“We don’t eliminate any possibility until we’ve thoroughly investigated it.”
Carys visibly swallowed.
“Ms. Varney, can you account for your whereabouts Sunday night?”
Carys glanced from Avery to Saga. She wrung her hands and swallowed again before answering. “I-I was at the funeral, then the dinner, and then I came home, read a book, and went to bed.”
Avery glanced to Saga, who made a show of writing something down in her notepad, then back again. “Can anyone vouch for that?”
“N-no.” Carys’s steely demeanor was rapidly crumbling. She cleared her throat and forced a smile, gesturing farther into the sitting room just beyond the entryway. “Perhaps you should come in and sit. I could make some tea. I’ll answer anything you want to know.”
“No tea necessary,” Avery dismissed. She wasn’t sure if it was Carys’s sudden behavior change or merely the state of the house, but her gut told her she didn’t want to consume anything made in that kitchen.
“Could I use your loo, by chance?” Saga piped up with a sheepish smile. “Afraid it might be a bit of an emergency. Rather large cup of coffee this morning.”
Carys sneered in disgust, then gestured dismissively down the hall. She led Avery straight through the foyer into the sitting room, though she herself did not sit. She picked at her fingernails and cuticles as she began to pace in front of the worn sheer curtains with small timid steps.
It was a dayroom, clearly not meant for holding company anytime near sunset, as the windows faced full west and would have been an incredible discomfort. Thankfully, they had several hours before the sun would begin to make the heat and backlighting unbearable.
Avery brushed a small amount of dust off an ottoman before sitting on its edge. “Were you aware your nephew had taken ill?”
“He’s my second cousin,” Carys corrected. “But no, I wasn’t aware he was in the hospital until you told me.”
“Yet learning about it didn’t appear to upset you.”
“I don’t have many feelings about it one way or the other,” said Carys. Seeing Avery’s expression, she explained. “Our mothers were close, but Eira and I never really got along, and I’ve never been particularly fond of children. Growing up hardly improved my desire to know him. When he was married he was dull, and when he was widowed, he was drunk. His life holds very little impact on mine, you might as well have been commenting on a man I’d never met in a country I’d never been.”
“Do you know anyone who might want to hurt him?”
For a moment she was at a loss, then with a careless shrug, “Anyone who ever met him?”
Avery quirked an eyebrow.
“I didn’t care for Eira, but she at least conducted her business with heart.” Carys leaned forward conspiratorially over the back of an armchair. There was something about the way she spoke that didn’t quite sound rehearsed, but rather like she was repeating someone else’s words—someone else’s gossip. “If Elis wasn’t fucking you, he was fucking you over. If you ask me, the plane with his wife and kid was sabotaged by someone hoping Elis would be on it.”
“Are you saying you know the plane was tampered with?”
Her demeanor dropped again, and once more she was nervous and twitchy—the stark contrast between the woman she wanted to be and the woman she was. “No. God, no. I forgot you’re with the police.” She took a deep breath. “No, I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything that anyone else doesn’t know. I was just telling you what I’ve heard—things people have said.”
“What people?”
“His girlfriends. A business partner or two. Elis never was very skilled at making connections, just enemies.”
“Do any of those enemies stand to inherit if something happened to him?”
Carys shook her head vigorously. “Not to my knowledge.” She walked around the armchair and sat, a small plume of dust rising up from the impact. “I suppose I’m Elis’s only living relative now…” She chewed onthe thought again, and the society woman slowly seeped back into her posture. “Unless…”
Avery was starting to wonder if this was just a game to Carys, helping her feel like the socialite she once was, only tempered by the realization that she was potentially playing with the law itself. “Unless what?”
“Have you questioned Eira’s supposed little boytoy?” Suddenly Carys looked like the cat that ate the canary. It was unnerving how quickly the mask came off and on. Perhaps this woman was capable of more than Avery had originally given her credit. And if so… Where was Saga?
Avery cleared her throat. “A routine questioning, yes.” It hadn’t been questioning so much as Benjamin letting his nerves completely divulge family secrets, but Carys didn’t need to know that. “Do you think there’s more information to be found?”
Carys preened. “Well, it’s not something Iknow, but I always had a hunch something wasn’t quite right about that arrangement.”
With a deep breath and renewed patience, she prompted again, “Could you elaborate?”
Carys shifted her posture, her chest puffed out and brazen. “Well, let’s see… He’s barely twenty-three, well-dressed, flamboyant… You think someone like that is going to have sex with awoman—let alone a woman Eira’s age? Why? What could possibly be the appeal?”
