my kids. They should’ve finished their English essays two days ago,” Anna Kate bellowed, loud enough for the kids to get the message. But in a much lower voice, she went on to add, “They promised me they finished on Friday. But you know kids. Procrastinators. They put work off till the last second if you let them. It always takes that third time you ask in a certain cranky voice if they have any assignments due Monday morning that does the trick. Why they can’t just do their homework without making a scene is beyond me. Then you watch them drag out a workbook at the eleventh hour. I swear if you don’t stay on top of them every second, they just won’t do the work.”
“We are interrupting your Sunday,” Gemma offered. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. It’s always like this around here. This is what it’s like when you have teenagers who spend the weekend with their father, and he doesn’t once ask them if they have homework. This is what it’s like divorced with kids and you’re the responsible parent.”
“Did Laura Leigh have kids?”
The redheaded Anna Kate looked puzzled as she took a seat on the sofa. “Well, yes. I thought you knew she did. Sienna is eighteen now. Wow. The years just rushed past me. I remember when she came to live with me. Afterward. Her father was more interested in grabbing a construction job in Denver than staying put here and taking care of an eight-year-old. I didn’t mind, though. Sienna was always a little sweetheart. But it was right about that awful time when I lost my sister that Derrick and I started having serious problems.”
“So it was bringing in another child that caused the divorce?”
“Oh, not really. It wasn’t Sienna’s fault. I’m sure Derrick was looking to bail even way back then. He was never faithful. Never. Cheated three weeks after our honeymoon.” She waved off the hurt in the same way she had in Gemma’s office.
“I don’t like talking about it. Besides, I know you two didn’t come here to listen to me bitch about Derrick. But should I prepare Sienna for an interview in advance? Do you really need to talk to her? Because I don’t think she’d be much help with anything. You see, she wasn’t even in the car with her mother that night. Thank God for that. I had taken her and my kids to catch a movie at the cinema. Mine was a little on the young side to sit through the entire movie without getting antsy. But I remember the movie we saw that night. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Not the year’s best, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.”
With a polite nod of the head, Lando took a seat across from Gemma. It was nice to catch up with chitchat, but he needed to turn the conversation back to why they were here. “And how long was it after you got back from the movie that you found out about Laura Leigh?”
Anna Kate chewed the inside of her jaw, trying to remember. “We got back around nine-thirty. I’d say it was close to midnight when two sheriff’s deputies showed up at the door and woke us up. They’re the ones who broke the news.”
“So, Sienna was already spending the night with you anyway the night of the accident, the night her mother died?”
“No, not really. But the later it got, and Laura Leigh didn’t show up, I just made Sienna go to bed with my two. Even though it was summer break and there was no school the next day. I try to keep my kids on a regular schedule. That way, come fall, it isn’t so hard to roust them out of bed. The thing is, I never understood what Laura Leigh was doing up near Oyster Landing. It didn’t make sense because I didn’t know anyone who lived up there. But I guess she must have.”
“Maybe your sister was on her way to meet someone,” Lando prompted.
“I suppose. But at that time of night, who? I’m not even sure where Derrick was that night.”
Lando’s ears perked up. “Really? Derrick wasn’t at home with you and the kids?”
“No. I suspected he was seeing someone on the side even then. But I could never prove it. I’d ask, but I’d get the denials right and left. Or he wouldn’t look at me, or he’d just ignore the question entirely.”