“Not gonna happen,” were his exact words, and no matter how much the sisters insisted, even turning on the waterworks again, this time he stood his ground. He obviously had no aspirations to be a celebrity cop.
Shalonda tossed her long hair.“You know what we’ll do, Shayonne?”
“What?”
“We’ll shoot a confessional. Tell our viewers all about the investigation. They can’t stop us from doing that, can they?”
Both sisters gave Chase an inquisitive look, but he just shook his head.
The sisters had chosen the pergola for the interview. The wooden structure, covered with vines and honeysuckle, stood fifty yards from the house, at the bottom of the garden, providing a nice view of the Atlantic Ocean. Dappled sunlight slanted down through the rafters, and as far as Odelia could see there were no paparazzi in sight. What she did see was the cameraman sneaking around, trying to get the best view of the sisters.
She decided not to tell Chase. This was a fight they couldn’t win.
The Kenspeckles made themselves comfortable on the wicker furniture, making sure the camera caught them from their best angle. Even during a police interview they were concerned about how they looked on camera.
In a surprising shift of protocol, Chase had decided to allow Odelia to take the lead in the interview. Maybe he figured Shayonne and Shalonda would open up to her more than to him. More so because she didn’t look anything like a cop. In fact she might have featured on the show herself.
“Did Shana have any enemies?” she asked, opening the interview.
“Oh, no,” Shalonda said immediately. “Shana was the most beloved person on earth. Literally everyone adored her. I mean, literally every single person on earth loved Shana to bits. I’m not kidding. I know this for a fact.”
“Yeah, Shana was a sweetheart,” Shayonne agreed. “She had the biggest heart. You could never hope to have a sweeter sister than her.” A tear stole down her cheek, and Shalonda reached out a hand and gave hers a squeeze.
Faced with tragedy, the Kenspeckle sisters offered a united front. It was touching, Odelia thought. Until she saw movement from the corner of her eye, and noticed the camera recording every last second of the teary scene.
“Can you think of anyone who would have wanted to cause her harm?”
Shayonne hesitated.“Well, there was this one incident with one of her ex-boyfriends, Robin Masters. When Shana got engaged to Damien, he made a big scene. I mean, the guy completely lost it. Went absolutely ballistic.”
“Oh, that’s right. Wasn’t that in season ten? Or was it eleven? I forget.”
“It was so horrible,” said Shayonne. “Robin drove up to the house and threatened to torch the place. Camille—that’s our mother, Camille Kenspeckle—had to intervene and calm him down. The cops got involved, and Shana had to file a restraining order against the guy. I was terrified.”
“He wasn’t the only one. There have been others. Other ex-boyfriends. But they’re usually pretty amenable once they get their five minutes of fame.”
“You mean fifteen minutes of fame,” Odelia said.
“What’s that, honey?” asked Shalonda. “You have to speak up, for the—”
But before she could say‘microphone,’ Shayonne had squeezed her hand.
“The expression is fifteen minutes of fame, not five,” Odelia explained.
“Oh, but these guys only get five,” said Shalonda. “We’re the stars of the show. Bit players like Robin Masters don’t get to steal our limelights.”
“They sure don’t,” Shayonne agreed. “We worked too damn hard. No boyfriend gets first billing. Five minutes and that’s it. It’s all in the contract.”
“Does everybody sign a contract?” asked Odelia.
“Of course,” said Shayonne. “Girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives… Camille takes care of all of that. This is a business, honey. We need to protect the Kenspeckle brand. Nobody is going to come and mess with our brand.”
“And what is that brand, exactly?” Chase asked, unable to control himself.
“Beauty and grace,” said Shayonne instantly, as if she’d rehearsed the phrase, which she probably had.
“Wealth and power,” added Shalonda.
“Style and beauty.”
“I think you said beauty twice, honey,” said Shalonda.
“That’s because it’s important. The Kenspeckle brand is all about beauty.”
“And selfies,” Odelia said with a smile.
The two sisters laughed.“You said it, girl,” said Shalonda.
“Wasn’t Shana called the queen of selfies?” asked Odelia. “Maybe her habit of portraying her wealth and beauty made some people feel jealous?”
“Oh, but everybody was jealous of her,” Shayonne confirmed. “Shana was so gorgeous it was hard not to feel jealous. She was the center of attention wherever she went. I’ll admit even I felt jealous of her from time to time.”
“Yeah, she couldn’t walk into a room without getting everyone to turn.”
“Remember my wedding? How she upstaged me in front of everybody? That dress. That hair. She looked like she was the one getting married.”
“I hated her for that,” said Shalonda.
“Me too. Or that time when I was sixteen, going out on my first date and she was flirting with my date? The guy didn’t even look at me after that!”
“Shana was an attention whore, no doubt about it,” said Shalonda. “And we all loved her for it,” she quickly added when she saw Chase frown.
“She was the most popular star in the family, wasn’t she?” asked Odelia.
The two sisters stared at her, momentarily lost for words. Then Shayonne asked,“Who the hell told you that?”
“That’s not true,” Shalonda chimed in.
“We’re all stars. Just look at our contracts. We all get star credit.”
“There’s no denying Shana got the most attention,” said Chase. “She got the endorsement deals, the paid appearances… Even her app is a bestseller.”
Wow. Chase had obviously done his homework.
“Those are just rumors,” Shayonne said, sitting up.
“Filthy lies,” Shalonda chimed in, also sitting up.
“We all share equal billing on our show. There are no prima donnas.”
“Still,” Chase insisted. “You just said you hated your sister because she upstaged you, and tried to steal your boyfriends.”
“Oh, she did,” said Shayonne, nodding.
“She most definitely did,” Shalonda agreed.
“Which doesn’t mean we didn’t love her.”
“Oh, yeah. We loved her to pieces.”
“Tiny, little pieces,” said Shayonne, holding her nails millimeters apart.
“You told me that Shana was sleeping with your husband?” Odelia asked.
“You told her that?” asked Shalonda, turning to her sister. “What about putting up a united front for the outside world, like Camille told us to? Family first, Shayonne. Family always comes first.”
“This is a police investigation,” Chase reminded her. “You can speak freely. Nothing you say will go beyond Miss Poole and myself at this point.”
“All we want is to catch your sister’s killer,” Odelia assured them.
“Yes, I told her,” Shayonne said. “Because it’s true. Shana was sleeping with Dion. She told me so herself. She came clean to me last week.”
“I don’t believe this,” Shalonda said, shaking her head. Whether she didn’t believe that Shana had been sleeping with Dion or that her sister was confiding in the police wasn’t immediately clear. Odelia suspected the latter.
“Well, she was!” Shayonne exclaimed. “She finally confessed. Told me she couldn’t live with the lie anymore. She also told me she was done with Dion.”
“And how did you react?” asked Chase.
“I was stunned. Completely stunned. And then I dumped Dion’s ass.”
Odelia frowned.“So why is Dion still here?”
“Because Shana confessed to me off camera, and I broke up with Dion off camera. We needed to do it again, on camera, which is why we all flew out here, because this was going to be the highlight of the season. We were going to end on a big cliffhanger, with my relationship with Shana and my marriage in the balance.” She shook her head. “You obviously still have a lot to learn about TV, honey. This all happened already, and now we have to recreate it.”