killed to survive. Fortunately, the waiter appeared, so Dana was able to change the subject.
“You told me that you have information about the Blair case,” Santoro said when the waiter left with their orders.
“I do, and it’s pretty weird. I don’t know what you’ll make of it, but I felt I had to tell you what I know.”
The detectives listened intently as Dana told them about her quest to find the Ottoman Scepter and her discovery that the assignment had been a hoax perpetrated by Carrie Blair. The waiter brought their food just before Dana finished her tale.
“Why do you think Carrie paid you and those actors all that money?” Robb asked when Dana finished.
“You think the prenup is the motive for the murder, right?”
Robb nodded.
“I think Carrie got me away from D.C. because she thought I had information that Horace Blair could use to void it.”
“What information?”
“Before I tell it to you I’d like you to answer a question for me.”
“Shoot.”
“Have you seen the prenup? Can you prove it exists?”
“We’re having trouble confirming its existence,” Santoro told her. “Horace’s lawyer won’t let us talk to him about it and Jack Pratt, his civil attorney, refuses to meet with us. But if you were in court during my testimony, you heard that we have an informant who will testify that Horace told him he killed Carrie because he didn’t want to pay her twenty million dollars when the prenup ended.”
“What were the conditions Carrie had to meet to get the money?” Dana asked.
“The informant says that Blair told him she would get the money if she didn’t divorce him or cheat on him during the first ten years of the marriage,” Santoro said.
“We don’t know if that clause is really in the prenup since we haven’t seen it,” Robb said, “but it makes sense.”
“What I know might blow a hole in your theory.”
Dana showed the photograph of Carrie and Benedict to the detectives.
“That’s Carrie Blair and Charles Benedict outside Benedict’s apartment shortly before seven a.m. on the day Carrie contacted me, pretending to be Margo Laurent.”
Wheels turned in Robb’s head as soon as she realized what the photo implied. “You think Benedict was fucking Carrie Blair?”
“I was in a car, taking pictures of an insurance cheat for United Insurance. I didn’t know who Carrie Blair or Charles Benedict were. But Blair went ballistic when she spotted me. She started screaming and she charged at my car, so I took off. Blair acted the way a person with a guilty conscience would act. It’s definitely the way I would act if I thought a PI had caught me cheating on my husband, especially if cheating on my husband was going to cost me twenty million dollars.
“I think Carrie Blair memorized my license plate and used it to figure out who I was. Later that day, she called Alice Forte, a lawyer I work for, and got my phone number. Then she called me, pretending to be Margo Laurent.
“Here’s your problem,” Dana concluded. “Horace Blair would have no reason to kill Carrie if he knew she’d violated the prenup.”
“Blair may not have known that his wife had something on the side,” Robb said. “If he didn’t know she was cheating, he’d still have a motive to kill her.”
“That’s true,” Dana said, “but the odds are good that a person with Horace’s resources would know that Carrie was having an affair.”
“That still doesn’t let Blair off the hook,” Robb countered. “Husbands kill cheating wives all the time. Maybe he’s just a jealous husband. But there’s something else that makes me think that Blair definitely didn’t know about his wife and Benedict.”
“What’s that?” Dana asked.
“If Benedict was having an affair with Horace’s wife, and Horace knew about it, why would he hire Benedict to defend him? Doesn’t that tell you that Horace didn’t know about the affair?”
“That’s a good point.” Dana shrugged. “Look, I’ve been pretty busy making up for lost time since I got back from my ‘quest,’ so I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking this through. I just thought I should tell you about the scepter and Benedict.”
Santoro looked at his watch. “Court is going to start in ten minutes. We’ve got to get back.”
The waiter brought the bill. Santoro took out his wallet, gave him cash, and laid his wallet next to himself on the seat.
“Thanks for lunch,” Dana said.
“Thanks for talking to us,” Santoro said.
The detectives left and Dana picked up her sandwich. She felt relieved that she