Murder Can Cool Off Your Affair by Selma Eichler Page A

him?”
    “He seems to be a decent enough chap, as well.”
    Did he say “chap”? I suppressed a smile. “What about enemies? Has John ruffled any feathers that you know of?”
    “No. And if you don’t mind my saying this, you don’t appear to be giving much weight to my street-crime theory.”
    “I assure you, I’m not disregarding it. But when a man who is shortly due to come into a bundle is murdered, you have to at least recognize that there might have been a financial motive for what happened. And when soon after this an attempt is made on the life of the person who’s next in line to inherit, well, I’d be extremely negligent if I didn’t investigate the likelihood of a tie-in.”
    Scott dug in his heels. “I still believe it was some young punk who shot at your client.”
    “I’m not disputing you. In that event, though, who shot Edward?”
    “This I couldn’t say. As I’ve been trying to impress upon you, I really didn’t know very much about the man, but—” Breaking off abruptly, Scott tilted his head to one side. For a few seconds he sat there silently, frowning. And when he addressed me again, he spoke slowly, his eyes focused on some point over my left shoulder. “If, however, I’m mistaken about that attack on John having been a random act, then . . .” His voice trailed off, and he blinked a few times.
    “Then—what?”
    “Then it’s probable that the shooting is connected to Edward’s death. And in that case . . .” He shook his head as if having difficulty accepting the thought.
    “In that case—?” I prompted.
    “It would have to pertain to Uncle Victor’s will, with the ‘perpetrator,’ as you people call it, almost certainly David Hearn.”
    “Why David?”
    “Obviously, I would know if it were I, and it wasn’t. I can vouch for Shawna, as well—positively. And I assure you I’d be just as convinced of this if she hadn’t been with me at the time Edward was killed. She’s simply not that sort of individual.”
    “But three more people would have to die in order for David to inherit.” The words were out before I’d really considered them. And, to my embarrassment, the inference was pretty clear: On the other hand, just one person—my client—stood between the Riley twins and all that prosperity. “Of course,” I added in a belated—and fairly transparent—burst of diplomacy, “who’s to say David didn’t regard the rewards as worth the effort?”
    I could have sung all the verses of The Star-Spangled Banner —including the ones hardly anyone’seven heard of—and polished off the performance with a little tap dance (if I knew how to tap-dance, that is) in the silence that followed. At last Scott took a deep breath, let it out, and said, “I had no intention of telling you this, but the truth is, it would only be necessary for David to dispose of John in order to get his hands on a good portion of Uncle Victor’s assets.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Shawna and David—they’re involved.”
    “Do you mean romantically ?”
    “I imagine you could term it that,” Scott retorted snidely.
    Remembering Shawna’s comments about David Hearn—and his about her, as well—I had a real problem accepting that there could be anything between the two of them. “Are you certain? Your sister seemed almost disdainful of David.”
    “I would surmise that this was designed to muddy the waters a bit. They appear determined to keep their unfortunate affair a deep, dark secret. Shawna never even told me about the relationship. And we’ve always shared everything. ”
    “How did you find out, then?”
    “I did something I’m not too proud of.”
    “I haven’t come here to judge you. Honestly.”
    Scott hesitated a few moments before going on. “This dates back several months, Desiree, when I encountered my next-door neighbor at the food market one day. ‘I saw your sister at the theater the other night,’ she informed me. ‘She was