Whatever the reason for her absence, Jessie found it hard to believethat Steve Crewe was as casual as he appeared about his wife’s potential activities.She remembered how others had suggested that while Gabby was a nice person,willing to fight for the little guy, she often treated her husband like alittle guy she didn’t respect. That had to gnaw at him.
More troubling, wouldn’t he have doubted her story? If she was alone,how did she end up naked and dead on their bed? Wouldn’t he wonder if theperpetrator was someone she’d met with clandestinely? After all, that personwould be the most obvious suspect. One explanation for why he wasn’t curious:he knew who the perpetrator was because it was him.
She desperately wanted to ask him all those questions and watch hisface as he tried to answer. Part of her even wanted to mention Gabby’spregnancy. She was tempted to surreptitiously turn on her phone’s video so thatlater on, she could review how he’d reacted.
But she couldn’t do any of that. Right now, even if it wasn’t sincere,he was least pretending to be a resource. And if he was an innocent man wholearned his wife was pregnant during an interrogation, she’d never shake theguilt. More importantly, if she went down the road of accusation, he’d lawyer up.So would all the others. Then everything would get adversarial.
Better to stop here so she could come back again another time. It wasthe exact same plan she intended to use on Richard Ferro, the man she was aboutto invite for a rose garden chat next.
*
It was getting late.
By the time Richard and Melissa Ferro joined them in the garden, it wasalmost 11 a.m. Jessie chuckled bitterly to herself.
That leaves barely more than an hour before full-time cruisedirector and part-time sheriff’s captain Ted Hawley shuts everything down.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Ferro,” Peters said politely as he stood up to meetthem, “but we’re doing this round of interviews individually. Since you alreadyspoke with us, you needn’t be here.”
“But I just thought I could help fill in some gaps—” she began tooffer.
“If we need you, we’ll definitely ask Deputy Heck to send you back out.But for now you can just relax in the bar. Have yourself a nice hot toddy.”
Jessie was impressed. The little dig at the end was a subtle reminderto Ferro about the sensitive nature of their earlier conversation and how shemight not want to make too many waves at this moment. She seemed to get thehint, as she gave her husband a kiss on the cheek and headed back toward thehotel.
With so little time left before Hawley reappeared, Jessie decided toskip the niceties as much as she could without getting Richard Ferro to callhis attorney.
“We’re really putting a good picture together, Mr. Ferro,” she said,talking as if he was a valued member of their investigative team who needed tobe updated. “So this is mostly a formality. We’re trying hard to lock intimelines for everyone in order to nail down when Gabby was unaccounted for. Ofcourse, we’re also using the timelines to systematically clear all the guests.That’s what we did with the folks who left on the early ferry this morning. Andthat’s what we hope to do with you as well.”
“I understand,” he replied, as amicably as one could when beingcourteously asked for an alibi.
“Great,” she said, glancing at her notepad, which had nothing on it pertinentto what she was about to ask. “We also know all about the swinging and thesleeping with hotel employees. So folks who were initially reluctant to revealtheir partners for fear that they might be charged with solicitation or justlook scandalous to law enforcement types have been coming clean.”
She watched as Ferro’s eyes widened significantly before he regainedcontrol.
“That’s right,” Peters added, as if they were talking about somethingas mundane as a guest’s recent dental appointments. “We’re not focused on that.In fact, we’re finding that having these partners as alibi witnesses is reallyhelping us clear a lot of folks as suspects.”
“I see,” Ferro said inscrutably. Jessie followed up.
“And since we’ve already established that you were in and out of thebar quite a bit over the course of the evening, you can feel free to tell uswho you snuck off with and not worry how it will reflect on you.”
He stared at them both as if he was struggling with an enormous personalburden.
“I get all that,” he finally replied in a calm measure tone. “Unfortunately,I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?” Peters asked, clearly surprised.
“I can’t tell you that either.”
For a few seconds, both Jessie and Detective Peters sat in the garden,stunned into silence. She recovered first.
“You understand that we can’t just leave it at that,” she replied, hervoice as unruffled as Ferro’s had been, though she casually rested her hand onher right thigh, within easy access of her weapon. “It’s important that you atleast explain your reticence to be forthcoming. Otherwise someone might drawthe conclusion that you can’t tell us for nefarious reasons.”
“What reasons?” Ferro asked, looking a tad offended, despite hisunacceptable answer.
Jessie debated whether to take the next step. It was a risk. If hereacted badly to her response, the whole lawyer scenario she’d avoided withSteve Crewe might rear its head again. And yet, something told her that hewouldn’t do that. She went for it.
“Two reasons that I can think of: either you can’t tell us who you werewith because it was Gabby Crewe and you stabbed her to death; or perhaps youwere with someone else who would violate the group rule about intermingling.Maybe you’re worried about how your wife would react to that revelation.”
He smiled, almost like he was taking pity on her.
“I assure you it’s neither of those things.”
Jessie smiled back.
“And yet, we can’t just take your word for it. What kind ofinvestigators would we be if we just checked you off the list based on yourassurances alone?”
Richard Ferro’s smile suddenly faded and was slowly replaced bysomething closer to wistfulness. All the haughty pretense was gone.
“Yes, I was with someone,”
