First to Die

Chapter 104

OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I went back over everything we had on Joanna Wade. First, I reread the domestic complaint she had filed against Jenks. I looked at pictures of Joanna taken at the station, bruised, puffy faced. I read through the officers' account of what they found at the scene. Exchanges laced with invectives. Jenks swinging wildly, clearly enraged. He had to be subdued, resisted arrest. The report was signed by two officers from Northern, Samuel Delgado and Anthony Fazziola. The following day, I went back out to visit Greg Marks, Jenks's former agent. He was even more surprised at my visit when I told him I was there on a different aspect of Jenks's past. "Joanna?" he replied with an amused smile. "Bad judge of men, Inspector, but a worse judge of timing." He explained that their divorce had been finalized only six months before Crossed Wire hit the stands. He said the book sold nearly a million copies in hardcover alone. "To have to put up with Nicholas through all the lean years, then come away with barely more than cab fare…" He shook his head. "The settlement was a pittance compared to what it would've been if they had filed a year later." What he told me painted a different picture of the woman I had met in the gym. She seemed to have put it all behind her. "She felt used, dropped like worn baggage. Joanna had put him through school, supported him when he first started writing. When Nick bagged law school, she even went back to her job." "And afterward," I asked, "did she continue to hate him?" "I believe she continued to try and sue him. After they split up, she tried to sue him for a lien against future earnings. Nonperformance, breach of contract. Anything she could find." I felt sorry for Joanna Wade. But could it drive her to that kind of revenge? Could it cause her to kill six people? The following day, I obtained a copy of the divorce proceedings from County Records. Through the usual boilerplate, I got the sense it was an especially bitter case. She was seeking three million dollars judgment against future earnings. She ended up with five thousand a month, escalating to ten if Jenks's earnings substantially increased. I couldn't believe the bizarre transformation that was starting to take over my mind. It had been Joanna who had first mentioned the book. Who felt cheated, spurned, and carried a resentment far deeper than what she had revealed. Joanna, the Tac-Bo in351 structor who was strong enough to take down a man twice her size. Who even had access to the Jenkses' home. It seemed crazy to be thinking this way. More than preposterous it was impossible. The murders were committed by a male, by Nicholas Jenks.