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“I didn’t want to fight in front of Ellie. I knew how Nina could be.”
“So she had a history of being volatile?”
“No more than any other woman.”
“But we aren’t talking about other women, Dr. Hastings. We’re talking about your wife. The one you’re accused of murdering.”
“I didn’t kill Nina.”
“You were scheduled to leave town the following morning?”
“Yes.”
“And you were angry at your wife for putting a deposit down on a group facility home for your daughter?”
“Yes. But—”
“And what happened at the Belmond?”
“I met her in Room 553. She’d reserved it.”
“How would you describe her state when you saw her?”
“I told you. I’ve told everyone. She was dead.”
“Yet you didn’t call the authorities. You fled.”
“I tried to resuscitate her.”
“But you just stated that she was deceased when you found her.”
“What would you have done? I was in shock. I acted automatically.”
“What you also did was destroy a crime scene.”
“That’s pretty obvious now. But at the time, I wasn’t thinking about that.”
“What were you thinking about?”
I was thinking it was my fault; that Nina was in that room because of me. “I was thinking who would do this…”
“Did you suspect Mrs. Dunaway?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“What reason would she have to kill Nina?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Laurel Dunaway
Journal Entry
It wasn’t hard to lie. They made it easy. They set it up so the words could practically roll right off of my tongue. They were convinced they’d caught their killer. They were one step shy of celebrating, a drink or two, pats on the back for a job well done. I was the final step prohibiting them from getting to where they wanted to be. Of course, being the fine officers of the law they are, they were also genuinely curious about what I knew. Even so, they wanted a certain story—an easy story—the kind of story that resulted in the least amount of paperwork. This made it easy to allow them to lead the witness.
