Page 119 of State of Alert

“Yes,” Colleen said. “Elaine was having an awful time handling the usual rites of passage with her girls as they approach adulthood. We spent a lot of time working on that. As you can imagine, her sister’s violent death cast a long shadow over her life and made her afraid of history repeating itself, especially since her sister’s killer was never found.”

Sam took notes and made an asterisk next to the part about her sister’s killer still being at large. “Everything in me is thinking Elaine’s murder involved her kids in some way.”

Colleen shook her head. “I can’t see that. I’ve met her girls. We had some group therapy sessions with the whole family, and the girls loved Elaine very much. They just hated her rigidity when it came to rules and safety.”

“Did they hate the rigidity enough to want to eliminate the person who was causing so much grief for them?”

“I didn’t know them as well as I knew Elaine, but I can’t see either of them being involved in something like that.”

“Zoe indicated that the therapy wasn’t productive.”

“No, it wasn’t. Elaine refused to budge on the things the girls identified as important to them, such as being able to walk home from school or friends’ houses or riding in cars driven by peers. These were hard limits for Elaine, and we tried to find a compromise, but she wasn’t having it.”

“What role did Frank play in these discussions?”

“He mostly stayed on the sidelines. The dispute was between Elaine and the girls.”

“Both girls?”

“Primarily Zoe because she was older, but as Jada matured, things were heating up with her, too. In addition, Jada had a visceral dislike of the constant fighting and begged her entire family to make it stop.”

“How did her parents react to that request?”

“They both wept. I think they very much wanted peace in their family, but with Elaine dead set on protecting herdaughters from anything that could harm them, they were at a stalemate.”

Sam had an itchy feeling working its way down her backbone, and the tingling intensified any time Jada’s name was mentioned. How was it even possible to suspect her when she’d been in West Virginia and Maryland the day her mother was murdered?

“Sam?”

Freddie’s voice dragged her out of her thoughts.

“I’m sorry.”

“Did you have more questions?” Colleen asked.

“Was there anything else happening in Elaine’s life that might have led to murder?”

“Not that I can think of. She had the usual stressors of work and kids and juggling all the responsibility, but she wasn’t experiencing conflict with anyone else, at least not that she told me.”

“What did she say about friends?”

“She had friends, but preferred to keep to herself and spend her free time with her family.”

“In your experience, was that unusual?”

“Not as unusual as you’d might expect. More and more, I’m hearing from women who prefer to have smaller friend groups due to the drama and bickering that can come with larger groups.”

“I get that,” Freddie said. “My wife has distanced herself from some high-maintenance friends lately.”

“Everyone is busy,” Colleen said. “People want to be with friends who build them up, not bring them down.”

“That’s my wife’s feeling as well.”

“Trina Gauthier, Jada’s friend Ali’s mother, told us about a falling-out she and her husband had with Frank and Elaine.”

Colleen nodded. “When they told them Jada wanted to live with them. Elaine was very upset about that and how theGauthiers handled it. She felt they should’ve said no and shut it down right away.”

“Did you agree with that?”

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