Mission: Colton Justice. Jennifer Morey
didn’t get uptight over that announcement. He’d already anticipated something big. That it wasn’t easy to say suggested this was personal. Nothing related to his business would be that shocking. Oscar must know something. No matter what, Jeremy preferred he tell him.
“You know how people talk around here. I heard you suspect Livia Colton may have something to do with Tess’s accident,” Oscar said.
Jeremy grew instantly more alert. Did Oscar know something about Livia that could help his case? “Yes.” Why had he brought that up? Had he found a connection? Jeremy contained his flaring hope.
“How long have you suspected her?”
“Not seriously until recently. Why?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Oscar asked.
Why would he? “I had nothing to go on, only a hunch.” He waited for Oscar to tell him what he’d come to say, which seemed more and more to be a confession of some sort—a confession related to Livia’s involvement in Tess’s accident.
Oscar lowered his head briefly, uncharacteristic of such a powerful man. He had major difficulty with his declaration. He must have kept this secret for some time and something had compelled him to come forward.
“Before I came to work for you, I was involved with Livia,” Oscar finally said, not sounding or seeming proud.
“You had an affair?” Adeline asked.
He nodded. Jeremy could see how Oscar might be ashamed of that.
“What might make you think that is related to Tess’s accident?” Adeline asked.
The way Oscar turned to her and then slowly, reluctantly, met Jeremy’s eyes, warned of what was about to come next.
“I was the man your witness saw meeting Tess the day of her accident.”
Of all the things. Jeremy leaned back against his chair, needing the support to keep steady. Beside him, Adeline leaned over and removed her padfolio and a pen from her case. Putting them on the table, she began to write, asking, “Did you tell law enforcement this, Mr. Biggs?”
“No. I didn’t see the need. Tess’s accident wasn’t determined to be a homicide.” He turned to Jeremy. “But I see a need now. The next day when I heard she died in a car accident, I felt I was to blame.”
“Her blood alcohol level was well over the legal limit,” Adeline said, jotting down more on her notepad, her handwriting neat and uniform. He read her observations on Oscar’s appearance. Well-groomed. Anxious but forthright...
Jeremy got the idea she didn’t do anything halfway. Her attire was as neat and precise as her writing. Her blond hair was down but combed to a smooth, silky shine. Even her pen had the stamp of detail, with a monogram of her initials.
“Why did you meet her?” she asked, bringing Jeremy’s attention back to the purpose of this meeting.
Oscar looked intent, as though working up to plead his case. “Tess asked me to. I refused the first few times, but she wouldn’t stop until finally I agreed to meet her for a late lunch.”
A few times? She’d had a relationship with Oscar before Jeremy met her. Had she wanted to get back together with Oscar?
Jeremy was stunned. How had he missed her unhappiness? Sure, her drinking had caused problems in their marriage. She had gone to rehab but Jeremy had always worried she might relapse. It wasn’t until she died that he’d he realized she had. She hadn’t been dissatisfied with him as a husband...had she?
“Jeremy, I didn’t get involved with her.”
“Why did she meet you?” he asked again.
In his side vision he saw Adeline carefully put down her pen, pausing in taking notes and only listening intently now.
Oscar’s breath sighed out long and full of reluctance. “She wanted to start up with me again. When I refused, she left upset. I didn’t know she was drinking until I heard about her accident. If I’d have known, I would have stopped her.”
Looking straight ahead, Jeremy searched his memory for signs that Tess had drifted away from him to the point where she’d seek out other men. None came to mind, but the idea stung. He’d always been busy at work. Sometimes he didn’t get home until after eight. They had shared many evenings together, though. She hadn’t seemed unhappy.
Then he began recalling the weeks leading up to her accident. They hadn’t talked much. They’d had family dinners and done things together on the weekends, but now that he thought back in more detail, he and Tess hadn’t said much to each other. When they’d first met, they’d talked all the time. She hadn’t had to work and used to wait for him to get home so she could eat dinner with him. Somewhere along the way she’d stopped doing that. After they brought Jamie home, the sex had almost stopped, too.
“She was drinking again, Jeremy,” Oscar said in his lengthy silence. “She wasn’t thinking straight.”
Jeremy turned to him, a trusted employee, a trusted top executive. “You’ve been a good friend to me, Oscar. If she strayed, it wasn’t your fault.”
“I’m sorry. You’ve been a good friend to me, too. I should have told you sooner.” He bent his head above his coffee cup and shook his head before looking back at Jeremy. “But with her dying... I... I just couldn’t. I could see how much you were grieving. If I’d have been the one in your shoes, I’d have wanted the same. Time.”
Two years was a long wait.
Adeline picked up her pen again. “Tess died two years ago.”
Oscar didn’t falter as she pinned him with that fact. “Yes. And that’s why I’m sorry,” he said to her. Then to Jeremy he added, “But to be honest, I don’t think you’ve stopped grieving. When I heard about your suspicion of Livia, it dawned on me why. You’ve always thought Tess was murdered.”
Jeremy nodded. “I’ve told the deputy who worked the accident but he has done nothing. That only supports my theory about Livia.”
“She did have long tentacles into the community, and they didn’t stop at law enforcement.”
“How do you know that?” Adeline asked.
Oscar seemed to catch himself, remembering who she was, a PI Jeremy hired to look into Tess’s death. And he could have possibly implicated himself. “People talk.”
“She never said anything to you? You weren’t aware of her meeting with anyone on the force?”
He shook his head. “No. She had lots of meetings she didn’t tell me about. She wasn’t an open book. She was a walking secret factory.”
Adeline nodded as though she agreed. She must have heard things herself, although she had never been close enough to feel Livia’s evil.
“How long did you see her?” Adeline asked.
“Six months. She never got over me breaking things off, and was always jealous when I was with other women.”
“Did Livia know you met Tess?” Jeremy took up the questioning from Adeline.
“Not at first. Then she sent me a letter. Threatening me. That’s another reason I wanted to meet with you, why it was so important.”
“What kind of threats?” Adeline asked.
“If I didn’t break up with Tess, I might start having some accidents. She said she’d haunt me from prison. Her words exactly.”
Jeremy met Adeline’s glance. Livia had somehow managed to get a threatening letter delivered to Oscar. Did that bring her closer to believing Livia had enough reason to go after Tess?
“When did all of this happen?” Adeline asked.
“Years after Livia and I were together. I never understood why