“Good friends,” she confirmed. “They played golf every Monday morning, said it helped to clear their minds for the week ahead. It’s just”—she looked down into a box—“so sad. He won’t get to go to the club again.”
Brantley wondered if it was difficult for her to do that. To pretend she gave a shit, because he knew without a doubt, this woman was not a fan of her dead husband. That didn’t mean she’d killed him, but she certainly wasn’t losing sleep now that he wasn’t coming home.
“They found him…” She sobbed, sniffled. “They found him in the locker room at the club.”
“Did you actually see him there?” Reese inquired.
“What?” Mallory Jacobs’s eyes bounced back and forth between them.
“Were you a witness to his death, Mrs. Jacobs?”
“No. I just … I heard from … the … um … the police. They told me they found him there. In the locker room. He was suffocated.”
Brantley looked at Reese, waited to see if he had more questions. When he shook his head slightly, Brantley asked, “And you weren’t aware he was in town?”
Her answer was quick and curt. “No.”
“Where were you the night he died?” Reese asked.
“I was out with friends. We had dinner, then went to a movie. I’ve got the receipt and the ticket stub.”
Really fucking convenient.
“And Brian Wright? Where was his body found?”
Something passed in her eyes. “I … I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?” Reese frowned over at him. “But I thought you and his wife are friends.”
“We are. Best friends. I went over there that night but…” Her hand went to her chest again, rubbed lightly. “But only because Nancy called me.” She straightened. “Yes. I’m sorry. It was such a traumatic event. Nancy called me when she found him. I rushed over to console her. Annie was already there. She called the police because Nancy was too distraught.”
“She was too distraught to call the police but not to call you?”
“What?” Her hand rubbed over her heart and a bead of sweat formed on her upper lip.
“Never mind.” He peered down at her hand still lingering over her heart. “Do you know if Mrs. Wright has a heart condition?”
Mallory frowned, this time pressing more firmly on her chest. “No. No, she doesn’t. Why does that matter?”
“Because Mr. Wright died from a lethal dose of nitroglycerin,” Brantley said flatly, relaying the information he’d received from JJ a short while ago.
Her eyes widened briefly. “I wasn’t aware. I… We hadn’t heard that.”
Brantley nodded, as though confirming. “That’s what the autopsy report reads.”
“That’s terrible. Who do you think could’ve done that?” she asked, her gaze swinging back and forth between them.
He was tempted to say she was more concerned about Mr. Wright’s death than her own husband’s.
“We don’t know, ma’am, but we intend to find out,” Reese informed her.
Brantley saw a flash of something in her eyes. Something cold.
“When was the last time you saw Cedric Hawkins?”
“Saturday night,” she said quickly. “He and Annie came over. I didn’t want to be alone after…”
“Mrs. Hawkins told us that she and her husband have an open marriage. Do you know if that’s true?”
Her eyebrows lowered. “Why? Do you think his girlfriend killed him?”
“Is he dead?” Brantley countered.
Mrs. Jacobs’s gaze bounced back and forth between them. “I … I … No. I mean, I hope not. He’s—”
Her cell phone rang, and Brantley was positive she exhaled in relief, snatching the phone from a nearby table.
“Hello?” Her voice shook only slightly. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
Brantley looked at Reese, knew this conversation was now over. More than likely that was Annie Hawkins or the gigolo lawyer telling her she should not speak to them.
Probably a good idea, he figured, since Mallory Jacobs was definitely hiding something.
*
Mallory Jacobs held the phone pressed to her ear while her heart pounded unnaturally in her chest. She watched the two tall men as they strolled toward their vehicle, the guns on their hips not helping her panic. She’d done her best to play off their presence, but from the moment they stepped up to her garage, her heart had started pounding so hard she could hear the blood rushing in her ears.
Was that pain she felt? Was she having an anxiety attack? Or was this a heart attack?
“Oh, God,” she muttered under her breath.
“You need to keep it together, Mallory,” Annie insisted when Mallory began rambling incessantly on the phone, doing her best to relay what they’d asked her. “Are they still there?”
“No,” she confirmed as she glanced out through the open garage door to see a black Chevrolet truck pulling away from the curb. “No, they’re leaving now.”
“Good. I’ll be there in five minutes. Do not move.”
Like she had anywhere to go. Mallory couldn’t even think about getting behind the wheel of a car. She’d probably drive into someone’s yard with how shaky her hands were. Plus her chest felt tight, like she was having an episode.
An episode.
Hurrying into the house, Mallory raced to her bathroom, rummaged in the medicine cabinet for the nitroglycerin she’d been prescribed for her angina. She stared at the bottle for a moment, remembering what the two detectives had told her. How had they figured out Brian had overdosed? Annie had told her there was no way to trace it.
“Oh, God,” she whimpered. Should she throw it out? What if they traced it back to her? What if they found out she was the one who’d given it to Brian?
This was not going the way Annie had said it would. Brian, Seth, and Cedric should’ve all been dead by now. And there shouldn’t have been any way to trace it back to them. It was supposed to look like the real estate deal had gone bad and one of those crazies out to get them had snapped. That was supposed to draw the attention away from them. Plus, their alibis were solid. For their own husbands’ deaths, anyway.
Only now Cedric was missing and Nancy was nowhere to be found, either. Mallory should’ve known Nancy would be the weak link. She’d doubted the woman had the guts to roofie someone, much less do what was necessary to get rid of them completely. And now Nancy’s incompetency was bringing suspicion on all of them.
Setting the pill bottle down, Mallory took a deep breath.
Annie would know what to do. She always knew what to do, which was why Mallory had agreed to this plan in the first place. Ever since Annie told her Seth was cheating … Mallory’s heart thumped painfully. How could her husband have done that to her? How could he have been with other women? She’d been livid when Annie told her she’d seen him at the club, drinking with some blond bimbo.
Mallory took a deep, cleansing breath. Seth had deserved what he got. So had Brian.
Yes, she would stay calm, keep it together. They could still get out of this and if not…