Chapter Eighteen
Stephanie POV
We sat quietly in the car for about an hour, watching the house Gigi told me belonged to Richard and his second bride. I watched as shadows crossed the windows and finally it occurred to me that maybe we didn't even need to be here. "Gigi? Do we need more photos or something else from this house?" I asked.
She frowned. "Not really. We can go. More photos won't change much. Speaking of evidence, did you get what you needed from your apartment?"
At that moment, I remembered what Tank and Hector had been doing and I dug into my purse for my cell phone. I dialed Tank and pounced the moment he answered with his customary, "Yo."
"Tank! Did you and Hector find anything on the laptop?" Jeanne Ellen was watching me curiously. We had hardly talked at all since I met her in the Dairy Queen parking lot, and now I felt like I was emotionally hung over. I rarely cried because I didn't like to, but if I did succumb, I always felt exhausted afterwards.
"Breathe, Steph. Hector is still working on copying the entire laptop and installing a keylogger. I'm not totally sure what he's found yet. We have a man in your apartment waiting for the process to finish, then he'll put everything back to rights."
I let out a breath. "That's great. The laptop was on the nightstand closest to the window in the bedroom. The charger was plugged in to the outlet in the kitchen next to the microwave."
"No chance he'll be coming back here soon? Do you have eyes on him?"
Jeanne Ellen cut in here, "hey Lover. He's inside at his Connecticut house. You're clear at the apartment."
"Baby," said Tank. "How you doin'?"
"Lover, I miss you."
Steph smiled lightly as she listened to our exchange, with a tiny hint of sadness in her eyes.
Jeanne Ellen POV
Tank updated me on everything I had missed this morning and after about ten minutes we hung up. I turned to Steph, who had tuned us out while watching the house again, and asked, "what's next?"
She focused her attention on me. "Is it nuts that I want to actually see them together? I feel like I need to know how he interacts with her, if he's nicer to her, or if he treats her just the same way. And then a not-small part of me wants to go up to the house and knock on the door to confront the both of them. Do you think she knows about me? Maybe she's complicit in all of it."
I frowned. "I don't think it's nuts to want to see them together with your own eyes, but do you really want to hang around here for a chance to see them? As for confronting them, I'd have to object to that right now. It would not help anything, and it could hurt your case. However, I was thinking that once you've filed, your lawyer can make a motion for discovery, and request the marriage certificate from the Connecticut courts, as well as the birth certificates. I did some checking, and you are not eligible to ask for copies," I said with a sigh. "Maybe after your filing, when everything is underway, we can come talk to the faux Mrs. Orr. Maybe she knows about you and Zoë, and maybe she doesn't. I think without The Dick there muddying the waters, we'd be able to tell whether she knows about you or not based on her reaction. And if she doesn't know about you and he's betrayed her also, then maybe we can use her in the divorce proceedings."
Steph nodded slowly as she took in everything I said. "I know you're right. Okay, let's go."
I smiled and patted her hand. "Now we have a decision to make. We've gotten what we can for now. The rest will be up to Hector and your lawyer. Do you want to go back to New York and have a fun night out with your favourite sister, or do you want to go home to Trenton?"
A/N: What do you think? Night out in New York or home with Zoë and Tank?