“That was her being coy—because I’m sure she already knows the answer. By now she’s done a thorough background check on Tom.”
“Abackgroundcheck?”
“Yes, determining if there have been any complaints against him, restraining orders, that type of thing. I should warn you that she’ll also probably attempt to talk to him, too.”
“Like show up at his office?”
“Showing up at his office is harassment, and there’s no reason for it, but she might pay him a visit at home. Keeping things all very polite. But it’s key for him to say he wants to have the conversation with a lawyer present—and it needs to be the right kind.”
“I don’t believe this. It’s totally unfair to Tom and to me as well.”
“I agree, but it’s to be expected, Emma.”
“What do you mean?”
“When cops take on an old case and there’s no active trail to pick up again, they look for something new. And Tom is brand-new.”
“Of course, he’s new. Almost everything in my life since Derrick’s murder is new.”
“That’s not what I mean exactly. You remarried—what?—only seventeen, eighteen months after the murder, and though I’m certainly not passing any judgment, it’s the kind of detail that makes the police sit up and take notice.”
With her heart taking off at a gallop, Emma finally realizes what Dunne is getting at. The cops aren’t just eyeingherabout the murder, they’re eyeing her new husband, too. They’re wondering whether she and Tom plotted Derrick’s death together and paid someone to pull it off.