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“And you are, sir?” Amanda turned her attention to the man.
“Barry, Celeste’s husband.”
“I wish we were all meeting under better circumstances,” Amanda said softly.
Celeste hiccupped a sob and rubbed her baby bump.
“How far along are you?” Asked out of genuine interest, but the brief detour might relax the woman some.
“Four months. It’s our first.”
Amanda squeezed out her own memories of being pregnant with Lindsey. How it was all so strange and exciting at the same time. The thought of a life growing inside her had been surreal, but due to the accident, she’d never experience that again. While it had claimed both Kevin and Lindsey, it had also taken her unborn child and her ability to have more children. She’d spent so much time processing the loss of her husband and daughter, she hadn’t fully addressed the emotions surrounding that yet. Whenever she started to broach that territory, she turned back. “That’s exciting. Congratulations to both of you.”
“Thank you,” Celeste said.
It would be easy to get caught up in asking about names and gender, but Amanda wanted to stay on track. “I appreciate this must be difficult for you, but we have some questions we need to ask.”
Barry rubbed the top of Celeste’s shoulder and said, “We talked with Detective Ryan and Officer Wyatt. Now you? I’m not sure there’s anything left to say.”
“My partner and I will catch up with both Officer Wyatt and Detective Ryan, but until then, we apologize if some of our questions seem repetitive.” She provided a version of this caveat with most cases. Typically, a uniformed officer took an initial, brief statement from the person who found the body. “When did you arrive?”
Trent pulled out his notebook and a pen. He was better at detailing everything in writing than she was. If she had notes to make, she used an app on her phone.
“I got here around eleven thirty.” Celeste sniffled. “I’d tried reaching her so many times, but she never answered.”
Amanda noted how Celeste had slipped into autopilot, prattling off details devoid of emotion. “And that’s why you came over? Or did you have plans?” She recalled what Fred had told them but wanted to hear directly from Celeste.
Celeste shook her head. “No plans. It’s been hard to pin her down for months. She’s been like the wind.”
“So, you thought you’d stop by and check on her?” Amanda asked.
“Yeah.”
“She’s come into a lot of success,” Trent said, “what with her book hitting the charts and the movie in the works. That must have made her life more chaotic.”
“It felt like there was more to it than that. She was obsessed, guess that’s the most fitting word, with her work lately.”
“A new book she was writing?” Amanda asked.
“Uh-huh. She was tight-lipped about it.”
“That wasn’t usual for her?” Call it a feeling based on Celeste’s tone of voice.
“Not really. She doesn’t normally spill all the details about her WIP, but she seemed to hold this one even closer to the vest than normal.”
Trent looked up from his notepad. “Her what? You said WIP?”
“Work in progress.” Celeste shook her head. “Now she has me talking like her. Writers have their own lingo, and I’ve picked it up.”
“How long have you been friends?” Amanda asked.
“Since public school when my family moved into town. And I can’t believe that… that…” Celeste clamped a hand over her mouth as a fresh batch of tears fell.
“Losing her sister was hard on Felicity,” Barry interjected, speaking on Celeste’s behalf as if he were picking up on some unspoken message from her. “Is that where you were going?” He softly nudged Celeste, who nodded. The two were obviously close for him to read her mind—not all married couples were that in tune.
“I imagine that time would have been very hard on Felicity.” Though Amanda didn’t need to imagine; she could draw from personal experience.
Celeste’s crying subsided, and she dug into her purse. She came out with a ratted tissue and dabbed it to her nose. “The movie deal was bittersweet for her. She really wished her sister was around to celebrate with. Eve would have held a huge party for her. She was an incredible woman. They both were.”
