That looked to have given Christine a few added gray hairs. “But that’s not really what I’m here to talk about. I’m sure you’re more interested in what the police know—and what they might suspect. They know you’d been having coffee with Martin Rigsdale at a diner near his office. You’ve been identified there.”
True enough. Between Sunny and Tobe, Mark Trumbull had that fact. Now to mix in a little theory. “They suspect that Kristi’s alibi for you isn’t as rock solid as it seems. How would Kristi handle her medical expenses without you? For that matter, where would she live? Those are just crass, dollars-and-cents reasons why she might stretch the truth in your favor. There might be more high-minded motives, like avoiding scandal—”
“Stop!” Christine begged.
“But we haven’t even gotten to the Café Artisan and how you almost got caught there.” After all the buildup, Sunny tried her best shot—and immediately felt terrible as tears began trickling down Christine’s cheeks.
“Do you want the money now?” she asked in a choked voice. “I thought I was supposed to deliver it tonight.”
“What?” Sunny asked in shock.
“What do you mean, ‘What?’” Christine fought to blink her tears away, her eyes getting a bit sharper.
“You let the cat out of the bag,” Sunny said. “You’re being blackmailed?”
Christine trembled between fear and anger. “Who are you?”
“Someone who’s trying to find out who killed Martin Rigsdale,” Sunny told her bluntly. “A friend of mine is being accused, and I’d like to clear her. So what are you paying to hide, the affair or Martin’s murder?”
A little belatedly, Sunny began looking around to make sure Christine had no weapons close at hand.
But it appeared that she’d gotten a good read on her subject. Christine deflated in her seat. “The affair, of course. Why would I kill Martin? We were in love.” She paused for a second. “At least, I thought we were.”
“A lot of women come to that conclusion, sooner or later,” Sunny said a little grimly. “Usually it happens when they discover they aren’t the only woman in a man’s life.”
“What?” Christine seemed genuinely shocked by that news.
“Maybe the word hasn’t made it out here yet, but it’s common knowledge in Portsmouth that Martin and his receptionist didn’t have a merely professional relationship.”
“But she’s barely older than Kristi!”
Sunny nodded. “Some people might see that as motive.”
“I didn’t kill Martin, and don’t know who did.” Christine’s show of spirit quickly fizzled. “Maybe it was the blackmailer. Maybe it’s all my fault.” The tears began again.
“How is it your fault?”
“The night Martin . . . died”—Christine tripped over the word—“I was supposed to bring money.”
“Where?” Sunny asked.
“To his office—he was going to deliver it. I was supposed to come in the secret way—”
“Wait a minute,” Sunny said, “you’re getting ahead of me. What secret way?”
Christine actually blushed. “It’s stupid, really. He had a panel built into his office wall. It led out to the back stairs—and the back door. No one could see me come in, and we—we could go up to his bedroom. And then I could leave again by the back way. He said he’d leave it unlocked so I could bring the money.”
She looked down, trembling. “But I couldn’t. I could only get my hands on half of what they wanted. When I went to the bank, I found out that my husband had withdrawn most of the money from our joint account. We are separated, and I guess that was the first step toward a real divorce.”
“And you lost it,” Sunny said, remembering Kristi’s story about her mom’s out-of-the-ordinary behavior.
Christine nodded. “I didn’t know what to do. I got a bottle of wine, trying to work up the nerve to call Martin and tell him. But I had too much. The next thing I remember, I was waking up at one in the morning.” Humiliation and guilt added ten years to her face. “If I’d even brought what I could have, maybe the blackmailer—”
“I hate to tell you this, but the blackmailer was Martin.” Sunny tried to make her voice gentle. “You have to know he was having money problems.”
Christine shook her head violently. When she spoke, she picked up on the second thing Sunny had said, not the blackmail. “His wife took him to the cleaner’s in the divorce.”
“He messed up their finances way before the divorce,” Sunny told her. “And then he borrowed money from some shady characters to set up his new office. That got him in worse trouble. Martin tried to pressure money out of Jane. When did he tell you about this blackmail?”
