“Felix enjoys excitement. Especially the forbidden kind. The affair with Nicole went on for a few years under Mom’s nose. But he hadn’t been with Nicole for a long time when the truth came out. Even so, it ended our parents’ marriage and Mom’s friendship with Nicole.”
“Fiona lost her sister and her friend because of the same man.”
“Right. I will say that at least Dad’s had the grace not to marry again.” Jude paused. “This is hurting your head, isn’t it?”
“Starting to,” Jeremiah confirmed. “I have a couple more questions.”
“Sure.”
“Were Alexis and I happy?”
“Yes.”
“How did I take her death?”
“Very hard. It was after you retired from F1 as the crowd favorite, in November of last year, that her death seemed to hit you the worst.”
“What type of work do I do now?”
“You work some with your old team as a consultant. It’s flexible. You have an open invitation to contribute whenever you have time. You also do some marketing event driving for Mercedes, Ferrari, and Lotus. You’ll show up and they’ll film you driving their newest, fastest cars. You also do occasional speaking engagements. That kind of thing.”
Jeremiah scooped up several almonds. “Who are my friends?”
“Anton Quintrell. He was your performance coach the whole time you were driving.”
“What does a performance coach do?”
“He's a best friend, physiotherapist, personal trainer, assistant, psychologist. All twenty of the drivers have one. When you left racing, your gift to Anton was a house here in Groomsport.”
“That was generous of me.”
“You are generous.”
Good to hear he had one decent quality.
“You’re friends with some of the people in town you knew growing up,” Jude continued. “You’re tight with one of our cousins. Once we download the backup of your old phone onto a new one, all your friends and acquaintances should be in your contacts. I’ll write out a list for you, so you’ll know how you’re connected to each one. FYI, I know Mom and Dad reached out to a few of the people in your inner circle when you went missing and have since let them know that you were found.” He pulled a few more crackers from the box. “Any other questions for me?”
“Just one. Do you have any idea who might’ve wanted to kill me?”
Jude’s expression turned instantly serious. He set aside the crackers. “You think you ended up with amnesia because someone tried to kill you?”
“I do. When Remy found me, I’d sustained a blow to the back of the head and I had cracked ribs. Which makes me think I was beaten.”
Jude studied him. “There was something you were fixated on before you left on the boat trip. I wasn’t sure if or when I should bring it up. But if you were beaten, it might be relevant.”
“What was I fixated on?”
“The idea that Alexis’s death wasn’t a suicide like the police ruled it to be.”
Agony cut through Jeremiah’s skull. “I suspected that someone killed her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You didn’t go into it. You just told me that the idea that she’d committed suicide didn’t sit right with you. You started investigating the whole thing and came to me for pointers because I’m with the FBI. I tried to help. But to be honest, I didn’t think there was evidence to support your theory. I thought that compiling notes and research was your way of working through your grief . . . and that you’d give up the investigation when you were ready. I don’t know how far you got with it.” For a few seconds, Jude appeared lost in thought. “If you were right about the fact that Alexis was killed and that you were beaten—then I’m tempted to think the same person might have been behind both things.”
“Right,” Jeremiah said. “What if I got close to the truth about Alexis, so her killer decided to take me out?”
