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“This is ridiculous,” Veronica scoffed. “I always knew Dave was funny in the head, with his love for his stupid turtle, and that girl must have seduced him, playing on his Tollie fixation. And the worst part is that she’s only seventeen. Imagine an old codger like Dave falling for a teenager! Isn’t that illegal?” She glanced out the window. “I’ve already had to fend off three reporters for national papers and a couple of TV stations wanting to do interviews. I’m thinking about getting one of those gag orders and trying to stop this scandal from spreading. It won’t do my husband’s reputation any good, nor the value of his legacy.” She looked back to Chase and Odelia. “Tollie the Turtle mostly appeals to kids. Can you imagine what will happen when Dave is revealed as some kind of sick pervert? It’ll be game over for Tollie—and all because Dave couldn’t keephis pecker in his pants.”

“You really believe Dave had an affair with Jayme Ziccardi?” asked Odelia.

“Of course he did. Why else would he sign over his entire fortune to a teenager?”

“Because she was a talented artist and he thought she might be his successor?”

“Oh, please. I saw the girl’s drawings. Dave had plenty of them in his office. All about a giraffe and a lion. Just lazy, lousy work.”

“Dave seemed to think she had potential.”

Veronica directed an icy look at Odelia.“Oh, she had potential, all right, but not as an artist.”

“Have you noticed how Veronica hasn’t smiled even once, Max?” said Dooley.

“I don’t think she’s capable of smiling, Dooley.”

“She’s probably worried about getting wrinkles. When humans smile they get wrinkles around their eyes and mouth, and she probably doesn’t want that.”

Veronica’s face actually looked frozen. She had yelled and shouted and generally made a total nuisance of herself, but apart from the occasional frown her face had remained impassive throughout. It was quite an accomplishment.

“Will that be all?” she asked now, clearly bored with the interview.

“Bear with us for just a moment longer, Mrs. James,” said Chase.

“Can you please tell us where you were last night between six and eight?” asked Odelia.

“Is that when that girl killed my husband?”

“Just answer the question, please,” said Chase.

She hesitated for just a moment, then said,“I was feeling tired, so I went to bed early.”

“At six o’clock?”

She shrugged.“I had a rough weekend, and I wasn’t feeling very well.”

“Can anyone verify that?”

“If you’re asking me if my husband and I shared the same bed: no, we did not. He liked to work late, and frequently got up in the middle of the night when some idea for Tollie popped into his head. So very early in our marriage we decided to take separate bedrooms. So to answer your question, Islept alone, and last night was no exception.”

“You didn’t hear anything? No screams?”

“I use earplugs and a sleep mask. Also, I’m a very heavy sleeper. You can shoot a cannon next to me and I won’t budge.” Her face clouded. “I can’t believe Dave would have had the gall to bring that girl into the house when I was in bed. I mean, the sheer nerve.”

“How about this morning? How come you didn’t notice your husband was dead?”

She shrugged.“I won’t conceal the fact that Dave and I were having trouble lately. I accused him of sleeping around, and even though he denied it, he refused to budge when I demanded he destroy this new will. He said I didn’t care about Tollie, and he needed to safeguard the future of his franchise and this girl was the way to go. I told him I’d get a divorce and I was serious. He didn’t seem to mind, which told me all I needed to know. So no, I didn’t drop by his studio this morning to kiss him goodbye before I dropped Danny off at school, and frankly I tried to avoid him as much as possible.And clearly he felt the same way.”

“So when was the last time you actually saw your husband?” asked Chase.

“Yesterday afternoon. I told him I was going to talk to my lawyer about his new will, and he said I could do whatever I wanted but he wasn’t going to change his mind.”

“How did you find out about Jayme and the new will?” asked Odelia.

“My husband started the Baxter Foundation about a decade ago, offering scholarships to young people he felt possessed artistic talent but not the means to develop that talent. There’s a man in charge of that foundation who is a good friend of mine. He warned me last month that Dave had settled a large sum of money on one particular individual.”

“Jayme Ziccardi.”