“At a hotel in DC. We were there for two days. We heard about Sylvia’s death on the news the day we checked out of the hotel.”
“And when did the two of you check in to the hotel?”
“We checked in to the hotel the day before Sylvia Granger was killed.”
“Do you have proof the two of you were together during that time?”
“That was close to fifteen years ago, and I certainly haven’t kept receipts from that time, but if I have to prove it, then I can...and I will.”
Jules leaned back in her chair. “I must ask some personal questions of you, Mr. Clayburn. Did you and Sandra Timmons often have romantic rendezvous?”
He held her stare. “On occasion. After college, we went our separate ways and married other people, but then we ran into each other years later in New York. By then, she and Samuel had a son. I was in New York on a business trip, and she was there with her mother-in-law on a shopping spree. We happened to be staying at the same hotel. Sandra’s mother-in-law was a sound sleeper and, well, Sandra managed to get away once she was asleep for the night. She came to my room. The spark we felt for each other had never gone away. I can assure you that neither of us planned this. I will say that I think it was during that time that Shiloh was conceived.”
Jules didn’t say anything for a minute, and then she asked, “When was the next time you saw Sandra Timmons again after that time in New York?”
“Not for a long, long time. I happened to be in Charlottesville on business about fourteen years later. I looked her up. We got together.”
Jules nodded. “And how long were you in Charlottesville at that point?”
“Around six months.”
“You went out to Shady Pines during that time, didn’t you?”
He held her gaze. “Yes, and Sandra told me we had been seen together by someone. In the stables.”
“Yes, you were.”
He shrugged. “I only went there because I knew Samuel was out of town, and I wanted to convince Sandra to leave him. She’d confided that he’d become abusive and was becoming worse. I saw her bruises and tried persuading her to leave him. But she refused. She said he would take her children away, and she couldn’t let him do that. I got angry. Very angry.”
And he was getting angry just talking about it. Jules could hear it in his voice. “Is that why you got involved with Sylvia Granger? Out of spite?”
Jules thought she actually saw pain in his features. “No, not out of spite. The fact that she was refusing to leave Samuel for me, when I knew she loved me, was hard for me to accept. I was hurt. Deeply. I would have ended my marriage for Sandra, but she refused to leave an abusive husband because of her children. He had already threatened to fight her for custody if she ever tried to leave. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know one of the children was mine.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute. “As for Sylvia Granger, she is the one who sought me out, not the other way around. I guess you can say she got to me when I was most vulnerable. She had an agenda, and she used me. She didn’t know my history with Sandra and, at the time, I didn’t know that she and Sandra were close friends.”
He paused a moment and then said, “But it was just that one time. At the boathouse.”
“How did you get on the estate without anyone knowing about it?”
“We got there by boat.”
“Boat?”
“Yes. The boathouse is on a waterway that feeds into Mammoth Lake. Sylvia owned a small boat that she kept to go back and forth to the marina.”
This information was critical. Jules wondered whether this was how the killer had gotten on and off the estate without being seen. She would need to investigate this location right away.
He glanced at his watch. “Now, Ms. Bradford, I hope I’ve answered your questions satisfactorily. I do have another appointment in a few minutes.”