Page 45 of She Didn't See It Coming
“I’m afraid it’s true,” Kilgour says neutrally. “Her best friend, Paige, told us about it.”
“Bryden wouldn’t cheat,” he says bluntly. “We have a three-year-old daughter. Her family was everything to her. She wouldn’t jeopardize that.”
Jayne says, “She was sleeping with Derek Gardner, the man she had the minor car accident with several weeks ago.” She watches him clench his hands on the surface of the table between them.
“No.”
“Are you saying you didn’t know that she was having an affair?” Kilgour asks.
“Of course I didn’t know!” Sam swallows and asks, “Didhekill her?”
Kilgour ignores the question. “You were never suspicious of her?” he asks. Sam shakes his head. “Didn’t check up on her?”
He stops shaking his head. He looks at Kilgour. “What do you mean? Like hiring a private investigator to follow her?” he scoffs. “No.”
“No,” Kilgour answers. “I mean, did you ever call her employer to confirm that she had business meetings in Buffalo on”—he looks down at the folder on the desk in front of him, opens it, and scans a page—“January eighteenth and February twenty-second?”
They’ve got him, and he knows it. Jayne watches the color drain from Sam’s face. Watches his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows. She waits for him to answer. When he doesn’t, she repeats the question. “Did you call her employer to try to confirm that she was in fact away on business on these two dates?”
“I want an attorney,” Sam says, his voice breaking.
29
Sam is scared out of his wits. He sweats in his chair, the smell rank, alone in the interview room, waiting. The videotape had been turned off when the interview was suspended, but he doesn’t know if there are other cameras on the room, watching him. Other people in this room—people like him, suspected of murder—have probably been at risk for suicide.
He’d called the largest law firm in Albany and asked them to send their best criminal attorney. He waits for the attorney to arrive, trying to order his chaotic thoughts. They’re all over the place. He tries to remember what Paige said. The immediate problem is what he knew about his wife. He told Paige he didn’t know anything. He was afraid it would come to this. Afraid they would find out about the phone call. He didn’t know about the guy with the Tesla. But hehadchecked up on her.
The attorney finally arrives, and they are granted some time alone to consult. The attorney, Laura Szabo, a woman of about fifty, listensattentively to what Sam tells her. And then she advises him to answer all further questions with “No comment.”
The detectives return to the room and resume the interview. Sam can feel his heart beating too fast. His attorney doesn’t seem too sympathetic. Why did they send him a female attorney, Sam frets, when he’s probably going to be charged with murdering his wife? He begins to feel dizzy and lightheaded; there’s a pounding in his ears.
Detective Salter says, looking closely at him, “Are you all right, Sam?”
Her voice seems distant, fading in and out. But he nods. He wonders if he’s going to have a heart attack.
The detective says, “Did you call your wife’s employer to try to confirm that she had upcoming business meetings in Buffalo on January eighteenth and February twenty-second of this year?”
“No comment.” His chest is feeling increasingly tight. It’s the vise again, like before, in the apartment. He’s having another panic attack. He tries to remember what Lizzie told him to do. But he can’t think, and his breath is coming in ragged pants, and he instinctively clutches at his chest.
Detective Salter asks, “Are you all right? Do you need us to call 911?”
He shakes his head, manages to say, “No. I’m fine.”
He hears the detective say,Interview suspended at 6:46 p.m.
Slowly, the panic subsides. He’s able to breathe again, as the vise that holds him gradually loosens its grip. He sits in a pool of sweat and fear. He doesn’t want to tell them it was a panic attack, but they seem to know.
Laura Szabo addresses the detectives. “Are you holding my client, or can he go home?”
“He can go,” Detective Salter says, “for now.”
Sam is relieved to hear that they’re letting him go but he knows what they think. They think he’s guilty as hell.
•••
Derek Gardner hearshis wife come in the front door, recognizes the familiar rustling of shopping bags. It sounds like she’s had a productive day. He leaves his office and goes out to join her. “A good day, I see,” he says, eyeing her purchases.
“Yes. I decided to treat myself,” she says, “because you have been causing me stress.”
