Samantha was thrilled with the diary pages. Abigail spilled everything about their trip to Orchard, seeing Brown, Norma’s death, the hate letter and finding the missing pages, and some of what Claudia had confided about the old sheriff and Edna.
“Our readers have been begging for more of this hometown whodunit,” Samantha confessed. “I have photos which came in last week of Emily and the kids I can use to fill another page.
“And I’ll be careful how I write it. Without proof using names of living people as possible suspects are unethical.”
And unsafe, Abigail thought.
“It’s great we have this hand written stuff, these diary pages, from Jenny herself; the letter from Norma, though I can’t use any of the letter because it’s unsubstantiated. And, that along with what Brown recollected about a stalker. Wonderful! This mystery has been better than a Sherlock Holmes serial. That Emily’s mysterious lover, whoever he was, out of jealous rage, may have strangled her to death in a fit of passion because she was leaving him. Classic. That someone or Edna may have poisoned the children to have free and clear title to the house and the inheritance, and Edna may have been blackmailing someone…for thirty years…is so juicy. What a story.”
“Yeah, what a story. A sweet woman is maybe murdered by her abusive boyfriend and two innocent children are maybe killed for greed.” Abigail couldn’t deny the uneasiness which had settled over her. She could still see the pain and anger in Mason’s eyes when he’d confronted her over Emily’s life being smeared throughout the newspapers. Was she doing the right thing?
“It’s horrible enough to think of how Emily died, but it’s worse to think someone killed the children. And it took place in the house you live in now. It must be eerie, I imagine.” Samantha had sensed Abigail’s disquiet. “To think Edna might have done that and no one’s ever suspected. You never know another person as well as you think, is beginning to be my new motto.”
When Samantha had everything she needed for the next article Frank walked Abigail home.