“How did you feel when he married her? Had you expected him to call off the wedding and marry you instead?” Val asked.

Lauren scoffed. “No. Colin and I weren’t serious at the beginning. It was just a fling for both of us. I couldn’t have cared less that he was getting married. Do you want to marry someone after you’ve only known them for about a month? I’m not some psycho-bitch.”

“But, you continued the affair,” Val said.

“Yeah, the sex was good. I didn’t fall in love with him until later.”

Val thought for a moment and then asked, “How did you two meet?”

“It was at a convention. My boyfriend was off somewhere doing God knows what and I was bored. I met Colin that night at the bar. His fiancé had gone to bed.”

“That fiancé was Julia?” Val asked.

“I told you I didn’t know who she was at the time.” The words were venomous.

“I see. Let me get back to the night Julia died. What did Colin say to you on the phone that night when he called?” Jack said.

“He said he needed time to cool off, to think before he came home.”

“Did he tell you he was going back to talk to her?”

“No. Why the hell would he do that?” Lauren looked disgusted.

“He wanted to try to get his wife to take him back,” Jack answered, carefully leaving out the part that Colin was only pretending to string Julia along.

“That’s a lie.”

“We have a neighbor who saw him go back to the house,” Thomas said.

“That’s hardly the same as trying to get her to take him back. Did he tell the neighbor that’s what he planned to do?” she said sarcastically.

“What would you say if I told you the neighbor didn’t tell us that part?” Jack asked.

“See, you’re making shit up. That’s what you’re doing.”

“No, the neighbor didn’t tell us that. Colin did. He admitted that he wanted to try to get her to take him back,” Jack said.

“That’s a lie!” Lauren shouted. Her face grew red.

“He did go back and then Julia died shortly afterwards,” Jack stated.

“After he called and said he needed time to cool off, what did you do?” Thomas asked quickly.

Lauren looked lost, unsure of which way to turn.

“Where did you go? Colin told us you weren’t home and that you didn’t come back until the next day,” Jack pressed.

“My sister wasn’t feeling well. I went to check on her and ended up staying the night.”

“Could it be possible that you left because you were angry with Colin for going back to Julia? He informed us that he told you what he was doing. Weren’t you suspicious of why he was going back?”