Page 37 of Feared

Mary flared her eyes, interjecting, “Bennie, really? Now?”

Bennie sighed. “Sorry, Carrier.”

“I’m sorry.” Judy nodded, miserably.

Bennie added, “But I hate surprises, and now we have to deal with this. We’re blindsided.”

Mary interjected again, “Bennie?”

Bennie pursed her lips. “Carrier, how long did you two date for?”

“We’ve been dating for, almost, eight months.” Judy’s wet gaze met Mary’s directly. “Since you found out you were pregnant, Mary. After your case with Simon and his daughter. It started with a friendship, then I started seeing him in a new light. I guess I always crushed on him, but we’re so different, like, he’s so straight, but anyway, we got together. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I wanted to, so many times.”

“It’s all right.” Mary managed a reassuring smile, though she felt bewildered. “You could’ve told me, but it’s okay that you didn’t. What really matters is that I’m very sorry that you lost him. I knew you were friends, but I didn’t know you were, well, closer.”

“We are, I mean, we really were.” Judy dabbed her eye with the soggy Kleenex. “I should have told you, but you were so busy with the pregnancy and I didn’t want to take the focus off of you, and we weren’t sure when we wanted people to know in the office. We were keeping it to ourselves until we knew it was working out.” Judy turned to face Bennie. “I didn’t thinkyou would approve. I was a partner and he was an associate, but if you remember, you kinda sprung partnership on me, when you thought the firm was breaking up. Anyway, I didn’t know how you would feel about an office romance, especially since I was technically his boss. I didn’t tell you. I didn’t tell anybody.”

“Understood,” Bennie said quietly, without rancor. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys.” Judy sniffled, and Mary could see she was fighting to remain in control.

“It’s okay, honey, don’t worry about it.” Mary couldn’t reach Judy to touch her, but in the next moment, Bennie did, surprisingly, patting Judy’s hand.

“Carrier, that’s the last thing you should be worried about. But it’s good that we know that before we go into the police interviews.”

“Wait, there’s more.” Judy sniffled, half chuckling. “Arg, I know, it sounds like those dumb commercials. ‘Wait there’s more!’”

“What more?” Bennie asked, calmly.

Mary glanced at Anthony, who was listening, his head cocked.

Judy swallowed hard. “I was there tonight, at John’s.”

Mary recoiled, unable to process the information fast enough. Her first thought was that it wasn’t a good thing.

“What time?” Bennie kept her hand on Judy’s.

“I guess until about nine o’clock, and we had a big fight.” Judy raked her fingers through her hair, shaking her head. “It’s just so sad, and so awful, I don’t even know where to start, I mean, I can’t believe he’s gone.”

“Carrier, begin at the beginning.” Bennie’s tone strengthened. “Tell me the chronology of your day. We were together in the morning, then you took Mary to the doctor.”

“Right.” Judy nodded, sniffling anew.

“What time did you leave the doctor?”

“Anthony picked Mary up at around two o’clock.”

“What did you do then?”

“I went to John’s.”

“How did you get there?”

“I took a cab.”

“Why did you go there?”

Judy sniffled, wiping her eyes again. “We were in a fight from the night before, when the Complaint came in from Machiavelli. I was so surprised and shocked, really. I didn’t know John had said any of those things about us and I didn’t even know he was looking for a job. He kept it from me, and we had a big fight about it, on Friday night, and uh we—” Judy’s eyes welled up, and Bennie squeezed Judy’s hand.