any case, in doing so, it jogged some memories. One being I remembered overhearing a phone conversation Jon had with his wife. And yes, I was eavesdropping.”
“So would I under the circumstances.” Or any, Rachael admitted. Nosy was in the DNA of an investigator.
“I recall him being very dismissive of her. Something about the kids, or one of them. How no, he couldn’t drop everything and come home. He had work to finish. How she should just handle it. Then I remember him snapping at her. ‘If you can’t deal with it, just take another pill. I’ll be home when I’m home.’ Or something of the sort.”
“All right.”
“I admit, I was amused. I stood in the bedroom doorway of the little apartment he kept for his trysts. Said something like, ‘Trouble at home,’ or ‘Trouble in paradise?’ I remember his response, as it was fully my intention at the time: ‘Never get married, and if you do, don’t have any goddamn kids.’”
Tracie let out a little laugh. “That’s nineteen for you. In any case, he went on a short rant, which surprised me because he never talked about his family. I never talked about them. But we’d both had a couple of drinks.”
“Do you remember what he said?”
“I remember the gist. He said his wife had wanted the brats in the first place, and he should’ve made her get rid of them before they were born. And now, even though she had someone come in to clean, to cook, she couldn’t handle them.”
Tracie paused a moment. “I wasn’t interested in his family issues, but I remember wondering how he could afford all that household help on his salary. I didn’t know it was her money at the time, and it struck me. Mostly the conversation bored me, so I said something like, ‘Why don’t you come to bed and handle me?’ And that was that.”
“Interesting.”
“I think so. It occurs to me Lina Rizzo might not have been the only bed partner he got pregnant, as he resisted suiting up.”
She’d already thought of that possibility herself, and had pursued that area of inquiry before.
“I assume this wouldn’t apply to you.”
“No. Then again, our affair was brief. I was on birth control, and I insisted he use a condom. He didn’t want to, complained and resisted, but that was a deal breaker for me. Maybe my impression’s colored some, but it struck me he had nothing but contempt for his wife, and considered his children a burden. And that leads me to a second, somewhat vague memory.”
“Go ahead.”
“I honestly didn’t recognize any names on the list you showed me, but college was a long time ago. But this memory made me think of this girl in the Shakespeare Club—Jon ran that. I stayed in it because, whatever else he was, Jon was an exceptional teacher, and his insights on Shakespeare were brilliant. I couldn’t remember her name even when I thought of her. I do know she was new—a freshman—and I think I was a junior or senior at that point.”
“You think she and Jon had an affair.”
“Jon had a type, I think. He liked them young, bright, attractive, and with good bodies. She had all that. On the shy side, but she bloomed in that club. And since I’d once had a fling with him, I recognized the signs.”
“What about her stands out to you now?”
“She stopped coming abruptly and, as I said, she bloomed there. I figured the affair had gone south, and she was heartbroken or embarrassed. I said something to a friend who happened to live in the same dorm. Catty, I admit. That’s when I heard the story.
“The girl—and I refreshed with my old college friend who remembered her first name. Jessica. Jessica came home to the dorm one night, beaten up. Now this is thirdhand, as while in the same dorm, my friend wasn’t even on the same floor. But she heard Jessica staggered into the dorm with bruises all over her face, an eye swollen shut, and more, with her pants soaked with blood. A miscarriage.”
Rachael circled the name Jessica on the notes she took, underlined miscarriage. “Police report? Medical records?”
“The word was she claimed she’d been mugged, couldn’t identify the attacker. Wouldn’t, anyway. She refused to let her dorm mates call an ambulance or the police, which of course they should’ve done anyway. She dropped out, according to my friend.”
“I’d like your friend’s name and contact information.”
“I asked, and she’d rather I didn’t give