(cont)
Margie: Larry, I didn't want to say this, but I'm scared.
Larry: So am I, but they're right out there. They'll be back in a minute.
Margie: That's not what I mean. It's Tia, she's got that gun.
Larry: You seemed to know all about that.
Margie: I was testing her, to see if she'd admit she had it. Larry, I think she's a killer!
Larry: (shocked) What?!
Margie: I've been trying to put all the pieces together after Filippa died, and I thought about Tia.
Larry: But that was an accident. Filippa wasn't shot.
Margie: But at the inquest, the things Tia said, making it sound like you might have done something, lured Filippa to that trail by the cliff.
Larry: Tia didn't suggest that, it was the detective.
Margie: Not outright, no, but there were these odd things she said, about the trail, about Filippa's horse being young, and spooking easily. And how you'd asked her if loud noises might frighten Exterreri into running into traffic, that sort of thing.
Larry: Sure, we had talks like that, but it was because I was worried about Filippa breaking her neck if that crazy horse took off on her.
Margie: I know that, but Tia lied at the inquest.
Larry: What?
Margie: She said she wasn't here the day Filippa died, that she'd taken the day off. But she was here, and I can prove it.
Larry: I -- I don't understand. How?
Margie: (draws a spent shell casing in a plastic bag from her jacket pocket) If this belongs to Tia, and I'm betting it does, then it proves she was up on that trail, right at the spot where Exterreri shied off the cliff, and they both died. She must have been in a hurry to get out of there and left it behind, or maybe she thought it went over the cliff.
Larry: The police searched--
Margie: For what? They assumed the horse shied. like everybody did, but I knew Tia had a motive, so I went looking for anything that might tell me what happened on that trail. I searched through every patch of moss and blade of grass until I found this. And if her prints are on it, then we've got her.
Larry: (was staring intently at the shell casing, but look quizzically at Margie) Wait, a motive? What motive?
Margie: Well, remember when you and Filippa were on the outs for awhile? I never knew why, you were both as tight-lipped as clams about it, but whatever it was, Filippa was so mad that she told me she made a new will.
Larry: A -- a new will?
Margie: (waves a hand, slipping the bagged shell casing back into her pocket) You know how she was when her temper took over. I don't even know if she really did it, but she told me she'd rather leave everything to Tia before you saw a dime.
Larry: (gasps, looking at the draped front window) Tia?
Margie: Here's the thing, I saw Tia in the kitchen right after that. She said she'd just come in to grab an apple for Exterreri, but she could have heard everything! And only a week later, my sister was dead!
Larry: My god ...
Tyler: (comes inside, looking confused) Tia and I got separated. We heard a horse, and I lost her while we were trying to find it.
Margie: Just wait here, with us.
As Tyler enters the living room, the lights go out, plunging everything into pitch blackness.
Margie: (frightened) Tyler?
Larry: Margie, I can't see a damned thing!
Margie: (screams) The face! Larry, in the foyer! It's the face I saw outside the window! It's inside the house!
Larry: Where, Margie?!
A shot rings out, there's a muffled groan of pain, and the sound of a body falling to the hardwood floor
(To be continued...)
Cast
Lawrence Ross -- Erebus
Margie Capall -- Bailey
