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Shocker. Was anyone honest anymore? Finley gave a noncommittal nod. “Did you tell Ellen Winthrop that I spoke to you?”
Visibly startled, Marsh stammered, “I ... I wanted her to know I wasn’t going to sit back and allow her to try and frame me for what she’s done.” She glanced away for a moment. “I was worried she sent you.”
Reasonable response. Finley moved on. “What is it you weren’t honest about?”
“Jarrod and I first met exactly like I told you—at the Mengesha party. We stopped seeing each other for a while after he marriedher.” She cradled her coffee cup in both hands. “Then about a month ago we reconnected, just as I said, but it wasn’t only sex this time.”
Finley waited through her hesitation. When it lagged on, she prompted, “Something unexpected happened?”
“We realized we wanted to be together. He told me he’d made a horrible mistake.”
“The marriage was a mistake?” Another big surprise. Grady really was a catch.
“Yes. But it was more than that—he was worried that his wife had done something really bad.”
Finley nodded, her curiosity piqued now. “Define ‘really bad.’”
Marsh’s gaze locked on Finley’s. “He thinks she had something to do with a woman’s death.”
There was an unexpected twist.
“Do you have proof of this allegation?” Finley was always grateful for information, but it was nothing more than hearsay unless there was solid proof.
Marsh shook her head. “No proof, but I can tell you his concerns were sincere.”
It wasn’t easy, but Finley managed to hold back a laugh. The man was cheating on his wife. Stealing her money. Sincerity wasn’t likely one of his finer qualities.
“Her name was Nora Duncan,” Marsh continued. “Jarrod found a file about her. Ellen had dug up everything on her she could find. According to her notes, she’d even started seeing Dr.Mengesha in an attempt to get information on the woman.”
Not exactly the stunning revelation Finley had hoped for. “Unless you provided her information, we both know the doc didn’t.”
Marsh stared open mouthed at Finley, then insisted, “I told her nothing, but that didn’t keep the Duncan woman from ending up dead.”
“She was murdered?” So far Finley wasn’t buying into the big story.
Marsh shook her head. “Supposedly she killed herself, but Jarrod was convinced, based on what he discovered, that Ellen had something to do with it. He was afraid of her. All of this happened before they met, but the idea got him digging around to see what else he could find. The more he discovered about her, the more worried he grew. Hesaid she and her friends were psycho and he intended to get out before he ended up dead too.” She blinked rapidly, but the move didn’t stop the tears—whether real or fake—from crowding into her eyes. “She must have found out he was looking into her secret activities, because he’s dead.” Marsh leaned forward. “I’m terrified I’ll be next. Someone has been watching me. Driving past my house at night. I’m certain she at least suspects Jarrod confided in me, and I don’t know what to do.”
“What secret activities?” This was all very dramatic, but it wasn’t giving Finley much she could work with.
“He wasn’t sure. Something she and the women she worked with were into.”
“If what you say is true,” Finley ventured, and that was a hell of a bigif, “and he was scared for his life, why was he siphoning money from her accounts? Why didn’t he just leave?”
Marsh frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Jarrod stole a lot of money from his wife. Moved it to a secret account. He didn’t tell you about that?”
Marsh’s expression shifted to shock as she moved her head firmly from side to side. “I don’t believe you. He wanted out. He didn’t want her money. He wasn’t that kind of person.”
At this point Finley couldn’t prove what sort of person Grady had been. There were too many blank spots in his history. But the money was missing, and the receiving account did have his name on it. At least according to Winthrop’s top gun forensic accountant. Could she have set the account up herself to make him look guilty? Sure, she could have. Didn’t make a whole lot of sense. If killing Jarrod Grady had been Ellen Winthrop’s goal, there were many far-easier ways to go about it.
“Let’s go back to the Duncan woman,” Finley said. “Why would Winthrop have wanted to hurt her?”
“Apparently there was a love triangle,” Marsh said, glancing side to side as she spoke. “Duncan was having a relationship with someone close to Ellen, and she got jealous.”
“You’re suggesting,” Finley said for clarification, “that prior to her relationship with Grady, Winthrop was involved intimately with someone else.”
Marsh shook her head. “He didn’t think it was that kind of relationship. It was a close friendship, and Ellen thought Duncan was interfering.”
