Galen's Gemma - Dale Mayer Page 0,23
wrong. To think it was anything else is just trying to stir up trouble.”
“Did you ever see Joe hide any material? Did you ever see any work he brought home? Or did he have any suspicious information on somebody? Any reason he would get blackmailed?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “I have no idea though.”
“What do you mean, you have no idea?” He studied her like the odd specimen she was. Was the sister lying? He voted for the sister lying. She hadn’t spoken much about her husband, and the words that had come out of her mouth weren’t anything he could believe.
“I have no idea,” she said, raising her hands in frustration. “He probably just got hold of some information and was killed for it. At least that’s a possibility. He said he’d found something at work but didn’t say what it was.” She looked like she was considering the idea, then shrugged as if she didn’t care. “I didn’t have anything to do with his work. I didn’t care to know anything. So don’t ask me any more questions as I don’t have any answers.”
“Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t,” he said.
“Well, that’s for somebody else to figure out,” she said. “I don’t know.”
He nodded. “So you’ve never seen anything? You didn’t see him talking to anybody in an animated way or some stranger you didn’t recognize? Nobody ever put pressure on him or on you? He never told you that he was being blackmailed or that what he was doing was dangerous? Nothing like that?”
She shrugged. “No.”
“Had Joe changed in any way in the last few months?”
“He was more secretive, yes. I wondered if he was having an affair, but, when I asked him, he laughed and denied it.”
“And you believed him?”
“Sure,” she said. “He’s never lied to me before.”
“And yet, when I asked you if there were any problems between the two of you and your marriage, you said no.”
“Because it was a no,” she said. “He told me nothing was going on, and I believed him. That means there was no problem in our marriage.”
“Right,” he said. “And what about the guy who was breaking into your house?”
“He probably heard that I was there alone, and figured I was an easy mark, and he could get in and get out with a few items.”
“And where were you the night Joe died?”
“I was at my friend Melanie’s house,” she said. “And Becky was with me. No, I didn’t set it up ahead of time. No, I didn’t know Joe would get killed. And, no, I have no clue as to who might have killed him.”
“Well, it was a breaking and entering, right?”
“Exactly,” she said. “So it could have been anyone.” She flounced over to the doorway. “Those are the same questions the cops asked me. And I still don’t have any different answers.”
“That’s a good thing,” he said calmly. “You’re not supposed to have different answers.”
She looked momentarily confused and then glared at him. “If that’s a trick question or something, I don’t appreciate it. I didn’t have anything to do with Joe’s death.”
“And yet you don’t seem too broken up over it.”
“He loved me,” she said, her voice quiet. “For that, I will always miss him. Did I love him? I really don’t know. But it was comfortable, and I was happy.” And, with that, she turned and walked out.
Zack walked out behind her without saying a word but not before giving Galen an eye roll at Rebecca’s answers.
Galen sat in the living room of the small single-room cabin and thought about a woman who was honest enough to say that her husband adored her and looked after her and that she would miss that part but not necessarily him. It’s too bad Galen didn’t have a chance to ask Joe these questions. Maybe Joe wasn’t all that happy. Maybe Joe was looking to change things, and maybe Rebecca just didn’t know.
Chapter 8
Gemma stopped at the long house and stepped in to say hello to Tim. He looked up and smiled. When he saw Becky, he grinned and said, “I saw you over by the rabbits.”
She beamed. “There are baby rabbits,” she said.
“That there is. We’ve got five babies right now.” He looked up at Gemma. “Is everybody coming for dinner?”
“Three adults, one child,” she said with a smile. “Becky’s mother has a bad headache, so she’ll likely be down for the day.”
“Oh, dear,” he said with a frown. “Do you think she’d