Murder Can Rain on Your Shower (24 page)

been a fairly constant source of friction between us. In fact, our squabbles with regard to my sister-in-law date all the way back to our engagement days. Even

when she was living abroad, some point of dissension involving Bobbie Jean always seemed to crop up. In

spite of this, however, my husband and I managed to keep our conflicting opinions about her from causing

any serious damage to our marriage. Which, when you

consider it, has to be viewed as something of a miracle.

‘‘This past winter, though, something occurred that

I was just unable to deal with. Call it the straw that broke Allison Lynton’s back.’’ She eked out a short

laugh. ‘‘I believe I mentioned to you that Bobbie Jean

and Geoffrey—her last husband—were in the midst of

a trial separation when he had his fatal heart attack?’’

She was looking to me for confirmation.

‘‘Yes, you did.’’

‘‘Well, the truth is, Bobbie Jean was hardly lonely

being apart from her husband. Although she suppos

edly hoped to reconcile with him, she kept herself

from becoming too despondent over the estrangement

by taking up with other men, one of whom was a

neighbor of ours—a
married
neighbor.

‘‘Before long, news of the affair got back to Wes

and me. And predictably, as disturbed as he was by

Bobbie Jean’s latest . . . lapse, Wes invented a ratio

nale for it. This time the culprit was the trial separa

tion. According to her devoted brother, Bobbie Jean

was searching for proof that men continued to find

her irresistible—ergo, Geoff still cared for her.’’ Alli

son made a face. ‘‘In other words, Wes’s reasoning

had it that she was sleeping with Harry—our neigh

bor—to convince herself that Geoffrey would soon be

eagerly returning to her.
Please!’’

‘‘I’m assuming that she was in love with the man—

her husband, I mean.’’

154

Selma
Eichler

‘‘I couldn’t say. My personal opinion is that she was

not, that she never had been, actually. I’m not at all convinced that she was even that keen to have him

move back in with her. Knowing Bobbie Jean as I did,

I believe she just wanted Geoff to want her again.’’

Allison placed her hands in her lap now and moist

ened her lower lip with her tongue. ‘‘At any rate, with

that episode I’d simply reached my limit. Sister or

not, I couldn’t bear listening to Wes explain away that

woman’s abhorrent behavior even one more time. I

told him so, too—and none too gently, either. The

result was that a definite rift developed between us.’’

She took a deep breath before going on. ‘‘Shortly

after this, I ran into a friend who mentioned that Jus

tin, an old high school beau of mine, had lost his wife

eight months earlier. Justin and I had kept in sporadic

touch over the years—although I hadn’t heard any

thing from him in quite a while. Well, I sent him a note telling him that I’d only recently learned of his wife’s death and extending my condolences. He called

to thank me for writing, and we had a long talk. Noth

ing of a very personal nature—primarily we just did

some catching up. And then Justin proposed that we

have lunch one day. Naturally, this wasn’t wise, the state of my relationship with Wes being what it was. But the state of the relationship was also the very reason I agreed to meet with Justin—if this makes any

sense to you.’’

‘‘It makes perfect sense,’’ I told her.

Allison spoke slowly now, and with obvious pain.

‘‘Regardless of my vulnerable emotional condition,

however, I never intended that our reunion would go

beyond that one lunch, Desiree. But it did. There were

more lunches, and eventually—’’ She broke off, un

able to continue.

I pressed her. ‘‘Eventually?’’

‘‘We . . . we . . .’’ She reached in her purse for a

tissue and dabbed at her eyes.

‘‘Eventually you became intimate?’’ I provided

gently.

MURDER
CAN
RAIN
ON
YOUR
SHOWER

155

‘‘Yes, but only once,’’ Allison acknowledged in a

tremulous voice. ‘‘Of course, even once was too often.

And it’s not as if I were in love with Justin—I don’t even find him particularly attractive. I can’t under

stand how I could have betrayed Wes like that. And

for what? For being a loyal brother?’’

Okay, go ahead; call me a self-righteous prig. But I don’t happen to be a big fan of adultery. What’s more,

as far as I know, it’s never proved a cure-all for a troubled marriage. Nevertheless, I could conceive of

how Allison might have gotten involved with her for

mer sweetheart in an effort to escape from her marital

problems—even if only temporarily. Besides, the

woman hardly needed a lecture on morals from me,

especially then. ‘‘Don’t be too tough on yourself, Alli

son,’’ I said in my most sympathetic tone. ‘‘With the sort of tension you were under, it’s not too difficult to imagine how something like that might occur.’’

‘‘Thank you, Desiree, but you don’t have to make

excuses for me. No one is more aware than I that

there
is
no excuse. And the saddest part of all this is that I absolutely adore my husband. And I always

have.’’

I was puzzled as to where this was heading. So after

a minute or so, I put to her, ‘‘And your relationship with Justin somehow resulted in the police calling on you yesterday?’’

‘‘I was about to explain. I have no idea how, but

Bobbie Jean discovered that Justin and I had been . . .

uh . . . together. Or at least this is what I believed at the time. In retrospect I realize there’s a strong likeli

hood that she was merely fishing. Someone might have

spotted the two of us having lunch and mentioned it to her. I certainly wouldn’t put it past my sister-in-law

to pretend to know more than she actually did in

order to trick me into an admission.’’ Allison shook her head ruefully. ‘‘If so, she succeeded.’’

‘‘She confronted you, I gather.’’

‘‘Yes, two or three weeks after I’d broken it off

with Justin. Wes and I were more or less back to

156

Selma
Eichler

normal by then—or, considering what I’d done, as

normal as we can ever be again. I pleaded with Bobbie

Jean not to say anything to him, if not for my sake then because of the pain it would cause him if he were

to learn that I’d been with another man.’’

‘‘What was Bobbie Jean’s response?’’

‘‘At first she wouldn’t give me any indication as to whether or not she planned on going to Wes with

what she’d found out. She just asked how it felt to have
her
sit in judgment of
me
, for a change. She appeared to consider this reversal of positions some

sort of divine retribution. Then she said that she’d have to devote some thought to her intentions. She

was leaving for Hawaii the next morning and would

be gone for two weeks. She’d let me know her deci

sion when she came home, she said.

‘‘Well, unfortunately—
very
unfortunately, as it has turned out—I wouldn’t allow myself to simply sit

around and wait. I wrote Bobbie Jean a letter to the effect that I’d never been unfaithful to Wes before

and, more important, that I never would be again. I also made another attempt to impress upon her that

telling him about Justin and me was the surest way to

break his heart.

‘‘At any rate, when she returned from her trip, Bob

bie Jean announced that she’d reached the conclusion

that it was best to let the matter drop. And until yes

terday, I was under the impression that that was the end of it. Apparently, however, she’d kept my letter in the event she changed her mind. Or perhaps to

hold over me the next time my attitude was what she might regard as holier-than-thou. There’s even an out

side possibility that she forgot its existence, since it was very soon after Bobbie Jean’s Hawaiian vacation

that Geoffrey died.’’

I gulped. ‘‘And the police got their hands on that

letter?’’

‘‘Yes. They were at Bobbie Jean’s, looking through

her things to see if there might be something there that could shed some light on her murder.’’ And then,

MURDER
CAN
RAIN
ON
YOUR
SHOWER

157

dryly: ‘‘Apparently they feel that the search was

worthwhile.’’

‘‘Just what did they say to you?’’

‘‘Chief Porchow told me that it was obvious Bobbie

Jean had been threatening to acquaint her brother

with what he referred to as my ‘indiscretion.’ And I informed him that she’d agreed to keep my secret

months ago. He said that this was probably true. But then he very pointedly asked why I supposed she’d

been holding on to the letter like that.’’

‘‘And?’’

‘‘I insisted that I hadn’t a clue, that I was astonished

it had still been in her possession. But Porchow ap

peared to be extremely skeptical. He has this mis

guided theory that I’d been fearful Bobbie Jean would

renege on her promise to me, even suggesting that I’d

had some advance knowledge that she was planning

to go back on her word.’’ Allison tried hard to paste a smile on her lips, but she wasn’t quite able to pull it off. ‘‘I guess things don’t look too good for me, do they?’’

‘‘I wouldn’t say that. All the police have on you is a
possible
motive. And trust me, that’s hardly some

thing they can take into court.’’

‘‘I can only pray that you’re right,’’ she responded quietly. ‘‘Do you have any idea yet who
did
kill Bob

bie Jean?’’

‘‘No, not yet.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

You can’t imagine the amount of dejection that was

packed into this one little word. And it shot through my mind that Allison was either totally convinced that

the poisoner was someone other than one of her four buddies or that, given her present circumstances, she didn’t much care
who
it was at this point.

‘‘Listen, I’ll just have to light a fire under myself and solve this thing in a hurry, won’t I?’’ I said, hoping

that I at least
sounded
optimistic. ‘‘Tell me, how did your session with the police end?’’

‘‘The chief informed me that they’d be in touch.’’

158

Selma
Eichler

‘‘And Wes knows nothing about the visit?’’

‘‘He was at the office when the police showed up

at the house. But perhaps I ought to talk to him

about . . . about all of this before somebody else does.

Do you think I should, Desiree?’’ Allison looked as

though the last thing in the world she wanted from

me was a yes.

Nevertheless, she’d asked for my opinion. ‘‘Umm, I

guess that might be wise.’’

‘‘The problem is, I’m not at all certain that I have the courage to tell Wes that I betrayed him. It took hours before I was even able to force myself to contact

you about . . . the situation.’’ She managed a crooked

grin. ‘‘And there’s not even any danger of your asking

for a divorce.’’

After this, for what seemed like a long while—but

was probably not much more than a minute or two—

neither of us said anything. Then Allison murmured,

her eyes filling up, ‘‘God, Desiree, what will I do if I lose him?’’

And now Ellen’s almost-mother-in-law put her hands

over her face and wept.

Chapter
25

What a mess!

Once my visitor left, I kept myself occupied for the

longest while by staring unseeingly into space and, in the process, managed to furnish myself with a queensize headache. In spite of all my attempts at reassurance—reiter

ated even when she was halfway out of the door—I

hadn’t succeeded in totally convincing Allison Lynton

that she had nothing to fear from the police.

I didn’t blame her, either. The truth is, I hadn’t

been able to convince myself.

Not that I considered for a single second the possi

bility that Porchow and company might be on the right