“What did you end up choosing?” asked Verraday.
“Rachel recommended a stuffed tiger that a portion of the price goes to the World Wildlife Fund. I thought it looked a bit ferocious for a five-year-old, but Rachel said to tell my niece that it was a ‘watch tiger’ designed to watch over little girls and protect them when they slept. So I got it for her.”
Verraday smiled slightly. “What did your niece think of it?”
“She loved it. Especially the part that Rachel made up about it being a ‘watch tiger’ that would look after her. My brother said Tabitha took it to bed with her the very first night and it’s been beside her pillow ever since.”
“And how did you and Rachel become involved?” asked Verraday.
“As I was paying for the tiger, I spotted these Mega Bloks. You know, those construction toys that are sort of like Lego? I was feeling good by then, a lot better after talking to Rachel, so I made this dumb joke to her asking whether Mega Bloks were anything like mental blocks. Rachel laughed so hard she snorted. And I just thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if my life were always this good? To have a beautiful, intuitive girlfriend who laughs at my jokes? I tried to build up the courage to ask her out. But I’m really bad at stuff like that. My mouth went dry and my heart started racing. I mean, I’m confident about my work, but I’m sort of on the shy side when it comes to putting myself in situations where people can reject me.”
Verraday nodded agreement. “Risking rejection isn’t exactly my strong suit either.”
Kyle allowed himself a nostalgic smile as he continued. “My stomach was full of knots, and I hesitated. Then I saw this family walking toward the store. I knew once they came in, I’d miss my chance. So I asked her point blank if she’d go out with me. She said, ‘Yes, as long as you don’t have any mega mental blocks.’”
Verraday saw a complex mixture of affection and loss in Kyle’s expression. “And when did you two go out?”
“The next evening.”
“How did the relationship develop after that?” asked Verraday.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean did you see much of each other?”
Kyle looked like he was about to speak, then hesitated, like he was searching for words. “It was a whirlwind. We had sex on our first date. I’ve never done that before. Ever. But she made me feel so relaxed. And so wanted. After that, we were together pretty much all the time. She basically moved in after our second date.”
Verraday raised an eyebrow. “Did that seem a little fast to you?”
Kyle reflexively rubbed his chin like he was pulling something out of his memory. “Dating Rachel was like being hit by a hurricane. She liked to have sex twice a day. She was just so intense, totally present. At first. I felt like maybe she was the one, you know? One night, I was watching her light some candles for a dinner we made together. And I could picture spending the rest of my life with her. Having kids. Grandkids. Having this amazing life together. I would never have imagined it would end like this.”
“Did you ever ask her to marry you?”
“It was weird. The same week that I was planning to propose to her, she started to change. She began to have these mood swings for what seemed to be no reason. Started complaining about her job situation, how she wasn’t getting paid enough. She’d criticize me for my work, said I was a pawn of the system. She began to ask questions about how much I earned with my projects, which isn’t all that much really, but it was more than what she made at the store. She’d get angry and say it was so unfair that she was paid so much less than everybody else and that her life was degrading.”
“Did she want expensive things?” asked Maclean.
“No. It wasn’t that she wanted to live like the Housewives of Beverly Hills. Her anger seemed to be more about having low social status. I think if she’d even earned enough to put a decent roof over her head and not be dependent on other people financially, that would’ve been enough for her. But she had this rage that just kept growing.”
“Did you ever fight about it?” asked Verraday.
“Not at first. She had been so upbeat when we first met that I thought it must be something temporary getting her down. She didn’t have her career sorted out, but I mean, who does nowadays? You get your degree and all it guarantees you is that you’ll be paying down your student loan for the next ten years. I thought she’d work her way through it. So I tried to be patient with her. But over the next few weeks it escalated more and more, blaming me for her problems, blaming me for everything. She was constantly picking fights.”
“Was Rachel living at your apartment when she was murdered?” asked Maclean.
“No. Around the same time she began to get angry, she started spending less time here.”