“For want of a better way of putting it, she was talking dirty to someone,” Claire said with a look of distaste. “I was completely stunned. The idea of her having a lover had never once crossed my mind, can you believe it?”

“Oh, I can believe it all right,” Lindsay said, pushing the thought of Cordelia away again. “But how did you find out it was Alison? Did you confront Jackie then and there?”

“I didn’t know what to do, so I crept back to bed. When she finally came through, I waited till she’d fallen asleep, then I got up and pressed the last number redial button on the phone. I got Alison Maxwell’s answering machine. The following evening, I confronted Jackie with it, and she admitted it immediately. It was almost as if it was a relief to her.” Claire took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “We had a very traumatic evening. A lot of tears, a lot of talking. At the end of it, we decided that there was still too much between us to finish it. Jackie agreed that she would stop seeing Alison. And as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it. Two days later, I came home to find Jackie in tears. She told me she’d been to see Alison to break it off, but that Alison had been completely unreasonable. She had threatened to tell me all sorts of lies about what they had done together, and to destroy Jackie’s career. Jackie was in a hell of a state. Before we could sort anything out between us, the police arrived and arrested her.” Claire stopped pacing and stared at Lindsay in mute misery. The cool lawyer’s façade had vanished completely. “It was only later that I discovered that Alison and Jackie had been to bed together that afternoon. I know it sounds absurd, but I was more upset over her lying to me about that than I was about her being accused of the murder.”

“So instead of pledging yourself to wait for her, you jumped into bed with Cordelia. Very supportive,” Lindsay said, fighting the sympathy she was beginning to feel for Claire with her anger at Cordelia.

“That’s not fair,” Claire protested angrily. “It wasn’t like that. Neither of us planned what happened.”

Lindsay ignored Claire’s response and asked, “Is there anything more you can tell me that might shed some light? Did Jackie mention anyone else in connection with Alison?”