on the front door. As she expected, there was no answer. She went around the house to the carriage house that Lianna used as a yoga studio. She looked in the window and saw that there were, indeed, several women on their mats, and Lianna at the front of the room, svelte despite her slightly rounded belly, leading the group in a catlike stretch. Shelby opened the door to the studio and stood there, looking in, but not speaking.
Lianna looked up at her and frowned.
‘I need to talk to you,’ said Shelby, her voice jarring in the peaceful silence.
Lianna glanced at her students and then put up five fingers. ‘Can you wait five minutes? Five minutes. We’re cooling down.’
Shelby withdrew, unsmiling, and returned to her car. She opened the door and sat down in the front seat. While she waited she gazed at Lianna’s garden. The yard was a dazzling tribute to Lianna’s green thumb. She had her own gardening business when she first married Harris, but had apparently abandoned that in favor of teaching yoga classes. Obviously, she still practiced her gardening skills on her own yard. ‘She’s good at everything she does,’ Chloe had said once, in utter discouragement. Shelby wasn’t sure whether it was a tribute to Lianna’s many gifts, or her inability to concentrate, that she seemed to have done a dozen different kinds of work between her marriage to Rob and to Harris. Then again, she wasn’t feeling very kindly disposed toward Lianna at this particular moment.
The yoga students, all women over thirty, with expensive haircuts and watches, dressed in workout chic, began to emerge from the carriage house and disperse toward their expensive vehicles. The driveway was wide enough so that they could edge out past Shelby without her moving. Ordinarily, she might have backed out to make it easier. She did not feel cooperative at this particular moment.
Shelby walked back to the studio and opened the screen door. Lianna was pressing a towel to her arms and forehead. Unlike the other women, she wore a faded, stretched-out leotard, and pulled her hair up in a messy clip. Her perfect features were devoid of make up. ‘Shelby,’ she said. ‘Is it Rob? Has anything happened?’
‘Only in a manner of speaking,’ said Shelby.
‘I called the hospital this morning and they said he was holding his own.’
‘There’s no change. As far as I know.’
‘I’m going to take Molly up there after school. She wants to spend every spare minute with him. Whew, I need a drink. Come over to the house,’ she said in her engaging manner. As Shelby followed her across the lawn to the back door, she felt a sad sympathy for her own daughter, who had been so intimidated by this woman. There was something preternaturally graceful about her, as if she had never made an awkward move or a false step in her life. Of course, Shelby reminded herself, that was clearly not true.
Lianna went to the refrigerator and poured them each a glass of ice water. She took them out to a sunroom beyond the kitchen, indicating that Shelby should follow her. Lianna sat down in a wicker chair and pointed to the one opposite her.
Shelby shook her head. All the way over here, she had tried to think about how she would phrase her accusation. She found it difficult to begin.
‘What’s the matter?’ said Lianna.
‘Was Rob here last night?’ Shelby asked.
The expression in Lianna’s eyes went from curious to vaguely guilty. ‘Why do you ask?’ she said stiffly.
‘I want to know,’ said Shelby. ‘Did he come over here?’
Lianna pursed her lips and clinked the ice in her glass. ‘Yes, he came over here,’ she said. ‘Who told you that?’
‘Why didn’t you tell the police?’ Shelby demanded.
‘They didn’t ask me,’ Lianna said. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’
For a moment, Shelby hesitated, trying to remember if that was true. Then she dismissed it. Lianna was splitting hairs. ‘He came over here to confront you about Molly, didn’t he?’
Lianna flushed with anger. Shelby didn’t care.
‘I know that Molly is not Rob’s daughter. And I know that he found out about it last night.’
Lianna looked at her coolly. ‘Well. I guess there is no such thing as privacy.’
‘My Chloe knew about it. She knew about it before she was killed.’
‘Oh yes. She certainly did. And told her friends about it. Fun for everyone! I can only assume that she plundered my private medical records at the office where she works,’ Lianna said