Page 9 of Wicked Games

Earlier, I wrote the short post on Hattie’s blog, but I was too scared to publish it. What am I starting, writing that Hattie’s not coming back? Everyone knows, her murder splashed on the front page of all the papers, editors and reporters getting their own licks in or her friends writing think-piece articles about how dangerous it is to be in their line of work. Hattie wasn’t that kind of investigative reporter, but she would’ve been interested in Theo Lockwood’s murder. Especially after the interview she did with Brooke Lockwood.

I click on the interview in her drafts and read it again:

Hattie: Today I’m speaking with Brooke Lockwood, wife of Seth Lockwood, the co-CEO and co-founder of L&W Global, an international financial corporation. Also mother to Theodore Lockwood, Brooke is a member of several charities and organizations helping to make Ashfield and the surrounding areas a better place. Thank you so much for talking to me, Brooke. I really appreciate your time.

Brooke: It’s not a problem, Hattie. Thanks for having me on your blog. The more we get the word out, the more we can do for the community.

Hattie: Absolutely. You seem really passionate about nonprofit work. How did you start, and what do you like best?

Brooke: When I married, I knew money wasn’t going to be an issue⁠—

Hattie: I think that’s an understatement. Your husband was very well off before you met, isn’t that true?

Brooke: Oh, yes, and though he’s added to our bank accounts through the years, I don’t give myself credit for any of it. He was well on the path to becoming the success he is right now, but that also left me wondering what I wanted to do with my time. Seth told me early on that I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to, and getting a job and adding to what he was already providing for our family didn’t make much sense. I wanted to be more than a wife and mother, I think most women do, so that didn’t leave me with very many choices. I looked into charities and other organizations that could use my help, and it all snowballed from there.

Hattie: I think a lot of women struggle with that. Their identities when they marry and have children. Women wear, or can wear, many hats, and sometimes it’s difficult to choose which one to put on in the morning. Do you plan on having more children?

Note: How do I say she wrinkled her nose when I asked this question. She didn’t like it and didn’t want to answer it.

Brooke: Seth’s talked about wanting another. He mentioned that if we wait too much longer the years between Theo and his sibling would be more than what he wanted. It’s odd he’s concerned about it because he’s an only child and so am I, but I’m not thinking about having more children. I’m happy with how my life is right now.

That was obviously a lie. Hattie interviewed her a month before Theo’s kidnapping and murder. If she was happy, she wouldn’t have high-tailed it out of their marriage. Strong, happy couples stick together through tragedy. They don’t up and leave. No, she’d been unhappy and used Theo’s death as an excuse to get the hell out. But that wouldn’t be anything she’d say to Hattie.

Hattie: You do have it all, and I’m sure my readers envy you. Tell me about the project you’re working on now. You partnered with Rowan Vale?

Brooke: Yes. He’s lending his skills to build a new youth community center and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Hattie: Rowan Vale is a world-renown architect who has won several awards. It must be an absolute honor to work with him on a project so close to your heart. Tell me, how did you two meet?

Brooke: Seth and I were talking about building a new house, something sleeker, more contemporary, and we met with Rowan and asked if he would draw up some plans. He and I stayed in touch.

Leaning back in my chair, I think, Yeah, you did. The second you moved out of Seth’s house, you moved into his. Grieving her little boy, Brooke hasn’t been seen out in public that often, but when she is, Rowan is always with her, an arm around her shoulders, his lips pressed to her temple. He’s grieving with her, his own complexion pale.

I open a new tab and search Brooke Lockwood and Rowan Vale. They were last seen walking downtown Ashfield, holding Starbucks coffee cups. She’s wearing what looks like lounging pants and a cardigan, sunglasses covering her eyes, but she’s looking straight at whoever took their picture, frowning. They’re holding hands, their fingers linked, and he’s looking at her, his lips parted, maybe asking her if she’s okay because he knows they’re being photographed.

I go back to the interview.

Hattie: You didn’t end up having a house built.

Brooke: No. Seth liked what we had.

Hattie: So, you and Rowan kept in touch and decided to build a new community center. Can you tell me how that came about? You two must have spent a lot of time together. The planning stages of a project like that can take months, if not years. What did your husband think about that?

I shake my head. Trust Hattie to turn an interview about a serious topic into something scandalous. Of course, that’s what her readers want and pay for, and Brooke knew it too, or she wouldn’t have agreed to an interview in the first place. She must have decided the publicity would be worth it, or maybe she thought she’d hidden her affair with Rowan well enough no one would suspect anything. Even with Hattie blogging about stuff like this, who Brooke Lockwood was screwing was far from my thoughts and I didn’t know or care if she’d been seeing Rowan behind Seth’s back.

Brooke: Seth didn’t think anything of it, naturally. He knew Rowan and I were friends, and there was nothing he could say even if he had minded. He founded L&W with Violet Weston. How much time did that take? How many years of working until midnight and ordering in dinner? Building a company from the ground up like that . . . there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t make him sound like a hypocrite. But he didn’t need to say anything, and neither have I. We trust each other.

There it is. What Hattie was digging for. Jealousy. Brooke was jealous of Seth’s business partner. I don’t know anything about Violet Weston except she likes to read my work, and I’ve known that for only a couple of hours. Brooke felt threatened, though, and that’s interesting. She knew what Seth and Violet’s relationship was. What did Brooke think he was going to do when they got married? Buy Violet out? Kick her out of her own company? So, Brooke starts spending time with Rowan. Maybe at first it was a defensive move, but the more I look at their pictures, the more I think she just fell in love and it didn’t have anything to do with Violet at all. I wonder if Brooke talked to Seth about it or if he even knew his ex-wife hated his business partner.

I open another tab and search Violet Weston. She’s a cool blonde, maybe a bit taller than I am. But in the images I look at, I can tell she’s a happy person. Fun, pleasant to be around. She’s the one who brings cake to all the parties. In the pictures of her and Seth together, their camaraderie oozes from my laptop’s screen. They care about each other, that’s obvious, but there’s no sexual tension. Nothing that implies that after the event they were attending he intended to fuck her brains out and nothing from her that said she wanted him to.

She’s not married, and maybe that’s what fed into Brooke’s jealousy. Late nights working on mergers and buyouts, ordering Chinese . . . years of that, could I handle it? I could if I made friends with Violet too. Well, maybe. I really thought Darren was in his office grading papers, not fucking his teaching assistant over his desk the way he used to do to me between classes. History repeating itself and all that. But unless there’s something in Brooke’s past, she doesn’t have that hang-up. She just didn’t bother to get to know her husband’s business partner, and after years of being married to the man, it’s baffling why she didn’t.

Hattie: Of course you do, and I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.

Brooke: Thank you. One evening Rowan and I were talking about the need in Ashfield, and like any large city, there’s an overwhelming number of kids who have nowhere to go and nothing to do. They don’t have stable home environments, and bored and unsupervised, they get into trouble. Being a mother myself, I know how difficult parenting can be, and I have all the resources I need to take care of my son. We thought opening a community center to give pre-teens and teens a safe place to hang out would be so beneficial to Ashfield.

Hattie: It’s remarkable. It really is. Why did you partner with Rowan? Why not do something like this with your husband?