“No reason you would.You were young.Always busy leaving, if I remember right.”
The words were not cruel, but they were not gentle either.
Connor glanced at Selena.
Selena accepted the hit without showing it.She smiled at the two women on either side of Sandra.“Hello.”
Sandra looked at the women beside her.“Janet is my sister, Mary’s mom.”She squeezed the hand of the silver haired woman.“And Renee is my friend, but might as well be a sister.”
Janet’s stare remained fixed on Selena.“We’re here to make sure she doesn’t have to go through this alone.”
Renee nodded, eyes wet.“It’s just awful that this happened.”
Janet tightened her grip on Sandra’s hand.“I hope you catch whatever sick person did this.”
“So you’ve been made aware we’re treating this as a homicide?”Selena said.
“Yes.”
“Okay, well, I think to proceed, could we have a little time alone with you, Sandra.”
“Alone?Why?”She looked crestfallen.
“It’s standard procedure to conduct an interview without others around,” she explained.
“Absolutely not,” she said, wiping away the tears.“I need them here.”
“I understand that but…”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Selena,” Connor said.“Let’s keep this preliminary.If Sandra needs support right now, we can do a formal one-on-one later.”
“Connor, we need…”
“What we need is to tread carefully,” he said.“This isn’t Washington.If Sandra says she needs the support, I see no reason for isolating her right now.”
Selena drew him a look.She could see him closing ranks.She sighed and decided to proceed rather than start an argument.If more in-depth interviews were required later, she’dmakeConnor stick to procedure.
Connor took a chair near the sofa.Selena sat opposite Sandra, close enough to speak quietly but not so close that the woman would feel crowded.Her file bag stayed at her feet unopened.Sometimes notebooks made people feel interrogated before the questions began.
“Sandra,” Selena said, “I need to ask you some questions about Warren’s recent life.Anything unusual.Changes in behavior.Arguments.Business problems.People he was worried about.”
Sandra looked down at the tissue in her hand.
“He had business problems all the time.Men like Warren always do.Land deals, leases, buyers changing their minds, people claiming they were cheated when they didn’t read what they signed.”
“Any recent disagreement that stood out?”
“No.”
Janet said, “Warren could be difficult, but he wasn’t the kind of man people murdered.”
Selena kept her focus on Sandra.“Anything personal?”
The tissue stopped moving.
Renee leaned closer to Sandra.“You should tell them the truth.”
Janet’s expression tightened.“It’s for the best.”
