Her Best Defense. Jackie/Lori Merritt/Myles

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      “No, I knew him. Not well, but…well enough.”

      Chandler’s answer struck Lisa as a bit strange, but she accepted it and turned to Glory. “Did you know him, Glory?”

      Glory’s hot pink lips twitched in a semblance of a smile. She looked Lisa directly in the eyes and drawled with that odd little smirk still on her face, “I did from his waist down.”

      Chapter 2

      Lisa was so stunned she couldn’t speak. She felt as though her jaw had lost a screw and was now wobbling somewhere near her knees. Had she heard this woman correctly? Had she actually said, in front of her husband, that she had been having a physical relationship with another man before his untimely death?

      “Don’t look so shocked, dear,” Glory said, smirk intact. “People do these things all the time.”

      At first, Lisa couldn’t take her eyes off of Glory. She kept expecting her to say something like, “For heaven’s sake, Lisa, I was only kidding.” When that didn’t happen, when, in fact, she reaffirmed what she’d said in the first place, Lisa couldn’t help but turn her attention to Chandler. Didn’t he mind that his wife had just admitted to having an extramarital affair?

      But it appeared as if she were the only one in the room who was the least bit taken aback by Glory’s comments. Was she the prude? Or was it that Glory and Chandler lived by a different set of rules? She finally reasoned that the latter must be true, although if it were prudish to be revolted by a cheating spouse, then prudish she would remain.

      She wrote a line about the affair on the open page of her notebook and then moved on. “Other than the obvious, how did you come to know Mateo?”

      “He did something around the house,” Glory answered absently.

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “He worked with the gardener,” Chandler clarified, taking over the conversation.

      “He was an employee?”

      “Not one of ours. We hired a service to come in and take care of the lawn and gardens. He was an employee of theirs. Part-time, I think.”

      “I’ll need the name of that service.”

      “Our housekeeper, Maria, will have that. You can call her later.”

      Lisa knew she was going to have to start asking some difficult questions. So far, neither Glory nor Chandler seemed the least bit perturbed by what had been said, so obviously the discomfort was hers alone. She must set it aside, she told herself. There was no room for a defense counsel’s personal opinions in a courtroom, nor even during an initial interview of a client.

      With her face expressionless, she continued. “How long had he worked for you, or rather, how long had he been coming to your house as an employee of the service?”

      Chandler looked at Glory questioningly. She just shrugged and looked away. “I think it was only a few weeks,” he finally said.

      Lisa couldn’t help but wonder if Glory’s indifference was real or an act. Did this woman know that from now on, every statement she made and every gesture she used would be noted by anyone and everyone who happened by accident or by design to be in her vicinity?

      “Is that what you remember, Glory?” she asked her point-blank.

      Glory looked surprised that Lisa was addressing her again. “Yes, I suppose that’s about right.”

      “And is that when your…relationship with him began?”

      “Yes,” she said, finally answering without hesitation and looking Lisa straight in the eye once more.

      It appeared to Lisa that Glory enjoyed causing uneasiness in those around her. Was this a game to her? Or was it that her social standing in the community led her to believe that she was above common decency and good manners? And what about Chandler? He didn’t flinch, bat an eye or even seem to take notice. Didn’t any of this bother him at all?

      But if they truly believed they were bulletproof, why on earth had they run to an attorney so soon?

      Lisa pondered that question for a moment, then asked, “Was anyone in your household staff aware of the affair?”

      “Not that I know of,” Glory answered. “I always gave them the night off when I planned on seeing him.”

      “Where were you last night, Chandler?”

      “I was in Detroit.”

      Lisa wrote, Check Chandler’s alibi. “When did you leave?”

      “Yesterday morning. It was a short trip. Just one day.”

      “What hotel did you stay at?”

      Glory huffed as if to tell Lisa that this was all a waste of time. Lisa ignored her.

      “The Radisson, downtown.”

      “And you returned just this morning?”

      “That’s correct. I was on the six-fifteen flight.”

      All of that would be easy enough to check. With security measures being what they were these days, Chandler would not have been able to board an aircraft without first showing identification. Of course, with the weird relationship he and Glory obviously had, Lisa couldn’t quite believe that he had gone off to Detroit, only to return sometime in the night to kill Mateo, then fly back and return in the morning as if nothing had happened. However, there usually was very little logic to murder, and Lisa had learned years ago that anything was possible.

      She turned her attention back to Glory. “So, you were alone in the house with Mateo last night?”

      “I was until whoever it was came along and killed him.”

      “Can you tell me what you remember about the night?”

      “Do you want all the gory details?”

      “Just the ones about letting the staff off and then everything surrounding the time Mateo was killed.”

      Glory looked almost disappointed. “Very well. I guess it was around sixish when I told everyone, including Maria, to leave.”

      “Why do say, ‘including Maria?’”

      “Maria is our only full-time house staff,” Chandler explained. “She oversees the daily routines of running an efficient household, which includes managing the part-time help…maids and such…we employ. She’s quite adept at it all. And when I’m out of town, she makes sure everything is taken care of for Glory.”

      “Does she live on the property?”

      “She stays occasionally when her duties cause her to work late. Other times, she goes home.”

      “Where is home?”

      “You’ll have to get that from her.”

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