51
They filmed the interview in a brightly lit sitting room decorated in country French design. Peter and Anna sat side by side on a tufted love seat, holding hands. “This was my mother’s favorite room in the house,” Anna said wistfully. “She’d sit right here with a book for hours while my father worked in the den.”
Ryan used a light touch during most of the interview, allowing Anna and Peter to air their grievances against their mother’s younger suitor. They depicted him as uneducated, unsophisticated, and in a rush to marry their mother for money. Laurie had been worried that Ryan’s belief in Ivan’s innocence would skew his treatment of the show’s participants, but he came across as fair—even sympathetic to their concerns about the man.
“Peter, Ivan tells us that he and your mother-in-law had discussed a prenuptial agreement. Didn’t that quell some of your worries?”
“I was a legal advisor to Virginia in addition to being her son-in-law, so I really can’t disclose anything Virginia said to me.”
“But Ivan was not your client. Isn’t it true that he went specifically to you, as a trusted advisor to Virginia, to make clear that he was willing to sign anything that would reassure the family about his intentions?”
Anna interrupted. “It’s not just a matter of the prenup, which only applies in the event of a divorce. The whole point is that we were worried about him spending Mother’s money while they were actually married. She bought him a sports car when she barely knew him! It was unseemly. He’d have his hand in a far larger cookie jar as her husband.”
“So you think your mother was in fact planning to marry him,” Ryan said.
“No, she would never. And what difference does it make now anyway?”
“My understanding is that you think Ivan killed your mother because she discovered that he was stealing money from her and that she was going to report him to the authorities. If she was truly planning to marry Ivan, doesn’t that make it more believable that she actually gave him the seed money for his business?”
“I refuse to believe that she’d do something so heedless,” Anna snapped.
“Why do you say it was ‘heedless’? After all, Ivan’s business has thrived. It’s one of the most popular workout spots in Manhattan.”
“Well, she couldn’t have known that at the time.” Anna huffed.
“Or maybe she could, if she saw a side to Ivan that you and Peter did not. Don’t you think it’s possible she was confident in his abilities?” Anna and Peter did not respond, but the implication was clear. If Virginia had given that money to Ivan voluntarily, he had no motive to harm her. Ryan shifted direction. “Isn’t it true that your family was very concerned about your mother’s finances leading up to the night of the gala?”
“I don’t know if I’d say it rose to the level of very concerned, but, as I said, we thought she was being overly lavish with this man.”
“The very day before she died, in fact, you said, ‘Daddy’s the one who worked for this money. He would be destroyed if he could see the way you are spending it.’ ” Ryan was reading from his notes. Both Anna and Penny had recounted the comment.
“It was an ugly thing to say,” Anna conceded, “but it wasn’t untrue.”
“You also told me earlier that you were glad to have one last day together in peace after that awful argument.”
She nodded sadly in agreement.
“But it wasn’t entirely a day of peace in your family, was it?”
Anna and Peter exchanged a confused look.
“Isn’t it true, Peter, that you and your brother-in-law, Carter, had an argument before dinner at the gala?”
Peter blinked and Laurie noticed him give his wife’s hand a small squeeze.
“Anna,” Ryan said, “the argument was heated enough that you walked over to hush Peter and your brother. You said they had argued enough for the day and shouldn’t discuss something ‘so morbid’ in public. We have a witness to the conversation. It was in the temple room if that helps to jog your memory.”
Anna shifted in her seat, uncrossing and recrossing her legs.
“The morbid topic was your mother’s will, wasn’t it?” Ryan pressed. “She was planning to change it, and the family was worried.”
“That’s not true,” Anna finally said. “Our mother was very generous, both to her family and to the charities she supported. Nothing was going to change that.”
“But that’s what the conversation between Peter and Carter was about. True?”
Anna and Peter were looking at each other again, and Laurie was wondering if they had made a mistake filming them together. If Anna stood up right now, Peter would follow, and the interview would be over.
Ryan nudged one more time. “Carter went to Peter as the trusted legal advisor, asking about your mother’s will. Carter knew she had plans to change it. Peter respected Virginia’s confidences and said nothing. Wasn’t that why they were arguing?”
Ryan had moved into new territory, speculating about the source of the argument between the two men, but Laurie could tell that their theory had been correct. She could see the worry in Peter’s expression. He wanted to say more.
“He didn’t know anything,” Peter finally said. “He just kept asking me if Virginia had spoken to me about any changes. I thought the entire topic was tacky and selfish, so I kept trying to avoid it. He kept pressing, and that’s when Anna intervened.”
“Did you know that Carter was dating your mother’s assistant, Penny Rawling, at the time?”
Their surprised expressions made clear that they had not known this fact.
“Penny used to read little notes your mother would ball up in her office garbage,” Ryan said. Anna shook her head disapprovingly. “Some of the notes were about changes to her will. In many of them, you and Carter were going to inherit your mother’s shares in the company, Anna, but nearly all of the other assets were going to be designated to charity.”
Anna’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
“Penny told this information to Carter,” Ryan revealed. “That was why he was pressing Peter for information.”
They looked at each other again, but this time was different. They were no longer worried about the tone of Ryan’s questions. They were seeing something they knew in a different light. They were scared.
“I just thought he was being paranoid,” Anna said quietly. Ryan waited for her to explain. “Mom talked to him, maybe a month before she died. She was worried that he felt ‘entitled.’ ” Anna released her husband’s hand for the first time since the interview began and used air quotes to emphasize the last word. “She saw how much harder I worked. Mother told Carter, ‘I’m afraid that if it weren’t for the family money, you would have turned out just like your cousin, Tom.’ Mind you, Tom’s great, and he’s doing fabulous work for the company now, but at the time, trust me: for Mom to compare Carter to our cousin was no compliment at all. Tom was in and out of different jobs, crazy girlfriends, gambling—all in the past now. So when Carter was asking Peter about Mom’s will, I told him he was being paranoid. I thought Mom was just trying to get Carter to grow up a little. I don’t want to believe that he—”
She paused and held Peter’s hand again.
“That he what?” Ryan asked. “What do you think your brother did?”
“I have to tell them,” she whispered. She waited until Peter nodded his approval, and Laurie realized that the power in their marriage might be more equal than it appeared on the surface.
“That argument I had with Mom the day before the murder? It was because Carter had asked about her will, saying he was worried she was going to change it and cut us out. It got me thinking about all the money she was spending on Ivan, so I let her know I did not approve. She made it clear that she was a grown woman who had the right to do what she wanted. But Carter wouldn’t let it drop. As soon as he saw us at the gala, he wanted to know if I’d gotten assurances from our mother that she was going to keep the money within the family. And then he kept nagging Peter about it, demanding that he lecture her about the foolishness of giving the family money away. That’s when I went over and told him to knock it off—we were in a public place.”
“And what did your brother say?” Ryan asked.
“That we—”
Peter interrupted, and Laurie was certain that the lawyer in him was going to cut off the conversation. Instead, he finished Anna’s sentence for her.
“That we had to stop her. That we had to stop her from changing that will, no matter what.”
Anna blinked a few times and her eyes began to water. Peter put his arm around her and waved a hand at the camera, signaling that they were done.