The Colors of Hate - 28

“The last time Ange was seen by anyone was around midnight,” Kirby said. “Supposedly by then, Mr Nester was indeed at home and sleeping, presumably with his wife by his side. But what if he did go to the club before going home and saw how Ms Westcott was acting?”

Dean shook his head. “So what if he did. That’s how she always was. Everyone, including him, knew it.”

“Knowing it and liking it are two very different things. Look at how Mr Leads reacted when he saw her dancing with Jones.”

“So you’re saying that, for some reason, Frank was jealous and decided to slip away from home and kill her?” Dean felt like laughing. “That’s insane.”

“Not at all insane, if he and Ms Westcott were having a clandestine affair. All her flirting around would be the best thing possible for her to do to cover the fact.”

“Someone would have known,” Dean protested.

“Why? We’re dealing with theater people here. By all accounts she was an excellent actress. He was an actor himself before he turned to directing, according to his bio in the program for the show. It’s not as if they were office workers sneaking out for a ‘nooner’ so to speak.”

“First Jones, now Frank. How are you going to find proof it was one or the other, or even someone else?”

“It’s what we do, Dean,” Reid replied. “We figure out all the possibilities and go from there. Jones is an obvious suspect, since he was the last one seen with her. Mr Nester slipped up when he told us you weren’t at the club that night.”

“Only if someone didn’t mention it to him later.”

“You said yourself, Dean, it was highly unlikely. I think we need to dig deeper into Mr Nester and his alibi.”

“Get John to talk to Mrs. Nester again,” Kirby suggested. “He’s already seen her once; she might feel more comfortable with him. He can say he’s just doing follow up.”  

“I know her, she’s a nice woman,” Dean put in. “Why not let me talk to her instead?”

“Because technically…”

“I’m still a suspect, I know. But that in itself might build a rapport between the two of us and get her to open up. Well, if there’s anything to open up about.”

Kirby looked at Reid, as he obviously gave Dean’s statement the consideration it merited. Reid nodded. “All right. But if you screw things up, we’re up shit creek.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

“Okay. Now,” Reid turned his attention back to Kirby, “as for Jones. We’re already checking flights between here and Colorado Springs to see which ones he took coming and going.”

“So you know he’s left town,” Dean said, feeling relieved.

“Not yet. As I said, we’re checking. We should know for certain fairly soon, one way or the other.” 

“Don’t worry, the second we know we’ll let you know,” Kirby said, gripping Dean’s shoulder without thinking about it.