"What time did Savannah come to your door?" asked Bailey.

"A little past eight. I remember looking at the clock in the foyer."

"What did Eddie have to eat or drink last night?"

"We had dinner, nothing unusual. Some wine after dinner, and then he went to his studio to paint and I did some paperwork in my home office."

"Can we see the leftovers from the meal and the bottle of wine?" asked Bailey.

"There weren't any leftovers. I think the bottle of wine is around here somewhere."

"I'd appreciate if you could show me where it is before I leave," said Bailey.

Her features became defiant. "What exactly are you trying to prove?"

He eyed her coolly. "Somehow Eddie was slipped something last night that knocked him out so completely he's still not fully recovered. It had to be administered somehow."

"Well, I have no idea how it was done," she said hotly.

"That's okay, it's my job to figure that out," said Bailey. "The drugs you bought from Kyle: do you have any of them here?"

"I… I'm not sure. I can look."

"No. I tell you what I'm going to do: I'm going to have your home searched. Do you have a problem with that?"

Dorothea rose on unsteady legs. "I think I should speak to my attorney first."

Bailey stood too. "Fine, you do that. Meantime I'll get a search warrant issued. I'm posting one of my agents outside the house just in case something important decides to walk out. And we can check drains, and you're on septic here, so any evidence that happens to get flushed we can find."

"Your insinuations are ridiculous," she cried. "I didn't kill Sally or drug my husband."

"Too bad for you we don't have a final cause of death on Kyle Montgomery. If we did, you might be in jail right now. That would've been a nice alibi for you."

Bailey walked out while Dorothea looked at King pitifully. "Sean, what is going on?" He dashed forward and caught her before she hit the floor. He eased her onto the couch.

He turned to Michelle. "Get me some water."

Michelle rushed off and King looked back at Dorothea. She gripped his arm.

"God, I feel so bad. My head is splitting and my stomach's doing flip-flops."

"I'm going to have Mason come and look after you."

She clenched his arm even more tightly. "I didn't do anything, Sean. You have to believe that."

Michelle came back in with the water, and Dorothea drank it down.

"You do believe me, don't you?" she said pleadingly.

"Let me put it this way: I believe you as much as I believe anyone right now."

As King, Michelle and Williams left, they spotted Bailey talking to one of his men and pointing at the house. They walked over to him.

"You sure didn't cut Dorothea any slack, Chip," said Williams.

"I wasn't aware she deserved any," shot back the FBI agent.

"It's been a pretty traumatic morning for her, actually the last few days."

"If all of it's her own doing, why should I feel sorry for the woman?"

"You think she drugged her husband, then slipped out and killed Sally?" asked King.

"I think it's entirely possible she drugged Eddie and that someone else killed Sally while Eddie was unconscious. The stables are close enough to the carriage house that if there was a fight or Sally was able to scream, Eddie might have heard and come to her rescue. With him drugged that couldn't happen."

"And whom do you think Dorothea was partnered with in all this?"

"If I knew that, we could probably all go home."

"And the motive for killing Sally?"

"She knew more than she told anyone, including you. She said she was Junior's alibi. Well, we only have her word for that, because she only came forward after Junior was dead. He can't corroborate it. Now, suppose she wasn't with him the night of the burglary? Suppose she was helping someone break in the mansion or doing it herself?"

"If so, why would she come forward with the story about being with Junior?" asked Williams.

King answered, "Because that gives her an alibi for the burglary."

"Exactly," said Bailey, glaring triumphantly at Williams.

"That's actually not a bad theory, Chip," said King.

"Thanks. I have my moments." He climbed in his car and drove off.

CHAPTER 73

EDDIE FINALLY STARTED TO COME to around three o'clock that afternoon.

Williams, Bailey, King and Michelle had gathered in his hospital room. He looked up at them from his bed, all pale, twitchy and disheveled. Remmy sat next to her son, holding his hand in a firm grip and rubbing his forehead with a wet cloth. "God, Eddie, don't you scare me like that again."

"It wasn't exactly my idea," he said in a very tired voice.

"What do you remember about last night?" asked King.

"Dorothea and I had dinner, where we talked about, you know, recent events. I'd been at the lawyer's for a while before that."

"Why didn't she go with you to see the attorney?" asked Michelle sharply.