Page 69 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“At an AAU football tournament in Delaware.”

“When did you return?”

“Around midnight on Sunday. I was with my son the entire time and never left my house after I got home.”

“Can you prove that?”

“I have an alarm system that I set when I returned home, and I didn’t deactivate it until the next morning.”

Sam glanced at Freddie, who’d know she wanted him to confirm that. “Did your wife go to the tournament?”

“No, she was home with our other children.”

“You said you have four?”

“Yes. The oldest is my son, who was with me in Delaware. He’s nineteen.”

“And still in high school?”

Ouellette nodded. “He repeated eighth grade to give him an extra year to grow and mature as a player. He’s one of the most highly recruited quarterbacks in this year’s class. Everyone wants him.”

“When was the last time you saw Pam?”

He thought about that for a second. “We had dinner last Tuesday.”

“Where?”

“We drove over to a place in West Virginia.”

“You drove all that way just for dinner?”

“We spent the night.”

“Where did your spouses think you were?”

“Pam said she was meeting with a new client, and I was at an AAU meeting. Both are things we did frequently.”

Sam couldn’t believe the way these two had had an affair in almost plain sight.

“Did anyone suspect you and Pam were more than just friends?”

“Not that I’m aware of. We were very careful. We both had a lot to lose.”

“Not even your son, who you spent so much time with, knew about it?”

“I never told him. If he found out, I was unaware.”

“I’d like to speak to your wife.”

He blanched and then looked at the lawyer, who seemed equally shocked. “Why?”

“I need to know if she knew you were having an affair with Pam.”

“You’re going to come right out and ask her that?”

“I am. And I’m going to ask Bob Tappen, too, because the two of them are the only people I’ve heard of yet that would’ve had motive to kill a woman everyone loved.”

“You can’t do that! You’ll ruin my life!”

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