Page 46 of Zero Divergence
So, Vivian had only known she was still married to Vincenzo for twelve weeks and allegedly spent eight of them engaging in an affair with the senator. Her association with Humphries went back further than three months, somaybethey had been involved before she rekindled her relationship with Vincenzo. If so, prisons had their own rumor mill, so it wasn’t improbable that Humphries would’ve bragged to another inmate about having an affair with his attorney. The inmate could’ve told a guard at the county jail, and he might have passed the information along to a buddy who worked at a state prison, who then told Hendrix. They couldn’t rule out the possibility.
“How did Vincenzo notify her about the marriage? A phone call, letter, or email? Did the attorney come to see her in person?” Sawyer asked.
“Matt Schultz is his name,” Blakemore replied. “The coward served Vivian with official papers.”
Impatience started to build inside Sawyer. Blakemore was answering their questions with as little information as possible, requiring them to prod him for more details after each response. Vivian had trained him well.
“At the office or home?” Royce asked.
Blakemore scoffed. “Home. Schultz wasn’t stupid enough to embarrass Vivian at work.”
“Were you there when she received the documents?” Royce countered.
“I was,” Blakemore replied. Sawyer was prepared to poke some more, but the dam finally broke, and information flooded out freely. “It was a Wednesday. I know this because it was my late night at school. I was in the kitchen reheating the Chinese food Vivian had ordered for me when the doorbell rang. It had to be at least nine o’clock by then. We were both surprised because neither of us received many visitors, and we sure as hell weren’t expecting a process server.” A faraway look briefly washed over Blakemore’s face before he refocused his thoughts. “I will never forget the way Vivian gasped and placed her hand over her heart. The paperwork fell to the floor, and she bolted up to her room. I wrestled with my conscience over following her upstairs and asking what happened or picking up the documents and reading them for myself.”
Sawyer didn’t ask which he’d chosen because the answer didn’t feel pertinent, and he wanted Blakemore to stay on track. Pragmatism won out over curiosity.
“I followed Vivian upstairs and found her curled up in a ball on her bed, sobbing as if someone had just broken her heart,” Blakemore said, assuaging Sawyer’s curiosity. “I retreated to the kitchen for a bottle of wine and two glasses. Then she proceeded to tell me everything from how they met to the decision she’d made to end their marriage when they were in law school.” Blakemore shook his head. “I was shocked to find out she was married to the state senator but blown away by her confession that she had never stopped loving him and deeply regretted giving up on their marriage when she was younger.”
“I don’t personally know Ms. Gross, but I imagine getting served instead of receiving a phone call from Vincenzo stung,” Royce said.
Blakemore nodded. “It was a blow to both her pride and heart. I watched her shift from a despondent woman to a furious one who wanted Vincenzo and his attorney to know she wasn’t rolling over and playing—” A high-pitched squeak escaped him before he slapped his hand over his mouth.
Dead.
Vivian Gross wasn’t going to roll over and play dead for the senator. Had she signed the papers and given Jack Vincenzo the dissolutionshe’dasked for years ago, would she still be alive? Or was this all just an eerie coincidence?
Blakemore gathered himself and continued. “She hired a lawyer and filed for a divorce.”
“Who is her divorce lawyer?” Sawyer asked.
“Madeline Chesney-Stowe,” Blakemore replied.
Sawyer wasn’t surprised in the least that Gross had chosen the most successful divorce attorney in the state.
“Ouch. Even I know who Madeline Chesney-Stowe is,” Royce said. “I hope Vincenzo girded his loins.”
“Exactly,” Blakemore said smugly. “Vivian was fighting back.”
“They were at a stalemate, then?” Sawyer asked.
“Yes, that was the impression I had until I overheard the conversation between them the previous week where Vincenzo threatened to kill her.”
People made stupid idle threats all the time but never with real intention to cause someone harm. Sawyer had even heard his mother threaten to murder his father in his sleep over something silly. He and his siblings didn’t stay up all night worrying about their father’s safety because they recognized it as one of those things people said. The difference here is that someonedidkill Vivian Gross. It was up to Royce and Sawyer to find out if Vincenzo had said something stupid out of frustration, anger, and hurt, or had eliminated someone who could cost him his re-election bid.
“Can you repeat verbatim what you overheard?” Royce asked.
Blakemore nodded. “I heard Vincenzo say ‘I gave you what you wanted all those years ago, and it’s not my fault the lawyeryouhired turned out to be a fraud. Why won’t you show me the same courtesy now and give me what I want?’ Vivian told Vincenzo he knew damn well why she wouldn’t give in and no amount of finger-pointing, begging, or tugging at her heartstrings would change her mind. Vincenzo replied with ‘I could just kill you right now, Vivie.’ She laughed and hung up on him.”
Sawyer stared at Blakemore for a few seconds, contemplating how to proceed. “What you said now is drastically different than what you told us earlier this morning.” He was proud of how calm he sounded.
“I don’t think it sounds that different,” Blakemore said defensively.
“You told us Jack Vincenzo, a state senator, threatened to kill Ms. Gross if she didn’t sign the divorce papers,” Royce said.
“That’s how it came across to me. You said you wanted my impressions,” Blakemore replied.
“We did,” Sawyer agreed, moving the conversation along. “Are you aware of Ms. Gross meeting with Vincenzo privately?”