“She didn’t do it,” Tessa repeated, more forcefully this time. “I read the file. I read it carefully. And I’m telling you, Sally Lane did not kill her husband.”
“I think you should go over it again, counselor,” Ryan said, his tone challenging. “Because to me, she’s as guilty as anything.”
“Did you look at Sally’s arrest photos?” Tessa asked.
“I glanced at them,” Ryan admitted.
“Well, I studied them,” Tessa said. “And if, by some slim chance, she did do it, it was self-defense.”
“How do you figure that?” Ryan asked, his skepticism clear.
“Think about it,” Tessa said. “Why was she up at that cabin in the woods with him in the first place?” Her brow creased. “I mean, come on. Does Sally look like she’s the type to go to a hunting cabin in the woods?”
“People change. And the report said they were there to divide the assets of the hunting cabin,” Ryan answered. “That’s what it said, right there in the report. And I saw the settlement Sally got. She seems greedy enough to want to take whatever she could’ve got from that divorce.”
“I saw the divorce papers,” Tessa told him. “Did you actually read them?”
“I didn’t have time,” Ryan admitted. “I had to take Piper to camp.”
“In the original divorce settlement, Sally got nothing,” Tessa explained. “Absolutely nothing. Then, all of a sudden, her husband dies, she gets exonerated, his death is ruled an accident, and his family pays Sally millions of dollars. Does that seem normal to you?”
“No,” Ryan said slowly. “But that could be because Sally hired Barstow Securities to intimidate them into paying her off.”
“Or,” Tessa countered, “she hired them to prove her innocence.”
“Didn’t she hire them before her husband was killed?” Ryan asked.
“If she did, don’t you wonder why?” Tessa shot back.
Ryan frowned, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Because she was getting nothing in the divorce and wanted something?”
“Maybe,” Tessa said. “But think about the bigger picture. Why was she divorcing him anyway?” She paused.
“Did the divorce papers list the grounds for the divorce?” Ryan queried.
“Actually, I didn’t get that far,” Tessa admitted. She pulled out her phone and opened the file Marcus had sent her. She scrolled through until she found the divorce petition and pulled it up.
Her eyes widened as she read the grounds listed.
“What?” Ryan asked, noticing her reaction.
Tessa read aloud from the screen. “Irreconcilable differences arising from conduct that made continuation of the marriage intolerable and endangered the physical and emotional well-being of the petitioner.”
“Well, that’s vague,” Ryan said.
Tessa nodded. “Which usually means one of two things. Either a cheating spouse, or...” She flipped through the digital file again until she found the photo of Sally being taken in for questioning. “Abuse.”
She turned her phone around so Ryan could see it, though she was careful not to distract him too much from driving.
“How do you think she got that bruise on her cheek?” Tessa asked. “And look at her wrists. Those marks weren’t there by accident.” Her eyebrows rose. “We both know Sally isn’t clumsy, so I doubt she ran into a closet door. And I seriously doubt she wore a long-sleeved shirt with cuffs that were so tight they bruised her wrists like that.”
Ryan’s face sobered. He glanced quickly at the photo, then back at the road, then back at the photo again before focusing on driving.
“What are you saying?” he asked, his voice quieter now.
“According to the court case documents, Sally’s husband kept putting off signing the divorce papers,” Tessa said, scrolling through the file. “He forced her to go to marriage counseling for months. Only after a very long time did Sally finally get him to sign the papers.”
“And then a year later, they go up to the hunting cabin to divide assets,” Ryan said, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “You don’t think they were actually there to divide assets, do you?”
