“No, you did not,” said Chase. “And besides, we don’t know what happened. It could be Robbie, but it could be someone else entirely. Though, just to be on the safe side, maybe it’s best if you don’t go for long walks all by yourself for a while. At least until we’ve caught the man responsible for Jeff’s murder, all right?”
Steph nodded forlornly.“Of course. You’re absolutely right. I won’t.”
CHAPTER 29
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“Robbie probably hopes to marry Steph now that Jeff is dead,” said Dooley.
“That’s entirely possible,” I said. “Though I doubt whether she sees it that way.”
Once more we were traipsing through the sprawling winery in search of a person. This time it was Robbie we wanted to talk to, though if we ran into Kevin that wouldn’t be such a bad thing either. The place was so big that you could probably walk around for days and not bump into another living soul. Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating slightly, but still.
His dad had told us we would probably find Robbie in the garage, where he was busy fixing one of the trucks that had recently broken down. And so we had found the garage, but of Robbie there was no trace. But then I got an idea.
“Steph said that Robbie has been following her around,” I told Odelia. “So maybe he’s doing that right now?”
“Where did Steph say she was going?” asked Odelia.
“Look in on Zoe,” said Chase.
And so we retraced our steps, and soon approached the main residence, where the Stewart family lived. We circled the building, knowing that the nursery was at the back, and immediately Chase’s sharp eyes located our quarry.
“Hey, you!” he yelled. Robbie was actually standing behind a tree, glancing up at one of the windows, most likely the nursery. The moment he caught sight of us, he blanched. “We want to talk to you!” Chase said, just in case the young man thought we were there simply to take in the scenery.
For a moment I thought he’d turn and run, but he seemed to have more sense than that. And so he stayed put until we’d joined him.
“Great view?” asked Chase grimly as he pointed to the nursery window, where we could now see Steph holding her baby in her arms, and feeding Zoe a bottle.
“I was just… checking… something,” said Robbie lamely.
“Okay, so Steph tells us you’ve been stalking her,” said Chase, not beating about the bush. “And your dad told us he didn’t see you all afternoon yesterday. So what’s going on, Robbie?”
“Nothing. I just—did Steph really say that?”
“She did.”
“I’m not stalking her. I mean… I guess I’ve been looking out for her. What with her husband’s murder and all, I just figured she could use someone to keep an eye on her.”
“Where were you yesterday between two and three, Robbie?” Chase pressed. “And you better tell us the truth this time, cause sooner or later we’re going to find out, and if we discover you were anywhere near the place where Jeff was killed, there will be hell to pay.”
Robbie gulped once or twice, then stared at his feet.“I… I followed Jeff in my car. I just thought… Well, I don’t know what I thought. I’d overheard him say he was meeting a colleague in town, and I just figured that couldn’t be right. He works in New York—so how was he meeting a colleague in Hampton Cove? He’s not even from around here. He’s from Paris. It just struck me as odd, that’s all.”
“So you figured as Steph’s self-appointed protector and hero you would see where her husband was going, thinking that he might be up to no good, is that it?”
Robbie nodded meekly.“I thought maybe he was having an affair or something. It happens, you know, when men become dads, that suddenly they… well, you know. Anyway, so I followed him from a safe distance, all the way to Hampton Cove, and then to that place where he was meeting his so-called colleague. Only it wasn’t a bar but just a house, which struck me as pretty suspicious. And so I googled the place, and discovered it was a kind of private escort service. ‘Cipriana and Hailey are two sexy ladies who will make your wildest dreams come true.’ That’s what it said on their website. So I snapped a couple of pictures of him going in, and thought I’d show them to Steph, to prove that her husband was cheating on her with a prostitute. Only before I had the chance I heard that he’d actually been murdered by this Cipriana person, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to… well, you know…” Here his voice trailed off.
“To tell us you were there,” said Chase. “Just in case we would think you had something to do with the killings.” He rubbed his face. “Robbie, you do realize that lying to the police is a punishable offense? And so is withholding evidence?”
“I didn’t see anything,” he said defensively. “I didn’t see what happened.”
“Why don’t you let us be the judge of that?”
“No, but I figured it didn’t matter. This prostitute killed Jeff then killed herself. Only later I found out that it wasn’t as simple as that, and there was another angle. But by then it was too late. If I told you what happened I’d be in trouble.”