"You and Claudia are both attractive," I put in. "Were either of you the object of any unwanted attention?"
Erika blushed. "Claudia wasn't. She's Bobby's aunt, and I think 'aunt' makes boys like that think you're old. And she was not... She was polite with the boys, but not friendly."
"But you had no such protection, of course," my employer said.
"No, unfortunately. And it was pretty obvious that Freddy had his eye on me. If he'd ever made a pass, I could have taken him aside and told him I was in a relationship, but he never made a move. And it's not something I felt comfortable just mentioning."
"Do you think Bobby ever told his friends about your relationship with Claudia?"
She shrugged. "I don't think he knows. He and I used to talk quite a bit when he was there on the weekends, and I dropped some hints, but I don't think he caught the drift."
"Who else lives at the house? Who else was there?"
"James, Claudia's brother. I think his name is really Jameson, or possibly that's just a reference to how much he drinks." She shook her head. "I'm no expert, but if he's not an alcoholic then I've never seen one."
"Violent?" my employer asked.
"Oh, no. He's supposedly writing some sort of history of the family, but mostly I think he sits alone in the library and drinks. Oh, I'm making it sound worse than it is. I know he does read in there, but sometimes I think he watches television instead."
"He's in there all day?"
"Oh, no. He usually gets up around eleven, and most often he joins us for lunch. But he starts drinking in the middle of the afternoon, and he's usually 'too busy with his work' to come to dinner."
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