Sedona Law 5 by Dave Daren (e book reader android .TXT) 📗

even asking it now. But, given the investigation we were doing, it was relevant.

“Jerry and I split up, oh … ” Her eyes searched the wall as she tried to remember. “The first time, I want to say Thad was … three, I believe.”

“And how old is he now?” I asked.

“He’s ten,” she replied.

“And when was the last time?” I asked.

“We finally made it official two years ago,” she sighed, “but we hadn’t been living together for a good three years before that.”

“So,” I began, “it’s been five years since you were actually together.”

“Correct,” she said, “and even before then, we were on and off. He was a hard man to love, and a hard man not to love at the same time, if you can imagine that.”

“I barely knew him,” I admitted, “but from what little I know, I can imagine it would be a difficult relationship.”

“Oh, that’s putting it lightly, let me tell you,” she chuckled as she sipped her coffee.

“Tell me about it,” I urged gently.

This part wasn’t particularly relevant to the murder. But the past often held important clues to the present. I’d also found once witnesses start talking, they can warm up to me and say all sorts of things they didn’t intend to say.

“Oh, Jerry,” she shook her head, “he was a live one. You wouldn’t know it from how he is, or was … ”

A shadow passed across her face as she remembered to change tenses.

“But,” she went on, “he could be a real charmer. We met in college at UC Berkeley. He was a film student, and I was studying music. What I remember most about him is that he was so passionate. I was political at the time, and so was he. And we would protest together, and it was just magic between us. And the chemistry between us was electric. In those days, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”

I raised an eyebrow as I thought about someone feeling that way about the Jerry Steele I had met.

“So, we got married right after graduation,” she continued as her eyes went hazy with memories, “and then he got offered a job with Starbright at a station in Phoenix. That was when things changed between us. It was like … Berkeley held us together. Once we were in Phoenix, we both became different people. He was working long hours at the station, and I was trying to write music and play in bars, and it just wasn’t working between us. Then I got pregnant. It was a surprise, but I thought it would bring us back together. It didn’t. Once Thad was born, it was almost like it was the nail in the coffin of our marriage. I was at home with the baby, he was out chasing stories, and we were living separate lives.”

“How did you get to Sedona?” I asked.

She laughed. “That’s a good question, with a complicated answer. Let me see if I can simplify it. Basically, Jerry was being … well … Jerry, and he lost his job at Starbright. It had to do with him getting them sued for libel. So, he hit bottom for a while, worked as a high school janitor even. And we were fighting like cats and dogs. I mean, it was … god … it was awful. We threw dishes at each other … ”

“Whoa,” I said and raised my eyebrows.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “It was bad. That’s the thing with Jerry, he’s passionate. So, it’s either really good, or really bad. There’s no in between.”

“Did he ever hurt you or Thad?” I asked.

“Oh, God no,” she said and vehemently shook her head. “No, he was never like that. He was just everything else.”

“What was all the fighting about?” I asked.

“A lot of things,” she confessed. “I felt like we were growing apart, and I was trying to fix it. All the while, I was giving up my music for our child, and I felt like he wasn’t even interested in our boy. Which, looking back wasn’t true. Jerry loved Thad, he just didn’t know how to show it. And then for a while, it was about money. So, eventually, I got him to beg for his job back at the station. They wouldn’t give it to him, but they told him the only opening they had was at a news site in Sedona.”

“The Herald,” I supplied.

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “So, we packed up and moved out here, and he worked for The Herald for a long time. But, by the time we got out here, I was just so done with the marriage. I felt like I’d made him move out here, though, so I had to stay with him. We lasted about a year together here, before he moved out.”

“Was there a specific inciting reason for the separation at that time?” I asked.

“He was seeing another woman,” she told me with a frown. “And you know what? The truth was, I didn’t care. And that scared me. So, we split up, and I got the job at the hospital, and he moved into the house he has now.”

“And that was five years ago, yes?” I clarified.

“Yup,” she said.

“Did he see Thad regularly?” I asked.

“He was on and off,” she said. “It was like all things Jerry. You never knew.”

“When did he start the studio?” I asked.

“About three years ago,” she replied. “I got my music therapy license, and he decided he wanted to quit reporting and start the studio.”

“How would you categorize your relationship with him in recent times?” I questioned.

“Recently,” she repeated and tilted her head in thought. “Recently things have been tense. I think he wanted to get back together. But I was seeing someone else, and I was just