Deadly Magic by Elisabeth Crabtree Page A

Lily complained of losing her phone. Belle thought Tabitha might have picked it up.”
    Straker shook his head. “Belle already mentioned that to me. Tabitha said she handed it back to my wife right before she went up to the scaffolding.”
    “ Did Belle see her hand it back?”
    “ No, but I don’t think she killed Lily. She may have assisted in some way—perhaps, unknowingly—but I don’t think she killed her.”
    “ Why?”
    “I think it’s someone from this office. Last May my wife fell down an escalator. She said someone bumped into her. She wasn’t hurt, so she picked herself up and came home. Didn’t think much about it when she told me. A few weeks after that someone pushed her in front of a truck. Luckily, I was able to pull her back.”
    “ Did you see who pushed her?”
    “ No. There were a lot of people standing around, but no one saw anything. I wrote it off as a freak accident. A couple of days after that, Lily became violently ill after having lunch with me. I figured it was just a mild case of food poisoning, but then she started getting sick whenever she ate with me. Then there was an incident with the horse.”
    “The horse?”
    “A good friend of hers owns a stable. Lily always enjoyed riding. She said it calmed her. The last time she went riding, her favorite horse threw her. There was a tack underneath his saddle.”
    “ And she had no idea who—”
    “ Oh yes! She had an idea,” he said angrily. “Me. She blamed me. She thought I was trying to kill her, so I could run off with my mistress.”
    Grace wasn’t sure how to respond. She was simply surpris ed that he could not only find five women to marry him but a mistress, as well.
    “ I told her she was crazy. I didn’t have a mistress, but she was convinced I was cheating on her. I told her that even if I were cheating, I certainly wouldn’t need to kill her. I have a team of lawyers at my beck and call.”
    “ Ah. And somehow that didn’t reassure her?”
    “ This wasn’t my first time at the rodeo, to use language you're familiar with.”
    “ Thank you. That helps.”
    “ We had a prenup. If I wanted her gone, I would simply have divorced her.”
    “ Did you tell her that?”
    “ Of course! She didn’t believe me. She ran off to Europe. To think, she said. That’s when the letters started coming in.”
    “ What letters?”
    Straker reach ed into his desk drawer and pulled out a folder. Dumping the contents on the desk, he pushed them toward her. There were five letters in all. Two on stationary and three email printouts. Grace picked the letters up and began reading.
    “ I’ll save you some time. They all say the same thing. My wife was cheating on me with Ilya Dragovich. According to my ‘concerned friend’, she and Ilya have been having an affair for decades.”
    Grace threw the letters back on the desk. “Do you think she was?”
    He shrugg ed. “It wouldn’t necessarily come as a shock, but I wasn’t going to do anything without speaking to her first. I ended up flying over there. Do you know how much a flight from New York to Germany costs this time of year?”
    Grace shook her head.
    “Anyway, I confronted her and she denied it. I didn’t really expect her to admit to the affair. That’s when she accused me of sleeping with you.”
    “ What? Me? What? How is that even possible . . .” she sputtered outraged.
    “ Yes, I thought it was ridiculous, too. That’s when she brought out her own letters. Also from a ‘concerned friend’.” He reached into the drawer again, pulled out another letter, and handed it to Grace.
    The letter was similar in tone as to the other five. Direct and to the point. Grace felt her face flush at the mention of her name.
    “That’s when we realized that someone was trying to tear us apart.”
    “ When did this happen?”
    “ Three months ago.”
    “ Do you know who was sending these letters? Any idea?”
    “ She thought it may have been Dragovich. She admitted to me