To several others, before she left, Jessica said she was going to D.C. for two reasons: one, to do research; two, to get an abortion. Why? Because no doctor in Birmingham, she claimed, or any of the larger cities surrounding it, would “touch her” again. As to who the father of the child was, Jessica never said.

“We all thought it was for an abortion,” a friend later commented, referring to the trip to D.C. “That she didn’t want any more children after having McKenna in 1992. I knew she was going with that guy, but I believed, or she made me believe, they were just friends.”

Jessica worked at keeping the few friends she had apart from one another. It was one more way to manipulate the people in her life. Because none of her friends hung around together, she could tell lies to all of them, and not have to keep track of each fabrication.

Throughout the call to Alan, Jessica said several threatening things that convinced Alan there was going to be a “violent confrontation” when she returned. And if there was one thing Alan Bates did not want any part of, it was an aggressive situation, heated argument or contemptuous exchange with her. Alan understood that a day or two of silence could help a situation tremendously. Maybe make room for a better solution. He never hit Jessica. He never raised a hand to Jessica. It’s safe to say, many of his friends and family agreed, Alan had never even thought about being violent with Jessica. Even after she attacked him, Alan resisted the temptation to strike back. Once, when Jessica was arrested for assault years ago, instead of defending himself, Alan held her down until police arrived. Contrary to what Jessica later told several people, there is no evidence to indicate Alan ever hurt her.

After Alan and Jessica hung up, he called his parents. “I must get out of here.” He explained how he felt Jessica was returning from D.C. on a mission to do battle with him—and he couldn’t deal with it. “I need to get the kids out of here.”

After a call to Robert, he agreed to meet Alan. He said he would take the kids and drop them off at their parents’ home.

Alan was on edge. Stressing over what was going to happen when Jessica returned.

“You okay, man?” Robert asked. He wanted to help.

“Yeah. Fine.”

Robert could tell the wheels were spinning. Alan shared his deepest feelings only with Joan, his mother, but always after the fact. At the moment Alan would handle things himself. The main point, what worried Alan more than anything, was getting the kids out of the house—and that was done. They were taking off with Robert to spend the night with their grandparents. Alan could handle Jessica.

Jessica walked in during the middle of the night. Alan was packing. He made it clear he was leaving. Getting the hell out of her life. This time for good.

“It’s over, Jessica. I’m through.” They had gone around this track before. It wasn’t going to work. The affair was the final blow.

Jessica paced. Then came that rage Alan later told his brothers about welling up inside her as she wore a hole in the carpet. Her demeanor changed. She was breathing heavily. Alan knew what was coming. The screaming and yelling. A fit.

Jessica—Kevin Bates explained later (both he and Robert got the story from Alan the following morning)—walked calmly into the kitchen. Reached inside a drawer and took out a chef’s knife. It was one of those creepy stainless-steel jobs that horror movie types, like Jason or Michael Myers, use.

Alan saw what she was doing and went for the door.

Jessica ran at him, screaming. She wielded the knife. Headed straight at Alan.

He managed to slam the door on the tip of the blade, he told Robert—as Jessica went to stab him.

The knife stuck in the door.

Boing!

Adrenaline flowed like a drug through Alan’s bloodstream. He wanted to turn around and confront her. Instead, he thought better of it and went for his vehicle.

“He left, and that was it,” Kevin Bates said. “The marriage was over.”

From Alan’s perspective, it wasn’t worth calling the cops and filing a report against his wife. He was moving out. He made plans to begin a new life—without this madwoman. The last two years had been torture on his emotions. The older the children got, the more corrosive the effect Jessica’s insanity would be on them.

It could not continue.

On Sunday, Alan, his father and Kevin drove to the house to collect Alan’s belongings. When they got there, the house looked as if someone had ransacked it. Jessica had pillaged the entire inside of the home, searching for anything belonging to Alan. She took every photograph, anything ever given to Alan by someone else, and either cut it up or smashed it with a hammer. The garbage can outside was full of destroyed items, many of which Alan had once treasured.

Alan stood over the garbage can and dug through it, salvaging anything he could, even if it was broken into pieces. The photographs were worthless—nothing but scraps of torn paper.

Expressing herself in this manner, Jessica showed how she dealt with the end of a relationship. This was her first serious relationship, as well as Alan’s. Before Alan said he was leaving, Jessica came across apologetic and sorry for causing the marriage any distress. She appeared willing to work things out. But after she realized it was over for good, she went into revenge mode.

Snapped.

The war had begun.

“Indeed,” Robert said, “from then on, it was Jessica saying, in not so many words, ‘I am going to do everything I can to make you miserable.’ Throughout this entire situation of the breakup, she tended to hide behind the kids and manipulate the kids, but it wasn’t just limited to that.”

The fact that Alan never played into Jessica’s drama, Kevin and Robert said later, or engaged in any abusive behaviors, either before the separation or after, “made her madder. But he would never even argue with her. He was a peaceful person. Alan would sacrifice everything of himself to keep everyone around him happy—and often did.”

Jessica was not finished playing games. She called Naomi, whose parents owned a Suburban SUV. “Can you come down here and help me move out?”

Jessica told Naomi that Alan had kicked her out of the house—that he wanted the house and she was going to give it to him.

“I actually helped her move into an apartment in Southside,” Naomi said.

According to Jessica, the separation was mutual. Something they had both decided on.

“We’ll likely divorce,” Jessica told Naomi.

After packing everything they could fit into the Suburban, Naomi took the girls and got into the vehicle. She told Jessica she’d wait. Alan happened to be there that day. Jessica said she wanted to say good-bye to him.

Alan and Jessica stood on the porch. Naomi watched from the rearview mirror. The amicable end of the relationship that Jessica had laid out on the way to the house made sense to Naomi as she sat and thought about it. She watched Jessica and Alan hug. Jessica even kissed him. They seemed friendly toward each other. Just as Jessica had said.

Great, Naomi thought, watching, this isn’t going to be one of those messy divorces. They’ll be okay.

Jessica got in. She seemed fine. Quiet, but okay. She was upset about everything, yet eager to get to her new apartment.

When they arrived, Jessica complained about pains in her abdomen. “My stomach . . . it hurts . . . I’ve been bleeding all day.”

The comment shocked Naomi, because she was under the impression that Jessica’s trip to D.C. was for an abortion.

“Are you okay? Can I take you to the hospital?”

“No . . . I just miscarried. Must have been all the heavy lifting.”