LIVING ON THE EDGE

CHAPTER: 11

A small brown-skinned woman came into the kitchen, muttering in French. Chase too responded in French as she gathered the children and left the room. She must be the nanny c*m housekeeper that Chase had told her about. Was she keeping any of Adriana's secrets? Sharon wondered, and made a mental note that she would have to talk to her before she left the place. 

"She is Annie Dos Santos, our housekeeper c*m nanny c*m lifesaver. I don't think I could handle the kids without her. I am so glad Adriana found her before..." Chase sighed and ran a hand over his bald head.

Accepting the loss of a spouse was a continuous process. It was the afterthoughts that reminded a person that yes, they were really gone. Sharon recognized that faraway, distracted look only too well.

"Mr. Reed," Sharon said, trying to bring him back to the present. "I have been trying to reconstruct Adriana's life. When someone is shot as many times as she was, the perpetrator is usually someone they know. With that in mind, I need to know what Adriana did with her free time, and who her friends and family were. I need to know who Adriana was." 

Chase was standing a few feet in front of Sharon, his eyes were downcast, and his forehead was wrinkled with worry lines. Sharon imagined his mind was dissecting everything she said. After waiting for a response that never came, she tried to figure out how much information to give him. The investigation was new and incomplete, and no one would like to hear that their spouse had another life, it was for this reason that she kept the details sparse.

"I believe, Mr. Reed, that Adriana knew her killer. That is why I want to know more about the life you two shared," Sharon said to him.

"I know that random killings are not as common, but I still don't think we knew the killer, Mrs. Stone," Chase replied before offering her a beverage. She could see that he was not ready to believe that Adriana could have known someone he did not. Sharon believed she was going to need a new angle.

"What do you take? Beer, wine, cognac? Come into the bar. I will make some martinis," he said before she could answer. 

Sharon followed him through a huge family room with a coved ceiling. They stopped when they reached the living room, and he gestured her to be comfortable on a large, beige leather, sofa opposite a winding staircase before he headed behind the rather sizable bar tucked into the corner of the room. A warm fire crackled on one wall, and adjacent to that, a theatre-sized plasma television played a twenty-four hours news channel but left on mute.

"I just read the ticker. Cannot stand what they have to say," Chase said, as he motioned to the television before he began making the drinks. Sharon noticed that he had not waited to hear what she would like to drink, or even if she wanted a drink. Type A personality? They were not open to suggestions. That was common among surgeons and proved to be a great quality during surgery, it did not prove to be good in a marriage. What would it be like to be married to him? She decided to stop him before he went too far.

"Mr. Reed, it is a little early for me, and I am working, so I will not be able to have a drink," Sharon said.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess it is early for you. I just got off work a few hours ago. Sorry. My schedule gets mixed up. Move over by the fireplace...It is nice," he said.

Chase handed her a goblet filled with water. She took the glass and watched him take a long sip of his martini.

"You really think Adriana knew the killer? It is hard for me to believe that. I mean, we had a good life here. She was a great mom. She taught at middle school for a year. Then when we had kids, she wanted to stay home to take care of them. We were happy. The cops were persistent on the infidelity angle. It simply is not true, though. We were so very happy," Chase said.

Sharon looked at the photographs on the shelf. There was photo after photo of the family. The housekeeper, Annie, was in a few, but Melanie Jackson, the woman in the photo Chase had shown her at the office, was also in two of the pictures. Her lips were pursed into a tight line that seemed to serve as her version of a smile. Only family members, the housekeeper, and Melanie... Adriana's brother was nowhere to be seen. Her parents and Chase's parents were also absent. It seemed really strange, to Sharon.

"Is that Adriana's friend, Melanie Jackson?" Sharon asked, interrupting Chase's stream of denial.

"Yeah. She is the childhood bestie of Adriana. She is a Yoga and meditation instructor."

Melanie was the last person to have spoken to Adriana before her death. Sharon had left her a message about a couple of days ago, but she did not call back. Sharon made a mental note to try to reach her as soon as she left Chase's house. Melanie's photo had made to the family shelf. Obviously, she was important to the entire family.

"Which relationship came first? The friendship one or the yoga instruction?" Sharon asked.

"Oh, definitely the friendship. I mean, Adriana loved yoga, but she was not into the whole lifestyle like Melanie is," Chase replied.

Sharon looked around the expensive house of excess and imagined that Adriana had been far from a yogi. "Would you say they were best friends?" She asked him.

Chase sipped his martini, gave her a bewildered look, and muttered, "Adriana was my best friend; we were very close. But outside of our marriage, yes, Melanie was her closest friend."

She lives in Huntsville, right?" Sharon confirmed.

"Correct. Not too far from Maury County. You should talk to her, but I know that she did not have anything to do with Adriana's murder. I hope you are not thinking along those lines."

Chase seemed to be agitated. Sharon tried to elucidate whether this was his usual nature, or if he was just overwhelmed with renewed grief.