“Good news or bad?”
“Bad.”
“All right. Let’s hear it.
Mason said, “Aileen Fell, that schoolteacher from Santa Barbito, claims she saw you and your husband go up to the boat deck. You’d been having an argument about something. After a few minutes she followed you up there. She heard a pistol shot as she was on the stairs. Then she saw you bending over your husband’s body and dragging it toward the rail. Then she heard a second shot.”
“She’s a liar!” Mrs. Newberry said.
Mason said tonelessly, “I thought perhaps you might want to change the story you told me.”
She said indignantly, “Well, I don’t. That girl’s a liar. She’s crazy anyway. I’m telling you the truth. I went up on deck with my husband. I wanted to talk with him and he was trying to avoid me. I told him I could save Belle’s happiness if he’d give me the money and let me handle things my own way. He said to go back to the cabin and wait for him.”
“How about the money belt?” Mason asked.
“He gave it to me.”
“When?”