"Get out!" Linda was then silent for a moment. Her fingers were faintly moving as though already typing. "What we have here is an old-fashioned love triangle, and an excellent motive for murder. We haven't even talked about the age-difference angle; there's a whole other headline right there. Wow, it's times like this I wished I worked for a tabloid. Imagine the trashy stuff I could print about this. Maybe Hollywood will ask me to do the screenplay."
"Don't assume too much."
"Oh, I gotta work all this in somehow. Let's see, we have a rendezvous at a motel. God, I love this business. Accordingly, Loraine Dellin had sex once, no doubt again at the motel, and doubtless other times we don't know about, with the man who shot her ex-husband. I wonder how many times I can use the word sex in a single column."
Sandy abruptly stood. "Allegedly shot, allegedly! Look, sister, if you've already decided my brother is guilty, then we've nothing to talk about. You're sitting there being all nice to me, and I started to trust you. What you're really after is something you can use to show he's guilty."
"No, I was just visualizing a sensational headline." Linda also got up. "Hey, don't be so touchy. I'm interested only in printing the truth. You have to admit your brother is up to his ass in this, and the sex angle just makes it worse. Regardless of what you say, it'll look like a love triangle with plenty of motive for your brother to knock off the Senator. National TV will have a field day with all this."
"And you're going to make certain they don't miss a thing!"
"Actually, it's to my advantage to hold it until I can break the story myself. We're talking Pulitzer Prize here."
"I told you not to assume too much. They definitely didn't have sex a second time, at the motel or elsewhere. One time only. My brother didn't want any more to do with her."
"Why were they at the motel if not for sex? Something was going on."
"Can't divulge that, not yet. I'd like to find out what Loraine did for the rest of that Saturday."
"Hold on, I believe I have it in my notes." Linda looked down at the files and papers on the floor around her desk and then thrashed among the papers on her desk. "Here it is. I asked Chief Oehlert if ex-wives aren't always suspects. Off the record he said that at the time of the murder she claimed she was at the museum."
"Okay, so that's her alibi. I'll check that out, if you can dig into Mrs. Crawford."