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The housekeeper swallowed heavily.
“Who will defend her when she’s gone? If she’s innocent—”
“She is!”
“The killer might seize upon her death and use it to his or her advantage. They might point the finger at her. With Mrs. Rigg-Lyon gone, who’s to stop the police from recording her as the murderer? The killer will walk free, and her memory will be tarnished.”
The housekeeper’s eyes filled with tears. “The police won’t believe such a blatantly false accusation.”
Harry shook his head sadly. “I know the detective assigned to this investigation. He’s lazy. He’ll look for the easy route, and what could be easier than blaming a dead woman with no connections in this country? No one to defend her honor?”
The housekeeper pressed a hand to her chest. “All right. You’ve made your point. She returned home at around four o’clock. I don’t know if that exonerates her or not, but I can assure you, she’s not a murderess.”
It exonerated her, if it was the truth. For Mrs. Rigg-Lyon to be back at home in Marylebone by four, she had to have left the polo club before the murder occurred.
“Now stop bothering her. She’s got enough on her plate, and she didn’t do it. They had their problems, like all married couples, but I never heard a harsh word exchanged between them. You should be looking at those who argued with him, likethat woman.” She all but spat the words.
“Rosa Rivera?” I asked.
“She was here a few days before he died. She must have waited for Mrs. Rigg-Lyon to leave, because she arrived a few minutes later. Mr. Rigg-Lyon was furious and told her to stay away for the time being, that they’d have more freedom soon. I suspect he was talking about after his wife’s death.”
It seemed so, but Rosa Rivera claimed Rigg-Lyon thought the appointments with John S were liaisons with her lover. Either Rosa lied to us about him knowing or he’d lied to her.
“What did Miss Rivera say to that?” Harry asked.
“She never got a chance to ask; not while I was there, anyway. He saw me, so I had to move away to where I couldn’t hear them.” For someone who refused to answer us moments ago, the housekeeper was very free with her words now. It was as if she’d removed a stopper to release one answer but couldn’t put it back and now more poured out. “I peeked through the gap in the door and watched. That woman was angry at first, but he calmed her down and they made up.” She pulled a face. “Obscene, it was, all that kissing.”
“Did Miss Rivera often show up in Mrs. Rigg-Lyon’s absence?” I asked.
“No. Never.”
“So why did she come that day?”
The housekeeper shrugged.
Harry and I thanked her and climbed the stairs to return to street level. We were both lost in our own thoughts, neither speaking until we reached the main road where he hailed a cab. I directed the driver to the bank where Mr. Hardwick worked. We’d planned to call on him after speaking to the Rigg-Lyon servants, and I saw no reason to change our plan. While Rosa Rivera’s arrival at the house was interesting, it was irrelevant. She had an alibi for the time of the murder.
Harry’s thoughts did not follow mine, however. “She could have hired someone,” he said when I voiced my opinion on her innocence. “Or she might have another lover prepared to murder at her bidding.”
“You think a lover would kill a rival for her? That’s rather extreme.”
“Some men will do anything for love.”
It didn’t ring true to me, however. Rosa didn’t appear to have other lovers, and her only recent disagreement with Rigg-Lyon was over her showing up at his house. They were otherwise content with their arrangement.
“I can spare a few minutes between meetings,” Mr. Hardwick said when we finally got to see him. “How can I help this time?”
His cheery manner felt odd coming less than a week after the death of his close friend. His sorrow had been evident the last time we called on him, but there was no sign of it now.
Before we asked about doping horses, there was something I wanted to check. “How well do you know Rosa Rivera?”
“Didn’t we already discuss her? Are you accusing me of something?”
“Was she seeing another man at the same time as Mr. Rigg-Lyon?”
“Why would I know a thing like that?”
“You were very good friends with Mr. Rigg-Lyon. Did you never talk about her with him?”
