Chapter 36 ON MY OWN
Chapter thirty-six
ON MY OWN
I wish I could say that the most awkward part of my strategy meeting with Jalen was signing the retainer agreement with my cartoonishly large thumb wrap sticking out, but that would be a lie.
Every second since has crawled like a creeping bug under my skin, making the last two hours feel more like ten.
It’s not so much the nature of the meeting; I think this situation would be uncomfortable for just about anyone.
It’s the fact that, unlike Cameron, where I almost always know what he is thinking just by looking at him, Jalen’s face is completely unreadable.
Every time I share a detail about the night, the only way I can gauge how important or interesting he finds it is by how long I have to wait in silence while his pen scratches on his legal pad.
It’s not a perfect science, though, because just when I thought I had him all figured out, he asked if Detective Harvey read me my Miranda rights at any point during my statement.
My answer was only one word: No. But since I answered him a couple of minutes ago, he has filled almost an entire page with notes.
When he finally finishes, he circles something and then looks back up to me. “Before I start asking about the other women individually, do you have an inkling of who could have done this? Anything stand out as odd or suspicious in retrospect?”
“Not really,” I admit, because I have been asking myself the same question since it was revealed that there was a suspicion of foul play. “None of the women seem capable.”
“Then let’s go one at a time, starting with the first person you met.” He flips to a clean page, but when he looks up and sees my expression, he cocks his head to the side. “Do you need a break first?”
Yes. But I want to get this over with. “No. Let’s keep going.”
“All right. Who did you meet first?”
“Technically, I met Delaney first.”
“I think I have enough information about your interactions with her, so who did you meet next?
“Judith.”
He writes her name at the top of the paper and underlines it. “Tell me everything that she said and did. Spare no detail.”
I rehash our odd introduction, including how she tried to team up with me as the only other “working woman” there, and retell the story about her burning the cookies.
As I continue to share the details, a sick feeling settles in my stomach at how it all sounds.
Objectively, she has a clear motive, and Jalen must think so too because his hand is moving furiously across the paper to keep up.
“Do you think that Delaney’s performance warranted the treatment that Judith was giving her?” Jalen asks.
I shake my head. “We all thought Judith’s dislike of Delaney was unfounded. I just chalked it up to her being newly retired and maybe not fully decompressed yet.”
“Do you know what line of work she was in?”
“Retail.” He nods as if that confirms something for him. “She was rude, for sure,” I continue, because there is no denying that. “But I honestly don’t think she is capable of killing someone.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, first of all, she’s tiny,” I point out.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen her since she was in the guest house, but I would be surprised if she were even five feet tall.
And, like I told you, she was excited to retire so that she could spend time with her grandkids.
I find it hard to believe that she would jeopardize that. ”
He writes a couple words in response to my declaration and then moves on. “Who did you meet next?”
“Leah and Val, at the same time.”
“Let’s start with Leah.”
I rehash the introductions, including when Judith was convinced that Leah was a trophy wife who was going to quit teaching the second she had kids to be a stay-at-home mom, as if that was somehow offensive to her.
In retrospect, I wish I had defended Leah in that moment, knowing what I know now about her struggles with growing her family.
I can’t help but wonder if Judith lashed out at Leah in that moment more out of resentment than judgment, since she heavily implied that she had to “earn her own way.”
After that, I tell Jalen about how Leah helped me find my room, but I sidestep the detail about how she confided in me that she was pregnant.
Then I rehash how she helped me de-escalate the fight in the kitchen after Judith burned the cookies, and how we talked upstairs about my involvement with Cameron.
My cheeks flush a bit at those details about his brother, but Jalen remains unreadable.
“It sounds like Leah got along with Delaney pretty well.”
“Yes, as far as I could tell, but I don’t have all of the details about the fight at the wine tasting because I left to go hide in the bathroom as soon as they started getting into it.”
He flips back a few pages in his notes. “I don’t remember you telling me that you hid in a bathroom.”
“Oh, sorry. I must have forgotten to mention it. It was brief, maybe five or ten minutes. Val was there with me too. For part of it.”
He looks up to meet my eyes, and I immediately shrink under his gaze. “Drew, I told you when we started that it’s crucial for me to know every detail. It’s my job to decide what is important and what isn’t, so I need you to focus and answer my questions thoroughly and completely.”
Jalen looks so much like his brother that it almost feels like it’s Cameron admonishing me right now, and I realize very quickly that I don’t like that one bit.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me about Leah before we move on to Val?” Jalen prompts.
I swallow. “When I walked in on Leah in her bedroom, I found out that she was pregnant, but she asked me not to tell anyone.”
“Thank you.” He finishes jotting down his notes, which takes longer than I would expect, making me wonder if he already finished writing about her and has started a section about me.
After the painfully extended silence, he asks, “What was the name of the next woman you met?”
“Val, short for Valentina.”
He writes her name at the top of a new page and leans back in his chair. “Tell me about her.”
I take a deep breath and conjure up every single detail I can think of but pause before speaking when I realize that he might get the wrong idea about her, too, especially without having the privilege to get to know her like I have.
I have no clue what caused the police to suspect foul play, and if Jalen knows, he hasn’t disclosed it to me.
But I am certain that telling him that Val is trained in martial arts and admitted to having many sharp objects in her house would certainly cover at least a few scenarios.
I come back to the present moment with the sound of Jalen’s pen scratching on his paper.
I lean forward. “What are you writing?”
I half expect him to tilt his notepad back so that I can’t see, but he just ignores me and keeps writing. “Remember, it’s your job to tell me everything, and my job to decide what’s important.”
“But I haven’t said anything.”
He puts a star next to the last word that he wrote, and then looks up. “Tell me everything about Val, same as you just did with Leah.”
I give him every detail I can recall about Val but soften the ones that I think could put her in a bad light and put more emphasis on her good qualities.
I pause when I get to the part where she told me in the bathroom that she Googled Cameron and found out that some people think he’s a bad lawyer, but I spit it out when his pen speeds up on the page again at my hesitation.
He doesn’t blink at the insult to his brother and remains stoic as I wrap up with meeting her and Ollie back in Cameron’s bedroom after the power went out.
“Before we move on to Ollie, is there anything else, no matter how small, that you haven’t told me about your interactions with Val?”
I look back down at my lap. “Not that I can think of.”
He hesitates, as if he’s going to push back against my answer, but after a few seconds, he moves on to Ollie. It’s a brief conversation, because I didn’t spend much time with him, so Ollie’s notes only take up a half page on his legal pad.
“I think that’s a good start. I need to go down to my room to make a few phone calls, but you have my number if you think of anything else or have any questions.”
I sink at the fact that he said this was a good start, but manage my most genuine, “Thank you,” while he packs up his barrister briefcase. I’d never have been able to secure this level of representation on my own.
“One more thing, Drew. Before I go.” I mentally prepare for another correction as we walk towards the door, but to my surprise he softens a bit.
“I want to make sure you understand that if this does, in fact, become a criminal case, that means there is a murderer on the loose. For your own safety, I would strongly caution you from leaving this hotel room for any reason. Without knowing who did this, we don’t know their full motive, and I’d hate for anything bad to happen to you or my brother. ”
I blink at his warning, both because it is a sobering reality that I hadn’t fully considered, and because it seems oddly cordial considering the way he’s treated me thus far.
I have no doubt that he will do his best to represent me, but I think that has more to do with his loyalty to Cameron than it does with his fondness for me.
When it becomes clear that he is waiting for a response, I nod that I heard him, and he strides past me to let himself out. I stare after him until the main door to my room clicks closed and then take a few steps forward to lock the deadbolt and secure the chain behind him, heeding his warning.