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His words are unembellished. They’re very matter-of-fact, as if he’s saying there is rain in the forecast or asking if I take my coffee with cream. They take my breath away.
“Strife?” I ask, my mouth falling open.
“Yes. Strife. Conflict. Marital issues.”
“I know whatstrifeis, Officer. I’m just surprised that you’re asking. Jake has been missing for a week and a half and, in that time, someone has broken into my home. And you want to know if Jake and I ever fought? I don’t see why it matters if we fought.”
“Had you and your husband been fighting before he went missing, Mrs. Hayes?” he asks.
I don’t answer. “Are you married, Officer Boone?” I ask instead, but he just looks at me; he doesn’t say whether he’s married or not. “If you’re married, then you know. Couples fight. Everyone does. It’s natural. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Did you think he was going to leave you, Mrs. Hayes?”
“Is that what you think happened?” I ask. “That Jake left me.”
“Can you answer the question, please?”
I feel like I’m the one under suspicion, that I’m being blamed for what happened to Jake. “I’ve been entirely candid, Officer. I said from the start that it’s possible Jake left me. But that was before I knew he wasn’t going to work. I just don’t see why, if he was leaving me, he would walk out on his job too. His work means everything to him.”
“Did you ever think that he might be having an affair?” he asks.
“Was he?” I ask, wondering if Officer Boone knows something I don’t know.
“That’s what I asked you.”
“How would I know if Jake was having an affair?”
“Did you ever consider that he might be?”
Had I? Yes. I never had any evidence that he was. It could just have been that Jake was falling out of love with me. It might not have had anything to do with another woman, but I could feel Jake’s distance from me, those nights when I would reach for him and he would pull away from me in bed, turning his back to me.
“Do I have to answer that?” I ask.
“No. No, you don’thaveto answer it, but it would be helpful if you did. Is there a reason you don’t want to answer the questions, Mrs. Hayes?”
“It’s just that what you’re asking is personal and it has no bearing on where my husband is now. I wish you would focus your efforts on that, on finding my husband, and not whether he and I had fought or whether I thought he was having an affair. Which acquaintances of mine told you that there was strife in my marriage?” I ask.
“I don’t particularly like to reveal where I get my information.”
“You won’t tell me?”
“I’d rather not. But I will tell you, it wasn’t just one person. It was a common theme.”
I wonder what Jake had been telling his parents and his brother about me.
I stare at Officer Boone. He stares back. The silence goes on and then, because of it, I ask, “If those are all the questions you have for me, can I go?”
Officer Boone slowly nods. “Yes, Mrs. Hayes,” he says, “you’re not being held here. You can go whenever you’d like.”
I consider his words. I stand up. I slip my purse over my shoulder but before I can leave, he says, “Hypothetically speaking though, if Dr. Hayes was having an affair, how would you feel about that?”
“Excuse me?” I ask.
“Would you be surprised? Would you be upset?”
“Of course I’d be upset,” I say. “What woman wouldn’t be upset if she found out her husband was cheating on her?”
I watch then as Officer Boone sizes me up, as if trying to ascertain if I would be upset enough to do something to Jake.
