Power Read Free Page B

good as Jess was going to get on the timing. “So you didn’t see Darcy alive again after she went inside the house with Ms. Dresher?”
    “The next time I saw her she was… dead.”
    Jess surveyed the girls waiting somberly with their mothers. All six wore hot pink leotards. Four had their boas hanging around their shoulders. Her interest lingered on the Dresher woman and her daughter Katrina. Harper had given Jess a who’s who rundown.
    “Did anything out of the ordinary happen this morning?” Jess asked, focusing on Andrea once more. “Did Darcy seem upset about anything?”
    Andrea shrugged again. “No more than usual.” She twisted her fingers together. “She and Mr. Alex are separated and things have been awkward.”
    Instincts on point, Jess rephrased a pivotal question. “Did you see Alex today?”
    “Not today. He…” Andrea fell silent.
    Jess leaned forward a fraction. “It’s very important that we know as many details as possible if we’re going to understand what happened.”
    “Ms. Darcy filed for divorce. They’ve been fighting for weeks.” Her slender shoulders slumped with defeat and disloyalty. “The rumor is he’s cheating on her with one of the moms.”
    The image of Darcy Chandler lying on that cold marble floor, her skull likely shattered along with untold other internal injuries, filled Jess’s mind. The shoes removed and set carefully aside filtered in next. That part just didn’t fit, unless they were already there before Chandler’s fall. Maybe forgotten for some reason. But then where were the shoes she had been wearing at the time of death? Had to be those Gucci pumps. They matched her dress. A dress that she would have had to hike up in order to throw a leg over that upstairs railing. That, Jess would come back to. For now, she needed info on Chandler’s husband, the Russian.
    “Do you have reason to suspect that rumor is true?” This was a small, elite dance studio. The likelihood of any secret staying secret for long was somewhere in the vicinity of zero.
    Andrea scrunched her face as if it pained her to speak on the subject. “That’s what everybody thinks but I can’t say for sure it’s true.”
    “Any idea which mother the others thought was the troublemaker?” Beyond Andrea, six of the mothers waited—all wealthy, all gorgeous, whether by nature or by design. Could be any one of them.
    Andrea gave another shake of her head, her eyes carefully averted. She suspected someone but she wasn’t saying. Jess could push for that when and if the time came.
    “Andrea, would you say you know Darcy as well as any of the other assistant teachers or students, or moms, for that matter?”
    Hesitation slowed her response but she nodded with conviction.
    “I know you’re upset,” Jess hedged, “but I want you to answer the next question without analyzing your answer first. I’ll ask the question and you say exactly what comes to mind in that instant. Okay?”
    “O… kay.”
    Jess reached across the table and patted her hand. “Thank you, Andrea. I know this is just an awful time for you, but you’re helping more than you know.”
    Tears shimmered in her eyes as she nodded, her lips pressed tightly together.
    “Here we go. Do you believe”—Jess watched Andrea’s face closely for the coming reaction—“Darcy was capable of taking her own life?”
    “No!” Her eyebrows drew together as she underscored her answer with an adamant shake of her head. “No way. She would never do that!”
    “Not even with her husband cheating and divorce looming?” Jess had no evidence that indicated one manner of death over the other at this time. Still, a nasty divorce slanted the already odd circumstances in a more disturbing direction. Were there financial problems to boot? Not from the looks of things, but looks could be deceiving.
    “That’s impossible,” Andrea stated firmly, her eyes reflecting that certainty. “I heard her talking to him just before she went into