Under Cover of the Night

by Diane Fanning

  Bob had the thankless task of taking them by boat over to the mainland, where they got into their car and drove the thirteen-hour trip nonstop straight back to Virginia that night.

  After that incident, Wesley grew overtly hostile toward Jennifer. He grew jealous of the time his wife spent with her and expressed his anger about it often. He even forbade Jocelyn to visit Jennifer.

  Jocelyn ignored his order, and in fact began to be more open in expressing her difficulties with Wesley to Jennifer—and she had a lot of problems with him, between his attitudes about money, his controlling behavior, his sexual demands, and their conflicts over the lake house, holidays, religion, and family. It seemed to be an endless source of conflict.

  • • •

  Wesley was pressuring Jocelyn to move out with him to the partially finished lake house so that they could work all night and all weekend long on the house. Jocelyn didn’t want to have to make that hour-long drive to work even if Wesley was content to make his slightly shorter commute. Additionally, she couldn’t see working on the house every single evening after a long day at work.

  Further complicating things, when a house two lots down from their home on Pine Bluff went on the market, Wesley borrowed $100,000 from his dad to purchase it as a rental property. He invited his younger brother, Tyler, to live in the rental, but then rented it to someone else, so Tyler moved in with his brother and sister-in-law. Jocelyn, who didn’t like her brother-in-law, believed Wesley had manipulated the situation to pressure her into moving to the lake house to get away from Tyler.

  In the spring of 2004, despite all the major construction on the lake house being completed, Wesley became more and more scarce at home on Pine Bluff Drive. Not wanting to be alone with Tyler drove Jocelyn to spend a lot of time at the Kernses’ house, to the point that she was eventually only going home to shower and sleep. Wesley made up a story for Jocelyn that being around his brother had resurrected repressed memories about bad things Tyler had done to him when they were growing up. He didn’t spell it out, but he left her with the impression that Tyler had sexually abused him, and said that he’d been in therapy because of it. Wesley told Jocelyn that he was spending his nights out at the lake house or in his office at Heritage High School.

  At first, Jocelyn took Wesley’s statements at face value and was supportive and willing to give him any help she could to “get through his issues.” Eventually, though, she chalked up the story about Tyler as just another one of Wesley’s lies.

  When Jocelyn did see him, he was more evasive, surlier, and more obsessed with finances. That summer, with his brother back on the west coast, Wesley changed his mailing address from Pine Bluff Drive to the house at the lake.

  But what was happening behind her back, the real reason for Wesley’s increased absence, was that he’d met someone new.

  • • •

  Wesley started dating Shameka Wright, a clerk at Big Lots, shortly after he met her when he’d gone into the store for some painting supplies. Shameka, an attractive African American woman, a few years younger than Wesley, was a former officer with the Lynchburg Police Department. Wesley told the detective that she’d lost that job because she could not pass the shooting proficiency test with her handgun, but according to that same investigator, she’d actually been dismissed for going to an airport and instigating a threatening confrontation while in uniform with a woman whom she thought was seeing her previous boyfriend.

  By mid-July 2004, the relationship between Wesley and Shameka was serious enough that they took a trip together to the Homestead, a well-known Virginia mountain spa. That fall, they took several trips together: to the New River Gorge in West Virginia; to Virginia Beach; and to Knoxville, to watch a University of Tennessee football game, then drove down to Gatlinburg; and also paid a visit to SeaWorld, among other places.

  In early 2005, Wesley and Shameka went to Florida and visited Universal Studios and the Daytona 500. They went to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a college basketball game; they traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, and toured Fort Sumter; and they went to Charlotte, North Carolina, to watch the Bobcats take on the Miami Heat at the Charlotte Coliseum. That summer, they went to the Great Smoky Mountains and toured the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, and later attended a Dave Matthews Band concert in Virginia Beach.

  Even when they both got new jobs and their relationship turned long-distance, the affair continued. Wesley accepted an assistant principal position at Oscar Smith Middle School in Chesapeake, all the way across the state in the Tidewater area of Virginia, and Shameka started with the human resources department of the Campbell County government and began work on her doctorate. Nevertheless, the couple continued to see each other nearly every weekend, getting together either in Chesapeake, at Shameka’s home in Concord, Virginia, or at Wesley’s Smith Mountain Lake retreat.

  • • •

  Jocelyn remained oblivious to all of Wesley’s getaways with his new love until one visit she made to the lake house, when she noticed unfamiliar hairs in both the bed and in the bathtub. She confronted Wesley and demanded an explanation.

  Wesley said, “That’s the cleaning lady, Shameka Wright. I met her in a suicide support group. She’s very overweight and unattractive but she desperately needed money so I asked her to clean the place.”

  Jocelyn was skeptical of his answer but still willing to do anything—to forgive anything—to save her marriage. She talked the situation over with Jennifer, who admitted to having been skeptical of Wesley’s faithfulness for a while. “He’s overly critical of you and everything about you. He’s being mean to you for no reason. He’s evasive when you ask a question. Like when you ask, ‘Where were you?’ he answers, ‘Where do you think I was?’ And look at him, he’s changed his appearance and his mannerisms.”

  Indeed, Wesley seemed to be on the hunt for more conquests, even in front of his wife. The Kernses once even witnessed Wesley engage in a blatant flirting episode with a waitress, in front of Jocelyn, and when the waitress walked away from the table, Wesley turned to Jennifer and said, “I bet I’ll have her phone number before dinner is over.”

  All the while, Wesley was dangling Jocelyn on a string, not acknowledging his new romantic relationship or the last gasps of his dying marriage. He claimed he just needed some time. However, when Jocelyn asked him to go to a marital counselor with her, he said, “I’m not sitting and paying some stupid asshole to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do.”

  After a search on Google revealed the location of Shameka’s parents’ Lynchburg home, Jennifer and Jocelyn started driving out at nights during the summer and often saw Wesley’s car parked there. One night when they spotted his vehicle in a parking lot, Jennifer pulled a slim-cut red leather jacket out of the passenger’s seat. Holding it up, she shook it and said, “Does this look fat to you? This girl is not fat.”

  Still, Jocelyn always wanted to see the good side of everything and she wanted her marriage to work. She didn’t want that failure in her life.

  Jocelyn also confided some of the problems in her marriage to her little sister, Laura, telling her, “Wesley won’t go to counseling.”

  “Then you should go by yourself. And you should keep a journal of everything that is happening.” Laura added, “Wesley is greedy and selfish and manipulative. He thinks whatever happens that is good is because of him and anything bad is your fault.”

  Jocelyn took the advice about keeping a record of events and began writing down her thoughts and experiences in wire-bound notebooks. Yet she still clung to the dream that the problems in their relationship might be resolved.

  Wesley told her: “I just need a little space. I’ve got to go on a new medication—the old one was causing a problem.”

  And Jocelyn believed him.

  THIRTEEN

  In the summer of 2005, a depressed Jocelyn Earnest decided not to make the annual trip to Canada with the Ke
rns family. Instead, over the Fourth of July weekend, her sister, Laura, came to visit, and together they went for a drive out to the house on Smith Mountain Lake.

  They stopped the car on the opposite shore, giving them a good view of the house Wesley had built—and of Wesley and Shameka Wright, carrying candles out onto the deck, then dancing to music only the couple could hear.

  Laura could almost hear the crashing sound of her sister’s heart breaking. But it still wasn’t enough to convince Jocelyn to leave him.

  “Laura, I am 70 percent sure that I want a divorce but I’m not ready to give up yet. I could forgive him if he would come back to me and help rebuild a life for the two of us,” Jocelyn told her.

  Seeking comfort, serenity, and security—and a respite from reality and its ugly truths—Jocelyn changed her plans and raced to join the Kernses deep in the Canadian woods.

  When she returned home from the trip, she honed her focus on work and staying fit. She lost a lot of weight and got very thin—one of the typical reactions of a wife who sees all her dreams for the future crumbling before her eyes.

  She still heard from Wesley, who sent an occasional email asking her out, flirting with her, and leading her on. Although they were living separate lives in different homes and Wesley had obviously moved on with a new relationship, he did not want Jocelyn to do the same. He wanted her to continue to believe they had a future. And it worked. With each contact, Jocelyn’s hope sprouted new wings and took temporary flight only to crash and burn once again.

  One such email Wesley wrote said that he was “on the absolute edge of committing suicide.” He complained about losing contact with his old friends and expressed a desire for Jocelyn to be set for life financially. He wrote that his feelings for her had returned when he restarted his career in Chesapeake. He said that he often drove past her house but had no intention of doing her any harm. “You are an incredible person—one that I am so very proud of . . . To see the hurt that I caused you is the most painful of all.”

  Jennifer told her that the reason for Wesley’s emails was simple. “He is just keeping tabs on you and your activities because he is a control freak. He wants to keep the wool over your eyes while he is hiding his assets and establishing his financial future.”

  Still, Jocelyn resisted the advice of friends and family and her own common sense. She took no steps to end the marriage that was causing her so much pain.

  She did start counseling, in the hopes that it would help her adjust and cope with the intense self-anger she felt for allowing herself to be controlled and manipulated for such a long time, and had her first session with Susan Roehrich, on July 13, 2005. In August, Jocelyn wrote in her journal: “If I am ever found dead, my killer is my cheating husband. Know that he killed me, because I would never kill myself. My guess is he shot me and then killed himself.”

  • • •

  When he moved to Chesapeake to take the position as assistant principal at Oscar Smith Middle School, Wesley rented a room in a home owned by Neil Phillips and his wife, Linda. He told the landlord that he was taking a new job in Chesapeake and his wife would be joining him as soon as he was sure the job would work out and he found a place for them to live. The Phillipses never met Jocelyn; it was Shameka who helped Wesley move in, and who came to visit every other weekend.

  Wesley soon became an unsettling tenant. When he habitually left the front door open, Linda spoke up about it. On one occasion, she followed him upstairs and Wesley went ballistic, cursing and shouting. He threatened to break her hand by slamming it in the door.

  Linda later told WVEC TV news that Wesley “didn’t like women who had any ability to assert themselves. He liked them very mousy and quiet . . . He was very vindictive. When you crossed him, he would get back at you whatever way he could.”

  In November 2005, the Phillipses had an argument that was overheard by Wesley. Afterward, Wesley told Neil, “Bitches like my wife and your wife should be dead.”

  That comment disturbed Neil. He’d had enough. He wrote an eviction letter, asking Wesley to pay his last month’s rent and leave. Wesley said, “If you give me any trouble, I will get even with you.”

  Wesley moved out on December 1 without paying for November, so the Phillipses kept the security deposit instead. In his vacated room, they found dirty dishes, empty beer bottles, a badly soiled mattress, and Wesley’s initials carved into the windowsill. And for some reason, he’d also flipped over the plastic floor mat under the chair at the desk so that the pointy side faced up.

  • • •

  In late summer 2005, Jocelyn had led a company-wide challenge for Genworth Financial, where new hire Marcy Shepherd was the training leader. As a result, the two women spent a lot of time together, working long hours. Occasionally, they went out after work for a drink or a bite to eat, and despite the stressful project with its tight timelines, there were moments of unabashed fun.

  Jocelyn was also very focused on getting fit at this time, and walking was part of her regimen. Marcy joined her in this exercise—their favorite variation was a three-mile circuit in Wyndhurst, a section of Lynchburg. They talked at length on these walks and often in great depth.

  Before long, Marcy had fallen in love with Jocelyn. During a telephone call in late October, Marcy asked, “If I kissed you, would you kiss me back?”

  That December, after the Genworth Christmas party, Marcy gave Jocelyn a ride home back home, and Jocelyn invited her inside. As they sat on the couch talking, Marcy leaned over and they shared a kiss. Afterward, they decided it was not a good idea. They were both still married and neither one wanted to violate their vows. The physical side of their relationship never went any further.

  • • •

  Separated from Wesley, Jocelyn grieved the loss of the relationship. At one point, she hired a private investigator who wrote her depressing reports about Wesley’s continuing relationship with Shameka Wright. Jocelyn knew there was little hope of resurrecting their connection, but still she hesitated to pull the trigger and file for divorce.

  Then, on an evening in March 2006, Jocelyn called Jennifer and asked her to accompany her on a drive out to the Smith Mountain Lake house. When they reached the lake house, they saw cars in the driveway and recognized one of them as Wesley’s vehicle. Jennifer parked by the mailbox, then they walked down the driveway to the house. The shades were not pulled down all the way, giving them a clear view of activity inside.

  They saw Wesley brushing his teeth and washing his face. Then he turned toward the bathtub and handed a towel to a black woman who rose up from the water. She then brushed her teeth and the light went out in the bathroom.

  As the couple moved into the master bedroom, Jocelyn and Jennifer moved around the deck to keep them in view. Jocelyn was cursing under her breath as she watched them climb into bed.

  “If that doesn’t prove to you what’s going on, I don’t know what will,” Jennifer said.

  “I know. I needed to see this and I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

  Jocelyn and Jennifer sat down side by side on some exposed boulders, watching the couple making love—although it took them some time to understand what they were seeing, given the pale illumination. When they did, Jocelyn grew angrier. “This is it. I’m done. I’m over this.”

  “How badly do you want him to know that you know?” Jennifer asked.

  “Real bad,” Jocelyn said.

  “You want to knock on the door?”

  “Fuck the door. I’m going to the window.”

  “Then, I’m going with you.”

  Jocelyn stood up and walked over to the house. Jennifer followed her onto the small deck by the bedroom. Jocelyn raised her hand and rapped hard on the window. She shouted, “I see you Wesley Earnest.”

  Jocelyn started to walk away, then turned back and banged on the window again. “Hey, how’s it going?”

&nbs
p; The two people in the bed sat up in surprise. Then the woman rolled over on her side. Wesley swung to the side of the bed and hung his head and shook it from side to side.

  The women outside waved and smiled at the pair. “Having fun?” Jocelyn shouted. “Enjoy!” With that parting word, Jocelyn ran back to the car.

  When Wesley turned on the light, Jennifer went out to the car. “You need to write this all down, Joce.”

  “I can’t. I have to drive. You write it down.”

  As they drove away, Jennifer pulled an envelope out of the glove compartment and wrote down the time and the date. She’d never written up anything like this before, but she drew on her training as a nurse, and so described the scene in clinical language: “Observed an undulating motion in a silhouette caused by moonlight coming down through the window.”

  Jennifer ached for the pain Jocelyn was feeling but thought that this was what her friend needed: a stark confrontation with the truth in order to move on with her life. And it seemed she was right—the change in Jocelyn’s attitude was instantaneous. She had been sad and a bit lethargic. After this confrontation, she was proactive and energetic, moving forward with everything she had neglected—including finally filing for divorce.

  In the divorce paperwork submitted to the Bedford Circuit Court that June 2006, Jocelyn cited Wesley’s ongoing relationship with Shameka, and in addition to adultery, she also alleged cruelty, desertion, and separation in excess of one year. Paragraph five of the complaint stated that “in 2004, the defendant began spending considerable amounts of time away from home. Frequently, your plaintiff did not know where the defendant was. The defendant often told your plaintiff that he was at their lake house in Moneta, Virginia, but plaintiff would call or go to the lake house only to find that the defendant was not there. When he was home at 1482 Pine Bluff Drive in Lynchburg, Virginia, defendant was wooden, distant, and uncommunicative.”