thomas wanted to take you with them to California.”
Something like glee filled her eyes, and she smiled. “I knew he wouldn’t leave me.”
Vera opted not to mention that Alicia had changed his mind. The point was moot now. “Tell me the rest of the story about Nola Childers.”
Confusion lined her face. “I already told you everything.”
“It feels like you’re holding something back, Valeri,” Vera argued.
Erwin held up her hands, surrender-style. “Fine. Fine. Everything happened just like I said, and FYI, she took Xanax that night too. Really stupid, and everyone thought she was so smart.”
Vera rolled her hand in a gesture of keep going.
Big sigh. “I told you I passed out, but I didn’t. When she was in the bath so long, I went to check on her and she was under the water. I started to pull her out, but then I didn’t.”
No matter that she had suspected as much, Vera was still startled by the woman’s coldness. “Was she dead already?”
