PI On A Hot Tin Roof

so far?”
    Talba nodded, riveted.
    “Well, that’s it. You buying it?”
    “It fits with the facts, anyhow. But what about Suzanne? Kristin killed her, too?”
    “Oh,
yeah. Must have, anyhow. Royce wouldn’t know a damn thing about that, and Kristin still had the gun.”
    “The motive being?”
    Skip heaved her shoulders in a big fake shrug. “Royce wouldn’t know, but it must have been jealousy because Kristin was so obsessed with him. So he had to stand by and see his own wife murdered and couldn’t even go to the cops because of his completely understandable part in the cover-up of Buddy’s murder.”
    “Oh, boy. In that case, what was he doing in my office?”
    “Well, he had to try to help recover the tape because it incriminated him, even though he was completely innocent.”
    “Right. That sure explains the gun.”
    “Oh, that. Well, Kristin explained how dangerous you are, being a blackmailer and all, and he fired because he’d encountered a strange man holding a gun on him. Wouldn’t anyone?”
    “Good enough lawyer, a jury might buy it.”
    “But you forget, if the DA buys that scenario, Kristin’s the one on trial, and naturally she’d have to testify in her own defense.”
    “Okay. Hit me with the ‘she said.’”
    “Would you believe it? It’s practically the same story, only in reverse. See, even though she was deeply devoted to Buddy, Royce seduced
her
(really, just once)—”
    “Could happen to anybody.”
    “Uh-huh. And after that he just couldn’t leave her alone, no matter how much she resisted his unwelcome advances. So finally, unbeknownst to her, Royce goes to his father and says the two of them are in love, but Buddy, of course, rightly refuses to believe him, and a fight breaks out, which ends with Royce killing him with the very same marble statue he said
Kristin
killed him with. She figures he must have somehow stolen her key to her father’s house, lifted the gun, moved the body to the marina all by himself, and shot his dad to obscure the evidence, after first making the tape. She figures all this out, but she figures I won’t, so that’s why she hires you—so he’ll get his just deserts.”
    “But she doesn’t tell me anything about her suspicions.”
    “Right. But then later Royce kills Suzanne because somehow she must have found out, after which Kristin finds the gun in her car and gets scared because she knows he planted it.”
    “But she still doesn’t mention any of this to anybody.”
    “Right. Must have had a lot of faith in you, Baroness, knowing you’d somehow get to the bottom of it, not having a clue where you were going.”
    “But then I figure out about the tape and
she
tries to buy it back. How does she explain that? Not to mention the fact that Royce turns up in my office with a gun.”
    “Well, see, she gets brave and confronts Royce all by her sweet self, and he coerces her into getting the tape for him. Says he’ll kill her if she doesn’t, and she knows how dangerous he is, because by now he’s pretty much admitted to all the rest of it—”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “And she had no idea he was going to follow her into your office. Why, he was probably going to kill
her.
”
    “
And
me.”
    Skip slapped her hands together and folded them, seemingly in conclusion. “That’s her theory.”
    “What’s yours?”
    “No way they weren’t in it together. The main question is, who actually killed Buddy? No prints on the statue, naturally.”
    “Well, I’ve got another couple of questions. Why hire me, and why turn in the gun?”
    “Okay, what’s
your
theory?”
    “I think they always meant to frame LaGarde—only they needed me to make it work. They couldn’t manipulate you, but they thought they could lead me right to LaGarde. So they let me spin my wheels, then they plant the gun, and the idea was, I turn it in, then he goes to prison, and Kristin takes over the business. And Royce inherits his half of his mother’s money. When Buddy died, the money probably passed to Lucy and Royce. I already know the house did.”
    Skip nodded. “Right on that count. Celeste had a trust that matured before she died, and Buddy got the money.”
    “So if they were in it together, Royce and Kristin could get married and they’d be in control of two major fortunes.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I think, too.”
    “Only thing was, they thought they needed me to poke around enough to set LaGarde up. Probably thought I couldn’t detect my way