Chapter 21
Twenty minutes later, after they’d had a chance to calm down, and Tessa was in control of her emotions, Sam asked Rosa if she wanted to go home or continue.
“I will stay as long as I need to,” Rosa told him. “I want to help. Honestly.”
“Okay, let’s go back to your telling the girls to go to the pool. What did you do next?”
“I thought I needed to watch the girls, so I slipped inside the pool house. I could watch them from the window. The girls seemed okay, and they sat by the edge of the big pool. First they put their feet in the water, then, a few minutes later, they got into the pool. It was okay for them to do that; they were very good swimmers, but Miss Tessa always wanted me to watch them at the poolside. I always did.” Rosa closed her eyes. “I stayed by the window and watched.”
“How long?” Sam questioned.
Tessa’s heart was beating so fast, she had to take several deep breaths to calm herself.
“I think it was at least half an hour.”
“And during this time that you were in the pool house, watching the girls, did you see anything unusual, hear anything?” Sam asked.
“No, not then. I just watched Poppy and Piper playing in the pool. They were having fun.”
Tessa could visualize both girls in their pool. They had all kinds of games they played, some were the usual. Marco Polo. Dive for gold. Mermaids. And they had their own games they’d made up, which consisted of going underwater to see who could hold her breath longer. It was something she did not approve of, and she had told them so, but she knew they still played the game, and as long as they didn’t take it too far, she hadn’t told them she knew. Another was to close their eyes, float on their backs, and see where they ended up when they decided to open their eyes. Endless games that were, for the most part, harmless, but Tessa insisted an adult be at the pool when they were swimming, or playing, despite the fact that both were excellent swimmers.
“You watched the girls playing for half an hour and saw nothing unusual. What did you see after the half hour you watched the girls swimming?” Sam asked, and Tessa could hear the impatience in his voice. He was walking her through her story like a child, and she knew why, but it was frustrating, to say the least, to sit here and listen to Rosa tell about her memories of that fateful day.
“Mr. Jamison came out to the pool area, the living area. Liam followed him, and that other man.”
“Who was the other man you saw?”
Rosa looked down again, then met Tessa’s stare. “I had not seen this man ever, but I had seen him. Sort of.”
Sam was losing his patience, Tessa could tell. He rolled his shoulders, raked his hand through his hair, took another sip of his soft drink. “Okay, Rosa, you’re not being very clear. Explain what you mean by you had seen this other man, ‘sort of.’ ”
“He was . . . like Mr. Jamison. Like Joel.”
The proverbial ‘you could hear a pin drop’ came to mind when Tessa heard what Rosa had said.
“You need to be very clear, Rosa. Beating around the bush isn’t helping you, and it’s not helping Mrs. Jamison. I want you to tell me the truth. You have mastered English, and I know you’re not having trouble coming up with the right words. I’m going to give you one more chance, then we’re done.” Sam waited for her to speak.
“It was just as I am telling you! I have no other way to explain what I saw, other than the man looked just like Mr. Jamison, Mr. Joel Jamison, not like Liam. I thought . . . I know it sounds very odd, but that man looked like he could be Mr. Jamison’s twin brother.”
Tessa struggled to hide her confusion. “I don’t understand. Are you telling us that this . . . other man, the one banging on the front door, looked just like Joel?”
“Yes, Miss Tessa. He looked just like your husband.”
She turned to Sam. “I don’t understand.” This couldn’t be right. While Liam and Joel were half brothers, they really didn’t resemble one another all that much. Both were tall, but Joel was fair where Liam was olive–skinned, as was Rachelle, his mother. There were a few similarities in their build but nothing that could make one conclude they looked exactly alike.
“Tell me about this other man,” Sam said. “Every detail you remember.”
She watched Sam. Expecting him to be as stunned as she was, she was surprised that he didn’t appear the least bit rattled at Rosa’s description of the other man.
“I just saw him for a few minutes. He was tall like Mr. Joel. Is it okay if I call him that?”
“Yes,” Sam replied. “Go on.”
“He got up in Mr. Joel’s face. I think he yelled, but I couldn’t hear. It just looked like he was very angry, and Mr. Joel, well, he seemed shocked, then he became very angry, too.”
“What was Liam doing during this exchange between Joel’s visitor and Joel?”
“I think he was hollering, too, but I couldn’t hear what any of them were saying. It just looked like they were all very angry. I only wanted to make sure the girls were okay, but I could see them from my spot at the window. They had gone to the end of the pool, and this brought them closer to the three men.”
“Did you come out of the pool house? Did it ever occur to you to get the girls out of the pool and take them somewhere safe, away from the men?” Sam asked her.
“Yes. But I knew I had to wait until the men had calmed down. I assumed they were arguing about business, or whatever it was that Mr. Jamison, Liam, I mean, said he knew about the girls. So I just waited. I saw that the girls had swum to the other end of the pool; as you can see, it’s a very big pool.” She waved toward the glass doors that led out to the pool.
“I was sure they couldn’t hear the men, so I went to the kitchen, well it’s not really a full-sized kitchen, but it had a small refrigerator. Miss Tessa always had snacks for the girls in the pool house. There was a sink and a coffeemaker. I made a pot of coffee and sat at the bar. I was going to stay there, keep an eye on the girls, and as soon as the men were gone, I was going to bring them back inside and call Miss Tessa.”
“But that isn’t what happened, is it?”
More tears from Rosa. “No, it was so horrible. I can’t describe . . . when I peered out the window to check on the girls, they weren’t in the pool. I thought they’d gone back inside the house. This is what I thought because I did not see them go inside from the window of the pool house. I assumed they had all gone inside, and I was very scared. I knew that Roberto was probably waiting outside the gate for me because that’s what I told him to do when I’d called him.”
“We need to wind this up, Rosa. It’s late, and I’m sure you’re stalling. I want you to tell me what you saw when you finally decided to come out of the pool house to meet Roberto.”
There were more tears and nose-blowing from Rosa, but she knew the enormity of her situation; at least Tessa thought so. Rosa shifted her shoulders back again, then seemed determined to finish the story she should have told more than a decade ago.
“When I left the pool house, I knew that Roberto would be waiting in the front outside the gates, so I went out the side door . . . and that’s when I saw him running from the garage. And when I saw who it was, I stopped and waited. I didn’t want him to see me. I was so scared, and I knew that, well, I was not here legally. We had all come from Mexico and were just thankful to be safe. It took many, many years, but my entire family are now American citizens. I did not want to return to Mexico, with all the drug lords and killings. It is a very bad place to live. Mr. Jamison knew I was not a citizen when he hired me but assured me that he would do everything in his power to assist me and my family so that we could be here legally.”
“Rosa, I don’t care about your legal status, and Tess doesn’t either. It’s of no relevance whatsoever to the current situation. It wasn’t then, and it’s not now. Get to the point.” Sam was being hateful and didn’t seem to care.
“As I waited by the corner of the house for my brother, I saw him. He came out through the garage door, and he ran across the lawn, then through the gates. I saw Roberto, and I ran to get in the car with him. I had to leave because I did not want to get involved with the police.”
“Why would you think this argument these three men were having would involve the police?”
Rosa, who had appeared weak and frightened before this, all of a sudden seemed courageous when she spoke. “Because Mr. Joel had blood all over him when I saw him running away from the house.”