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Alina seemed to awake from her stupor at these words.“Cyanide. That’s right. Reinhart said the same thing.” She brought her slender fingers to her suspiciously wrinkle-free forehead. “Oh, my God. I can’t even begin to contemplate what must have been going through that poor woman’s mind.”

“Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that myself,” said Odelia. “So you see? There’s no need to blame yourself. This had nothing to do with that fight.”

Alina lowered her hand and fixed those remarkable green eyes on Odelia. They were now lined with tiny red veins.“Are you quite sure, Miss Poole?”

“I am. Like I said, she must have planned this a long time ago. Cyanide is not an easy substance to get your hands on, and—”

“Would you say she suffered a painful death?”

“Very painful, and very quick. Cyanide is what Cold War spies used to take when they were captured on enemy soil. They had it tucked into a tooth or hidden in a capsule. Then they’d bite down on the capsule or the tooth and the cyanide would do its deadly work. Hitler used one to kill himself.”

Alina had been listening attentively throughout, and now displayed a tiny smile.“Amazing how much you know about the subject, Miss Poole. But then I guess reporters must have extensive knowledge of a variety of topics, right?”

“I just read about it on Wikipedia just now,” said Odelia modestly.

Alina’s expression hardened. “Why is it, you think, that the police are keeping us in here? Or do they think Kimberlee was murdered?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. It’s just routine—they want to find out as much as they can about the circumstances of the poor woman’s death. Once they’ve wrapped up the investigation, they’ll remove the body and—”

“Remove the body,” Alina interrupted. “How perfectly horrible.”

Emerald, who’d been sitting nearby, chimed in, “This is a nightmare. This weekend should have been about the celebration of friendship, but instead it’s been marred by fighting and bickering and now this—I don’t think I’ll ever do another one of these weekends ever again.”

“You know?” said Alina suddenly. “I think she did it on purpose.”

“Did what on purpose?” asked Emerald as she took a swig from her Coke Emerald. Judging from the way she was slurring her words a little, Odelia had the impression it contained more than just Coca Cola.

“She chose this weekend to kill herself—so she could tarnish your reputation by her suicide. Don’t you see? People will never accept this as a suicide—you know what they’re like. This is going to bite you in the ass, Emerald. It’s going to haunt you forever. And that’s exactly what she wanted.”

“The witch!” Emerald spat, shocking Odelia.

“She was a witch,” Alina said. “First getting it on with my husband, now killing herself to get back at you. You should never have invited her.”

“I had no choice. She was part of the cast. I couldn’t very well invite everyone and not her—there would have been a scandal. She would have made such a terrible stink.”

“Well, she sure made a stink now.”

“Yeah, she did,” Emerald agreed.

Abbey had joined them, while the husbands were all gathered by the window, talking in hushed tones. Verna, meanwhile, sat all by herself, rocking back and forth, and clearly brooding on something.

“We were just discussing how Kimberlee probably did this to try and destroy Emerald,” said Alina. “I mean, why else would she kill herself here? Now? This weekend? She could have killed herself any time, any place, but she chose to do it here and now. Why? To damage poor Emerald’s reputation.”

“Poor Emerald’s reputation,” Emerald said, swirling the contents of her Coke. “A reputation now royally screwed. Fifty-year career? Poof. Gone. Because of one spiteful little cow.”

“I think it’s a good thing she’s gone,” said Abbey. “I mean,” she quickly added when the others all stared at her, “I know this is a very politically incorrect thing to say and all, but you’re absolutely right, Emerald. Kimberleewas a spiteful cow, and she deserved to die, if you’ll pardon my French.”

“Pardoned,” Emerald said, producing a little hiccup.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” asked Odelia.

Alina turned to her as if seeing her for the first time.“I’m sorry, but you didn’t even know the woman. So maybe she deserves to be treated harshly.”

“That’s right, you didn’t know her,” said Emerald. “She was a terrible person. A great actress, but a terrible person.”

“She slept with my husband,” said Alina. “They’ve been sleeping together for months now.”

“She slept with my husband, too,” said Emerald sadly. “But then she probably slept with everybody’s husband as far as I can tell. She was a horrible little tart, Kimberlee was. Just dreadful.”

“She didn’t sleep with mine,” said Abbey. “I would know, wouldn’t I?” she added when Alina scoffed and said, “Oh, please!”