“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.”
“So Dion was only hanging around until you filmed the bit about the breakup?” asked Chase.
“Well, duh. We were going to milk this thing for all we could get.”
“What about Dion? How did he feel about this situation?” Odelia asked.
“Well, he’s not too happy,” said Shayonne. “He’s off the show, isn’t he?”
“You snooze, you lose,” said Shalonda.
“I don’t think that’s correct, honey,” said Shayonne. “More like, you cheat, you lose.”
“It doesn’t have the same ring to it. I like mine better.”
“What it all comes down to, Detective,” said Shayonne, touching Chase’s knee, “is that when you cheat on a Kenspeckle you’re out on your ass.”
“Amen to that,” said Shalonda.
Odelia shared a glance with Chase. This was definitely motivation for murder. If Dion was going to get kicked off the show, he stood to lose a lot of money. He might have wanted to plot revenge against Shana. Maybe even hoped that the murder would sink the entire show.
“What about Damien?” asked Chase.
Shayonne swatted away a fly. “What about him?”
“Did he know about Shana and Dion?”
“Of course he did. We don’t keep secrets in this family. Damien knew all about his wife’s infidelities.”
“Infidelities?” asked Odelia. “You mean this wasn’t a one-time thing?”
“Nope,” said Shayonne. “Now don’t get me wrong. Shana was the sweetest person in the world.”
“So sweet.”
“And I loved her, like, a lot.”
“A whole lot.”
“But let’s not kid ourselves. She was a skank.”
“They didn’t get any skankier than Shana.”
“She never met a guy she didn’t want to sleep with and who didn’t want to sleep with her.” She shrugged. “That’s the way she was. Take it or leave it.”
“Damien knew that going in,” said Shalonda. “In fact he sleeps around just as much as she does. They have a, quote unquote, arrangement.”
“So he was fine with this Dion situation?” Odelia asked.
The two sisters shared a look. “Well, fine would be overstating it,” said Shayonne.
“Yeah, he and Dion got into a big fight about it the other night.”
“They knocked the shit out of each other and then bonded over a couple of beers and hung out at the pool all night. It was crazy.”
“Dion is crazy.”
“Hey. Who you calling crazy? That’s my husband you’re talking about.”
“Ex-husband,” Shalonda specified.
“He’s not my ex-husband. I haven’t divorced him yet.”
Shalonda stared at her sister. “You’re not seriously thinking about keeping him, are you? After what he did to you?”
“But I still love him, honey. And maybe now that Shana’s gone we can start over.”
“You’re officially crazy. That man never treated you right.”
“He has. And anyway, better to have a man than no man at all.”
Shalonda’s eyebrows rose and she planted a hand on her hip. “Don’t hold back, honey. Just throw it all out there, why don’t you?”
“I’m saying you don’t get to give me marriage advice. I’m only going to take marriage advice from a person who’s in a successful marriage. And that person obviously isn’t you.”
“I would have had a successful marriage if Shana hadn’t stolen my man.”
“She wouldn’t have stolen your man if he wasn’t ready to be stolen.”
“Wait, you also had a man stolen from you by Shana?” Odelia asked. She was feeling as if she was on an episode of the Kenspeckles. Which she was.
“Of course. Didn’t you listen to a word we said? Shana stole all of our men. That’s what she did. She was a man-stealer.”
Chase shook his head and jotted something down in his notebook. It wasn’t hard to figure out what. Both Shalonda and Shayonne had a motive for murder. Both of them had had their men stolen by their sister.
“Did you notice anything about the intruder last night?” Odelia asked, deciding to change the subject.
“Not a thing,” said Shayonne. “I slept like a baby. Though when I woke up I was feeling nauseous. But I already told Detective Kingsley about that.”
“You were drugged,” Chase confirmed. “Both of you were.”
“Yeah, I was feeling nauseous too,” said Shalonda. “I thought I was pregnant.”
Both sisters laughed. “Good one, Shalonda,” said Shayonne.
“What about that?” Odelia asked.
Shalonda blinked. “What about what?”
“Any plans to add a new generation to the Kenspeckle family?”
“Well, Dion and I were planning our first baby,” said Shayonne.
“But that’s off now, right?” asked Shalonda. When her sister didn’t respond, she repeated emphatically, “I said, that’s off now. Right?”
Shayonne shrugged.
Shalonda’s jaw dropped dramatically. “Oh. My. God. You’re not seriously thinking to procreate with that man, are you? He cheated on you with your own sister!”
“That won’t happen again,” said Shayonne. “He promised.”