Free I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton Page B

be fair. I’d say he’s handsome. Charming. Trivial. He and his wife moved up here from Los Angeles when he joined Peter’s firm.”
    â€œHe was married?”
    â€œNot for long.”
    â€œWhat happened to his ex?”
    â€œLaura? She’s still around someplace. After David dumped her, she was forced to go to work, like every other ex-wife in town. God, women are getting screwed in divorces these days. For every guy who claims he’s been ‘taken’ by some babe, I can show you six, eight, ten women who’ve been ‘had’ financially. Anyway, I’m sure she’s in the book.”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œYes, well, David was a snob. He didn’t want to work for a living any more than Isabelle did, except she was loving every minute of the work, not surprisingly. I mean, she had this sudden celebrity status and she ate it up. He was pushing her to sell the business while it was hot, before it peaked. He had some cockamamie scheme about prefabs and franchises. I’m not really sure what his idea was, but she hated it. By then, she was disenchanted with the marriage anyway, feeling bullied and suffocated. She wanted out from under.”
    â€œIf they’d divorced, the business would have been considered community property, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œSure. It would have been divided in half and he’d havelost really big. What’d she need him for? She could find half a dozen guys to fill his slot, but that wasn’t true for him. Without her, he had zip. On the other hand, if she
died
, the business came to him intact . . . more or less. Her portion would go to Shelby, but he didn’t have to worry about a four-year-old. At that point, Isabelle had already come up with so many preliminary sketches he could afford to coast and survive on the proceeds. Plus, with her dead, he must have counted on collecting the insurance. Again, some would go to Shelby, but he’s still going to rake in a bunch.”
    â€œ
If
he wins,” I said. “Where’s the house he leased when they separated?”
    She flapped her hand toward the ocean. “As you leave the drive you turn left and it’s down half a mile. A big white monstrosity, one of those contemporary houses made out of glass and concrete. It’s so ugly, you can’t miss it.”
    â€œWithin easy walking distance?”
    â€œHe could have crawled it’s so close.”
    â€œWere you here at the cottage the night she was killed?”
    â€œWell, yes, but I didn’t hear the shot. She’d phoned down here earlier to tell me the Seegers would be arriving late. They’d called about the car trouble and she didn’t want me to worry if I saw lights on in the house. We chatted for a while and she sounded great. She’d been such a mess.”
    â€œBecause of his harassment?”
    â€œAnd the quarrels and the threats. Her life was a nightmare, but she was excited about San Francisco, looking forward to a little shopping, the theater, and the restaurants.”
    â€œWhat time did you talk to her?”
    â€œAbout nine, I guess. It wasn’t late. Isabelle was a nightowl, but she knew I was usually in bed by ten. The first time I realized there was something wrong was when Don Seeger came down. He said they were worried because they couldn’t get Isabelle to answer the door. They could see the fisheye was missing from the door and the hole looked burned. I grabbed a robe, got my key, and went up to the main house with him. We went in through the back door and found her in the foyer. I felt like a zombie. I was absolutely numb. So cold. It was awful, the worst night of my life.” I could see tears for the first time and her face was suffused with pain. She fumbled in her pocket for a Kleenex and blew her nose. “Sorry,” she murmured.
    I studied her for a moment. “And you really think he killed her?”
    â€œThere’s