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I guessed that he’d made the statement about there being a witness because he wanted to put Doug Snyder off balance. At the same time, I had to wonder if a psychic vision would be admissible as evidence in court. I noticed how Calvin hadn’t said who that witness was, or how they’d managed to see an argument Doug probably had thought was private.
For some reason, Doug and Tansy exchanged a single uneasy glance. But then he said, “Nothing.”
“It didn’t look like nothing.”
Dead silence for a couple of seconds. Then Tansy knotted her thin fingers in her black-clad lap and said in her little-girl voice, “It was about me.”
Calvin’s head swiveled toward her. “How so?”
She bit her lip. Right then, she looked about sixteen years old. In that same wispy, almost breathless tone, she replied, “Lilith found out that Doug and I were in a relationship.”
I could feel my eyebrows go shooting up. All right, I knew that Tansy was probably in her early twenties and older than she looked, but still. There had to be at least fifteen years separating her and Doug Snyder, maybe more.
Lilith’s manager thrust out his jaw, looking belligerent. “Yes, we were. And it was none of Lilith’s business.”
“I assume Lilith thought otherwise,” Calvin observed, a glint that was almost amused entering his dark eyes.
“Yes,” Tansy put in before Doug could reply. “Lilith always wanted all the focus to be on her. She didn’t want anyone who worked with her to have any kind of a personal life.”
“What about Boden’s groupies?” I interjected before I could stop myself.
Calvin gave me the slightest shake of his head, apparently signaling his displeasure at the interruption, but Tansy said promptly, “Oh, she didn’t care about that. Picking up girls on the road isn’t exactly the same thing as having a personal life. It wasn’t as if he was seeing someone on a regular basis.”
Before I could say anything else, Calvin returned to Doug. “So, Lilith discovered you were having an affair with her assistant, and you argued. What did she say?”
The other man’s jaw hardened further, even as his gaze dropped to the cheerful blue patterned rug under his feet. “She told me she was firing me, that she wouldn’t allow disloyalty on her team.”
“Sounds like grounds for murder to me.”
Those words made Doug Snyder propel himself up from the sofa. “Please,” he said in disparaging tones. “I have a long list of other people just dying to work with me…so to speak. I didn’t need Lilith Black. In fact, the whole setup of her traveling from place to place to perform her magic rituals was my idea.”
Calvin looked over at Tansy. “Is this true?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“And did you know she was a complete fake?”
Dead quiet. I watched the girl’s face, waiting to see the betrayal there…and not finding it.
“Yes.”
So much for my judgment of human nature. I could have sworn that Tansy had bought into Lilith’s act hook, line, and sinker. Apparently, she was a better actress than I thought.
Calvin didn’t even blink. “Was she going to fire you, too?”
Tansy’s teeth clamped down on her lower lip again. When she replied, though, she sounded resigned more than anything. “I think so. She hadn’t said anything yet, but I could tell from the way she was acting that she was irritated with me, too. I think she was just waiting until this ritual was over and we were back in L.A. before she did anything about it. After all, if she fired me here, she would have had to manage all the packing up on her own.”
That sounded like the Lilith Black we all knew and loved. Or at least, I had a feeling she’d make sure her own needs were looked after before she did anything so drastic as fire her faithful little shadow.
When neither Calvin nor I said anything, though, Tansy burst out, sounding much more impassioned this time, “We had nothing to do with Lilith’s death! I don’t know who killed her, but I know it wasn’t either of us!”
From what Calvin had told me about the murder, I doubted that Tansy was responsible. She was too small and thin and frail. The angle of the knife would have been all wrong.
Doug, on the other hand….
“Don’t leave town,” Calvin said, and once again sent me the faintest of nods. This time, though, I understood that he was letting me know we were done here.
“So, what?” Doug demanded, voice angry now. “Are we under arrest?”
