“You don’t read the papers?”
“I was in New Orleans last week.”
“My, my, aren’t we getting to be the cross-country traveler. Business or pleasure?”
“A little of both. You representing the accused?”
David smiled. He was interested.
“Yeah. They arrested a lawyer from the Price, Winward firm.”
“No shit!”
David relaxed. He had him.
“Can you recommend someone to work on the case? I’d like someone good.”
“Hold on, will you? Just one minute.”
Terry put him on hold and David laughed out loud. When Terry got back on the line, they made an appointment to meet after work and drive to the Raleigh Motel.
Jennifer showed up at three. She was dressed in a conservative gray skirt and a white blouse that covered her to the neck. Her hair was swept back in a bun. With glasses she would look like a librarian in one of those forties movies, whose hidden beauty was revealed when she let her hair down.
“I brought the book,” she said, holding out a pocketsized notebook with a black leather cover. David reached across the desk and took it, careful not to let their hands touch. He flipped through the pages until he came to June 16. Stafford had had an appointment at nine forty-five with someone named Lockett and another appointment at four-thirty with Barry Dietrich. David recognized Dietrich’s name. He was a partner at Price, Winward who specialized in securities work. That would tie in with what Larry had told him at the jail. There were no other entries for the sixteenth, and David made a note to contact Dietrich.
“Is that any help?” Jennifer asked.
“It could be. Larry met with one the partners on the day of the murder. I’ll find out how late they worked.”
Jennifer nodded. She looked ill at ease, sitting erect with her hands folded in her lap, making an extra effort to look businesslike. David appreciated her discomfort. He felt rigid, and the conversation had an artificial quality to it.
“I want to talk to you about your relationship to Larry. Some of the questions I’m going to ask will be very personal, but I wouldn’t ask them if the answers weren’t important to Larry’s defense.”
She nodded again, and he noticed that her hands clasped tighter, turning the knuckles of her left hand momentarily white.
“How long have you known Larry?”
“Just over a year.”
“How did you meet?”
“I was teaching school with Miriam Holt, Charlie’s wife. She introduced us. Larry and Charlie play a lot of handball together.”
“How long after that were you married?”
“A few months. Four.”
It came out as an apology, and David looked down at his notes, sensing her embarrassment. Whether the jury found Larry innocent or guilty, this would be an ordeal for her. And it would never really stop. If Larry was convicted, she would be the wife of the young lawyer who had killed a policewoman he thought was a prostitute. Why had he needed a prostitute? They would look at her and wonder. What was wrong with her that she had driven him to that?
And if he was acquitted? Well, you never were, really. The jury might say you were not guilty, but the doubts always remained.
“Where do you teach?”
“Palisades Elementary School.”
“How long have you been teaching?”
She smiled and relaxed a little.
“It seems like forever.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“Yes. I’ve always liked kids. I don’t know. It can be hard at times, but I really feel it’s worthwhile. Larry wanted me to stop teaching after we were married, but I told him I wanted to keep on.”
“Why did he want you to stop?”
Jennifer blushed and looked down at her hands. “You have to understand Larry. He’s very tied up in this manhood trip. It’s just the way he is.”
“Has Larry ever cheated on you?”
There was a sharp intake of breath, and Jennifer looked directly at David.
“No,” she said firmly. “And I think I would have known.”
“Has he ever struck you?”
“No,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.
“Has he or hasn’t he?”
“Well, we’ve quarreled, but he’s never…No.”
“Do you consider Larry to be normal sexually?”
“What do you mean, ‘normal’?” she asked hesitantly.
David felt uneasy and unsure of himself. He had asked this type of question often enough in the past, but it had always been strictly for professional reasons. He was asking now as a professional, but there was something more. He wanted to know what the relationship between Larry Stafford and his wife was really like. He wanted to know how he stacked up sexually to the man he was representing. He wanted to know if Jennifer responded to her husband with the passion she had exhibited during their lovemaking.
“Are his sexual preferences unusual? Does he have any peculiarities?”
“I don’t see why, what that would…Can’t we talk about something else? This is very hard for me.”
“I know it’s hard for you, but this case is heavily concerned with sex, and I want you prepared for the questions the district attorney is going to ask you in open court.”
“I’ll have to…? I couldn’t…”
Jennifer took a deep breath, and David let her compose herself.
“Our sexual relationship is…just normal.”
Her voice caught, and David again watched her hands, tense and entwined, clasp each other rigidly.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” she said so softly that he had to strain to hear her.
“David, that evening you and I…It is true that Larry and I were having problems, but they had to do with his work, not our sexual relationship. He was working very hard. He didn’t make partner last year and it deflated him. At first he just gave up. It was right after we got married, and he was talking about leaving the firm and trying something else: government work or going out on his own. Then he changed his mind and decided that he would be accepted if he just worked harder. Even harder than before. He was leaving early and coming home late. He was drinking, too. I hardly saw him at all, even on the weekends. And when I did see him, it seemed we were always quarreling.
“The evening I met you…I just blew up at him. Called him at the office. He came home all upset. I’d interfered with his work. Couldn’t I understand? I told him I did understand. That I thought he considered his work more important than me. I walked out. Then I met you and…and it just happened. I wanted to hurt him, I guess. But it isn’t…wasn’t sex. We were…all right.”
She stopped, out of words, her energy spent. David didn’t know what to say. He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but he knew he couldn’t.
“Besides,” she said, “I don’t see what any of this has to do with Larry’s case. I told Charlie, Larry couldn’t have killed that girl. He was home with me on that evening.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes. I would know. I mean, if he was out with another woman…He was with me.”
“You would swear to that in court?”
“Yes. I don’t want Larry to go to prison. He couldn’t take it, David. He couldn’t take the pressure.”
“He seems to be holding up pretty well.”
“You don’t know him like I do. He puts up a good front, but he’s a little boy underneath. He’s very good at seeming to be in one piece, but I know him well enough to see the cracks beneath the surface.”
David put down his notepad. The short interview had taken its emotional toll on both of them.
“I guess that’s enough for now. I’m going to visit the motel after work and try to talk to the desk clerk. I’ll let you know if I turn up anything.”
She stood, and he walked her to the door.
“I want to thank you for taking the case. I know it was a hard decision for you. And I know that Larry will be safe with you.”
He didn’t know what to say. She solved the problem by leaving quickly. He watched her walk away, hoping that she would turn and give him some sign, but she didn’t and he returned to his desk, more confused than ever about their relationship.