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man intensely.
    I said, “When was the last time you saw him?”
    “I’ll tell you what I told the police. I saw him a fortnight before his death; we were having a family dinner with Leo. We do that once in a while, maybe once a month, once every two months. I don’t know how his marriage was with Sophia. I didn’t ask him those things. We stuck to neutral topics, the weather, sports, and how Leo was doing.” She paused and thought back to what she’d told the police. “You’ll want to know where I was that night - I was home. I’d gone out for dinner at La Mamba and I left around eleven. I was home the rest of the time. Ethan and I were on relatively good terms, as good terms as you can be ten years after a divorce.”
    I nodded. “Do you have any idea who his latest affair might’ve been with?”
    She looked at me with an expression of mild surprise. “What do you mean?”
    “Sophia thinks he was seeing someone and it might have been serious.”
    “Did she have any particular suspicions?”
    I shrugged. I didn’t want to lead her on. “Not really. Do you have any idea?”
    A moment passed as Vanessa tried to think. Finally, she said, “When we were married he used to visit the Peacock Bar. It’s the strip club where he met Sophia. I’m sure he kept going – maybe a girl there?”
    I nodded. That made sense, but I was more inclined to think that he would sleep with a young auditor who he saw at his office every day. So I said, “How about anyone at his work?”
    Vanessa frowned. “I know Ethan liked his women, but I’d like to think he kept some things off limits.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him, really, come to think of it. Even our marriage was a lie.”
    She sounded bitter and I hated to bring up the past. But I needed to get information and she obviously needed to get things off her chest. I might as well take advantage of that. “You mean the philandering.”
    “Yes, that. Even after all this time…” She bit her lip and then went on. “The man was an enigma to the public, but I thought he loved me. He shared things with me. We really connected on so many levels, but then he…”Her voice trailed off.
    “Did you try counseling?”
    She shook her head. “He didn’t believe in those things. These days you would call him a sex addict, but I think it was more than that. He needed adoration as much as he wanted sex.”
    “It must have been a tough choice to leave him.”
    She nodded. “I can imagine why Sophia would kill him. You can’t stay because he drives you nuts, and you can’t leave, because you’re giving up that whole lifestyle.”
    “But you left.”
    “It was a tough choice. All his friends shunned me and his family stopped talking to me. I had to start from scratch. There were times when I was bitter, but I moved to Summerlin, and made new friends. I guess it all worked out in the end. And I have Leo, too. I guess I should be thankful.”
    I understood the loneliness emanating from the woman. Giving up your whole social circle must be tough. But that was good for me because she was the first person, other than Leo, who was actually telling me things I needed to know.
    “So you think Sophia did it?” It was more of a statement than a question.
    “I guess. She gets his money and she doesn’t have to live with him? Sounds like a win-win to me.”
    “Except she didn’t win.”
    She nodded. “Yeah. The gun. But that was a fluke. I think without that she might’ve gotten away with it.”
    I bit my lip thoughtfully. “You don’t think she’d be sad to see him dead?”
    Vanessa laughed drily. “Does she look sad to you? I know, she hired you and all that, but the woman…” She shook her head. “I don’t want to bad-mouth your client, but you gotta admit she’s a stripper who married a rich man for his money. I don’t think for a minute that she loved him, or that she cares about his death.