Page 40 of Dissection of a Murder
She places her hand on my arm briefly before she leaves, and I watch as she walks back to her stall. There’s so much about this woman I don’t know. Everything I do know about her I’ve been told by Julian. The way she acts toward me does not align with that.
One of them isn’t giving me the full story.
The temperature in the room begins to rise with the number of people in it. It’s one of the old buildings with enormous gold-framed portraits of men on the walls. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. All I can think about is how much work I have to do.
“Miss Reynolds?”
The voice catches me off guard.
“Mrs. Sorrington?”
She looks different from when I saw her at court at Jack’s plea hearing. More alert, less zombified. She’s wearing a poppy-red fitted dress that contrasts with her platinum, poker-straight hair.
“I thought it was you. Call me Daniella, please!” she says.
“What are you doing here? Are you looking around the law fair?”
“No! We sponsor various student events at the university. I have a stall over there.” She points toward the corner of the room where there’s a gaudy banner with the words “Electric Dreams” printed in hot pink. “The girls love the free beauty treatments. I have a salon not far from here, we give out freebies at this sort of thing. Nice for them when they’re working so hard.”
“That’s lovely.”
“Listen,” she says in her soft Geordie accent. “I just wanted to nip over and say I’m sorry I wasn’t quite myself at Jack’s hearing. I’ve been having a really difficult time lately.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that, but there’s no need to apologize.”
“It’s been a tough couple of months, you see,” she says in a lowered tone, barely a whisper. “We lost our son and, well, it’s put a lotof strain on the family. Eddie has been so distant since it happened, he’s like a different person. It’s been horrific, to tell you the truth. What with that, and now all this happening with Jack, it’s a lot to deal with, you know?”
“Absolutely. I mean, I can’t imagine, but please, don’t feel you need to make an excuse.”
“I know people look at us, at me, and think we have a perfect life—the house, the holidays, the money. But nobody really knows what goes on inside those four walls, do they?”
“No, they don’t.”
She’s right. So many people are envious of others when, in reality, their lives are less than perfect.
“Take care of our Jack, won’t you, Miss Reynolds? He’s so very dear to me. I mean, he’s special to both of us,” she corrects herself, “Eddie and me. He always has been. He’d never, ever harm anyone like that. You have to believe me.”
“I’ll do all I can. I promise.”
As she walks away, she sees Sienna at the stall opposite and turns toward me again.
“Didn’t she used to be married to your husband?” she whispers discreetly.
I nod subtly.
“I’d watch her, if I were you. She hasn’t taken her eyes off you the whole time I’ve been here.”
A quick glance over to Sienna shows her talking to a couple of students. She clocks me looking over at her and smiles. Daniella saunters back to her stall in the corner, which, by the way, is surrounded by young women. Refreshers and Haribo can’t compete with a fresh set of nails, it would seem.
I watch Sienna at her stand for a few minutes. She’s very good with people, both male and female, and reads them well. She knowswhen to turn it down and when to crank it up, depending on who she’s with. She subtly matches the energy of whoever she’s talking to. As a result, people fall under her spell. Clever. She reminds me of my husband.
Yet there’s something off about her which I can’t quite place.
She’s either a bad actress or a very good liar.
19
Witness X
