She was my friend, and I was excited to invest in her business. I talked Jack into it, and now he’s dead.”
“Do you know of anyone who might’ve specifically threatened her or said they wanted her dead?”
“Everyone involved joked about wanting to have her killed. No one meant it, of course. It was a coping mechanism.”
“Did anyone seem to take it more seriously?”
She thought about that for a second. “Not that I ever saw. It was all talk that came from devastation and despair. If there’s any silver lining to this nightmare, it’s that I’ve made a lot of new friends.”
“Including Mark Townsend?” Sam felt like a complete asshole for kicking Tina when she was already down, but she had to know if there was anything more to their association than two people seeking comfort from each other.
She blinked several times, clearly shocked. “What about him?”
“I understand the two of you are romantically involved.”
“We… I… He’s been a very good friend to me since Jack died.”
“I’m going to be honest with you, Tina. We’ve already talked to him. We know it’s more than just friends.”
“He… He told you that?”
“He did, because he understands we’re running a homicide investigation here, and the details matter. I’m honestly not looking to make anything worse for you. I promise. I just want to understand your relationship with Mark and figure out if it has any relevance to the murder of Ginny McLeod.”
“It doesn’t. We had nothing to do with that, but neither of us was sorry to hear she was dead. When you treat people the way Ginny did…”
“No one deserves to be murdered, Tina. Not even Ginny.”
“Some people do,” she said, her eyes flashing with fury. “Some people don’t deserve to walk among the rest of us because they’re so indecent, so morally bankrupt that the world is a better place without them.”
“Maybe so, but murder is still illegal, and as such, it’s our job to figure out who killed her. Tell me the details of how you became involved with Mark Townsend.”
“I don’t see how it’s relevant.”
“You don’t have to. It’s relevant to me, thus you have to answer the question.”
“And if I don’t?”
“We’ll arrest you, take you downtown to be processed and hold you overnight to be arraigned.”
She blanched. “On what charges?”
“Obstructing a homicide investigation.”
“Because I don’t want to answer personal questions that have nothing to do with Ginny McLeod?”
“Your relationship with Mark Townsend does have to do with her. Without her, you never would’ve met him. And as of right now, you’re officially wasting my time, which is a secondary offense. So what’s it going to be? Are we going to talk here or downtown?”
While Tina visibly fumed for a full minute, Sam counted down in her mind, giving her ten more seconds before she was going to be taken into custody.
“Fine. I’ll tell you, but for the record, I still say it’s none of your business.”
“Noted.”
Freddie came back in, handed Sam the paper she’d given him with the tennis partner’s phone number that now had a big checkmark on it. He sat next to her.
“Tina is going to tell us about her relationship with Mark Townsend,” Sam said.
“Ah, gotcha,” Freddie said.
Tina glared at both of them as the words came out through a clenched jaw and tight lips. “Jack and I met Mark around the time we figured out Ginny had scammed us. We commiserated, spent time with Mark and his wife until she basically stopped speaking to him because she was so angry about him insisting they invest with Ginny.”
Sam took notes as Tina spoke. She was now interested in speaking to Mark’s wife, whereas she hadn’t been before. This was why she forced people to talk about things they’d prefer not to discuss, because you never knew what additional tidbit would surface in the retelling from a different individual.
“Mark would talk to Jack and me about it, how it felt unfair to him that she was fully on board until it became clear they’d been scammed, and then it was all his fault. He said they had epic, screaming fights for weeks, until she finally quit talking to him altogether. That, he said, was a huge relief. He would come over, have a beer with Jack, commiserate on the latest with the investigation. The three of us became close friends. Like comrades in a war, of sorts. Our war against Ginny.
“And then, when Jack died, Mark helped me with everything—funeral arrangements, estate stuff, lawyers, all of it.