Page 98 of The Happy Month
“Not until the Tamayo boy.”
“Which was when?”
“Three years ago. Four.”
“That would be ninety-two, ninety-three?”
“Yes. Somewhere in there.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t earlier?”
“My client has answered the question.”
“Your husband was severely beaten by Alfonse Tamayo on the fifth of March in nineteen-ninety-one. Would you like to adjust your answer to my question concerning when you learned your husband was abusing teenage boys?”
“It was before he was beaten, yes.”
“Sometime in nineteen-ninety or ninety-one?”
“Yes.”
“Around the same time he told you he killed Pete Michaels?”
“Yes. I told you, he wanted to frighten me.”
“You said Pete Michaels attempted to extort money from him. Blackmail. Did he tell you what information Pete was using to do that?”
“That they’d had a relationship.”
“You became aware that Coach Carrier and Pete Michaels had a sexual relation no earlier than nineteen-ninety?”
“Yes. Around that time.”
“Did you have a car as a teenager?”
“Yes.”
“What kind was it?”
“A Chevrolet Vega.”
“What color?”
“Yellow.”
“I want to object to this,” Colcott said. “Once again you’re straying into territory that has no relevance.”
“Your objection is noted,” she said, smiling in a reassuring way. “In one of the original statements taken by the Downey police, the woman across the street claims she saw a small yellow car arrive at the Michaels house at around eleven thirty that morning. A young woman matching your description got out of the car and went into the house.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Lydia glanced over Sammy’s shoulders at the drawings.
“You sure it wasn’t?”
“My client answered your question. She’s sure.”
“I want to ask again: You werenotfriends with Pete Michaels?”
