Page 20 of The Happy Month

“Just a few more questions,” Lydia said. “If we get another trial for Larry, you’ll be asked to testify to what you’ve said today. Then cross-examined. I’m going to ask a few questions a prosecutor would ask. Is that all right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Is everything you’ve said today truthful?”

“Yes.”

“You were lying in 1976 but you’re not lying now?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why should we believe you?”

“Because I’m an adult now and I’ve had a very long time to live with the mistakes I made.”

“You said you’re doing this to save your marriage. That’s a good reason to lie. How do we know that’s not what you’re doing?”

“I can’t save my marriage with lies. Ask my hus—ex-husband.” She was stubborn, I’ll give her that. Trying to save a marriage after the divorce was final.

“If Larry asked you to lie now, would you?”

“I haven’t seen Larry since he went to prison. We’re not close anymore.”

“All right, thank you Anne. I think we’ll stop now.” To the camera she said, “The deposition is over.”

Then she nodded at Elaine Joy who turned off the camera. Everyone seemed to relax a little. Lydia said, “As I told you at the beginning, Dom has a few questions for you. It won’t take long.”

“Could I have that bottle of water now?”

“Of course.”

I jumped up and grabbed a bottle from the refrigerator. Opened the bottle and set it down in front of Anne. Then I took my seat again. Lydia remained.

“Do you remember a girl named Sammy Blanchard?”

“Kind of. She was a couple years behind me in school. Isn’t she the one who married a teacher?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I kind of remember her.”

“Did you ever see her with Andy Showalter?”

“Oh my God. Um, it’s a huge school and I’m not sure I’d remember if I did see them together. I mean, neither of them was on my radar. Or really anyone’s radar. I mean, obviously Andy Showalter was… but that was only after high school. Why? Do you think she had something to do with… I mean, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Do you remember anyone she might have been friends with?”

“No, not really… Well, wait. In grade school my best friend was Sharon Hawley. She had a younger sister who would be Sammy’s age. She might know.”

“Do you have any contact information?”

“No, it’s been ages. But, we’re having our twentieth high school reunion in October. I got an email about that. Well, I mean… Paul got an email about it. I can ask him to forward it to you.”

“That would be great.” I took a beat thinking about how I wanted to phrase this. “When I interviewed you before you said you thought your husband might have killed Pete.”

“Oh God, you know, I never really believed that. I was just very angry at him.”

“At this point, after twenty years, who do you think killed Pete Michaels?”