Act of God

except for those darned geese.”
    Houle’s face seemed to cave in. “What... what the hell are you trying to do to me?”
    “Nothing worse than you’ve already done to others. Let me outline things for you, in case some of the details have slipped your mind, all the pressure you’ve been under lately.”
    Houle didn’t sit back. He didn’t move in any way.
    I said, “A while ago, you started losing interest in your wife. Divorce didn’t make much sense: The real money in the marriage, like this house, came from her side, and trying to make it on your own in real estate with this economy didn’t look too appealing. So, you stuck it out. Then, about a year ago, along comes Darbra Proft.”
    My mentioning her name seemed to hurt him.
    “You fell for her, hook, line, and sinker. But she wanted a lot of nice things, and you didn’t really have the discretionary income to provide them. However, the two of you saw a way, a way that must have made a lot of sense the more you thought and talked about it, even though it was a little different from how Darbra had earned her last grubstake.”
    “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
    “Pay attention, Rog, it’ll come back to you. Six years ago, Darbra killed her mother, pushing the woman off a roof for fifty thousand in life insurance. About four months ago, Darbra was running low on money and would have done the same to her brother, even tried to get him to check whether the policies were still in effect, so there’d be no inquiry on record from her. But then she probably figured, and rightly, that two insured, accidental deaths in the same family circle within a decade was pushing it a little. On the other hand, there was your wife. Darbra was younger than Caroline, but looked old for her age, and she’d spent some time as a stage actress. Not a very good actress, but then, she didn’t need to be. Just good enough to fool a friend from a distance and strangers up close. Darbra got a job at Value Furniture, to give her a little cover and enough money to tide her over. Then you borrowed a videotape of a party from your neighbor, Mrs. Thorson, so Darbra could bone up on your wife’s limp, posture, mannerisms. You and Darbra had a violent breakup scene in Grgo’s restaurant, kind of overdone by her, as you said, though I heard you were very convincing. About the same time, Darbra wheedled some vacation time from her new boss to take a trip to New Jersey, to give both her and you perfect alibis.
    “The plan was for Darbra to dye her hair blond and come back up here from New Jersey by train. Her aunt Darlene said she loved to ride trains as a kid, and it fit in perfectly. The day of your wife’s flight to Washington, Darbra takes the Amtrak from Newark to Boston. She comes out here, probably by cab to an address a few blocks away. Then she walks over to this house. Tell me, Rog, was Caroline already dead by then?”
    No response, the eyes seeming to look not at me but inward.
    “I’m guessing she wasn’t, that you’d want Caroline alive as long as possible, in case Mrs. Thorson or another neighbor popped over to wish her well on the trip. I also believe you’d want Darbra in on the killing. That’s the one death I can’t describe for you, so let’s hold it for now. At some point, Darbra goes up to your wife’s closet, dresses in one of her outfits, and puts on her sunglasses. You call a cab for Darbra, and then pop next door yourself, so that Mrs. Thorson gets a look only from her door of a cab pulling away and through the passenger window her ‘friend’ Caroline’s classic wave, something Darbra had practiced from the video. The plan from there was for you to go to Mrs. Thor-son’s for dinner, to bring your cellular phone and to act naturally, at some point noting with concern the fact that your wife hadn’t gotten in touch with you after her plane landed. Then we’d have an investigation, which would show that Caroline Houle had gotten the assistance of a flight attendant in preboarding, introduced herself even, and definitely had been on the plane when it arrived in D.C. The authorities would search the Washington area for the woman, nobody but you and Darbra knowing that Darbra had changed in the ladies’ room at the airport, gone to the train station, and taken the Amtrak back to New Jersey, to finish out her vacation and round out her alibi. How am I doing so far, Rog?”
    He lifted his chin a little.
    “I’ll take that as