She looked at Sam, praying he would get her to clarify what she had just said.
“Liam Jamison said he knew about the girls?” Sam asked her again. “You heard him say those exact words to Joel? Is that what you’re saying?”
Rosa nodded.
“Is that all you heard?” Sam asked.
“No.”
The room was as silent as a tomb. Tessa felt as though she had stepped out of her body and was looking down on Jill, Sam, and Rosa from high overhead. The word surreal came to mind. An out-of-body experience.
“Tell us what you heard,” Sam persisted. “Exactly as you heard it being said.”
Tessa watched Rosa. She could see that this wasn’t easy for her, but again, she could have made a massive difference all those years ago and had chosen not to. She reminded herself of this each time she started to feel the least bit of sympathy for the woman she had trusted with her daughters’ lives.
“I . . . I heard him tell Mr. Jamison that he knew about the girls. That’s how he said it. I swear to you,” Rosa repeated. “Just like that. He said he knew about the girls.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “Did you hear him say what he knew about the girls?”
She shook her head. “That is all I heard. He did not say . . .” Rosa appeared to be searching for the right words. “Specifically. Yes, that is it. He did not say specifically what it was that he knew.”
Tessa couldn’t remain silent. “You’re saying that Liam said that to Joel? Not the other way around?”
Again, Rosa nodded.
“I think you’re confused,” Tessa told her. “You’re not telling the truth.”
“Tess,” Sam chided. “Let me do my job.”
How could he expect her to keep quiet?
“Calm down, Tessa,” Jill said reassuringly. “Let Sam finish what he needs to do.”
Tessa sighed, exerting an iron will of control, then motioned for Sam to continue with his questions. The mood in the room was grim, dark. She had a fleeting thought, wondering if this is how her girls felt when they’d heard the arguing that morning in the kitchen. If that’s what they heard, and still, she wasn’t convinced Rosa was telling the complete truth.
“So, you are at the bottom of the staircase, you hear both Mr. Jamisons, Joel and Liam, arguing,” Sam stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Liam says to Joel, ‘I know about the girls’ and you just continue to stand at the bottom of the stairs?”
“I was very afraid and wanted to take the girls to their rooms upstairs, and I was about to when the loud banging started on the front door. They stopped shouting.” Rosa looked down, reached for her wadded-up tissue, and blew her nose. “I waited, too. I thought it was Roberto coming to get me, but then I realized that he could not have gotten here so fast. You know? It had only been a few minutes since I had called him. He worked over on Alhambra Drive, not all that far from here, but it still takes at least ten minutes to get from there to here. So I waited to see who was at the door knocking so loudly. I thought maybe Miss Tessa had come back, but it could not be her because she had keys. And she always came in through the garage and entered the house through the kitchen door.”
Sam looked at Tessa for confirmation.
“At least that’s true,” she said.
“Go on,” Sam coaxed Rosa.
“Mr. Jamison, Mr. Joel, answered the door, and Mr. Liam followed him. I thought that now is my chance, so I ran to the kitchen and told both girls to go out to the pool immediately. They did as I said. No questions because I think they did not want to hear their father and uncle yelling in front of them. They had shorts on, no swimwear, but I said to them, hurry out and go swim.”
“Stop!” Tessa shouted, no longer caring what Sam or Jill said. “How in God’s name could you not come forth with this information? I have spent a decade rotting in a prison cell! I lost my family, Rosa! Everything dear to me was taken that day, all that I loved . . . and you . . . you just up and left. You walked out the door just like it was a normal day. How could you?” Her voice was loud and harsh, but she no longer cared.
Sitting here and listening to Rosa talk about that day as though it were just any other cleaning day at the Jamison residence made her seethe with rage. She didn’t care whether her words hurt Rosa or not. Glaring at the woman, knowing her eyes shone with hot anger, she could not stop herself. “You’re nothing but a coward, you know that? You left two innocent little girls alone to . . . die!”
“Miss Tessa—”
“Shut up! You. Ruined. My. Life. You. Watched. My. Family. Die!” She spat the words so contemptuously, she surprised herself.
Sam held up his hand. “Calm down, Tess. We’re not getting anything accomplished. I understand your anger. We all do. We will find out the truth. No matter what. I swear.” He said this while staring at Rosa.
“I am very sorry, Miss Tessa. I cannot change what I did that day and afterward. I live with it every day of my life. I am not a happy woman. I . . .” She blotted her eyes again. “I pray for their souls at church. I swear to you.” At that admission, Rosa began to sob in earnest, then genuflected. Tessa felt a twinge of compassion for the woman, but only a twinge.
“Jill, why don’t you and Tess get us something to drink?” Sam asked. “I think we could use a break.”
“Come on, Tessa.” Jill took her friend by the hand and led her into the kitchen.
For a minute, neither spoke as Tessa removed glasses from the cupboard while Jill took four cans of Coke from
