Am I to take that as a yes?
CD: She’s my boss. Of course I’ve seen her angry.
Officer Ali: Can you elaborate?
CD: How long do you have?
Officer Ali: Ms. Duncan. Please answer the question to the best of your ability.
CD: Melly is a perfectionist. She’s ambitious and impatient, but she’s also insecure. It’s a bad combination.
Officer Ali: Would you say she has a temper?
CD: Yes.
Officer Ali: I see. What about toward Mr. Tripp? Have you ever seen her angry with him?
CD: They’ve been married for twenty-six years. So, yeah.
Officer Ali: Carey, can you talk about the first time to your knowledge that Rusty Tripp had an affair?
CD: Well, it was the year after I started. So 2011, I think, with his old assistant, Marianne. It was just the two of us in the store—Melly and me—but then her friend Susan came running in like a cat on fire. She grabbed Melly and took her into the back and closed the door, and pretty soon Rusty showed up, totally freaked out, and went in after them. I’m guessing Susan caught Rusty doing something. If you know what I mean. Susan left, and maybe a minute went by before all hell broke loose.
Officer Ali: You’re saying Mrs. Tripp was upset.
CD: “Upset”? That’s a nice way to put it. They came out of the office yelling at each other, and Melly just lost it. Started calling him a liar, a cheat—lots of names. Then she started throwing stuff, at him, around the store. Melly is really big on appearances and coming off very prim and proper and family-oriented. She never swears—it’s actually sort of a rule that anybody who works for her shouldn’t, either. But wow, she can.
Officer Ali: Was Mr. Tripp injured?
CD: No, not that I can remember. I’m sure you’ve seen Melly. She’s tiny and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a shovel.
Officer Ali: And what happened then?
CD: It was pretty awkward, so I went home.
Officer Ali: I mean more generally. What happened afterward between Mr. and Mrs. Tripp?
CD: They must have worked it out because he was there the next day, all bright and shiny like nothing had happened.
Officer Ali: The next day? Didn’t that seem odd to you?
CD: I mean, I was seventeen and my parents used to fight constantly, so not really. Plus, things were really starting to take off for the Tripps, and Melly would never have let something like that get in the way of what she wanted. She told Rusty that if he ever did it again she’d leave and take him for everything he had, and got back to work. He’s always been really flirty. That’s probably how we ended up with James, eventually.
Officer Ali: Maybe you can clear that up for me. I show that James graduated from Vassar and MIT, but he works as Mr. Tripp’s assistant?
CD: Rusty is what my grandma used to call a tomcat’s kitten: a giant flirt but relatively harmless. Melly just doesn’t like women working for him, plain and simple. The assistant position happened to be open at the same time that Rusty was looking for an engineer for the show. James was there interviewing for the engineering job, but when Melissa saw him sitting outside Rusty’s office, she hired him on the spot. Told Rusty he could do both jobs, probably because Melly doesn’t know much about either engineering or being someone’s assistant. On paper James is the primary structural something something. But he still picks up the dry-cleaning, just like I do. Heaven forbid you call him an assistant, though. “I’m an engineer. Smart words, smart words, blah blah.”
Officer Ari: So, back to Mrs. Tripp and the incident between Melissa and Rusty at the store. Was this when New Spaces was filming? Or earlier?
CD: Oh, like way earlier. This was just after the Wyoming Tribune did an article on Comb+Honey—the original design store in Jackson. The window displays got a lot of local attention, and the general aesthetic was getting really popular in town. Rusty’s original woodworking pieces were selling like crazy. After the Trib article, there was a feature in the lifestyle section of the LA Times, and that caught the attention of HGTV. So, in 2014 Melly and Rusty were cast on New Spaces, with Stephanie and Dan. In hindsight, I think that’s when Rusty got bored, and Melly’s ambition got the best of her. The cracks started showing again. At least to me.
It’s 1:11 a.m.
I’m not going to look at