Digging Up The Dirt

“Are you sure it wasn’t simply a coincidence?” Barbie asked. “Seems to me if the person who hit you really wanted you in that ditch, he would have tried again.”

“It’s entirely possible,” An’gel said. “I’d much rather think that than think someone was trying to kill me.”

Helen Louise arrived with their servings of cassoulet before they could discuss the subject further. For several minutes all three women concentrated on the delicious dish.

An’gel ate about half of hers before deciding she had eaten more than enough. The rest could go home with them. “This is superb, but I think I’ve had enough for now.” She picked up her wineglass and finished off the contents.

“Yes, it is. I think I’m about done, too,” Dickce said. An’gel noticed Dickce had about half of hers left as well.

Barbie showed no signs of stopping. An’gel could see that there was little of her cassoulet left, and she seemed determined to finish it. She caught An’gel’s glance and grinned.

“I’ll burn it off on the tennis court,” she said. Three more bites, and she was done. She refilled her wineglass and drank half of it at one go.

Barbie was certainly a woman of healthy appetites, An’gel thought. Now that Barbie was full of wine and cassoulet, and hopefully in a somewhat mellow mood, An’gel decided to ask a question.

“Did you have an affair with Hadley before he left town forty years ago?”

CHAPTER 30

Barbie had been about to drink more wine when An’gel posed her question. She set the glass on the table and laughed, nervously, An’gel thought.

“Gracious, you certainly don’t mess around, An’gel,” Barbie said. “Why on the Lord’s green earth are you asking me such a question?”

“Because of the bones we found at Ashton Hall,” An’gel said. “Something terrible happened there, and the roots of that and the terrible things that have happened here recently all connect to the past. The common denominator in all this is Hadley Partridge.”

Barbie stared at her as if dazed. She licked her lips and started to speak. No sound came out. She took a breath and tried again. “Why should me having an affair with Hadley back then—and I’m not saying I did, mind you—why should that have anything to do with the rest?”

“Because,” An’gel said, pausing deliberately, “someone is evidently so desperate to have Hadley that she’s been willing to kill for him. Forty years ago, and again now.”

Barbie emitted another nervous laugh. “That’s crazy. The man is incredibly attractive, even now, and he oozes charm like nobody’s business. But kill in order to have him?” She shook her head. “That’s nuts.”

“To a sane person, yes,” An’gel said. “But to someone whose reason is warped, whose passion is out of control, it’s not. I have tried to come up with some other explanation for everything that’s happened, and I always come back to this.” She stared hard at Barbie. “Did you have an affair with Hadley back then?”

Barbie held up her hands. “All right, I give. I’ll tell you the whole pathetic story. I didn’t have an affair with him, but I would have given just about anything to get him into bed with me back then.” Her mouth twisted in a grimace of distaste. “My husband was good for maybe once a week, if you know what I mean. And not all that exciting even then. He cared more about hunting and fishing than he did about having an intimate relationship with me. I was ready for the first really good-looking man who came along. The minute I met Hadley, he was the one I wanted and thought I had to have.” She picked up her glass and drained the rest of the wine. When she set the glass back on the table, her hand shook a little.

“But Hadley didn’t return your lust, as it were?” An’gel asked, hoping she didn’t sound bitchy. She wasn’t comfortable hearing such details of another woman’s private life, but there wasn’t any way around it, she figured. She’d have to listen in order to get the answers she sought.

“No, he didn’t.” Barbie stared at the wine bottle and, after a brief hesitation, picked it up and emptied its contents into her glass. “I was devastated at the time. I got over it, though, and found consolation elsewhere.” She sipped at her wine.

“Did you have any idea at the time why Hadley wasn’t interested?” Dickce shook her head. “You were a beautiful young woman. I’m really surprised he didn’t respond.”

Barbie laughed, bitterly this time, An’gel thought. “I don’t know. At the time I thought he might be gay. But after he turned me down flat, I caught him in a compromising position with someone else.”

“Who?” An’gel and Dickce asked in unison.

“Reba Dalrymple,” Barbie replied. “Go figure. She had about as much sex appeal as a toaster, but I caught them in a major clinch. Neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to let go, either, from what I could see.”

“Where was this?” An’gel asked. “And when was it, do you remember?”

“Only too well. It was at that Christmas fund-raiser you and Dickce hosted about six months before Hadley left town. They were in one of the bedrooms upstairs at Riverhill.”

“Heavens,” An’gel said faintly.