“Do you know why?”
“Irene thought Leo married her mother for the money.”
“So, Luna starts to bring Leo to his appointments, and that’s how you got to know her?”
“I must have asked what she did for a living. She said she worked at Nyteq. I assumed she was using Leo’s appointments to get face time with me, so I was expecting a hard sell. Then, nothing. Luna asked a few questions about Leo’s care and they left.”
“What happened after that?” Burns said.
“I saw Luna at the hospital cafeteria one day. She was chatting with a few doctors. I asked about her. She had quite a reputation,” Sam said.
He almost laughed at the memory. Then he remembered where he was.
“How so?”
“Whenever you’re around a true salesperson, you know it, right? They’re all the same in some way. It takes a certain personality to do that job. Obviously, there are different versions of it. A used-car salesman and a Rolls dealer might comport themselves differently, but, ultimately, their energy is all about the attack. There’s a vigilance to them. Imagine if you walked into a car dealership and said that you were looking to buy and the salesperson said, Are you sure you need a new car? Have you considered buying used? Or if you want to buy a car and you point to a particular one and the salesperson tells you about all its shortcomings.”
“Are you saying that Luna had a rep for being a bad salesperson?”
“Unorthodox, at least,” Sam said. “I ran into her a few weeks later. She offered to buy me lunch. I figured she’d at least put in a mention of Ciphyxa. That was a new pain med on the market. Instead, she wanted to talk about medical ethics. An orthopedic surgeon prescribes a lot of pain meds. The ones that work, as you know, are highly addictive. Luna asked if I would ever consider placebo therapy. She said she had friends who were trying to actually get a placebo pill on the market. She sent me links to a number of studies. I was aware of the efficacy. But the idea that a drug rep would even mention placebo therapy was so insane and…charming. I asked her out. We started dating.”
“How long until you married?” Burns asked.
“A year,” Sam said.
“A man in his mid-forties, first marriage. What made you jump in so fast?”
Sam rubbed his tired eyes and took a long, slow breath. “I don’t know. Partly because being with her was a novel experience. It wasn’t like any other relationship, and that made me think it was right.”
“What was so novel about it?”
“She didn’t care about the things women usually care about.”
Burns focused her gaze at the man and smiled. “What do women care about?” she asked.
Sam often offended people. He could never quite figure out what he was doing wrong. “She didn’t care that I had money or that I was a surgeon. Other women, they cared.”
“How do you know she didn’t care?” Margot asked.
“Not long after we started dating, I got her a bracelet. It had diamonds. I don’t know. It was simple. Expensive. She was polite but firmly suggested I not buy her things in the future. I could also tell by the way she lived. I always got the feeling that she was burdened by objects. Buying stuff didn’t appeal to her.”
“I will refrain from commenting on your narrow view of women and jump to the next question. So, you married her because she was frugal?”
“I married her for many reasons. I loved her. Still do. We never fought about my character. She didn’t mind that I needed to be alone, that I liked quiet. She was the same. She didn’t ask much of me. Every woman I’d previously met wanted the big house and two children. But Luna didn’t give a shit about any of it. And I was tired of dating, I guess.”
“No kids?” said the detective. “So, you never wanted children?”
“I don’t know. I figured I’d have them eventually. But Luna couldn’t. And it seemed easier.”
“She couldn’t—meaning, you had tried?”
“No. She made sure she couldn’t have children,” Sam said.
“That’s unusual, wouldn’t you say?” said Burns.
“I think she thought that—well, you know.”
Sam questioned whether he was giving the cops this information as a good citizen or a retaliatory husband.
“She was worried about having a child like her brother?” Burns asked.
Sam had assumed that they’d learned about Luna’s past. He was grateful to have that detail confirmed. “She never said it outright, but I’m sure that was the reason,” Sam said.