He realized that the private detective, as nauseating as he was, might have more answers. He returned to the hallway and interrupted the conversation between Wiley and Dan Erickson.

‘Hey, Wiley, when you met Dr. Snow in the parking lot across the street, did she say why she was here?’ Stride asked the detective.

Wiley shrugged. ‘No.’

‘How did you find her? Did you follow her?’

‘I didn’t need to. She comes here a lot. Few times a week, for sure. All I had to do was wait.’

Stride remembered what Nathan Skinner had told him. Janine was a busy woman. They only met for sex a couple times a month. And yet she was here in her secret condominium regularly.

‘When did you remove your camera from the bedroom?’ Stride asked.

‘Thanksgiving Day. After I reported what I found to Jay, he shut down the investigation. He had what he wanted, and I needed my equipment back. Holidays are good for that sort of thing. Nobody’s around to see what you’re doing.’

‘You must have captured video of Dr. Snow when she was here alone,’ Stride said. ‘Not just with Nathan Skinner.’

‘Sure. All the time.’

‘Was there anything unusual about the rest of the videos?’

‘Nothing out of the ordinary. She wasn’t in the bedroom much when Skinner wasn’t around. Jay asked me the same thing, though.’

Stride looked up. ‘What?’

‘Jay wanted to see videos of his wife when she was alone,’ Wiley said.

‘Did he say why? Or what he was looking for?’

‘Nope.’

‘Did you show him?’ Stride asked.

‘Yeah, we watched videos for another hour or so. It was just her alone.’

‘What did you see?’

‘Nothing much,’ the detective said. ‘She came into the bedroom, had a big glass of wine with her. Undressed down to her birthday suit. She left the room and probably showered, because her hair was wet when she came back. She put on music, danced a little, took a pill, read a book on the bed for a while. That’s it.’

‘That was what Jay saw?’

‘Yeah.’

‘What did he do next?’

‘He thanked me and gave me a fat bonus. End of contract. For a guy who’d just figured out he was being cuckolded, he seemed in better spirits by the time we were done. I think I even mentioned it to him. I said, hey, aren’t you mad?’

‘What did Jay say?’

‘He laughed. He said, “I don’t get mad, Melvin, I get even.”’

Stride returned to the apartment, which seemed to be the epicenter of all the problems between Jay and Janine. He ran his hands through his black hair and left his fingers laced on the back of his head. He wanted a cigarette.

‘July,’ he said to Maggie. ‘Janine bought this place in late July, right? What was going on between her and Jay that month?’