Inside, the house was quiet.
“Rosa,” she called out. Rosa was probably upstairs cleaning, though maybe not since it was obvious that the downstairs had not been cleaned yet as there were coffee mugs still in the sink, along with three cereal bowls. Maybe she had started upstairs first. Shaken things up a bit. Cleaning a seven-thousand-square-foot home had to be a nightmare at times.
“Piper? Poppy?” She headed upstairs. She peeked into the master bedroom, a bit surprised to find the bed still unmade. She looked around the room, and it appeared just as it had on Friday. Joel had probably told Rosa to leave it until Tessa returned. Shaking her head, she went to the girls’ rooms. Both doors were open. “Where are you two?” she asked, her voice slightly raised. After what they’d told her, she doubted they were hiding. They hadn’t wanted her to leave.
She searched the bathroom that the girls shared. There were no signs they’d been there recently. She felt their toothbrushes. They were dry as a bone. A chill ran down her spine. Something wasn’t right.
Alarmed, she started calling their names as loud as she could, but there was no answer. The pool; they were most likely swimming. Rosa always watched them even though they both were excellent swimmers.
Relieved, she went outside to the giant screened-in pool area. She smelled something odd, like a . . . She wasn’t sure, but it was horrible. She walked around the smaller areas of the pool—the girls referred to them as the lazy river—but there was no sign of them. In the center of the screened-in area was the giant, Olympic-size pool.
The water looked strange, the color, off. Like rust, or something. She walked closer to the pool and saw three bodies floating in the pool.
Joel. Piper. Poppy.
She screamed their names as she jumped into the pool. She swam to the deep end of the pool. The smell. It was indescribable.
Horrified when she realized what she was seeing, she screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed.
Chapter 12
Tessa sat up in the tub so fast she splashed water everywhere. Her heart was beating so fast it frightened her. She took a deep breath, forcing the images from her mind. Reaching for a towel, she got out of the Jacuzzi, her hands trembling.
She had tried to save her girls when she jumped in the pool. But their heads were . . . Dear God, they were inches from decapitation. And Joel. His bloated body was banging against the pool’s skimmer.
That was the day her nightmare had begun, and God help her, more than ten years later it had yet to end.
Tessa no longer cared about the luxuries Darlene and Sam had provided. Quickly, she toweled off and put on her new pajamas. Would she ever be able to get the image of that day out of her mind?
Maybe when Liam was six feet under, she could begin to heal.
* * *
At 7:20, a forensic van pulled into the drive, causing a total frenzy among the men and women of the press stationed outside. Tessa watched what was happening outside her house on television.
“Has someone else been murdered?” a reporter from WBBK asked the team as they unloaded equipment.
“Did Tessa Jamison commit suicide?” an anchor from WRAL in Orlando shouted at the men and women there to do their jobs.
Tessa turned off the TV, trying to decide whether to be amused or disgusted.
“You shouldn’t watch that stuff,” Sam said.
Tessa made herself another cup of coffee and one for Sam. She liked the Keurig. She didn’t speak as she waited for the coffee to brew. When both cups were ready, she took them to the living room and put them on a side table. Sam followed her.
“I had complete recall of the murders last night.” Tessa had never said this aloud. She was doing her best to keep her emotions under control.
“I heard you,” Sam told her as he reached for his mug of coffee.
“I thought I could save them.”
He nodded.
“I couldn’t.”
“Tess, I think I see where you’re going with this. It wasn’t your fault. You did what any decent parent would do. You wanted to shield your children from those creeps.” He gestured, indicating the men and women of the media outside. “I would have done the same thing had I been in your shoes. Stop beating yourself up. You have suffered a loss that I’ll never begin to understand, but you have given up ten years of your life when I know and you know that you had nothing to do with their deaths. I have always believed in your innocence one hundred percent. Never for a moment did I think you were capable of doing what was done.
“Let’s just allow Harry and his team to do their thing. Lee said that he will be here after lunch. We’ll get down and dirty then.”
She raised her brows.
“He will prep you, Tess. Run you through the mill. It will be physically and emotionally exhausting for you. But this is his method. And he gets results. Good results. He has never lost a case.”
He’d taken to calling her Tess. And, she had to admit, she liked it.
“Are you listening to me?”
She nodded.
“Dammit, Tess, don’t just sit there and stare at me. Say something.”
“Last night, when I was remembering, something occurred to me.”
“Go on,” Sam coaxed.
“I didn’t want to look at Joel’s face even though he was on his back, close to me. But I did. I couldn’t recognize him. His face was . . . gone. I cradled the girls. Their smell was unlike anything. I have smelled a lot of chemicals in my profession, mixed many, and nothing I have ever smelled could compare to that odor. I can still smell
