“In what way?”
She got up, set Argyle on the floor, and began to move around, as if the action helped her think. “We got engaged on Valentine’s Day and I moved into his Fayetteville apartment. Brody worked in Fort Smith but kept a place near campus because he was there every weekend to party. He said I should live with him so we could make the most of whatever time we had together. It was my final semester of school. I was starting to cram for my finals and interviewing for grad schools, too. I thought being alone, out of the sorority house, would help. But Brody wasn’t very understanding about the fact that I wasn’t interested in partying from Friday night until early Sunday morning.”
A smile lifted one corner of Law’s mouth. “So, you were once one of those wild sorority girls I used to stop for driving drunk? They’d sometimes flash their tits at me in the hope of getting away without a ticket.”
“Did it work?”
“Never. But I always enjoyed the view.”
Jori rolled her eyes. “That was never me. I was the responsible sorority sister who made certain everyone else got home safe. It was one of the things Brody said he liked about me. He said the fact that I was good at managing chaos meant I’d make a good corporate wife.”
Law watched her closely, wondering if she knew she winced when she’d described herself as a corporate wife. Maybe that’s what she meant by being part of Rogers’s calculation. “You did drink?”
“Sure.”
“Do a little weed?”
“Once. Didn’t like it.”
“Brody give it to you?”
“No. It was at a rush, freshman year. Why? You think I’m lying about not knowing he was a drug dealer?”
“I think you were either lying to yourself or ignoring signs you didn’t want to think about.”
His blunt honesty took Jori’s breath away. But what else could she expect? That’s what everyone thought. Even her family wondered. And what could it possibly matter now? But she’d had four years to wonder just who Brody’s clients were.
“I caught him once with a stack of cash.” She made a large C-bracket between fingers and thumb. “He said he was acting as the bank for his fraternity’s fantasy football league. He said it was nothing to worry about—an in-house transaction among brothers. Nothing bad could happen. I told him I didn’t like it. Gambling was illegal on campus.”
“That kind of gambling’s pretty much illegal all over.” Law reached for the last of the frittata, giving her a second to breathe. “Did you ever see him high?”
“Drunk. Of course.”
“Pills or coke?”
“No.”
He looked up to catch her expression. “Would you know?”
To his surprise, she thought about it. “I knew casually a few students on campus who did drugs. Mostly to get their party on. But Brody was never spaced out. Sometimes he was wired. All talk and continuous action. He said it was because he’d had a really crazy week at work and needed to work the energy off.”
“Then he probably preferred uppers. Businessmen often do.”
Law reached for his laptop, shoved his flash drive in, and brought up a page. “The autopsy report says Brody was high on coke when he died.”
Jori didn’t answer. She’d learned that fact at the same time the public did. Along with the news that he’d been carrying drugs and several thousand in cash. “So I was guilty by association.”
“Yes.” He didn’t sugarcoat it. She’d already suffered the legal consequences. “The law allows persons to be prosecuted simply if they benefited from drug money. Brody made money selling drugs. It’s impossible to say which part of that money paid for things like your apartment, your engagement ring, or anything else he gave you. The law takes the broad view and can confiscate it all.” He waited a beat before going on. She’d heard it before. Still, he felt like a bully reminding her of it all.
When she didn’t respond he looked up. The sight of her kicked him in the gut. She was standing very still, the only movement the fingers of her right hand shifting the loose end of her braid. But her soft mouth was pinched by sadness, the same sadness that slouched through her body and made her seem smaller and more vulnerable. It was as if she’d just heard the guilty verdict delivered all over again.
He wanted to go to her, to touch her, but he didn’t dare. He was being a cop now. A professional would just move on. He could only move forward.
“Tell me about your relationship with Erin Foster.”
She looked startled to hear the name. But she didn’t question why he was asking about the woman. “We belonged to the same sorority. But she was three years ahead of me. Graduated after my freshman year. She was in law school with my brother. So I saw her only from time to time on campus and at college functions.”
“Friendly?”
Something flashed across her face. “We weren’t friends. She and Brody were together until just before we met.”