“She’ll be fine. Steph’s with her,” Gerald told them as if he expected they’d know who Steph was.
Amanda and Trent each dropped into a chair. There was room for one more on the couch, and another chair, but it was covered with baby toys. A playpen was in the corner of the room.
“I assume Riley told you everything?” Amanda wanted to ascertain they were on the same page.
“Christine was shot.” Gerald shook his head. “It’s unbelievable that someone would do such a horrible thing.”
And he doesn’t know about the tarp or that she was shotthreetimes…“I imagine it would be hard to think of anyone hurting someone you loved.” She chose her words with intention, to gauge his feelings for his ex-wife.
“I loved Christine. We just weren’t meant to be a couple.”
Amanda noticed the past tense. “Then you stopped loving her at one point?”
Gerald shifted his gaze to Trent. When he faced Amanda again, Gerald’s expression was pained. “Never. I’ll always love her. She gave me Riley.”
Tears spilled down the teen’s cheeks, and she tucked into her father’s side. Again, he wrapped his arm around her.
“We understand you got divorced five years ago,” Trent began while taking out his notepad and pen.
“That’s right.”
“Did the marriage end amicably?” Trent held his pen over a blank page.
“I mean, it was rocky at first. Both of us had to figure out who we were apart. We were high school sweethearts. But we came to realize that we were better as friends than lovers.”
“Then you stayed in touch, even until recently?”
“We spoke sometimes. The most recent was a couple of months ago. Christine came by with some of Riley’s baby clothes and other things. That playpen was Riley’s.” Gerald gestured toward the one in the corner.
“Did the relationship you maintained with Christine bother your new wife?” Many families were torn apart and stitched back together in a different fashion. Stepchildren were a common reality in the modern world, and people made new relationships work despite baggage from previous ones.
“Steph and Mom got along,” Riley said.
Amanda nodded but looked at Gerald for confirmation. It would be best if Riley wasn’t here for this conversation, but Amanda wasn’t about to kick her out of the room.
“Riley’s right. Steph looked up to Christine, and she’s having a tough time with her death too.”
A woman with blond hair swept back into a loose bun stepped into the doorway of the living room, cradling a baby. She was in her late twenties. Gerald had traded Christine for a younger model, but that assessment soured Amanda’s gut. It made more sense why the woman would look up to Christine though. She was older and had been through things that Stephanie hadn’t encountered yet. Like being a mother.
Gerald rushed up and cleared the remaining chair of the baby toys. “Here you go, sweetheart.”
“Thanks.” She sat down with the baby. “Hi, I’m Stephanie. I overheard Gerald. Christine’s death is hard to grasp. She was…” Her chin quivered.
Amanda gave it a few seconds before prompting Stephanie. “What was she?”
“Just such a nice, warm person. Active in the community and loved by everyone who met her.” She grabbed her baby’s tiny hand, letting the baby’s fingers wrap around her thumb. The intimate moment caused Amanda’s heart to pinch.
“How was she active?” Trent asked.
“She suffered an experience when she was younger.” Stephanie’s voice was low, and her gaze flicked to Gerald, who had returned to the couch. “Can I tell them?”
“Sure.”
“She was mugged at gunpoint when she went on a trip to NYC. She was in her twenties then?” Stephanie looked at Gerald.
“Twenty-two,” he confirmed. “Her sister still lives there.”
“We never knew that she had a sister.” Amanda remembered searching Christine’s background for familial contacts and hadn’t seen any siblings.
