Death of a Second Wife (A Dotsy Lamb Travel Mystery) by Maria Hudgins

Patrick and Juergen, who had reappeared and was helping Kronenberg with the minutiae of names, times, relationships, etc.
    Lettie and I watched from a bathroom window on the top level of the chateau. At some point, I noticed the bathroom had two doors, the one we had used to enter from a little narrow hallway, and another on a wall perpendicular to the hall. It stood slightly open. I peeked through.
    I saw Chet sitting on the edge of a double bed, his back to me. He was bent forward so that I could see nothing of his head above his shirt collar. I eased the door shut, leaving him to mourn in private.
    Footprints in the snow multiplied until a continuous path of slush connected Gisele’s body and the door to the bunker. At noon, one of the helicopters airlifted both bodies away, swerving around a jagged peak and disappearing in the west.
    * * * * *
    Detective Kronenberg talked to us, one at a time. He and I sat at the dining room table with a silent note-taking policeman seated in the corner. In response to his first question, I explained that I was Chester Lamb’s first wife and Patrick’s mother. Kronenberg’s eyebrows went up, but he said nothing.
    “It was you who found the body of Mrs. Lamb, was it not?”
    “Erin—Miss Toomey—and I. We went in together, but she passed out for a minute , so I guess you could say I was the first to really look at the . . . at Mrs. Lamb’s body.”
    “When was the last time you saw Mrs. Lamb?”
    I had to think. I had heard her in the kitchen when I went out for a walk last night, but I hadn’t actually seen her. “When we were all in the living room after dinner. Mr. Lamb and Mrs. Lamb presented their wedding gift to Mr. Lamb and . . . look. This is going to confuse me. Can we refer to everyone by their first names? We have two Mr. Lambs and two Mrs. Lambs and two Toomeys.”
    “If that will help you, certainly.” He turned to the note-taking policeman for confirmation that he understood the change.
    “The last time I saw Stephanie was in the living room after dinner and that would have been about nine-thirty or ten o’clock.”
    “When was the last time you saw Miss Schlump?” That was the first time I could recall hearing Gisele’s last name.
    “I didn’t actually see her, but she brought us coffee in the living room at about that same time. That is, when Chet was making his presentation. She’s the only one who could have left the coffee tray on the sideboard because it wasn’t there when Chet started talking, and when he finished, it was.”
    “What time did you go to bed?”
    “About midnight, but Lettie Osgood and I stayed up and talked for a while in our bedroom.”
    “Did you, at any time, hear gunshots?”
    “No.”’
    “Did you hear anything unusual? A scream? Any strange noise at all?”
    “No.”
    “On which side of the house is your bedroom?”
    “On the southwest side. I remember seeing the glow of the setting sun out my bedroom window shortly before dinner.”
    “You were on the side that faces the meadow where Gisele’s body was found.”
    “It does seem as though I would have heard a gunshot. Unless the gun had a silencer.”
    “It had no silencer, Mrs. Lamb.” He studied his fingernails. “And you’re certain you did not see either Stephanie or Gisele between nine-thirty or ten and midnight, when you went to bed?”
    “I didn’t see them, but I think I heard them.”
    “Explain.”
    “I took a walk outside sometime after ten. I only walked around the house and sat on a rock for a little while. But when I walked past the kitchen door, I stopped because I heard voices. I couldn’t hear most of what was said, but I’m certain they were women’s voices.”
    “Go on.” The detective leaned forward, his eyes intense.
    “I’m pretty sure one of them was Stephanie< and it was she who said, rather loudly, ‘If you don’t tell him, I will! I swear to God I will!’ ”
    “And the answer?”
    “I didn’t hear an