Gayle didn’t respond, didn’t even nod. But she didn’t stop Jessie either, which reassured her that the on-the-fly psychological profile she’d developed about the woman wasn’t far off. So she went on.

“Whatever you originally had in mind faded away when you talked to her, didn’t it, Gayle? You saw what it was in her that made Milton lose his head—because you did the same thing. You went to that meeting with bad intent and somewhere along the way, you fell for her. Am I right, Gayle?”

Gayle nodded ever so slightly.

“It’s okay,” Jessie assured her. “That’s not a crime. Who could have known that your husband’s mistress would fill such an emotional and physical hole in your life? Somehow, you ended up cheating on your husband with his own mistress. It’s almost poetic justice.”

Milton’s mouth was agape. Gayle glanced over at him with a mix of guilt and pride.

“You didn’t deserve her,” she muttered.

“No, he didn’t,” Jessie agreed, not wanting to lose control of the situation. “But you did. You were much smarter about your trysts than he was, weren’t you? No more online contact after you started seeing her. You called her from pay phones instead of your cell, using different ones every time. You were careful. This relationship was becoming important to you and you didn’t want it be discovered by the kind of sloppiness that undid Milton.”

“Only for a little while longer,” Gayle said through gritted teeth. “I was going to dump him—let him squirm.”

“And he would have too,” Jessie noted. “I checked. You have a pre-nup. Doesn’t it say something about him getting nothing if the marriage dissolves on account of infidelity? If Claire stayed quiet about the two of you, you could have left him in the cold and then turned around and been with her. Wouldn’t that have been sweet?”

“It would have,” Gayle agreed, her eyes going soft at the thought of it.

“But something went wrong, didn’t it?” Jessie said, bringing things back to the present. She was keenly aware that time was running short. Any moment, the sound of approaching sirens might shut things down just as they were getting interesting.

Gayle again nodded without speaking.

“Let me guess. You professed your love to her. She pulled back; said she wasn’t interested in a serious relationship. She was young and single and wanted to keep it that way. She didn’t love you.”

“She was more diplomatic than that,” Gayle said, crossing her legs again, this time more quickly. The swishing of the silk sounded like a snake scurrying through long grass. “But when it came down to it, yes, she dumped me.”

How did that make you feel?” Jessie asked in her best therapist voice.

“Not great, obviously.”

“It was a little more than that though, wasn’t it, Gayle? You couldn’t let it go. Those emails started up again, even though they put your secret at risk. I read them all. You pleaded with her; offered to set her up so she’d never have to work again. But she never even responded, did she?”