Page 78 of Shadow of Justice
“No. Ellie didn’t talk about Jamie. I didn’t know him until after. I’m sure of that.”
“Okay. So let’s talk about after. How did Jamie Simmons become part of your life?”
“It was a bad time. A very bad time. I was … I’m ashamed to admit this now … but I wasn’t a very good husband or a very good father after Ellie went missing and everything that we learned after that. I couldn’t cope. Could barely get out of bed. I blamed myself.”
“For what?”
“Well, a father is supposed to protect his daughter. They said Ellie had a flat tire. I should have checked her car. I should have made sure. I should have been there when she needed me so she wasn’t alone on some country road in the dark like that where anything could happen.”
“I understand. And I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Luke. But back to Jamie Simmons …”
“Right. You asked me how he became part of our family. The best I can tell you is that he was just there. I think he came to the house once offering to help out. Mow the lawn. Claudia had him fixing a part of the fence in the backyard. Like I told you, I was checked out that whole summer. It got even worse after they found Ellie. After we knew she was really gone. And that it was as awful as we feared. By then, Jamie was a fixture. He came over almost every day. He brought me lunch a few times. Claudia invited him over for dinner.”
“Did you find that strange?”
George shook his head. “No. I didn’t have any opinion of anything at the time. I was just going through the motions. And … it got very dark, Ms. Brent. That Christmas, a couple of months after Ellie was found, I tried to take my own life.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said.
“Jamie was there even more after that. Claudia called him. They were afraid to leave me alone. It took a very long time for me to walk out of the woods, Ms. Brent. By then, Jamie was pretty much part of the family. He just … took over. Claudia and I had a pretty conventional, old-fashioned kind of marriage. I paid the bills. Did everything around the house. Maintained the cars. Claudia cooked and cleaned. Jamie just stepped in and started doing for us what I couldn’t do. At the time, I was so grateful for it. Now … I see what was really going on.”
“What do you think was going on?” I asked.
“It’s like he was grooming us,” George said.
“Objection!” Cutler said. “Your Honor, this has gone on long enough. While I am, of course, sympathetic to Mr. Luke’s plight, I fail to see the relevance of this line of questioning. Not to mention the witness is wholly unresponsive. Ms. Brent and the court are allowing him to ramble.”
“Your Honor, Mr. Simmons’s obsession with the victim and, by extension, her family is absolutely relevant in this case.”
“This entire narrative is about events that took place after Ellie Luke went missing,” Cutler said. “This is a murder trial.”
“Overruled, Mr. Cutler,” Judge Saul said, surprising me. “Mr. Simmons’s relationship with the victim and her family is relevant. You’ll be free to argue to what extent when the time comes. Proceed, Ms. Brent.”
“Mr. Luke,” I said. “You described Mr. Simmons’s relationship with your family as grooming. What did you mean by that?”
“I mean Jamie took over. We were vulnerable. In deep grief. I took everything Jamie said at face value. Claudia and I could barely function. We couldn’t be there for each other. For ourselves. For Erin. But Jamie was. Looking back, I can see now it wasn’t normal.”
“What wasn’t normal?”
“Jamie practically moved in. He was there almost every day. He cooked for us. Cleaned. Took my checkbook and wrote everything out for our monthly bills. He told me it’s what Ellie would want. He told me he’d promised her he’d take care of us if anything happened to her.”
“He said that?”
“Yes. And I believed him.”
“But you’re also saying that until Ellie went missing, you’d never met Jamie Simmons?”
“No. I mean, yes. I’m saying I never met him.”
“Ellie never mentioned him to you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“But you believed him that he and Ellie were close enough that she’d want him looking in on you if something happened to her?”
“That’s what he told me. And he was just so … competent. I was in such a bad state. It just felt easier to let Jamie take over. Claudia loved him. She said he was like the son she never had. I can see now she transferred feelings. It wasn’t healthy. But it was easy.”
“What about Erin?” I asked.
