Page 68 of Hell Hath No Fury

Emma claimed one of the other three chairs and studied her former classmate. Ashley’s eyes looked glassy, and beads of sweat dotted her forehead. “You should see a doctor,” Emma said. “It’s over eighty degrees out here. All the stress of a funeral has to take a toll.”

Instead of sitting, Matthias stood behind Emma.

“What did you need to talk to me about?” Ashley asked.

“As I mentioned, Sonny and I were discussing his purchase of my property.”

Ashley started to protest.

“I know. You aren’t involved in the business, and I already met with Tina at the office. But frankly, something seemed… off.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well…” Emma intentionally squirmed. “She didn’t seem to be as knowledgeable about the business as I would expect for someone taking over the company.”

Ashley’s eyes shifted, then came back.

“I started wondering if maybe she and Sonny had a falling out.” Emma spoke her next words slowly, cautiously. “Tina said Sonny was turning over ownership of North Star to her, but it appeared to me that he wasn’t keeping her current on all of his transactions.” She could tell Ashley was giving serious consideration to what she said. “I hate to bring it up at such a horrible time for you, but we need to get back to Erie. I wanted to wrap this up in the next day or two, but if the company’s future is uncertain, I’ll have to take my business elsewhere.”

Ashley didn’t immediately respond, unlike Tina, who’d jumped to soothe Emma’s “concerns” when faced with the same scenario. The widow’s silence dragged on to the point where Emma wondered if she’d even been listening.

“Ashley?”

She blinked. “I’m sorry. I have a hard time focusing these days.”

So Emma’s entire pitch had been for nothing.

“I have a meeting with our attorney later this afternoon,” Ashley said. “I’ll ask him if Sonny made any changes to the arrangements regarding the business.”

She had been listening after all.

“As for a falling out, now that you mention it, I did notice he seemed a bit peeved with Tina the last couple of weeks. He didn’t discuss his work with me, but I overheard him talking on the phone about possibly needing to hire a new assistant. At the time, I took it to mean Tina wasn’t able to keep up with all the work that’s been coming in, so he was bringing in someone to help out. Patrick Winslow mentioned in passing that he thought Sonny might be overextending his capabilities with all these new housing plans. Maybe instead, Sonny wanted to replace Tina. I’ll have to look into it.”

Emma noticed movement through the sliding doors behind Ashley. A young girl with a disheveled ponytail stood there, her palms on the glass.

“Mommy,” came the muffled, plaintive cry.

Ashley stood and turned toward her daughter. “I’m coming, Daphne.” She looked at Emma. “As for your dealings with Sonny, you should go ahead and find someone else. Thanks for stopping by.” She retreated into her house, closing the slider behind her.

* * *

As Matthias backed out of the driveway, Emma asked, “Now what?”

He thought about it. “Let’s head over to the Powell farm. I’d like to see if construction has been shut down. If it hasn’t, I can talk to Patrick Winslow.” Matthias glanced at Emma. “What’d you think about Ashley?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t look anything like the girl I knew in high school.”

Matthias had taken note of the widow’s anxious demeanor, the glazed eyes, and the way she’d hunched her shoulders, cocooned in that pink hoodie despite the heat. She’d claimed to be coming down with something. He suspected another reason.

Emma must’ve recognized the symptoms as well. “I wonder if Ashley’s on drugs.” Emma looked down at her folded hands. “The way she was acting reminds me of…”

Nell.

Emma’s gaze turned to him. “What about you, Detective? Did you observe anything useful?”

“I noticed the sliding door’s glass hasn’t been cleaned lately. Or replaced.”

“You don’t think Sonny fell through the door and that’s how he got… impaled?”