Page 96 of The Happy Month

“Yes,” her voice was terse, sharp. It could have cut glass.

“You told my investigator, Dominick Reilly.” She gestured toward me. “That Pete Michaels attempted to extort ten thousand dollars out of your husband, Bernie Carrier. And that because of this your husband killed him. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“How did you become aware of this?”

“Bernie told me.”

“When was that?”

“When did he tell me about it?”

“Yes.”

“Sometime after Pete’s murder.”

“Before you married? Or after?”

“It was well after.”

“Can you estimate the date?”

“I suppose, five or six years ago.”

“Some time in nineteen-ninety or ninety-one?”

“Yes. I guess.”

“When did you learn that your husband liked to have sex with teenaged boys?”

“It was around the same time.”

“Can’t you be more specific? That seems like the kind of thing a person would remember exactly when they heard it.”

Lydia got a sharp look from Sammy. Colcott said, “Tone, Miss Gonzalez.”

She responded to Colcott, “It’s a reasonable question. People remember things that are traumatic. It would have been a traumatic thing to hear. Don’t you agree?”

“Assumptions you make about how my client should or should not respond are not relevant.”

“I think my question would be allowed in court. We can agree to disagree. Now, Miss Blanchard, I want to be very clear on one point. At the time of Pete Michaels’ murder, you had no idea he’d had a sexual relationship with your eventual husband?”

“None.”

“Were you friendly with Pete Michaels or Larry Wilkes?”

“No. They were two grades ahead of me. Two years makes a big difference in high school.”

“At the time of Pete Michaels’ murder, you were already in a relationship with Bernie Carrier?”

“When was the murder?” she asked, as though she wasn’t sure. We all knew she knew.

“September 18, 1976. Were you in a relationship with Bernie Carrier at that time?”

“I don’t remember exactly when things began.”

“Can you tell ushowyour relationship with Bernie Carrier began?”