Not So Model Home - By David James Page 0,70

chair was tall. The tie that was used to kill him was tied around his neck and pulled up sharply to cut off his air and blood flow. So you’re off the hook, Marcus,” I said half-jokingly.

The cameras shifted to Marcus to catch his reaction. “Thank God,” he said, wiping his brow with an imaginary handkerchief.

“Don’t get too comfortable, Marcus. I said you’re off the hook for Aleksei’s murder. Not Keith’s.”

A trapped look flashed across Marcus’s face.

“Allow me to continue. I think I was attacked because I was snooping around the potting shed where the poison that killed Keith was stored. But we’ll get to that in a moment. So Aleksei’s killer was tall. Aleksei, still sleeping off a drunken luncheon, was easy to approach from behind and strangle. But was there a way to make the murder look like an autoerotic accident? Yes. Sperm on the floor as if Aleksei was jerking off and the tie got too tight and he passed out and was strangled by his own hand. The only problem is, the sperm isn’t Aleksei’s. We got lab test results back late this morning that prove that the semen stains on the floor don’t belong to Aleksei, but to Darryn.”

“This is insane. I wasn’t even in the U.S. when Keith was killed. I was in Paris.”

I pointed at Darryn. “That you were, Darryn. At a fashion show in front of hundreds of people. So we have two murders that occurred at Ian’s house. Unrelated killings from two different men trying to eliminate just about anyone to thin the ranks of competitors? It’s possible, but I thought not. But the idea got me thinking. There were two murders. Most likely related, but that couldn’t be carried out by the same person since one killer wasn’t even in the country at the time of the first. So I thought, what if Darryn, our second murderer, had an accomplice? A lover perhaps?”

The guys in the cast, Lance, and even Ian looked very nervous all of a sudden.

I continued. I had everyone in the palm of my hand. “But who? I asked myself. Marcus, Drake, David, and yes, even Lance and even the producer of this show, Jeremy Collins, could have committed the first murder. And of course we’re assuming that the reason Keith was killed was because he revealed on an episode of Things Are a Bit Iffy that he was Ian’s long-lost son. The cast members had every reason to bump off Keith since he might cause Ian to divert a lot of money to a man if he thought he was his son.

“Lance Greenly,” I started, watching a rather shocked Lance step back into the shadows off camera, “could have done it because of the same reason, fueled by resentment that he had worked so hard over the years and now it could all be given to someone who shows up at the last moment. It could even be the show’s producer, Jeremy. Why? Ratings, my dear. People in Hollywood would kill for high ratings. And maybe in this case, someone did.”

David, who usually had plenty to say, finally spoke up, “Amanda, you know I like you. But this all seems so insane. It’s too unbelievable. It’s surreal!”

“At first, I thought so, too, David. So who committed the first murder, of Keith? Killed by strychnine in gopher poison from the garden shed. The police had been all through the shed but didn’t find the container used to mix the poison. But there was one item in there that, when I first saw it, well, it didn’t seem right.”

“What do you mean, wasn’t right?” Drake asked, the one person most tightly connected to the shed.

“It hit me the day you wanted to throw out a wineglass Aleksei had chipped. Ian claimed he couldn’t see any damage, but you insisted on throwing it away.”

“So what does that have to do with something that shouldn’t have been there?” Drake asked, puzzled.

“Drake, face it—you’re so obsessive, I’m surprised that you don’t catalog your turds. Anyway, in the first place, the pail was dented on the side.”

“Yeah, and I would have thrown it away. . . .”

“Exactly, Drake. But it was there the morning of Keith’s murder. There was no time to throw it away.”

Drake the Dominator started to emerge. “Are you accusing me of mixing poison in the pail to kill Keith?”

“Not to mix poison in, Drake. To stand on. You see, ever since I really looked at the pail, there