Page 12 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

I looked over to Abby, and she nodded, indicating that she knew and that it was okay for me to tell.

‘She told me there was a sex tape,’ I told him.

‘Why did she tell you this?’

‘We’re friends.’

‘Just friends?’ the older detective asked, speaking for the first time.

I looked at him. ‘She’s engaged and my boss’s daughter.’ I avoided the question, and by the look he gave me, he knew it.

‘Was Jessa romantically involved with anyone else?’ he probed, taking another angle.

‘Not that I know of.’ It was my half-truth; we were physical but hadn’t had the opportunity to be romantic yet.

Based on their next question, they had to have known I was lying, but I specifically told Steve, Breton, and Zoe not to mention me being involved with her. That garnered a strange but knowing look from Steve when I had initially mentioned it.

‘What were your feelings for Jessa?’ It was pissing me off that they were speaking of her in the past tense.

‘I like her, but I’m not going to pursue her while she’s engaged.’

‘Did you tell her this?’ the young detective asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I wasn’t going to cause a scandal or give Matt a reason to release the tape of her.’

‘Do you think she would end her engagement with Matt for you?’ the young one asked me.

I took a deep breath and looked to the ceiling. ‘All summer I was hoping she would, but now…’ my voice started to crack, and I felt my whole body unraveling. ‘I... I hope it didn’t get her killed.’

And that’s when I broke down, and they let me go at last. Uttering the words out loud made the gnawing feeling that my involvement with her might have put her in danger, ache.

If Jessa had told Matt about us, he could have lost it and taken it out on her, by taking her from us permanently. If that was the case, Steve was wrong; loving her was a really bad thing.

~

Crews searched for almost a week, by air, by sea, and even along the shores, but there was no sign of her. I was still in denial and unprepared when the detective came out to the house to fill the Cahill’s in. Abby was there as the Cahills’ legal counsel, along with Zoe, there as both Jessa’s best friend and Cahill Global’s Public Relations representative, a promotion she had taken due to the increased requests for information. Breton, Deb and I were also asked to be there.

The detectives presented the evidence to us less than two weeks after her initial disappearance. I went from bargaining with higher powers to just downright angry. I had held on to the very thin chance there was still a possibility she was alive, but after everything was laid out, it really just didn't seem possible.

First, the boat was well out to sea by the time the chef and the steward had retired for the evening, leaving Jessa and Matt arguing out on the deck where they had eaten. The lifeboat had not been touched, no fingerprints were found around it, nor had any of the lifejackets been used. Jessa’s passport was still in her bedroom here, from her recent trip to Spain. Her laptop was in her bedroom, clothing, shoes, and jewelry were all accounted for, aside from the few items she had with her on the boat, which were found still onboard. Her bank accounts, for the past weeks, hadn’t been touched. The last transaction was her deposit for her registration for her fall semester, which she paid just a few days before she went missing.

There were no unusual purchases on her credit cards or that of the family in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. I was asked, as was Breton, and other friends and family members to provide bank statements—which we all did willingly. There had been nothing out of the ordinary to show someone was assisting her to disappear.

Her father’s bookings at his company were traced, as were video from the airports, both private and commercial in the days after her disappearance, but there was nothing. Nor had any car rental company in the area rented to her.

On the boat, her wallet, with all her identification cards were still there, her cellphone, and her tablet were recovered, along with all her clothing, toiletries, shoes and her bag the marina footage showed her carrying on the boat from the parking lot.

The police also recovered her engagement ring in a sock, stuffed in Matt’s messenger bag. But then there were the small drops of blood that were on the ceiling of the master cabin, uncleaned, which they assumed was an oversight on Matt’s part during his half-assed cleanup job. There was blood residue found in the hallways and going up the stairs, through the main room and onto the back of the boat. The wooden parts had been bleached, and it looked as if Matt also tried to wipe down the stairs and the inside wall of the boat, but the police were able to pick up traces. The DNA of the blood from the ceiling confirmed it was Jessa’s.

The testimony from the crew confirmed that they had been fighting, that the sex tape and the prenup were the topics of argument—two things that came up during my interview with the police also.

The only thing that was good news was that they hadn’t slept in the same room the night before, and that the room Jessa had slept in Saturday night hadn’t been used Sunday, as the bed was still made.

‘I am sorry, Mr. Cahill,’ the older detective said in his authoritative voice. ‘But at this time, we have to go by the evidence and rule this a homicide. Matthew Wilson is still being held as he has not been able to make bail; he will be arraigned tomorrow on first-degree murder charges.’

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