Wayne Bailey's lips curled coldly. "That's what I couldn't understand at first. You were in disguise; even if she recognized you, it would have been right there at the banquet, and she wouldn't have had time to prepare the poisoned wine. But that's where we fell into the trap of a smokescreen."
"What do you mean?"
It was indeed impossible for Cathy Xavier to know in advance that Anna Jadwin would sneak into the banquet and serve as a maid to Grandpa.
Nor did she know that Anna Jadwin would prepare poisoned wine for Grandpa—
She lacked the time and prescience to commit the crime.
If she wanted to frame Anna Jadwin, she had to ensure that Anna was present, and all the evidence collected later had to point to Anna.
A normal person certainly couldn't make sense of this, which is why Wayne Bailey originally never considered that the poison might have been administered by someone else—not even by Sarah Bailey, as she had no time to commit the crime either!
