Page 93 of The Wife

61

Mom walked in about half an hour after I arrived at her house.

She flinched when she saw me sitting on the sofa. “Jesus H., you scared me. Did you call?” She was fumbling in her purse for her phone.

“No, I had grand jury in Mineola. Figured I was already halfway out.”

“Well, there’s a silver lining, I suppose. Where’s Spencer?”

“Spending the night with a friend.”

“Someone I’d approve of?”

“He has two nannies and a driver,” I said.

She rolled her eyes, and I gestured to the bottle of white wine I had already opened on her coffee table.

She went to the kitchen for a glass and filled it halfway. “You going to tell me why you’re really here?”

“What did you do, Mom?”

She set the glass back down on the coffee table and stood up, ready for a fight. I shook my head, too tired to argue. “You didn’t need to do that,” I said.

“Of course I did. Someone had to protect you. You were obviously out of your mind.”

“You alreadydidprotect me, Mom, but Jason doesn’t deserve this.”

“That’s not how this works, baby girl. They don’t just leave murders unsolved. And if someone was going to be blamed, of course it should be him.”

“Where’d you get the gum?” The ADA’s question about Jason’s Nicorette habit had been the giveaway. There was only one reason she’d ask. I now knew at least one big piece of evidence in the case against my husband.

“Your rental.”

I was searching my memory. Jason had been the one to drop off the Audi to the dealer after I took Spencer to camp. He drove the loaner back to the garage at the carriage house. He must have left gum in the ashtray. I never even noticed.

“He has one of the best defense attorneys in the city,” she said. “And your husband spits that nasty gum out everywhere he goes. The lawyer can argue that anyone could have planted it there, including Tom Fisher. All she needs to do is create reasonable doubt. Jason will be fine. He deserves to be put through the wringer for a while. Maybe he didn’t tell that woman every bit of your business, but this is still on him.”

“You really shouldn’t have done that.”

“Well, too late now. You told him about that magazine reporter?”

I nodded, realizing that my mother was right. I could no longer help Jason. “Yeah, he insisted that I take Spencer away until it’s over.” It was exactly the response I had anticipated. After all, when he said he would love us forever, he had meant it.

62

One Month Later

The timing for the move couldn’t have been better. In August, there was hardly anyone around to notice that a young widow had moved to the island with her mother and thirteen-year-old son.

I heard the wheels of the gate out front start to move, followed by the sound of the Jeep engine cutting in the driveway. It was just like my mother and son to drive the five blocks to the ocean.

Spence still had patches of sand stuck to his bare skin when he burst through the door.

“Outdoor shower, please!” I met him out back and turned on the grill while he rinsed off. When I returned to the kitchen, my mother was inspecting the fish that I had left marinating in the refrigerator.

“I don’t know why you have to be so fancy about things. Spencer and I would be just as happy with some hot dogs and potato chips.”

“Well, I wouldn’t. And it’s Spence, Mom.”

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