“Zappos?”
“Darlene says it’s the world’s largest shoe store.”
Tessa smiled. “I’d like to meet Darlene sometime, before. . . well, if I return to prison, I’d like to thank her for all that she’s done for me.”
“You are not going back to prison. You could not have killed people on Friday who were still alive on Saturday. You’ll meet her today. She’s going to meet us in Lee’s office. Darlene works part-time as a legal stenographer for Lee and a couple of other local attorneys. Gives her extra money for her grandsons, or at least that is what she tells me. Personally, I think Darlene is a workaholic, in a good way.”
“I like her already.”
“She’s good people,” Sam said. “Jamison Pharmaceuticals was lucky to hire her.”
“No doubt,” Tessa said, then went on. “Sam, what Rosa said about seeing Joel running from the house that day. Can we talk about this now? I was going to talk to Jill, given her profession, but I don’t think this requires a professional opinion.”
He brought his coffee to the bar and sat next to her. “Of course, Tess. You can tell me anything.”
She nodded. “I’m just not sure where to start.”
“The beginning always works for me.”
“Of course.” She wasn’t sure what Sam would think of her after she told him her thoughts, but it didn’t matter. This needed to be said, and she didn’t want to wait until Jill’s visit. “When Joel and I first married, we had what you would call a whirlwind romance. It felt right at the time, or at least I thought so. I still do, but there were times when Joel acted, I don’t even know what word to use. Angry. And sometimes, he could be cruel. I remember when I was pregnant with the girls, I was just a few months along.” She stopped, as this was still a bit embarrassing, but she was a big girl now. “Joel would laugh at me when I undressed, telling me I looked like a starving Ethiopian. I told him how that offended me, and he said he hadn’t meant to, but I think he did. Another time, right around this same time, he implied that I was way too fat for a woman to be in such early stages of pregnancy. Of course, I had no one to compare to. This really bothered me, and from that point on, I tried not to eat much in front of him, and I didn’t undress unless he was out of the room or the lights were off.” She took a sip of her now-cool coffee, got up, tossed it in the sink, then started brewing a second cup. “You want another?” she asked, and took the cup he held out to her. She finished brewing the coffee and returned to her seat.
“I have never been married, but I could see how this would hurt your feelings; you’re bearing the man’s children. I would think he would adore the changes.”
Tessa blushed when he said this. “He didn’t. It wasn’t those things that bothered me so much. It was the twin thing. When I found out I was pregnant with identical twin girls, Joel was not happy. Not at all. He tried to act like he was, but I knew that he wasn’t. When I confronted him, he told me he was just overwhelmed at the thought of becoming a father, and the prospect of twins, he said it was double the anxiety.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “I would imagine it would come as a bit of a shock to anyone, but in a good way.”
“I was thrilled. I wanted a family of my own so badly. I hadn’t had anything like the best upbringing, as I’m sure you know. I wanted to be the best mother in the world, and I made myself a promise that I would never let anyone mistreat my children and that they would always be my first priority. Even before Joel.”
“I think most mothers feel that way. Mine devoted her life to me; you know, I was an only child. My parents were older when they had me, but I was their world. When they died while I was in college, it totally brought me to my knees. They were the best. So I do understand the girls being top priority in your life.”
“I didn’t know, Sam. I am so sorry.”
“There was no need for you to know.”
She shrugged, not sure if that was the case. As the wife of the owner of Jamison Pharmaceuticals, she should have made it her business to at least get to know the company CEO and others who held high positions in the company.
“How well did you know Joel? In college, I mean? He said you were best friends, but I never really questioned his past.”
Sam chewed on his bottom lip and took a sip of coffee. “We were dorm mates, but I wouldn’t say we were best friends. I was older by three years. When my parents died, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life, so I stayed in school, lived in the dorm, even though my parents left their entire, quite substantial, estate to me. I didn’t want to be alone. Joel was . . . quiet. Studied hard, wanted to go to work for his father. He was odd in some ways, and he had always had a bit of a temper.”
“What do you mean by odd?”
“This is just my opinion, Tess. I roomed with him, and we were young. He would bring girls to the dorm, and he didn’t have to, either. He was well funded, so he could have lived in an apartment. But he liked bringing girls to the dorm. I think a lot of them were much younger than he was. He would always try to impress them, and when they didn’t appear impressed with his life, his cars, his bank account, all of his material possessions, he dumped them. And I do not
