Jem sat there, staring at her, his hands balled into fists.
Tean went into the en suite bathroom.He couldn’t help noticing the pill bottles on the counter.He found some tissues and offered them to Brigitte.
She dabbed away the tears.“I’m sorry.I knew he was dead.But when you told me—it felt real for the first time.This is horrible.This is like a nightmare.”
“Is there anybody who would have wanted to hurt Gerald?”Jem asked.
Brigitte, still dabbing at her cheeks, slowed.She pressed the tissues against her cheek.“What do you mean?”
“I mean, had he gotten in a fight with anyone lately?Did he have any enemies?”
“Enemies?”The disbelief made her voice high.“What are you talking about?”
Jem shifted in his seat again.He turned his hands up, and he didn’t seem to realize until then that they were curled into fists.With what must have taken an effort, he straightened his fingers.
“When I examined Gerald’s body,” Tean said, “his injuries didn’t appear to be consistent with a fall.Or at least, not with an accidental fall.”
“What does that mean?”Brigitte’s fingers tightened around the tissues.To Jem, she said, “What does he mean, ‘not accidental’?”
“He means somebody killed him,” Jem said.“That’s why I’m asking you who would have wanted to hurt him.”
She still had the wadded-up tissues pressed to her cheek, and she sounded confused more than disbelieving when she said, “Nobody.”
Jem threw Tean a look, and Tean was surprised to read desperation in it.
“It might be hard to believe that someone could want to hurt Gerald,” Tean said.“But do you remember anything unusual happening recently?It might be from the last few days, or it might have been weeks or even months ago.Financial problems.A disagreement.Even something as simple as Gerald being inexplicably upset.”
Brigitte shook her head as Tean spoke, but now she stopped.Her hand dropped to her lap.“Hewasupset.He was in a terrible mood.”
“When?”Jem asked.
“Yesterday.I thought—” She glanced at Jem and then away again.“I thought I knew why he was in such a bad mood, so I didn’t really think anything of it.”
“Did anything else happen?”Tean asked.“Anything from yesterday that stood out to you?”
“No.It was a normal day, except we were going to have dinner with you.I was excited to have dinner with you.”
She leaned forward, one hand moving like she wanted to take Jem’s.Either Jem didn’t see, or—Tean suspected—pretended not to see.After a moment, Brigitte sat back.
“Can you walk us through yesterday?”Tean asked.“If something happened, maybe you noticed it but didn’trealizeyou noticed it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.How could I notice it and not notice it?”
“Just tell him about yesterday,” Jem said.“Tean’s the smartest person I know.”
“We woke up.We had breakfast.The children were being absolutelyatrocious,so I sent them to watch a movie—”
“In their room?”Tean asked.
Brigitte only gestured vaguely toward the lodge.“There’s a theater.Gerald had to work, so I did some shopping—”
“When you say Gerald had to work,” Tean interrupted again, “what does that mean?”
“They had their morning devotional.Then a group session.After that, he met one on one with the members of the group.They had a break for lunch.”She stopped, and her slightly raised eyebrows suggested annoyance.“How is this helping?”
“We don’t know what’s important yet,” Jem said.
“I don’t know everything about the schedule,” she said to Tean.“You can ask Stephen for the details.”
