"Why would she do something stupid like that?" Fred asked.
"I think she wanted a confrontation between Ryland and her husband all along. She threw herself at Ryland, practically under Shipton's nose."
"And at you," Cynthia offered. "But her husband didn't want her dead," she continued. "He desperately wanted her to bear his son."
"Says who? Think about that."
"Donald Ryland said so," Fred answered.
"Besides," Cynthia added, "Even if she did make it easy for her husband to follow her, Shipton did chase her out here. Look how obsessive he was!"
"She was a very obsessive woman too, a far different person than we were all led to believe."
"What do you mean?"
"Stop and think. Everything we knew about Edith Shipton came either from her directly or through Donald Ryland. But Ryland's personal knowledge of her was limited to a couple rolls in the hay a dozen years ago. Her life with Shipton was solely based on what she told Ryland and he conveyed to us. Once you realize that, you have to question everything she said. Especially about Jerome. Aside from our personal observation that he was a first class son of a bitch, everything else about him came from Edith."
"I'm getting confused," Cynthia said.
"I'll grant you, it is confusing and there's a whole lot more about their relationship we don't know and probably never will know. But we do know Edith did do some very calculated things. I don't believe Jerome beat her when she showed up Sunday morning all bruised and cut. I think she did that to herself."
"You don't think Shipton was a wife beater?" Cynthia asked, her deep hatred of the man bubbling to the surface.
"Having met him, I'd have to say he was capable of it. The point I'm trying to make is, we lack confirmation, especially in view of subsequent events. We only have Edith's word."
"God, David! You sound like every cop and judge who doubts every battered and raped woman victim! She asked for it-it was her fault!"
"Whoa! I'm not writing any letters to the Vatican proposing Jerome Shipton for sainthood. He was a woman-chasing, obnoxious bastard in a dozen different ways. Don't forget he killed his wife in cold blood and tried to kill me! All I'm trying to do is sort out the real man from the image his wife created. Look at the facts. Aside from what we observed ourselves, everything we thought we knew about Jerome Shipton came from his wife, a dedicated liar. She told Franny Mulligan that Ryland was dumping her. A bold-faced lie. She was pregnant. Probably another lie. The whole fable about how her stepson died was a fabrication. So tell me, what was truth and what was fiction?"