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said. “But I’m going to anyway. I’m certain her husband is involved. When I heard she was going to marry a much older man, I was, to say the least, concerned. Sabine was such a romantic creature. I couldn’t see what attraction she could feel for a hardnosed New York lawyer, however rich he might be. But I suppose she felt he could further her career. She was doing a stint on Broadway when they met.”
    Rex privately acknowledged that the husband was the most logical suspect. His cell phone had been found by the rocks. Paul Winslow had pointed the finger at Vernon too, citing his jealousy, but without concrete evidence, murder would be hard to prove.
    “Have you seen the police report?” Elizabeth asked.
    “Not yet. I only know what your husband told me and what I read in the statements faxed to me in Edinburgh. Did Sabine ever discuss her marriage with you?”
    Elizabeth nodded, studying the sunglasses in her hand. “About a week ago I noticed a nasty bruise on her arm and when I asked her about it, she laughed it off saying she’d fallen from a horse. I must have looked skeptical because after a while her eyes sort of misted up, and she told me she had fought with Vernon and that he’d grabbed her arm in a rage.”
    “Did she say what they were fighting about?”
    “No, but I suspect it was over Brooklyn Chalmers.” Elizabeth put her sunglasses back on. “Sabine never admitted to it but, if you ask me, they were much more suited to one another. Brooklyn has youth and vitality, a passion for life. Vernon is so … wooden.”
    Rex knew he would have to elicit precise details from Vernon Powell as to his whereabouts at the time his wife vanished. He felt his heart hardening against the man. Rex couldn’t abide the idea of violence against women, and Sabine seemed such a delicate creature, quite incapable of defending herself.
    He watched Nora O’Sullivan perform a vigorous crawl back to shore and then wade out of the water, shaking her short gray hair like a wet dog. Rex got up and handed her the fluffy yellow towel as she approached.
    “Ah, I feel fine after my swim. You should go in, Elizabeth.”
    “I think I will.” Elizabeth took an inflatable raft with her.
    Nora spread her towel across her friend’s lounge chair and lay down. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to question me now.”
    “Only if it’s convenient,” Rex said, sitting back down.
    “Ask away. I have nothing to hide. I didn’t want to talk in front of Elizabeth because she was fond of the girl. You may find my impressions rather different.”
    “Well, let’s start with what you wrote in your statement. You went with Elizabeth, Sabine, and Toni Weeks to Philipsburg last Tuesday and didn’t see Sabine again after you all arrived back at the resort at about four-thirty, is that right?”
    “It is. The last I saw of her was when she was getting out of the limo. She said she was going to reception to check her messages, and I said I’d see her later at Paul’s birthday dinner. When Sean and I got to the restaurant, everyone was there except her.”
    “Vernon was there too?”
    “No, I was forgetting. He arrived after us. He said he’d waited for his wife at their cabana until the last moment and then decided she must have gone straight to The Cockatoo from her walk.”
    “What was his reaction when he saw she wasn’t at the restaurant?”
    “He seemed calm enough, maybe a bit icy—as though he might be cross that she was late for Paul’s party.”
    “And your husband was with you since what time?”
    “Sixish. I was in the bath, but I heard him come in. The men had been scuba diving.”
    “Did Sabine seem in good spirits when you were in Philipsburg?”
    “That she did. She seemed exited about the upcoming parade in Marigot. Of course, had she been alive during the Storming of the Bastille, she would hardly have been on the side of the peasants. But Sabine had her whims and we all thought it was a charming