“I want to see what Rosa says, then we can decide,” Lee said again.
Tessa didn’t have anything to say to that, so she continued to clean the kitchen. Her thoughts were all over the place. It still seemed surreal, being here in her own home, surrounded by familiar yet unfamiliar things. New furnishings, floors, and walls did practically nothing to eliminate the images of what she had found at the pool that horrible day. She doubted that they would ever fade away. Like an old photo that had aged to a blurry finish, the edges of her memory of that day were faded, dried with time, but the actual picture of what she had seen was clear, as sharp as if she had just taken a snapshot of the scene.
It had taken a very long time for this image to return, but now, she could remember every single detail of what she had seen. And there was one detail that had always nagged her about Joel, and she had never repeated it to anyone, for fear they’d think she had totally gone off the deep end, but still, it nagged at her. He appeared so . . . different. Yes, she knew he’d been killed, murdered, and she understood the decomposition process, the bloating, all the scientific terms for describing a dead body in water, but she still felt that something wasn’t right. Later, after Rosa left, maybe she would tell Jill about it. Jill was a doctor, and she might have an explanation for Tessa’s feeling.
They all turned when they heard a light knock on the glass doors. “I’ll get it,” Sam said, moving to the back of the house.
“Stay calm,” Jill coaxed Tessa. “You have nothing to be afraid of.”
That was easy for Jill to say. Tessa had everything to fear. Her temporary freedom would most likely be taken away from her, and she would have to return to prison for the rest of her life if things did not go well. She was simply not going to allow herself to get her hopes up even though Lee and Sam were very encouraging. Going back to prison is what she should focus on. It was so hard to be optimistic when you’d spent a decade of your life behind bars. And it was much worse because she was innocent.
“Tessa?” Jill said. “Are you okay? You seem like you’re a million miles away.”
Tessa agreed. “Sorry. I was. I do that a lot. I’ll be fine.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Jill told her. “Rosa is waiting.”
Taking a deep breath, Tessa could not help but feel a bit anxious. It was time to hear from the horse’s mouth exactly what her former housekeeper had witnessed.
Chapter 19
Rosa had not aged well at all, Tessa thought as soon as she saw the woman. Her dark hair was now a harsh steel-gray color reminding Tessa of a used Brillo pad. Her once round, honey-brown eyes were heavy lidded, making her appear as though she were squinting. She wore a dark skirt and a faded, floral-print blouse that looked as though it came from another century. On her feet were brown sandals that revealed callused heels and toenails with chipped orange polish that were much too long and in need of a trim. To say she had aged and let herself go would be more than kind. In her early sixties now, she looked as if she could already be an octogenarian.
Tessa would not have recognized her had she run into her on the street or at the mall.
“Miss Tessa,” Rosa exclaimed as soon as she saw her. Her Mexican accent was virtually nonexistent. “I missed you so much, and the girls, too.”
Tessa was not sure how to respond, so she didn’t. Tessa was shocked that the older woman seemed so . . . normal. As though they were the best of friends, and Tessa was simply returning from a long vacation instead of ten years in prison as a convicted murderer. “Rosa,” she said, finally acknowledging the older woman.
Lee and Sam were seated on the sofa, Rosa in the chair opposite. Tessa chose the chair that faced the pool area. Jill sat on the arm of the chair, her left hand casually resting on Tessa’s right shoulder.
Lee waited a few seconds, then removed a legal pad and a tape recorder from his briefcase. He went through the legal spiel with Rosa, making sure it was on record that she was here of her own free will and that no one had coerced her into making a statement. He handed her several papers for her signature. As soon as she finished signing them, Lee returned them to the briefcase.
“Can you tell us what you saw on the last morning you were at this house? In as much detail as you can remember. Any detail you think may not be important, probably is, so I want you to tell me”—Lee looked at Tessa—“us everything that you saw and heard.”
Rosa nodded, her steel-gray hair coming loose from the bun coiled at the top of her head. She reached up and tucked the hair back into the bun, then smoothed her skirt, crossed her legs, and sat up straight. She continued to stare at Tessa, then began to speak. “It was Saturday morning, the day after Miss Tessa went away. I went upstairs to do the beds after I had breakfast with the girls. The girls had their cereal and stayed in the kitchen.” She paused, removed a tissue from her skirt pocket, blotted her eyes, then went on. “I decided to do the toilets first—” She stopped speaking, took a breath, and looked directly at Tessa. “I usually do the toilets last, but not that day. I don’t know why I changed my routine. I cleaned the master bathroom first, then I cleaned the girls’ bathroom. All those bright colors. They made me smile.”
Lee interrupted her. “So, you changed your routine that day, correct?”
Rosa
