offended. Yes, perhaps that would give me a motive if I wanted to get rid of her without a divorce, but I can assure you I want my wife to stay alive and live well. We have a pre-nup that's airtight. My lawyers insisted on it but I gave Sophie the money to engage her own lawyer to keep it fair. I would never bulldoze her from a position of power. In short, Sophie wouldn't receive any payout until a minimum of five years of marriage unless children arrived. There isn't any codicil on having children, only a clause regarding the manner in which the marriage dissolved, if it did. I can send you the paperwork. So, you see, if I wanted out of our marriage right now, I could walk away absolutely fine. Financially and materially, I wouldn't lose a thing. I really don't harbor any motive to hurt my wife."
I had to agree; it didn't sound like Austen stood to gain anything from his wife's demise. Even though it didn't offer me any answers as to why someone would want to hurt Sophie, it temporarily eliminated Austen as a suspect. If he didn't want to be married, he could easily get a divorce without losing anything. Of course, Sophie did suffer a horrible fall but the suspicious bleaching of the stairs threw a shadow over such a basic accident. There was another consideration I hadn't explored yet: would someone hurt Sophie in order to hurt Austen? He already established that he had money and power. Did someone envy that?
"How did you two meet?" I asked.
"At the theater. We both love Shakespeare and the theater in general, and we attended a fundraiser at The Playhouse. Sophie and I happened to be seated next to each other. I was alone and so was she so we got to talking. I previously bumped into a friend and his wife in the lobby and arranged to meet them at the bar for a drink afterwards. I asked Sophie to join us." Austen smiled. "I asked for her phone number and she told me if it were meant to be, fate would bring us together. Then she disappeared into the night. I thought I'd never see her again."
"But you did," I prompted.
Austen glanced at Sophie and reached for her hand, smiling. "Two days later. It was raining and I was leaving the office. We both raced for the same cab and when I realized who she was... The rest, as they say, is history."
"Sounds so romantic."
"So long as you don't think about me getting drenched with my hair plastered to my head." Austen laughed. "Instead of taking that cab, we decided to dry out at a nearby bar and that turned into dinner. Sophie gave me her umbrella that night and told me to find a unique way to return it."
"Did you?"
"I have tried several unique ways to return it but I still have it. She just gives it back and tells me to keep trying." He laughed again, the lines around his eyes crinkling and warming his face. "I'm thinking of having it turned into an art object and installing it in the house permanently."
"That sounds fun."
"Possibly. I think Sophie would like it too. She's a fun person. Anyway, we've been together ever since that night. It's funny really. I'm forty-seven. I got to the age where I thought, maybe there's no one out there for me. I've always worked hard, long hours, building my business, but my personal life? Sure, I've had plenty of partners and I even got engaged once but nothing seemed to fly until I met Sophie. Yes, she's younger than me, a lot younger, and it felt like a clich茅 at first, but it doesn't seem to matter. She gave me a new lease on life. With Sophie, I had, have, everything. A wife, a friend, a companion. We were even talking about starting a family. The idea of losing her is just unimaginable. I don't know what I'll do if she doesn't wake up. The only thing I can think of, aside from her wellbeing right now, is what the hell happened to her? If I can't protect her, what kind of husband am I?"
"I'll find out what happened," I told him. "Can you tell me more about being unsure of Sophie's identity?"
Austen's shoulders slumped as he leaned back in the chair. "It feels like such a stupid thing to say. I fear you think the