On the drive to town, the horror of Kate’s death settled over Jenny like a cloud. She had to find out what the police knew. The obvious move would be to stop at the police station and get a briefing. But she didn’t have the kind of relationship with the new chief that made that possible. Chief Dudley, the old chief, would have been on the phone to brief her within minutes of pulling a body from the river. But Chief Rizzo hadn’t called, and worse, he hadn’t returned the three separate messages she left for him last night requesting information. Who the hell did this guy think he was?
Jenny had supported Rizzo for chief. Yeah, all right, the town council vote was unanimous, and maybe he could have won without her support. But maybe not, because the town council followed Jenny’s lead. She could’ve chosen to back the very deserving internal candidate, Robbie Womack, instead. Robbie happened to be a friend of hers and Tim’s. That might very well have turned the tide against the newcomer, but instead she overlooked her personal preference and supported Owen Rizzo because she felt he had a superior résumé. He ought to be grateful to her for that.
And Jenny had done more for Rizzo than just vote for him. She hooked him up with an apartment, so he could move to town without the stress of buying a house on short notice. Not just any apartment, either. This apartment was on the ground floor of Jenny’s mother’s house. Below-market rent, perfect location, and Jenny’s mom was the type who’d bring by a casserole, or babysit in a pinch, free of charge. Rizzo didn’t seem to appreciate any of that. But that was nothing compared to the solid Jenny did for Rizzo when he caused an uproar by firing Pam Grimaldi with no warning. Pam had been the department secretary for twenty years, and people loved her. Rizzo let her go so he could afford to hire some new detective to work on his pet projects. Did he consult Jenny about this first? No, he didn’t consult anybody. And if he was so hell-bent on having an extra detective, did he promote one of the very deserving traffic cops who’d been waiting in the wings for years? No, he hired a young girl straight out of Carlisle who was the daughter of a friend of his. Jenny should’ve made a move against Rizzo then, but instead, God knows why, she saved his butt. She found Pam Grimaldi another job, and smoothed things over with the rank-and-file officers. Then she tried to talk some sense into Rizzo about how to get along with folks in Belle River, and suggested that he would be well advised to run major decisions by her. She was right about that; he would be well advised, and he was lucky she still cared enough to try to set him straight. But instead of taking her words to heart, he lost his temper and told her to mind her own business. Well, maybe Rizzo didn’t realize it, but this town, and everything that happened in it, was Jenny’s business.
Their tense relationship left Jenny in a difficult position when it came to getting inside information about Kate’s death. If Jenny went in now with guns blazing and demanded a detailed briefing, Rizzo might overreact. He might start to think things that were unwarranted, or start looking into old rumors when he shouldn’t. So she decided against paying Chief Rizzo a call. As soon as she pulled into her parking space at work, she texted Robbie Womack instead.
At her desk, Jenny spent a couple of hours pretending to work. Soon it would be time to run for reelection, and her campaign manager, Drew Novak (her old buddy from Carlisle student council days), had given her a list of potential campaign events to plan. But she didn’t have the emotional fortitude today, and anyway it was illegal to do any electioneering from her office in Town Hall. Jenny ordered in a salad and ate it at her desk. After she finished, she stopped fighting her feelings, and picked up an old photo album from freshman year that she’d found in the back of a closet last night. Then she sat behind her big desk facing onto Briggs Street and paged through the photos with tears leaking from her eyes.
A picture of the young Kate stretched out in her bikini on a lounge chair by the pool in Jamaica made Jenny smile. There was Griff, right beside her. They were so innocent then, all of them, and Kate and Griff were gorgeous. Kate was still beautiful when Jenny saw her three days ago, on the morning of her fortieth birthday, walking into the Belle County Courthouse. Jenny had a full-on view of the courthouse from her office window, and on that particular Friday morning, Kate had turned up unexpectedly. Jenny watched her go into the courthouse, then watched her come out afterward. People visited the courthouse for lots of reasons. You filed lawsuits there, probated wills, paid traffic tickets. Also, the county attorney’s office was located on the first floor, should you happen to be accused of a crime—or want to confess to one.
What the hell was Kate up to? She spent almost thirty minutes inside the courthouse Friday morning, and for that thirty minutes, Jenny was beside herself with nerves. Had Kate somehow decided after all these years that she wanted to come clean about Lucas’s death? That would send Jenny’s entire life down the toilet. Aubrey was the one whom Jenny had been worrying about on that account, ever since she’d threatened to expose Kate after finding out that Kate was sleeping with her husband. As far as Jenny knew, Aubrey had not acted on her threats, but here was Kate, visiting the courthouse. The rest of that Friday had passed in a blur for Jenny, as she contemplated the destruction of her career and her marriage, and wondered what she could do to prevent it from happening.
And now Kate was dead.
Her secretary buzzed. Jenny wiped her eyes and sniffed hard. “Yes?”
“Officer Womack is here to see you. I told him you’re not taking meetings today, but he says it’s urgent police business.”
“Send him in,” Jenny said, stashing the photo album in a desk drawer.
Jenny stood up as Robbie Womack entered. She leaned across her desk, and they clasped hands for a long moment. She and Robbie went back years, though he was always more Tim’s friend than hers. Robbie and Tim were the same year from high school and did a regular guys’ poker night with some of their old crew. Jenny served on the PTA with Robbie’s wife, Val. She was always careful to include the Womacks in her big events—they’d come to her Labor Day party with their four kids and Val’s parents—even though they didn’t move in the upper echelons of the town like Jenny and Tim did. When she decided to support Rizzo for chief, Jenny sat Robbie down and explained her decision to him. She made it sound like she had no choice, because the entire town council was so dazzled by the city boy and his fancy credentials. But she promised Robbie that she’d have his back if Rizzo gave him a hard time, and she tried to live up to that.
“Thanks for coming by,” she said.
“Of course,” Robbie said, as they sat down. “I forgot until I got your text that Kate Eastman was a friend of yours. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. We were close at Carlisle, so it comes as a shock. The reason I called, Robbie, is that I need to get the facts straight about her death before the shit hits the fan.”
“You mean the press?”
“Exactly. Kate was young and attractive, she was from a prominent family. There’s bound to be serious press interest, and I haven’t heard a peep out of the chief of police.”