Who Killed Mr. Garland's Mistress? by Richard; Forrest

read this to you.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œThe proof of my thesis … of what I felt happened, and now know happened. Here’s how it goes …”
    He listened to her soberly. Once, part way through her recitation he got up and made himself another drink, another time he looked at her oddly. She tried to be as methodical as possible, to present a logical facade that was convincing enough to persuade. She finished, restacked the papers neatly and looked over at him.
    â€œWell,” she said. “What do you think?”
    He twirled his glass thoughtfully. “I think you and I should go away for a vacation—alone.”
    She was piqued. “What does that mean?”
    â€œIt means forget it.”
    â€œIt’s all there, Rob. You’ve heard all the evidence. I’m not making these things up. They’ve been checked and verified.”
    â€œThere’s no motive for anyone to do those insane things.”
    â€œShe’s in love with you—or what she calls love.”
    â€œNonsense.”
    â€œYou had an affair.”
    â€œShe’d been in prison a long time and I was … well, I explained that to you.”
    â€œDid she ever say or intimate she was in love with you?”
    â€œThat doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
    â€œDid you tell her you’d marry her.”
    â€œNo, of course not.”
    â€œYou must have said something, given some indication … something to give her this idea.”
    â€œIt’s your idea, not necessarily hers.”
    â€œWhat did you say, Rob? What did you say that could possibly have been misconstrued on her part?”
    â€œOnly that if things were different …”
    â€œDifferent?”
    â€œThat if I’d met her ten or fifteen years ago …”
    â€œYou said that …?”
    He paused. “Well, no. I said if things were different we might have married. I meant fifteen years ago.”
    â€œMy God, do you realize what she thinks you meant by different?”
    â€œShe knows I’d never leave you and the children.”
    â€œYes, she knows that. Rob, I think she killed her brother.”
    â€œShe told me about that, he drowned in a boating accident.”
    â€œThe same way I might have.”
    â€œShe wasn’t even in Connecticut when her brother died. Don’t you think the police would have considered that possibility? She had special permission from her parole officer to go to California for a week. Tavie, she was in California when it happened.”
    â€œA batch of coincidences can fit into a neat puzzle.”
    â€œOur place in Maine is on an island, people spend a good deal of time in boats. If an accident were to happen, more than likely it would occur in a boat. If an accident were to happen in Hartford the odds are it would be an auto wreck.”
    â€œThat’s a pleasant thought.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t be suspicious if someone ran into your car.”
    â€œI might if they turned around and came back for a second go-round.”
    He shook his head several times in dissent. “No way. It’s not her cup of tea, she couldn’t do it.”
    â€œShe did once before.”
    â€œWe’ve been over that. That was a marital situation with a man and woman exposed to each other daily for years. The cutting edges became so abrasive that something had to happen. She’s a rough cookie in a lot of ways, Tavie. Helen is the kind of person who gets what she wants, who strikes out with a singleness of purpose to grab life. That’s why her first husband drove her bananas. He was a routine, methodical sort of person going nowhere in life, and that’s one thing she couldn’t take.”
    â€œI bet she even changes her own flat tire.”
    â€œHell, she’d turn the car on its side if she had to.” Faint color moved upwards from his neck and he rubbed his hand across his forehead. “I’m sorry,