Page 47 of What the Wife Knew

The detective took over again. “You met with Ms. Jenkins on at least—”

“Lizzy.” Thinking of Mom as Ms. Jenkins was... well, I couldn’t. She’d always been Lizzy in my head. She preferred I called her that so no one would think she had a twenty-seven-year-old kid. I called her Mom mostly out of spite.

The detective flipped through the pages in front of him. “We’ve seen the security video from the diner where you were at the time of Richmond’s murder. You met this woman at the same location several times, in secret and away from your marital home.”

Funny how the detective skipped over the main point. “We met inpublic. That’s the exact opposite ofin secret.”

Elias cleared his throat. I took the noise as a warning to tread carefully.

“You gave her six thousand dollars in cash a week before Richmond was killed.” The detective dropped that morsel as if the two items were related.

The timing did suck. “She told me on an earlier diner meetup her car died. She needed a new one for work.”

“Where does she work?” Elias asked.

“A casino in Atlantic City.” I couldn’t remember the name because she’d switched jobs several times over the last two years. I kept an eye on her, usually from afar, to prevent her from sneaking up on me, though that strategy had failed more than once.

Detective Sessions made a humming sound. “Why did she meet you at the diner?”

“First, to ask for money. Then another time to collect it.” No need to lie. That was the truth... mostly. “And that tells you all you need to know about my mom.”

The detective didn’t appear convinced. “You could have invited her to your house.”

Oh, hell no. “Yeah, Richmond would have loved that.”

“Had she met him?” The detective didn’t wait for an answer. “Was she at your wedding? Has she been to your house?”

“No to all of those.”

“I’m guessing I’m going to have trouble finding anyone in town who knows her.”

I hoped that was true. “We aren’t close.”

“Yet you handed her thousands of dollars.”

Because that’s how emotional blackmail worked. Lizzy excelled in that area. “Do you have a mother, Detective?”

He leaned back in his chair and watched me. A minute passed before he treated us to his insight. “This is all very convenient, Mrs. Dougherty.”

Talk about missing the point. “I assure you, Detective, there’s nothing convenient about Lizzy Jenkins.”

The questioning continued for another fifteen minutes. Elias batted away every insinuation and accusation. He also pointed out that the diner’s security video confirmed my location at the time of the murder and that a mother and a daughter sharing a few meals wasn’t a crime. The detective’s theory aboutMom being my paid accomplice or contract killer, or whatever he thought, unraveled until Elias finally put an end to all the fishing.

After quick introductions between Mom and Elias and a bit of mindless small talk, Elias went to get the car, leaving me standing with Mom outside the police station. Just the two of us. A combination that never went well for me.

“You had one job, Addison.” She smiled at the people who walked by, but her voice came out in a harsh whisper. “I don’t understand how you could have messed this up so badly.”

I didn’t respond because she didn’t want me to. This was the Lizzy Jenkins show, and my role was to act like an obedient, non-speaking side character.

She shook her head. “You’re lucky I’m here to fix this Richmond mess.”

Yeah, lucky. “I didn’t kill him.”

She snorted. “Even I don’t believe that.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Her

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