“She was nice,” Jenna replied. “Kind of … I don’t know how else to describe it. She was kind of a spaz. High energy. Talked a mile a minute. But she seemed crazy about Mr. Loomis and they got serious pretty quickly.”
“What do you mean?”
Jenna cast a nervous glance at Katy. “Well, it was just kind of like … he introduced me to her one morning when I came to the house. She’d clearly spent the night. And I’m not saying that because I’m judging. I just mean by the time I met her, she’d already started staying weekends at Mr. Loomis’s house, is all. Then, I don’t know, maybe two months after I met her the first time, they were making plans to get married.”
“I see,” Quick said. “Did you have any sense of how Tom felt about that?”
“How he felt? I don’t … I mean, he seemed happy, if that’s what you mean. They both did. Like they could never keep their hands off each other. But I want to make this really clear. I don’t want to sound like I’m in my client’s business like that. It’s none of my business. I’m there to do a job. That’s all. I’m not friends with my clients. They’re my clients. We’re friendly. But that’s not the same thing. I’m professional.”
“Of course,” Quick said. “I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t.” He walked back to the lectern and seemed rattled for a moment. But he quickly collected himself.
“Ms. Rodney, were you in a position to observe the state of Mr. and Mrs. Loomis’s relationship?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, were you aware of any tension between them?”
She shifted in her seat. “I only know that Mrs. Loomis moved out for a little while about a year after they got married.”
“How did you become aware of that?
“Well, she wasn’t there. Katy was always there when I showed up on Fridays. Tom would get up before five, I think, then head to work. I got there at six or a little before. Katy would be up and getting dressed. She’d have a cup of coffee and want to chit chat with me. Sometimes for as much as a half an hour. Anyway, there came a point when she just wasn’t there. But I never asked. I told you, their personal life was none of my business.”
“Okay,” Quick said. “Jenna, did you ever witness or hear Katy and Tom Loomis arguing with each other? Now, I’m not asking you what you might have overheard in terms of specific things they said. I’m only asking if you witnessed them fighting.”
“Kind of,” she said. “There were a couple of times, right before Katy moved out that time, that I could hear yelling when I came through the garage door. I don’t know what it was about. I didn’t hear what they said and I wasn’t trying to. I would just kind of make as much noise as I could when entering the house so they knew I was there. As soon as they did, the yelling stopped and they were fine. Cheerful.”
“I see,” Quick said. “All right. So let’s focus on the morning of March 14th. That was a Friday morning, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can you walk me through the start of your day?”
She brushed a hair from her eye. “Fridays are my long days. I work for three different clients. The Gentle Paws VetClinic on Wood Lane. I get there by three thirty in the morning and clean for two hours. Then I’d do the Loomis residence from six to usually eight or nine. Then I go straight to the Cecils’ house. It’s a twenty-minute drive from the Loomis’s. I normally would get there by ten or so.”
“So you were at Gentle Paws the morning of the 14th of March?”
“Yes. I worked there that morning. I left a little after five thirty, then headed to Tom’s house.”
“Can you recall what time you arrived at the Loomis house?”
“A few minutes before six. Like always.”
“What did you do?”
“I walked into the house through the garage. Again, like always. I bring my own supplies in a tote. So I brought those in and set them on the kitchen table.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“No,” she said.
“Did you notice anything unusual at that point?”
“Only that Tom’s car was still in the garage. He’s usually gone well before I get there.”
“Okay. I want you to take me through, step by step, in as much detail as you can remember. What happened next?”
“I usually start in the master bedroom,” she said. “I clean the master bath. I make the bed. I vacuum the carpet. I did call out though. If Tom were still home, it could have meant that he wasn’t feeling well or something. I called out and asked if anyone was home. Because it was strange that number one,Tom’s car was still in the garage. And number two, that Katy wasn’t already in the kitchen with her coffee, waiting for me.”
