“We have no secrets,” she snapped. “I knew.”

“You didn’t care that he was going to his wife’s house?” Jack raised his eyebrows.

“He only went there to find out what the hell was going on. We both knew she was up to something. He could have spent as much time as he wanted with her. I couldn’t have cared less. I had no reason to be jealous of that nasty bitch.” She glared at Jack. Her fingers began to drum hard on her crossed arms.

Jack just nodded in an exaggerated manner, emphasizing he didn’t believe Lauren’s response. “Did he call you before he came home?”

She hesitated.

“We can check phone records.”

“Yes, he called.” Her words were slow, cautious.

“What did he say to you?”

“He said Julia didn’t have any money and she fixed everything to ruin us.”

“What did you say to that? Were you angry?” Jack inquired further.

“Anybody would have been angry. You have no idea what she was like. She had everything planned. She wanted to destroy us. First me, then Colin.”

“Weren’t you trying to do that to her? Destroy her, that is. You were already having an affair with her husband when you befriended her,” Val said. Julia had suspected Lauren knew that Colin was married. Val decided to see how Lauren reacted to the accusation.

“When I befriended her?” Lauren sat forward and pointed a finger at Val. “Where the hell did you hear that crap from?”

“Julia. That was her version of the story.”

“I’ll tell you what shit her version of the story was. She came up to me one day in the gym and commented on my haircut. She asked where I had it done. I told her the name of the salon. That’s all I had to do with her.” Lauren almost spat out the words.

“But then the two of you started to do things together,” Val said.

“More like she wouldn’t leave me alone. She started talking to me more and more at the gym and then she asked me to have lunch with her. I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t know she was Colin’s wife. She and Colin have different last names and he never said her first name. He always said ‘my soon-to-be-ex.’” Laurens’s demeanor grew increasingly heated as she spoke. “Hell, I didn’t even like her.”

Val sat forward. “Then why go off and do things with someone you don’t like? You did have lunch with her on more than one occasion, am I correct? In fact, you did many things with her; things friends do. That doesn’t sound like someone you didn’t like.” Val remembered what Julia had told her and pressed Lauren on it.