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“Shitty joke,” Michael agreed. “You don’t know anything about Ellie. You don’t know what her marriage is like. For that matter, you don’t know what any of these marriages are like. It’s easy to preach, Faith, but life isn’t as cut and dry as the storybooks make it out. Sometimes marriages end. That doesn’t always mean the people stuck in those marriages are assholes.”
“You’re right,” Faith said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Michael nodded moodily but offered no other response. Faith sighed and decided to move on. “So, we know that the killer isn’t targeting women,” she said, “not exclusively, at least.”
“No,” he said, “the only thing these three have in common is that they’re married.”
“And cheating,” Faith added.
“Two of them were cheating for sure,” Michael said. “Katherine was sleeping with the world’s greatest personal trainer, and Elmore was enjoying his pick of the baristas. We don’t know for sure that Amanda was cheating. Besides, the killer’s only been active for a couple of weeks. He might not have known that Elmore was cheating. Hell, he might not have known he was married.”
“The killer’s only been active for a couple of weeks that we know of,” Faith pointed out.
“Fair enough,” Michael said. “Still, it’s too early to assume the infidelity angle.”
“I don’t think it’s too early to assume that a troubled marriage is a connection between the two victims,” Faith said. “Katherine Navarro was cheating, and Elmore Holland was separated.”
“What about Amanda Montgomery?”
“I suspect her own marriage wasn’t the sunshine and roses her husband would like us to believe.”
“So, we call the husband?”
“Yes,” Faith said. “We call the husband.”
Benjamin Montgomery answered on the third ring. He sounded just as dejected as he did when they last spoke with him. “Mr. Montgomery,” Faith said, putting the phone on speaker, “we’re investigating a lead on your wife’s murder. I need to ask you an uncomfortable question, and I need you to be honest with me.”
After a brief pause, Benjamin said, “All right.”
“Mr. Montgomery, when we last spoke, you told us that you and your wife enjoyed a happy marriage free of problems. Would you like to modify your statement at all?”
There was a longer, more telling pause. Then, Benjamin sniffled and said, “Um, all right. We, uh, we hit a rough patch earlier this year. She … there was … I suspected her of infidelity.”
There it was.
“I don’t know for sure that she cheated,” he said. “Maybe she didn’t. Probably she didn’t. I just got suspicious because she was out late more often, and when I asked what she was doing, she would get really defensive. She bought new clothes and makeup, too, and she put a password lock on her phone so I couldn’t get into it. We … well, things were getting bad enough that we decided to see a counselor.”
Faith’s ears pricked up. Michael leaned forward.
“Can you tell me the name of the counselor?” Faith asked. “Phone number and address, too, please.”
“Sure,” Benjamin said.
The counselor was a Doctor Harold Porter, who kept a practice at 251 South Eagle Street. Faith thanked Mr. Montgomery and hung up.
“Well, well,” Faith said. “We have another person of interest.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Michael said. “We don’t know if he knew the other victims.”
“Fair enough,” Faith said. “Let’s call.”
Gary Navarro claimed that neither of them made an attempt at fixing their marriage. “She was happy sleeping with Antonio, and I was more focused on ending the marriage than saving it. I’m of the opinion that if you don’t love someone enough to stay faithful to them, then there’s no marriage to save.”
Faith declined to pass judgment on his opinion but thanked him and asked if his wife had seen a counselor recently.
“Hell if I know,” he said. “She hadn’t talked to me about anything that mattered in years. For all I know, she did see someone and just decided not to tell me. I can’t imagine she would have wanted to hear that she needed to put work into the marriage too.”
Faith let that pass without comment as well. She hung up and said, “Well, jury’s out on Katherine Navarro, but if Lucinda and Elmore saw Mr. Porter, I think it’s a safe bet that Katherine did as well.”
