Clive stood up and looked at the camera. “That’s not what happened! I was the one to say that to her. She has no right to—”
“Cut!” Sara yelled.
“That wasn’t the way it was supposed to go,” Clive said. “Back then I was the one who...” He trailed off.
“You were what?” Sara asked. “The person who had the power? You were the one who was wanted? Pursued? And now it’s Willa who is the valuable one?”
“Valuable?” Clive said. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Everyone had their eyes on Willa, who was behind Clive. She was undressing. She unbuttoned her padded dress and let it fall to the ground. Under it, she had on a sleek, black, off-the-shoulder gown.
When Clive turned and saw her, his jaw dropped, his eyes widened.
Willa smiled at him very sweetly.
With a groan, Sara started to speak, but Kate put herself in front of her aunt.
“Meena!” Kate said sternly. “You didn’t tell the information you were supposed to.”
“Meena?” Nadine asked.
“Sorry,” Willa said, but she didn’t sound sorry. “For over twenty years I’ve carried that man’s words with me. At last I released them.”
All the women were nodding in understanding.
“What sound did you hear that night?” Jack blurted.
“I guess I heard the shot Nicky fired, and I saw Diana ride away.”
“Then what?” Kate asked.
Willa shrugged. “Nothing. Clive—” she give him a dark look “—showed up and said that...that horrible thing to me and that was it.”
“I hoped you would remember something new,” Sara said. “Clive isn’t important. What happened in the stables is.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Willa said. “But after he said that to me, I left. I went back to the house.”
“And cried,” Nadine said. “And you took all the attention of everyone with your tears. Poor Willa. No one cared that I had just lost the father of my child.”
“But you never told anyone of your problem,” Willa said.
“I was to announce that the man I loved had run off with Diana? Really?”
“If you had confided in us, I would have told you that I saw Diana ride away alone. Ask Mrs. Aiken. She was there.”
Everyone went silent.
Willa looked at them. “Oh. Sorry. I forgot that. When I was going back to the house in tears—” she gave another look of hate to Clive “—I heard someone. I hid and—”
“You were always so good at that,” Clive said. “Hiding in bushes and—”
“Shut the hell up!” Sara snapped at him, then looked back at Willa. “You’re sure?”
“Yes, I am. But you knew she was there. In the earlier scene she left Nicky in the kitchen to go ‘fix it.’ Right. I see.” She looked at the silent police inspector. “I guess I’m a witness.”
He nodded, then turned to Sara. “Isn’t there more to your play?”
Sara looked at Kate. “You ready for the last act?”