Page 81 of Little Last Words

“Amends for what?” I asked.

“For years, Penelope acted like her marriage to Dean was great. Then one night she texted Jolie and told her she wasn’t happy. She said she hadn’t been for a long time.”

“What else did she say?”

“Dean had a temper. He raised his voice a lot. Once Sadie was born, Penelope started to worry the verbal altercations would turn into physical ones. Jolie agreed, and all she could think about was getting Penelope and Sadie out of there. She drove to their place the next morning, thinking she could convince Penelope to pack her things and leave, but Penelope said no. Then Penelope backpedaled, saying she shouldn’t have said what she did, and she’d made things sound a lot worse than they were.”

I wondered what had caused Penelope to confess in the first place.

“She was given a way out, and she didn’t take it,” I said. “I wonder why.”

“According to Jolie, Penelope said she still loved Dean, and when she started making excuses for him, Jolie flipped out. They argued, and she left. Jolie didn’t talk to Penelope for a while. Kate kept in touch, but when they talked, Penelope never mentioned Dean.”

“How long did Penelope stay with Dean after Jolie came to the house?”

“Almost a year.”

“When Penelope decided to leave Dean, she reached out to Zachary instead of Kate or Jolie, even though they hadn’t been in each other’s lives for years. Seems strange, doesn’t it?”

“Who told you Penelope reached out to Zachary?”

“Zachary did,” I said. “Why?”

“Kate ran into Zachary some months back. He asked if she was still in touch with Penelope. She said she was, and he asked how she was doing. Kate told him she didn’t like the guy Penelope was married to, and she thought Penelope wasn’t happy. He asked for Penelope’s phone number, got in touch with her, and not long after, Penelope left Dean.”

If what Kate said is true, Zachary had lied to me.

I could think of one good reason why.

Zachary wouldn’t have wanted his wife to know he reached out first. I guessed he'd told her what he told me—Penelope contactedhimfirst.

Her phone records would prove it one way or the other.

“Tell me about the night at the bar,” I said.

“I can tell you one thing for certain—Jolie is a blunt woman. If she thinks something, she says it. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who holds back. She had a lot on her mind the night at the bar, and according to her, Penelope listened to everything she had to say, and she handled it well.”

“Did Penelope mention anything about Zachary or any other guy?”

“She didn’t.”

It made sense. The get-together was about mending a friendship, not about the man or men in her life.

“You said there were a couple of things you wanted to tell me,” I said. “What’s the second?”

“Jolie said Penelope kept fiddling with a ring on her finger. She asked her about it, and Penelope said she’d gotten it from a neighbor.”

“A neighbor?”

“Yeah. Penelope was relaxed about it, like it wasn’t a big deal.”

When I found Penelope in the bathtub, she wasn’t wearing a ring or any other jewelry. Then again, given the puddled dress I’d found on the floor in her closet, she could have taken it off in preparation to get in the shower.

“What did the ring look like?” I asked.

“Platinum band. Sapphire stone, she thinks, with square-shaped diamonds on each side.”

“Which finger did she wear it on?”