She had a special way of saying “April.” Anyone hearing her and not knowing what was meant would have guessed that April was a cross between a cockroach and a rattlesnake.
“I should think,” said Wolfe, “that will help my investigation a good deal. Provided you can give any reasons.”
“I can. April is sunk in debt and expected a legacy. She intends to marry Osric Stauffer. She pretends she’s playing with him, but she isn’t, she intends to marry him. She knows her beauty is going and she’ll need him. She thinks he’ll succeed to my husband’s partnership in Daniel Cullen and Company. She hated Noel’s influence over Andy. She wants Andy to marry that little blond fool Celia and be an actor. She knew Noel was leaving me next to nothing in his will, and she wanted me to have that blow too.”
She stopped. Wolfe asked, “Is that all?”
“Yes.”
“But you can’t have both ends, Mrs. Hawthorne. If she knew your husband was leaving you next to nothing, she must also have known what she was to get. A peach.”
“Not at all. Noel fooled them too. He told her what he was doing to me, but not what he was doing to her.”
“Do you have evidence of that?”
“I don’t need any.” The strain in her voice was more intense. “I know what my husband was like.”
“Do you possess any evidence that April Hawthorne did shoot her brother?”