"God," Cynthia said, turning away.
Dean continued. "I should have guessed what happened a long before now. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself."
"But it's all still just that, isn't it?" Cynthia said. "A guess? Granted, what you're saying could have worked, but that doesn't mean it did. I don't see how noticing a different color ink on Shipton's check made you so positive you set off after him the way you did."
"It was the proverbial straw. Once I had a means of discounting the suicide note, everything else made much more sense. I'd had a problem myself all along, not seeing Edith as being on the brink of suicide. Now there was a chance she didn't kill herself. When a person dies, the prime suspect is always the surviving spouse."
"If you do any more ice climbing we can put that to the test," she answered. But Dean saw a hint of a smile. "You've spent a pretty miserable two weeks beating yourself and taking responsibility for her death," Cynthia said, placing a consoling hand on her husband's arm. "If you're right about what happened, there must be some consolation in knowing Edith's death had nothing to do with you."
"Oh, I'm right about it. Now I'm just kicking myself for not figuring out the whole business earlier."
"How could you?" Fred asked. "We were all bamboozled."
"There were any number of hints. I was too tunnel-visioned to dismiss the inconsistencies. I just wanted to put the whole business out of my mind, behind me. Fred here was the guy who wouldn't let go. He was the one who kept at it. Edith's death was constantly on my mind, but I never for a minute considered anything but suicide. If I had tried to figure it out logically, things might have fallen into place. Take the time factor. It was the noise from the falling chair that woke me up. I rushed up the stairs but when I arrived, Edith was stone dead. Strangulation isn't a nice way to die. It isn't instantaneous. It takes time. If she had just kicked away the chair, we all would have made it to her room in time to save her."
Cynthia looked about to cry. "God, I'm so glad I wasn't here to see it." She looked up, as if believing the truth of what her husband was saying for the first time. "So he'd have to stuff something in the poor woman's mouth for fear she'd scream or cry out before she died."
Fred added, "Then Shipton had to set the whole scene up before he knocked over the chair. But we came up so quickly! Why didn't we pass him coming down the stairs?"