Chapter 7
Erwin Residence
Vera tried again to kick off this round. “Ms. Erwin—”
“Remind me again why you’re asking me questions.” Erwin looked from Vera to Bent and back. “I’ve seen you in the newspaper, but I didn’t know you worked with Sheriff Benton.”
Vera reached way down deep for her patience.
The woman had been using every tactic available to avoid diving into this interview.
First with Bent and now with Vera. Erwin had begun her evasion tactics by asking a dozen questions of her own.
Then, like now, she interrupted each time Bent or Vera began.
“I’m a crime analyst. Sheriff Benton asked me to have a look at the case.” She produced a smile even a dead man would recognize as fake. “Now, let’s get started, shall we?”
“Do I need a lawyer?” Again, the younger woman looked from Vera to Bent, but this time her attention remained on the sheriff. “I mean, I feel like the two of you are sort of ganging up on me.”
Now she was just plain old being uncooperative. Where was the emotional wreck Bent had told Vera about? The woman who couldn’t stop crying?
“You are welcome to call your attorney,” Vera said. “We can wait.”
“How about I step outside? I have some calls to make.” Bent gave Erwin a nod and walked out of the room.
Vera barely suppressed a smile at his strategy. It was easy to guess, particularly considering the way Erwin’s face fell, that she had not intended for Bent to be the one to go. Well, Vera squared her shoulders. Erwin would just have to get over it.
The uncooperative witness shifted her startled attention back to Vera, who readied her pen once more to jot notes onto her pad.
For the most part the pad and pen were props used when needed to increase tension in the interviewee.
“Now, where were we? Oh yes, how did you come to be acquainted with Mr. Wilton?”
In most cases, it was advantageous to start at the actual beginning.
Since Alicia Wilton might not survive her injuries, for now this woman was the only firsthand perspective they had to learn one damned thing about the people involved in this mess.
Erwin was young. Maybe twenty-eight or nine.
She dressed casually but well. Black linen slacks and a billowy, cream-colored blouse with a large collar.
Her dark-brown hair was stick straight, as were her bangs.
She was petite and quite pretty. Though her personality so far was less than appealing.
“Just over five years ago, I moved from Nashville to Fayetteville,” she finally began. “I wasn’t sure finding a job would be possible.” She shrugged. “I started my search in Huntsville. Most people commute there for the better jobs.”
This was true. Huntsville was where the high-tech jobs were, for sure. Basically any sort of work you might look for could be found in the Rocket City.
“Why Fayetteville? Do you have family here?” It wasn’t like the area was a go-to place for new college grads searching for their first jobs, or anyone else for that matter. It was a really nice town with lots of friendly folks, but the job market was woefully limited.
“A friend I attended Lipscomb with talked me into it. We were roommates.”
Vera would very much like to speak with this friend. “What is your friend’s name, and does she still live in the area?”
Erwin shook her head. “Nola Childers. She died right after graduation. She was my best friend.” Tears made an appearance. “It was a really terrible time.”
“I imagine so.” After scribbling a few notes to pique Erwin’s curiosity, Vera moved to the next question. It was actually a repeat of the first, but Erwin appeared to prefer taking the long way around to answer. “Is that when you met Thomas Wilton?”
A frown furrowed the other woman’s face. “I actually heard about the position at my friend’s wake.”
Not surprising. It was a southern tradition to gather at a family’s home with truckloads of food to pay respects after the loss of a loved one. Conversations often lapsed into the latest news and/or gossip. One more push for the answer to her original question. “Is this where you met Wilton?”
“We didn’t officially meet there.” Erwin smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I mean, he was there with his first wife—Lena, the one who died. It wasn’t until a few days later that I went to his home and applied for the position I have now.”
Vera knew little to nothing about Thomas Wilton. Obviously she had heard the name and the scuttlebutt about his big inventions and mega mansion. “You’ve worked on his staff for five years then?”
“Yes.”
Another jotted note. “Can you describe your duties as his personal assistant?”
Erwin heaved a sigh. “I’ve already gone over this with the sheriff. Do we really have to do it again?” She shuddered visibly. “I just want to be alone. I have a great deal of planning to do.”
“Planning?”
“There’s the funeral.” Erwin turned her hands up. “The dozens of meetings I have to cancel. Business associates I have to notify. The sheer magnitude of what needs to be done is overwhelming.”
Vera nodded her understanding. “I’ll hurry this along as quickly as possible.” She readied her pen. “Your duties were?”
Resignation settled into Erwin’s features.
“I did the usual clerical and administrative type duties as well as coordination of his social activities with his business appointments. I accompanied him on business trips when needed, and I took care of personal errands more often than not.” She stared at Vera then, a question on her face.
“Is there anything else you’d like to know? ”
“Are you aware of anyone who may have wanted to harm Thomas Wilton or his wife?”
Erwin made a face and shook her head adamantly. “As I told Sheriff Benton, no. Absolutely not.”
“Anyone he had angered over a business deal or a personal decision?”
“No.” A resolute shake of her head. “Thomas had no enemies.”
Vera studied Erwin’s face carefully. Her expression and her answers clearly showed she admired and respected Thomas Wilton.
Now to see if she felt the same way about his new wife.
The subject required a careful approach.
Just because the murder weapon was near the wife didn’t make her the murderer.
They needed some sort of perspective into the Wilton marriage.
“What about Mrs. Wilton? How were things between her and her husband?”
Erwin’s expression closed as tightly as a vault at Fort Knox. “I haven’t known Alicia very long. She shares very little information of any kind with me.”
So, she didn’t like the new wife. She could have good reason, or she could simply be jealous. “But you have an opinion of her?” Vera pressed. “You see her every day. Perform tasks for her, I’m sure.”
A vague shrug. “She’s okay, I guess.”
“Mr. Wilton’s first wife died . . .” Vera opted for a different course. “Two years ago?”
“Yes. It was a very sad time. Thomas was devastated. Then six months ago he met Alicia on a business trip to Vegas, and two weeks later they were married.”
Interesting. For eighteen months, Erwin had had the man to herself. Sharing with the new wife may have caused some friction.
“How did his first wife die?”
“A fall from her horse caused a brain injury. She thought she was fine, and twenty-four hours later she was dead.” Erwin hugged herself as if the memory chilled her.
“It was so unexpected and so horrible. She was only forty-three and a well-trained equestrian. A renowned dressage rider. It was awful. Just awful. Thomas was so upset, he got rid of all the horses. Even the one she loved so much. He said he couldn’t bear to look at them. We all felt so bad for him.”
“I imagine so.” Vera slipped back a page in her notepad. “I’m sure you were all equally happy for him when he found a new wife.”
Something like anger filled Erwin’s eyes before she could blink it away. “Alicia is nothing like Lena.”
Vera left that to simmer for a bit. “You have no idea who the other couple at the cabin was? We’ve identified the male victim as Seth Parson. But we still have nothing on the female.”
Erwin stared for a long moment, as if she hadn’t understood the question. “I don’t—didn’t know either of them.”
The pause and the sudden blank expression said otherwise. “Did Mr. Wilton make a habit of inviting strangers to his most private sanctuary?”
Erwin chewed her lip, stared at her hands. “I think Alicia knew the man. I had seen her talking to him before. In town.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “When and where did you see her with him?”
More stalling. Erwin studied her cuticles.
Chewed her lip some more. “I saw them in town once at that Mexican place on the square. They were having lunch. When Alicia saw me, she got all hyper, telling me how he was an old friend from her days in New Orleans and how he was just passing through on his way back home.”
“Did she ever mention him again?”
Erwin shook her head. “But I saw them once outside that gas station on the corner of Highway 64 and Wilson Parkway. It looked to me like they were arguing.”
“When was this?” A new anticipation seared through Vera’s veins.
“Last Thursday. I remember because I was out running errands and picking up beer for their big weekend party. When I saw Alicia there, I wondered why she didn’t pick it up herself. They sell beer at that gas station.”
“But you’d never seen the other woman before?” Vera needed something on her.
Another shake of her head. “No. Sorry.”
“Did you have reason to believe Alicia was having an affair?”
Another long pause, then a shrug. “I can’t say for sure, but she and Thomas had been, I don’t know, kind of at odds a lot lately.”
“Arguing? Shouting? Throwing things? Or giving each other the silent treatment?” Specific details mattered in a homicide investigation. Vera needed a better grasp on the Wiltons’ relationship. Difficult to get when half the couple was dead and the other was in a coma.