“How long has the affair been going on?” Matthews asked.

  “Nine months,” she said. “I told Shane right after it started that I wanted a divorce. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t want to live a double life like that. He apologized for pushing me aside for the job, and told me that he would take a desk job as soon as the case was over so we could start a family. I knew then that I couldn’t go through with the divorce while he was still undercover, because it could cause him to make a mistake that would cost him his life. I didn’t want that; you have to believe that I never wanted him dead!”

  Rilynne heard Matthews let out a low groan. When she looked over at him, it seemed as though he wanted to throw something.

  “If you didn’t want him dead, then why did you kill him?” she asked.

  “He was so angry. I’ve never heard him yell like that before,” she said. “He said he didn’t understand how I could have done that, and with his best friend. I told him I had never wanted him to leave, but he made that choice. He was also the one who asked Julio to make sure I was taken care of while he was gone. This only seemed to make him angrier. After yelling for nearly an hour, he finally just sat down in the corner. I thought for sure he was going to just get up and leave, but after about fifteen minutes he clamed down.”

  Rilynne glanced back over at Matthews. With how much blame Jane was placing on her husband, she didn’t know how much more of it he would be able to take.

  “What happened after that?” Matthews asked.

  “He told me he forgave me,” she said dryly. “He said it was his fault, and he would never leave me like that again. He said the department had a good counselor we could see, and we would be able to work through this. He told me he loved me more than anything, and he still wanted to start a family with me.”

  Rilynne leaned back trying to make sense of what she was saying. If he had forgiven her, then what reason would she have had to kill him? Matthews seemed to be thinking the same thing, as they both sat in silence and watched Jane sipping on her glass of water.

  “You told him you were leaving,” Rilynne said abruptly. “He wanted to work things out, but you told him you were going to leave him for Julio Vega.”

  Jane nodded and took another sip of her water. “I told him he still meant a lot to me, but that I had fallen in love with Julio. I told him I had been waiting for his assignment to end, but I did want to pursue a divorce. I thought he was going to put his fist through the wall. He was yelling about Julio, and how he was supposed to be his friend. He told me he wasn’t going to let me throw away everything we had over an affair. He said we were supposed to be starting a family, and he wasn’t going to let me just walk away.”

  “What happened next?” Rilynne asked.

  “He was going on and on about starting a family, so I told him it was too late. He stopped yelling and slid down to the floor, just staring at me,” she said. “I didn’t want to tell him, but he didn’t leave me with much choice. I told him I had just found out two weeks before that I was pregnant.”

  Rilynne’s jaw dropped as she glanced over at Matthews and found him looking completely stunned. “Who’s the father?” he asked abruptly.

  “Julio,” she said. “Shane and I hadn’t been able to see each other the month that I conceived.”

  “So you told Shane you were pregnant by Julio, and you were going to leave him. How did he react?” Matthews asked.

  “How would you have reacted?” she asked, almost cynically.

  “There’s still one thing that I’m not understanding,” Rilynne said. “You were the one having the affair, and you were leaving him; how is it that he was the one who ended up dead?”

  Rilynne halfway expected Jane to try and claim self defense, stating that Shane had tried to attack her. Had she not seen the actual shooting herself, she might have believed it if she had. But as she sat waiting for Jane to continue, she thought back to the flash that she had when they found Villarreal’s body. He had been standing with his hands raised and his back against the wall.

  Then she thought back to the dream she had a few nights before. “Stop. Don’t do this. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

  “What were you worried about him telling people?” she blurted out. Through the corner of her eye, she could see Matthews looking at her quizzically, but she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Jane. For the first time during the interview, she looked both confused and worried.

  “He was going to tell everyone what Julio and I had been doing,” she said, looking more troubled than before. “I know what happens to police officers who betray their own. While he couldn’t have been officially reprimanded, it still could have destroyed his career. Once it had gotten around to the other officers, he would have lost everyone’s respect. I have heard of officers ignoring distress calls after things like this. I couldn’t let anything happen to Julio.”

  “Tell us what happened while you were at the house,” Matthews said. “Where did you get the gun?”

  “I got it while I was in college. I was almost mugged one night, so my boyfriend at the time gave it to me. After Shane took his assignment, I began carrying it around in my purse just in case his cover was blown and someone came after me. I had it with me when I met him at the house,” she explained.

  “Describe the events leading up to his death,” he said. Rilynne glanced quickly back over at him. He didn’t have the same caring look that she had grown accustom to. It had been replaced by something more resembling repulsion. She couldn’t help but wonder if Katy would get her way the next time she asked him to take a job off of the streets.

  “He was going on and on about how he was going to tell everyone what had happened. I panicked and reached in my bag for the gun. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t let him tell anyone. Julio could have ended up dead, and I wouldn’t let my child grow up without a father,” she said. The look on her face said that she honestly believed what she had done was justifiable. “I pointed the gun at him to scare him and he stopped yelling. He told me he wouldn’t tell anyone; he promised. I knew I couldn’t take that chance, though, so I shot him twice. He fell, then after a few moments he tried to reach for his phone, which was laying on the floor near the door. He managed to drag himself a little bit toward it, but I shot him again. He didn’t move again after that.”

  Rilynne was completely shocked by the lack of emotion she was showing. She had worked cases where the spouse was the murderer, but she had never seen someone show not even a hint of regret. There wasn’t even a touch of anger, which usually replaced the remorse during the past cases she had worked. Jane Villarreal seemed to be completely void of emotion. She wasn’t even showing concern over what would happen to her or her unborn child due to her actions. In all of the interviews Rilynne had done, even for random killings where the murderer didn’t know anything about the victims, she had never come across someone so cold. Deep down, she hoped that Jane was simply in shock over the events of the last week, and not as heartless as she appeared.

  “What did you do after you fired the third shot?” Rilynne asked.

  “I didn’t know what to do initially. I thought about calling Julio, but I knew I couldn’t make a call from the house or it could be traced. I also didn’t want him to know what had happened so he couldn’t be held responsible in anyway,” she stated.

  “After that, I went through the entire house and wiped down every surface. A vacuum had been left in the hall closet, so I vacuumed all of the floors. I knew the neighbors would have heard the shots, so I waited until enough time had passed before leaving. I made sure to take everything with me, including the vacuum cleaner. After taking the bag out, I left that on a curb on the other side of town, and it was gone the next morning when I checked. The gun I tossed in the lake.”

  Matthews seemed to be as just shocked by her forwardness as Rilynne was, but she knew better than to question it at this point and risk her shutting down before they were able to get all of the details. “What about the cocaine?” she asked. “Did you have that on you as well?”

  “No,” she said. “I went back in the middle of the night with that. I thought that it would be a good way to redirect the investigation away from Julio and me. Anyone who knew Shane would have known that he was very against drugs. I knew it would be obvious that it was planted, and it would look like someone who didn’t know Shane at all had done it.”

  “Where did you get them?” Rilynne asked. She considered explaining that they were fifteen years old, but didn’t in case Jane hadn’t worked alone.

  “I found them right after Shane and I were married. I was going through some of his old boxes when we were moving them into our house, and found the vials tucked into a teddy bear that had belonged to his sister,” she explained. “I never had any intention of doing anything with them, but decided not to tell him I had discovered them. When I got home, I remembered they were there and decided to put them to use.”

  Matthew looked like he wanted to just stop the interview there, but asked one more question. “What about the beach house? I’m assuming it was you who trashed it.”

  She nodded quickly. “I was worried after you told me he had been keeping a journal that he might have written something about my affair. I went through the lock box he kept under the bed, thinking that he might have hidden it in there. Instead, I found some documents relating to a beach house he had inherited several months before. I can’t believe he hadn’t told me about it.”

  Rilynne fought the urge to laugh in her face. She was outwardly upset about the fact that her husband had been keeping a secret from her, when she herself had been having an affair and was currently pregnant with another man’s baby.

  “I figured that if I didn’t know about the house, chances were no one else did,” she continued. “Knowing Shane, that would be the perfect place to hide something. I drove out there and tore the place apart, but I didn’t find the journal anywhere.”

  “The journal itself was actually hidden in the same house where you killed him. He had torn out the last few pages, though, and those he did take to the beach house. They were hidden behind a floor board,” Matthews said coldly.

  “Ah,” she said. “The monkey ones I’m guessing. They were pretty cute, actually. You should have seen what he paid for them.”

  “They were cute,” Rilynne said. “According to his journal, he was fixing it up for you, doing all of the work himself. He was going to surprise you with it as a gift on the day the two of you got pregnant. He seemed very excited about it.”

  She smiled a warm smile that made Rilynne sick to her stomach.

  “That’s so sweet,” she said with a raise of her voice. “And that’s totally something he would do.”

  Matthews closed his notebook and leaned back in his chair. “Let me ask you something, Jane,” he said as he folded his arms. “Why are you telling us all of this? And why didn’t you request representation? You obviously put a great deal of thought into this, and you were incredibly smart about it. So why did you give up every detail as easily as you did?”

  “Because of Julio,” she said bluntly. “I knew if I didn’t take responsibility for my actions that he could end up getting pulled into it. I know I didn’t leave any evidence behind, so if I denied it, we could both be charged. I didn’t want there to be any doubt that I acted alone. Julio didn’t even know I was involved. If I had to guess, he didn’t even know Shane confronted me about the fact he knew we were having an affair. It has been weighing on him, I could tell. I knew I couldn’t tell him that Shane had spoken with me about it, though, because I didn’t want him to suspect for a second that it could have been me. We may have been having an affair, but he has strong morals, and he’s a good cop. I know if he had discovered it was me, he would have turned me in without a second thought.”

  Matthews seemed to have heard all he could take. He pushed his chair away from the table and walked toward the door. Just as he reached out to open it, he turned back toward Jane.

  “I know you knew how much Shane loved you,” he said. “He would have done or given you anything. You not only cheated on him, but with his best friend. He even forgave you, and you killed him for it. All of this for a man that you yourself would agree wouldn’t have done the same for you. Why? Explain it to me, because I honestly do not understand it.”

  “You would be amazed at the lengths people will take for love, Todd,” she said.

  Rilynne stood up and followed Matthews out of the room. He walked silently back toward the homicide office, but she knew better than to follow. Instead, she found the district attorney sitting in the observation room.

  “Is she trying to build a case on the grounds of being mentally unstable?” District Attorney Greene asked.

  Rilynne had to admit that the thought had crossed her mind several times during the interview. With her utter lack of empathy and regret, she could have been easily setting herself up for an insanity defense.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “She isn’t behaving the way people normally do when they’re angling for an insanity plea. She just honestly seems to have withdrawn from the situation. She isn’t claiming to have had a breakdown, or being distressed at all. She didn’t even attempt to claim self defense. If anything, she seems to be incredibly overprotective. Her sole concern is Julio Vega.”

  District Attorney Greene watched Jane in quiet contemplation. After a few moments, she turned back to Rilynne.

  “Was he involved?” she asked. “Do you think that Julio Vega took any part in the murder.”

  Rilynne shook her head. “No, his morals may have faltered when he entered into the affair, but I don’t think he would have crossed the line and murdered his best friend. He was up front when we asked him about the altercation, and seemed more relieved than anything when it was uncovered.”

  “Have her checked out by an obstetrician before she’s moved to the county jail,” the district attorney said as she walked to the door. “We need to do our part in keeping her pregnancy healthy. The last thing we need is for a complication to arise that could have been avoided. The press would have a field day.”

  “I’ve already called for an escort to take her to the hospital,” Rilynne replied. “I have also called her doctor to have all of the records sent over so the prison doctors will have her complete history.”

  “Good,” Greene said as she made for door. “I want her to meet with someone to assess her mental health, also. We might as well get it knocked out immediately before she has time to consider trying to go down that road for defense.”

  “I’ll call Dr. Gamboa,” Rilynne said. “He was signed on to work with the department after his assistance with Nicole Benson.”

  After one last look at Jane Villarreal, Rilynne walked out of the observation room and headed back into the office. Just before reaching her desk, she detoured toward the conference room where Julio Vega was still seated.

  “Tell me that it was all a mistake,” he pleaded. “Tell me she didn’t do this.”

  “I wish I could,” she said gently as she took the seat next to him. “She admitted to everything.”

  He let his head fall to the table with a small thud.

  “This is all my fault,” he groaned. “I never meant for this to happen. Shane has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I keep thinking back to the conversation we had right after his first date with Jane, and how excited he was. He said even then that he was going to marry that woman. When he took his assignment, he asked me to check in on her from time to time to make sure that she had everything she needed. I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen. Jane was his wife.”

  “You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she said.

  “But I do. I broke the carnal rule. You never get involved with the wife of a fellow officer,” he said. “We’re supposed to have each others backs, not stab them. I made a bad decision, and it resulted in the murder of an officer and my best friend. How do I move past that?”

  “You’re not responsible for anyone’s choices but your own. You didn’t kill Shane, his wife did.”

  “I’ve never seen him so hurt,” he said. “He didn’t even need me to tell him. He just walked up, and I could see immediately that he knew. I felt in that moment that I wanted to die myself. Do you know the worst part, though?” Rilynne shook her head. “He forgave me. He actually told me that he forgave me for betraying him.”

  Rilynne reached up and placed her hand gently on his shoulder. “That should be the best part,” she said softly. “Not everyone’s able to receive forgiveness from their loved ones before they pass.”

  “He asked me how I could do it, and I honestly didn’t know what to say. All I could do was tell him it was never going to happen again, and apologize. I don’t think I have ever said sorry so many times in one conversation.” He picked his head back up and looked her in the eye. “How am I supposed to go on?” he asked. “Shane was the closest thing to family that I had. What am I supposed to do now?”

  “It’s going to take time,” she said. “Trust me, the guilt isn’t going to be something that will just pass. It’s something you’re always going to have with you. But in time it will lessen, and not hurt as much.”

  “You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” he stated.

  “I am,” she replied honestly. “But you have something that I didn’t have, which will make it easier.”

  “And what is that?”

  “You have a child to think about. Through all of the tragedy this past week, you can focus on the one good thing that came out of it.”