Jessie sat quietly for a moment, unsure how to proceed. This couldeasily be a sham excuse, designed to hide the fact that he had no real alibi.But if what he said was credible, someone might be at real risk. She sighed.
“You need to give me something, Mr. Ferro,” she said reluctantly. “OtherwiseI have to draw my own conclusions.”
He looked at her, seemingly pained at what she was asking of him. Inthe long silence that followed, Jessie watched a squirrel dart down one treeand up another. She began to wonder whether Ferro intended to respond at all.She was debating whether to push harder when he sighed and blinked slowly.
“Can I count on your complete discretion?” he beseeched her beforelooking over at Peters.
“To the best of my professional ability, yes,” she assured him. Petersnodded in kind.
“All right; I’m putting my faith in your integrity,” he said.
For a second it looked like he might change his mind but then he spokein a hushed croak.
“I can’t say the name of the person I was with because he’s famous andhe’s not out. Ms. Hunt, I’m gay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Jessie had barely processed the words when Melissa Ferro stormed out towardthem from behind the bush where she’d apparently been hiding.
“This interview is over,” she hissed in a loud whisper. “Richard, don’tsay another word!”
Jessie was so stunned that she almost fell out of her seat. Peters, tohis credit, recovered quicker.
“You can’t be out here, Mrs. Ferro,” he said, standing up. “I asked youto wait in the bar.”
The woman shook her head violently, unmoved.
“This line of questioning is wholly inappropriate. You are invading ourpersonal—”
“It’s okay, Mellie,” her husband interrupted, stunning Jessie for asecond time. “Let’s just be honest with them. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”
His wife, flustered and confused, stood there in silence. Jessie pushedthrough her own shock and used the lull to press the man.
“You were saying, Mr. Ferro?”
He looked at her, then at his wife. After a moment, he stood up and reachedout his hand to her. She came over and grasped it tight.
“Ms. Hunt,” he said, returning his attention to her. “As I said, I’m a gayman. I didn’t start to come to terms with it until later in life. By then I wasmarried with two children. Before I acted on it, I told Melissa. I wanted tobe, for lack of a better word, straight with her. It was difficult, but aftermany long, tough conversations, we decided to stay together. I love her, maybenot in the way one would expect, but with all my heart. She’s my best friend.We have kids. We’ve built a life together. I didn’t want to throw that away.”
“But I wanted him to be happy,” Melissa whispered, finally acceptingthat she couldn’t just end the conversation. “So we came up with a plan.”
“That’s right,” Richard added. “We decided to embrace this lifestyle,where those kinds of boundaries no longer exist. Now we’re both able to satisfyour desires without guilt and still hold onto the family we both treasure.”
“And you don’t resent him for this?” Peters asked Melissa Ferro.
“I did for a while,” she admitted. “It wasn’t what I envisioned formyself. But eventually I made peace with the fact that it was better than thealternative: breaking up our home. It’s unconventional, I’ll admit. But itworks.”
“So what about last night?” Jessie asked, happy that they had found apath to stay together, but no closer to confirming Richard Ferro’s alibi.
“As I told you previously, I’m not comfortable saying his name,” heinsisted. “But I will say this. If you went through the guest list of peoplestaying here at the hotel last night, you could probably find one guest whofits the high-profile description I described. I was with him for a short stretchlast night, from around ten thirty to ten forty-five, though I waswell-lubricated and may have the times off.”
“Can anyone confirm this other than the man?” Jessie asked.
Ferro pondered the question in his mind for a second before responding.
“I don’t remember seeing anyone when we got to his room,” he admitted. “ButI did make a big deal in the bar of saying I was going to help him get there becausehe was so toasted. He was faking being extra drunk to make it convincing. Ithink I told Maura, the bartender, to save my barstool or something. It wasloud and crazy. She might not have even heard me.”
“So you were in his room for about fifteen minutes,” Peters confirmed. “Weren’tyou concerned about his wife walking in?”
“No. He told me she’d be out until at least eleven. There was some kindof art show at the Catalina Casino she wanted to check out. He made an officialappearance and then begged off so he could get back early to see me.”
“Did you know about any of this?” Jessie asked Melissa Ferro.
“I knew Rich had plans, though he wasn’t specific,” she said. “And asyou may recall, I had made some of my own for around that same time. I madesure he wasn’t intending to use our suite but other than that, I left wellenough alone.”
Peters looked hard at Richard Ferro. Jessie could tell he wasn’texcited about what he was about to say.
“Mr. Ferro,” he began, “I sympathize with the sensitivity of thissituation. And we’ll try to confirm what we can independently. But you need tounderstand that we may have to talk to your liaison from last night to verifythings.”
The man looked devastated.
“I would plead with you to do all you can to avoid that,” he said, hisvoice thick with emotion. “This man opened up to me, made himself vulnerable.If he thinks I betrayed his trust, it could undo him. He’s already in a tenuousemotional place with the stress of living a lie.”
“We may
