Mason said evenly in a throwback, “I’m Detective Sawyer, too, and his father. Are you Sidney Sedwick?”
His shoulders slouched and his brown eyes narrowed while responding, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“We’ve spoken before,” Mason told him matter-of-factly. “Twenty years ago…about the murder of Lynda Boxleitner—”
Sidney nodded. “I remember. How could I not?”
Campbell told him straightforwardly, “The case has been reopened… We’d like to ask you a few questions about it…” Even then, he was sizing up the suspect, wondering if he could be responsible as well for the deaths of Jasmine and Mia. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Sidney took a breath and replied, “Yeah—my office…”
They followed him back through the greenhouse and into a small windowless office with a standing desk workstation, wooden square table and two leather chairs.
Mason peered at the suspect and asked point-blank, “Is there something you’d like to get off your chest after all these years? Did you kill Lynda Boxleitner?”
Sidney stared at the question for a long moment. He sighed, then said levelly, “No, I did not kill Lynda… Had an alibi. And I could never have done that—”
“But she was in your truck days before her death,” Mason said tersely.
Sidney freely admitted, “Yeah, I gave her a lift…”
Campbell sensed that he was holding back, prompting him to ask, “Do you know who could have poisoned her to death?”
Before he could respond, Mason put forth stridently, “As a gardener, you might have had knowledge of and access to thallium sulfate—the banned pesticide someone used to fatally poison Lynda. Maybe you chose to use it on her, for whatever reason…?” Mason glared at him and said, “Maybe you’re at it again?”
Sidney’s head snapped back as if he had been punched. He paused, then said thoughtfully, “There are some things I need to get off my chest. I’ve wanted to for a long time. Guess I was just waiting for you to show up—” he eyed Mason “—to say what should have been said twenty years ago…”
Campbell exchanged a curious glance with his father, both wondering, no doubt, if Sidney Sedwick was about to have second thoughts and confess to the murder of Lynda Boxleitner, for starters…
Sidney sucked in a deep breath, jutted his chin and said, “I was able to obtain some thallium sulfate from abroad… But not for myself. I got it for Stuart Reston.”
“Stuart—” Mason lifted a brow with surprise. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Mr. Reston asked me to order it…said he thought the pesticide might be more effective in dealing with a pest problem that was getting out of control on the property than what we were using.”
Campbell contemplated this, then asked the obvious question, “Did Stuart Reston know Lynda Boxleitner?”
“Yeah, he knew her,” Sidney said without hesitating.
“How well did he know her?” Mason asked pointedly.
“They were having an affair.” Sidney’s voice rose an octave. “Mr. Reston was sleeping with Lynda right under the nose of his wife, Eloise Reston, and their daughter, Bella. Or maybe not so much. You see, Mr. Reston often had me pick up and drive Lynda to various meeting places behind Mrs. Reston’s and Bella’s back. Sometimes he and Lynda even got together at my cottage. But from what I’d heard, Lynda wanted more than what he was offering her in their arrangement—I don’t know, maybe to become the next Mrs. Reston—to keep her from letting the whole world know about their illicit affair. Mr. Reston, with too much to lose in this town, would have none of it.”
Campbell narrowed his eyes as he digested this. “Are you saying that it was Reston who killed her—his lover?”
Sidney licked his lips and responded, “He never came right out and confessed to it—though I asked him if he used the thallium sulfate to kill her—but sidestepped it, saying it was better if I didn’t know. He paid me to keep quiet, which I did. Knowing it was in my best interests not to cross him, I’ve stayed silent till this day…”
Mason cast him a firm look. “If you’re leveling with us, you really believe neither Eloise nor Bella had a clue that Stuart was fooling around with Lynda…?”
“I never got that impression,” Sidney claimed, “from when I was around them—which wasn’t very often. I think that, being as clever as he was, Mr. Reston was able to pull the wool over their eyes about this.”
Campbell took a step closer and asked pensively, “Do you recall how Reston felt about Lynda being a member of the Braison Family?”
“Yeah, I remember. He wasn’t that thrilled about it, but it was her life.” Sidney pulled on his beard. “Mr. Restondidn’t care much for the cult—believing they were simply brainwashing gullible followers. Including Lynda. I guess he was happy to have her whenever he could—which wasn’t as often as he would have liked, given his other obligations.”
Mason set his jaw. “Since Stuart Reston is no longer around to defend himself from your insinuation and you admit to being the one to illegally bring thallium sulfate into this country, why should we believe Reston used the poison to kill Lynda—and not you—the so-called alibi notwithstanding…?”
Sidney sucked in a deep breath and answered unwaveringly, “Because this has been eating away at me for the past two decades and I gain nothing from lying. I liked Lynda, even if I didn’t really know her all that well. She didn’t deserve to end up like she did at the park that Founder’s Day.” His mouth tightened. “If Mr. Reston didn’t poison her, he had the means to get someone else to do his dirty work. But it wasn’t me.”
