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“Why is she with the police?”
“Her son Marcel and his family were found dead in their home a short time ago.”
Bertie let out a scream of dismay. “Oh God, no! Not the babies, too. Oh no, no,no. Poor Graciela. They were her whole life.”
“Is there any chance you might be able to come to our headquarters building to sit with her while we interview her?”
“Why are you interviewing her? She had nothing to do with it.”
“She’s helping us to gather information we need to begin our investigation. She’ll be here awhile and could use a friend, as her other son is in Richmond.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you.”
Sam slapped her cell phone closed but took none of the usual satisfaction from the smacking sound.
Captain Malone came to a stop in the hallway, seeming surprised to see her there. “I heard it was ugly,” he said.
She nodded. “I’m back with the grandmother.”
Freddie came from the pit to join them. “I made the calls to Marcel’s brother and Liliana’s sister.” He looked pale-faced and drawn after what had to have been horrible conversations. “They’re on their way.”
“Thanks for taking care of that.”
“Sure.”
“Update me,” Malone said.
Sam took him through the facts of the case thus far.
Malone grimaced. “Christ, four little kids.”
“Marcel Blanchet’s mother, Graciela is in the conference room. She insists there was no way that Marcel could’ve hurt his family. By all accounts, he was a devoted husband and father. However, she did tell me that he suspected his wife was having an affair. We’ll look into that next.”
“Keep me in the loop, and I’ll ask Dr. Trulo to check in with your squad.”
Sam was about to tell him that wasn’t necessary, but she stopped herself when she caught the haunted expression on her partner’s face. “Thanks.” She’d like to think she’d learned a few things about what happened when emotions got buried on this job. “Let’s get back to it, Detective Cruz.”
When they returned to the conference room, Graciela was sobbing into tissues. “I don’t know what to do. Tell me what I should do.”
“We’ll walk you through every step, Mrs. Blanchet,” Sam said, even though their help would hardly fix the disaster that had befallen the woman. It was all Sam could do for her and the rest of their family.
Sam returned to her seat across the table. “Do you feel up to talking a bit more?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
As the woman dabbed at her face with tissues, Sam scanned her notes. “You mentioned that Marcel thought his wife might be having an affair. What can you tell me about that?”
“Things had been strained between them lately.” She wiped away more tears. “I’d noticed it and asked Marcel if everything was all right. He said he started to wonder if she had someone else.”
“Do you know if he did anything about that?”
“I’m not sure. We talked about it last week, and I was going to ask him about it the next time we talked.”
Sam made a note to ask Lieutenant Archelotta in IT to dump Liliana’s phone first. “Prior to this, how would you describe their marriage?”
“Loving,” Graciela said softly. “They were crazy about each other from the start.”
