The Perfect Marriage(43)

The handsome lieutenant entered the room, the female officer who had offered to get her food a step behind him.

“I introduced myself earlier, but I know that with everything that has happened, remembering names is difficult. I’m Lieutenant Velasquez. This is my partner, Detective Jamali. We’re both very sorry for your loss, Ms. Sommers.”

Her inquisitors made a handsome couple, and Jessica wondered if they were, in fact, a couple. He might be a tad old for her, probably Jessica’s age, if she had to guess. The female detective looked no more than thirty.

“As I told you before, the first few hours in an investigation are the most critical,” he continued. “We know that this is an extremely difficult time for you, but we have to ask you some questions that will hopefully help us catch whoever did this to your husband.”

Jessica felt the need to hear her own voice. “Yes. Anything I can do.”

“Thank you. How long had you and James been married?”

Jessica wondered if the lieutenant consciously used the past tense to bring home that James was truly gone or if it was what he always said in these situations.

“One year. We actually had this big party for our first anniversary on Saturday night.”

“This past Saturday?” Jamali asked.

“Yes.”

“Your husband called you at”—Velasquez looked at his notes—“4:53 yesterday, and at that time he said that he was going to Washington and spending the night there. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say why he was going?”

“Yes. He had a business meeting. James is . . . was an art dealer. He took the Acela to DC last night to meet a buyer and promised me he was going to take the first train back in the morning.”

The man’s face twitched. It was almost imperceptible, but it suggested something was amiss.

“Was he traveling with Mr. Warwick?”

“No. He was with a woman named Allison. But Mr. Warwick was working on the deal too.”

“What is Allison’s last name?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know her last name. But ask Reid. He should know it.”

“Any tension between your husband and Mr. Warwick?”

The question struck Jessica as odd. Were they thinking Reid killed James?

“No. Not as far as I knew. Reid came to our anniversary party last week. And like I said, they were doing this art deal together.”

She thought for a moment about whether it looked good or bad for her to be interested in the police’s suspect list. Of course she would be, she concluded quickly.

“Do you think maybe Reid . . . ?”

“We don’t think anything at this point. But I will tell you that Reid refused to cooperate with us.”

“He did?”

“Yes. And that’s never a good look for an innocent person.”

Jessica was still wrapping her mind around the fact that Reid had refused to cooperate with the police when Detective Jamali asked, “Can you think of anyone else who would want to harm your husband?”

It was the else that struck her. Apparently, Reid had joined the category of potential murderers merely by his refusal to cooperate.

She took a deep breath and then said aloud what she hadn’t said to anyone, other than Wayne. “James and I were both married before, and we had an affair and then left our exes.” She could see the look in her inquisitors’ eyes, judging her. She might as well be wearing a scarlet letter. “My ex and I get along well, probably because we share custody of our son. But James’s ex, Haley . . . she’s crazy. He had to take out a restraining order against her. She showed up at our house on the night of our anniversary party. We hadn’t invited her, of course. But she was there and made a scene.”

“What is Haley’s last name?” the lieutenant asked.

“I think she still goes by Sommers. I’m not a hundred percent sure, though.”

“What type of scene did she cause at the party?” Jamali asked.

“During the toasts, she started cursing at James. Me too. Then, just the other day, I got this strange phone call. It was from a man, but I knew that Haley was behind it.”

“What did the caller say?” Velasquez this time.

“He said I should ask James about the short-haired woman he was . . . allegedly . . . having sex with. Of course, he didn’t phrase it like that.”

“What short-haired woman?” Jamali now, continuing the tag team.

“She meant Allison. The woman James was working with on the deal. James said that Haley must have seen the two of them together at dinner and decided to try to make me jealous. Or maybe she was hoping it’d cause a fight with James. Who knows what goes through her mind?”

The two police officers looked at each other. Now Haley was a suspect too.

Good, Jessica thought. It couldn’t happen to a nicer person.



At 3:45 p.m., school was finally over, and Wayne left the Sheffield Academy for the day. He had seen from the window that it had been snowing all day, but once he was outside, he realized that it was heavier than he had thought. Unfortunately he was wearing his loafers with the soft soles, which meant that he’d be sliding on the slick streets with each step.

It was only a few blocks to the subway. If he stayed under the scaffolding for the next block, he’d make it there without becoming fully soaked.