“Right, Darlene. You did a fantastic job. You and Tess can talk later,” Sam agreed.
“Of course,” Darlene said. She had her stenographic machine set up by then and sat beside Lee, indicating she was ready to get started. During all this, Rachelle hadn’t said a word.
“Rachelle, state your full name for the record,” Lee began.
Rachelle did as instructed, with Tessa following suit. Once the basic identity questions were out of the way, Lee began in earnest.
“Rachelle, tell me the last time you saw your son, Liam Jamison,” Lee asked.
“I saw Liam around the end of April of two thousand and eleven.,” she answered, but her voice quivered as if she were about to burst into tears.
Tessa wasn’t sure she bought this sob story, but she listened, and she watched. She knew firsthand how a grieving mother behaved.
“Where did you see him in April?” Lee asked.
“He came to my house in Miami. We spent the day together.” She stopped then. “Had I known that was the last time I’d see him . . . I would have told him how much I loved him, and that his father had loved him as much. But we had lunch and chitchatted, pretty much like we always did when he was in town.”
“What do you mean by in town?”
“He lived in San Maribel. He wanted to be close to Joel. He idolized his older brother, wanted to be just like him. He used to tell me this when he was little, but frankly, I prayed he would never grow up to act like his older brother.”
“You bitch,” Tessa shouted.
“Tessa! Enough,” Lee said in a stern voice she had never heard him employ before.
“Don’t chastise her, Lee. The man was her husband, the father of her little girls. I understand how she must feel. But she didn’t know Joel the way I did. The way Liam did. And she did not know Grant, the boy’s father. He died before she ever met Joel.”
Rachelle seemed . . . well, motherly, Tessa thought. She was an excellent actress; she would give her credit for that.
“Tessa, you need to refrain from commenting on Rachelle’s testimony. This will most likely be on the record if we go to trial, so let’s try to be as civil as we can,” Lee said to her, his voice softening a bit.
“Sorry,” was all she said. She had embarrassed herself, but she couldn’t just sit here and let Rachelle bad-mouth Joel. She knew he wasn’t perfect, but it was tough to hear about his faults from someone else.
“That last day you saw Liam, how did he seem to you? Worried? Anxious? Anything unusual about his behavior?” Lee resumed his questions.
Rachelle sighed. “He was troubled by something. I knew it, and asked him about it, but he said he was going to take care of it himself. I know that sounds horrible, given what happened, but it’s what he said to me. I tried to get him to talk to me, thinking that whatever had been troubling him, I could help him with. He just said it would . . . I think he said, and this isn’t exactly word for word, but he said something about ‘changing the family dynamic.’ ”
The room was quiet; no one said anything.
Lee leaned on an elbow, cupping his chin in his hand. Michael Chen suddenly seemed more interested in Rachelle’s words than the last pastry on his plate. “You never told this to me,” he said to Rachelle.
“You didn’t ask me about that visit, Mr. Chen,” Rachelle reminded him. “Neither did the police. We mostly discussed Tessa and her past. Remember?”
Tessa was seething but kept her feelings and thoughts to herself.
“I don’t recall us just discussing Mrs. Jamison’s past. There were many other topics, and, of course, we have your testimony from the trial,” Chen said.
“We’re not going to get anything resolved if you’re going to argue like kids on a playground. Rachelle, I have a few more questions, then Mr. Chen may ask whatever he needs to,” Lee said to them.
“Back to that last day when Liam came to your house for lunch. When you said he seemed troubled, and that possibly whatever was troubling him might change the family dynamic, do you think he was referring to Joel and his family?” Lee asked.
Tessa observed Darlene’s fingers as they moved at breakneck speed across the strange-looking stenographic machine.
“Yes,” Rachelle said, her voice firm with conviction.
“Was he upset with Joel? The girls? Tessa?” Lee questioned.
“He didn’t say. Just that he was troubled. He left later that evening, and I assume he went straight to his condo in San Maribel. That is the last time I saw my son. I am a mother. I would know if Liam committed this heinous act. Liam was a ladies’ man, I know that, but I know for a fact that my son did not have a mean bone in his body. He loved his family, his nieces. He told me many times how cool he thought it was that Joel had twins. Once he asked me if I thought he would have twins when and if, he added, that I do recall, because we both laughed, if he ever married. I told him there was the possibility because twins ran in Grant’s family. I believe his grandfather was a twin. Identical. Yes, I am sure Grant told me that at some point.”
More silence.
“Tessa, did Joel ever mention that his . . . it would be his great-grandfather, was a twin?”
“No,” she said. “When we found out I was expecting twins and that they were identical, I asked him, but he said there must be twins somewhere in
