Page 70 of The Perfect Marriage

I drop my head into my hands and let out a groan.

“Are you okay?”

I pick my head up and look at her. “No. I’m not.” I flop my hands on the desk.

She scurries to me and takes a seat. She takes my hand for comfort. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything. My marriage is over. My husband is on trial for murder. I’m not getting any help from the Prince William County Sheriff’s Department, and I’ve hit a dead end in the case. I’m going to lose.”

Anne tilts her head in an endearing way and places both her hands on mine, gently rubbing them. “It’s all going to work out in the end. I promise,” she says, and I think she means it or at least believes it. How would Anne know if everything is going to work out? She’s my assistant. I’m the lawyer. I’m the one with the experience. I’m the one dealing with Sheriff Stevens. I’m the one with the cheating and potentially murdering husband. I’m the one going through all of this. I want to scream. I want to flip over my desk, but I won’t. I have to be calm and composed.

I take a deep breath before speaking. “This third set of DNA—I have to find out who it belongs to.”

“Why isn’t Sheriff Stevens looking into that further?” She releases my hands, and we lean back in our chairs.

“He says the case is closed.”

“Won’t the fact that we don’t know who that DNA belongs to bode well with the jury? Like a mystery—like it could be this other person? It’ll leave room for reasonable doubt.”

“It could, but it’s risky. If we know who that person is, we can build our case around it, pointing the suspicion at that person. I think I may have a lead.”

“Who?”

“Scott’s partner, Deputy Hudson. Heck, maybe they killed her together. They are each other’s alibis after all. But I think she was sleeping with his partner.”

Anne’s eyes widen. “Why do you think that?”

“Something Jesse said and the fact that no one ever saw her with a third man. If it were Deputy Hudson, they would have kept it a complete secret. Plus, the burner phone.”

“I mean if you can’t prove Deputy Hudson was the third set of DNA and Sheriff Stevens won’t cooperate, couldn’t you point the suspicion to Scott, her husband? The texts he sent that night were pretty damning.” Anne rubs her chin.

“That’s part of my case, but the prosecution will call him to the stand and try to paint him as a grieving hero. The jury will most likely feel sympathetic toward him and have respect for him as a member of the police force. We don’t have anyone saying otherwise, aside from Jesse—who was Kelly’s apparent stalker. His word is as good as worthless.”

“Is there a chance Scott did it?” Anne raises her eyebrows.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s a chance anyone could have done it. Heck, Anne, you could have,” I say lightly.

Anne lets out a nervous laugh. “Why don’t you… umm… talk to D.A. Peters? Wouldn’t he want to know this?”

“That’s not a bad idea, Anne. I’ll slip that hunch I have about Deputy Hudson into discovery, and I’ll make sure to put his name on the witness list. D.A. Peters will look into it thinking I have something on him, but he’ll end up doing my work for me.”

“That is brilliant.”

“I should probably meet with him first and see if I can plant some seeds before he requests any of our discovery. Can you see if he’s available to meet this afternoon?”

“Absolutely.” Anne gets up from her chair, eager and ready to help in any way possible. She’s the one person I can always depend on, the one person I can always trust.

42

Adam Morgan

I’m pacing the living room back and forth, grabbing at my hair, scanning for objects that I could destroy to vent my anger. How could I not have known? How could I not have seen this sooner?

“Do you know who wrote it?” Rebecca asks for the tenth time.

“I have a pretty good fucking idea.” I want to punch something just to get some relief.

“Okay, well then who is it? We just found a big clue here. This is good news!” Rebecca is trying to calm me down, but it’s no use. I’m seeing red. A lying bitch is messing with my life. She’s trying to ruin me. She threatened me. Jesus Christ. She probably killed Kelly. For all I know, she’s manipulating the fucking evidence as we speak. Rebecca’s face pleads with me, eyes wide open, straining to know the answer.

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