At the same time, her lover, electrical repairman Michael Del Priore, considered the accused a ``goldmine'' and was willing to invest time and money on long-distance calls, which increased in frequency in the months leading to the alleged murder and intensified on significant dates, such as the day the accused was prescribed Rohypnol, the court heard.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman also suggested it was ``nonsense'' that the accused had felt so lonely that she searched for ``medication causing heart attack'' on the Internet to commit suicide, because e-mail records suggested at the time she had plenty of social functions to attend. She was also ``intimately familiar with sleeping pills and painkillers'' by this time, said Chapman, and could have just taken any one of the bottles she said were lying around the house to kill herself.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution has suggested that the accused was the primary beneficiary of the deceased's life insurance policies and estate, which Robert Kissel's sister, Jane Clayton - the first prosecution witness - estimated at US$18 million, including stocks, cash, real estate and life insurance.

Chapman, continuing his third day of cross-examination Tuesday, suggested that, by August, the accused had no intention of salvaging the marriage.

``Michael Del Priore was the man you loved. He was the man in your life,'' said Chapman. Kissel replied that he was the person she had become very close to since they shared a lot and that ``he continued to give support.''

``Del Priore lived in a trailer park, right?'' asked Chapman.

``No,'' she answered.

``In a stationary mobile home?'' suggested Chapman.

``I believe something like that,'' she replied.

``And you represented a potential goldmine to him, didn't you Mrs Kissel?'' said the prosecutor.

``No, he had an understanding of what my life was about,'' she said.

Kissel said Del Priore did not judge her by what she possessed, and accepted her as a person.

Chapman pointed out that, in September, 2003, Kissel made 52 calls to Del Priore, followed by 106 calls in October. On the day she was prescribed Rohypnol - a drug found in the stomach of the deceased - she made seven calls to Del Priore before and after her meeting with the doctor.

At the end of August, two days before her husband returned home from New York after back surgery, the accused had searched the Internet for sleeping pills, ``drug overdose'' and ``medication causing heart attack.'' That day, she had spoken to Del Priore for more than three hours.

She said she never talked to Del Priore about receiving the drugs, nor her thoughts of suicide.

``This man called you back, spending hours on the telephone, spending hundreds and hundreds of US dollars, which a resident of a trailer park can ill-afford,'' said Chapman.

``He worked,'' she replied.

``I suggest to you, he considered that a good investment,'' said Chapman.

Prosecution witnesses have testified that they believed the accused realized her husband had discovered her secret mobile phone, which she used to contact Del Priore, and that he was preparing divorce papers.

Kissel said Tuesday she was unaware that her husband knew of the secret mobile phone at the time.

``So he didn't come and confront you and beat you up? That would seem a bit out of character wouldn't it?'' asked Chapman.

Kissel replied: ``Yes, it would seem so,'' adding that she did not know why he didn't confront her.

Kissel is accused of serving her Merrill Lynch banker husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with the heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003. She denies the charge and is out on bail.

Last week, she accepted that she inflicted the fatal wounds with a metal ornament, but said she could not remember any further details about the fight, nor her consequent actions.

Chapman suggested Tuesday that the accused returned to Hong Kong on July 30 from Vermont, only to go back to New York on August 3 with her husband because she would have the opportunity to sneak a visit to Del Priore in Central Park.

Kissel said she did meet Del Priore for half an hour, but the purpose of the trip was to support her husband through his back surgery. The accused said that, in this period, the ``anal sex, cocaine use and painkillers'' continued.

Chapman said that the banker's doctor in Adventist Hospital gave the impression that ``he was a cripple, barely able to walk, destined for New York to have back surgery.''

Kissel replied: ``That's what painkillers are for.''

Chapman pointed out that, by September, the deceased had known that Web pages for drugs had been visited, and ``half jokingly'' expressed concerns for his life to his confidante. He was also said to have told his private investigator that he wondered whether his whisky was being tampered with, and that he did not trust his wife.

Chapman will continue his cross-examination today before justice Michael Lunn.