She had listened with fascination to his descriptions of his careful attention to all the sartorial demands of the corps, describing the importance of having his pants neatly pressed so that not one crease was apparent, and of standing in front of the mirror to make sure he looked “perfect.” Contrasting this fastidiousness with the slovenly man he had become and the chaotic environment in which he was raising their children evoked sympathy in Nancy, but not enough to negate her rage.
For Nancy, there is no doubt that Jeremy’s steadiness of purpose translated into qualities that she had been deprived of in her relationship with her biological father—and perhaps even her adoptive father. “Aha,” she may have imagined, “here, finally, is a man who will be as true to me as he is to his other loves—the Marines, the law, physical fitness.”
Her journal entries clearly revealed her state of mind and fluctuating moods, which varied from hopeful to despairing, and depended largely upon her weekly visits with Zeb and Isabelle. When she enjoyed a warm and comforting afternoon with them, her notations were infused with optimism. On these days, she drew strength from her attorney’s assurances that once a family court judge heard her case, he would rule in her favor and grant her sole or at least joint custody of her two dependent children.
These pronouncements served to quiet the anxiety she felt about the other reality her lawyer had raised: that a judge might very well frown on her voluntary departure from the family home, and the fact that she was living, unmarried, in a one-bedroom basement apartment with another man. It was hardly an appropriate environment for two impressionable preteens.
Nancy was not naïve.
She had no illusions about the uphill nature of her court fight and was painfully aware that her request for custody and child support could be persuasively challenged. But she also believed that once a judge heard her story, and learned of Jeremy’s violent tendencies, of the unending taunts, the abusive language, and the death threats, he would see her side.
Sometimes, the fights they had when she visited the children at home would escalate out of control, both of them racing to the phone to summon the police, tripping over each other to tell their side of the story to the uniformed officers of the city’s Second District. Yes, the children often witnessed these outbursts, but they had no way of knowing—not at their age, Nancy thought—what they really meant or the kind of devastating toll they had exacted on her mind and spirit. The only thing that seemed to stand between her sanity and madness was the journal in which she faithfully recorded her feelings each night when she returned to her basement apartment.
In an email to a friend, Nancy confided that she moved out of the house to save her life and the lives of her children.
“If I had not left, they might have witnessed my death,” she wrote.
Another email to a colleague described Jeremy: “He is a violent, possessive, terrorist control-freak, although I am out of the immediate path of his wrath he has spared nothing in his efforts to punish me financially and emotionally.”
Jeremy, meanwhile, continued to refuse help from his family, and ignored their repeated pleas to hire an attorney. Instead, he sought legal advice from his law school friend Don Boswell. During their conversations, he made it clear that his foremost concern was for his children’s well-being. Jeremy could not accept the man his wife had chosen as her lover, and that she was parading him around their neighborhood for all their friends to see, but he was not concentrating on her or her indiscretion. Instead, he remained focused on what he felt was best for Zeb and Isabelle, and emphasized that he would never permit his children to live under the same roof as Jim—even if a judge granted his wife sole custody. The idea of Jim Lemke playing the role of father figure to his beloved children was utterly unacceptable.
On April 16, 1999, Jeremy responded to Nancy’s legal complaint. In a two-page document that he prepared himself, he denied that he and Nancy lived separate and apart within the marital home for several years, and rebuffed Nancy’s claim that they last cohabited as husband and wife in April 1998.
He charged Nancy with abandoning him, the marital home, and their children, and accused her of engaging in “continuous marital misconduct outside the marital home” since approximately August of 1998. He claimed that beginning in January of 1998, Nancy “seriously impaired the physical and emotional well-being of Counterclaimant and her children by engaging in cruel conduct, including, but not limited to, alienation of the children, extreme verbal abuse, insults, threats, physical and emotional intimidation, and assault.”
In response to her claims for child and spousal support, Jeremy countered that she was “a successful, self-employed writer and author of a number of fictional romance novels [sic] which have been published by major publishing companies and distributed on both a national and international basis.
“Plaintiff also has a burgeoning business in manufacturing and selling expensive decorative object’s art [sic]. The Plaintiff has the financial ability to contribute to the support of all the children as well as the Crossclaimant.” Jeremy also pointed out that he had been the sole caregiver for the children since Nancy moved out in August.
In his Counterclaim, Jeremy asked that he be granted a legal separation on the grounds of “cruelty” and that he be given sole custody of the minor children with what he described as “shared physical custody.” He also sought child support for Zeb and Isabelle, and spousal support for himself. In addition, he asked the court to legally restrain and enjoin Nancy from alienating the children from him.
Even as the legal battle raged, Finny said that his father remained civilized in his dealings with Nancy. When she asked if she could take the children to Savannah, Georgia, to visit with her mother, he agreed to let them go—so long as she promised that Jim would not accompany her on the journey.
Nancy’s attorney said that his client seemed in good spirits and was looking forward to the upcoming court hearing, and the trip to Savannah that would follow. But to her friends, Nancy was painting a very different story, confiding that she was afraid that Jeremy was going to murder her. She recounted a conversation to some friends in which Jeremy told her that he would kill her before he granted her a divorce.
Even as Nancy was claiming that her husband was out to kill her, she continued to visit Zeb and Isabelle at the family home, and even brought her boyfriend and children to an outdoor fair at the children’s parochial school.
Members of the parish were aghast when the author turned up at the spring event accompanied by a man who was half her age. Many wondered who this strange man was. Gathering in small groups, they whispered about his casual blue jean attire, the ring that dangled from his earlobe, and the package of cigarettes that was tucked into the sleeve of his shirt. Others raised their eyebrows in recognition of what they suspected was going on, and in tacit condemnation of Nancy. Still others theorized that Nancy was acting out one of the scenarios she had entertained her readers with in her romance novels.
The parents at the school had noticed the clothes that young Isabelle had been wearing since her mother’s departure from the family home. Suddenly, the darling little girl who had always been attired in pretty dresses was out in public wearing halters and tube tops that showed off her bare belly, and tight stretch pants that they thought were inappropriate. Her long blonde hair always appeared to be in need of a brushing, and her infectious smile had been replaced by a sullen expression.
In part, Zeb and Isabelle were upset that their mother kept on promising them that she would come over to their house to make them dinner, but then cancel at the last minute in teary phone calls. “I can’t come over tonight,” Nancy explained between sobs. “But I can’t tell you why I can’t come.”
On April 27, 1999, a little more than one month before her murder, Nancy answered Jeremy’s Counterclaim. She denied her husband’s allegations of abandonment, but admitted that since August of 1998, she had lived separate and apart from her husband and children in a one-bedroo
m apartment also occupied by James Lemke.
In addressing Jeremy’s accusation of “continuous marital misconduct,” she stated that she could not deny or admit the claim since she did not understand what he meant by the term. But she disputed Jeremy’s assertion that her actions had seriously impaired the physical and emotional well-being of him and the children, and denied his allegations of abuse. While she acknowledged that several of her books had been published and distributed both nationally and internationally, and that she had recently taken up selling art objects, she refuted Jeremy’s claim that she was financially successful and independent. To the contrary, she stated that her gross income for 1998 from all of her business endeavors was $10,202.00, and that her net income was $1,913.00.
Finally, she rebuffed Jeremy’s claim that he had been taking sole care of Zeb and Isabelle since her departure in August, and further disputed his request for sole custody of the children. In closing, she asked the court to dismiss her husband’s counterclaim and grant her a legal separation based on her complaint.
In May, Nancy’s best friend hosted a party for her at her home near Georgetown. She wanted to give her an opportunity to showcase her evening bags and jewelry, and to earn the extra income that she so desperately needed. When Nancy arrived to set up her bags for the show, Emily could not help but notice that her friend had put on a lot of weight and was now close to two hundred pounds. Then Emily observed her helping herself to a Coke—something that she never would have done in the past. The two women had spent months on a strict exercise and diet regimen and always drank diet soda.
“You’re drinking soda with sugar in it?” Emily inquired, noting that her friend’s face was bloated. “We always drank diet soda.”
“Not anymore,” Nancy responded matter-of-factly.
Nancy broke down in tears when her friend suggested that they go back on their diet. “I haven’t gained any weight,” she insisted as she fought to control her emotions, and to conceal her anger that Emily had insinuated that she looked heavy.
Other friends of the couple began to wonder if something was amiss at the Akers home. They had often called to chat with Nancy or Jeremy, but their calls went unanswered.
Kathleen Karr recalled that a message she left for Nancy in April went unanswered. Jeremy’s childhood pal, Ray Walker, suspected that something wasn’t right when Jerry did not return the message that he left for him on the answering machine. One of the last times that Ray had visited with his elementary school chum was in 1996, when he and his wife had come to the District on holiday. It was during that visit that Ray was first introduced to Nancy and the couple’s three children. Ray recalled being surprised by the woman Jeremy had chosen to be his wife. With her hair slicked back neatly in a bun, and no makeup adorning her face, the buxom brunette was worlds apart from the slight “cheerleader-types” Jeremy had dated through high school and college.
Another thing that surprised Ray was Jerry’s knack for caring for his children. One afternoon, the former Marine showed up to take him and his wife on a tour of the city with Zeb and Isabelle in tow. Watching how patient and caring Jerry was with the youngsters seemed out of character for the man he had known for so many years.
Ray and Jeremy would call each other from time to time, never on any particular schedule, but when they had a moment to break away from their work. As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, Ray began to wonder what was going on with his friend. But he continued to think that Jerry would return his call at some point.
Jeremy even seemed to be trying to hide the truth from people he talked to regularly. His friend Tom Turchin would later tell a reporter that he had had several conversations with Jeremy over the months and his friend never mentioned that his wife had moved in with another man.
Near the end of May, Avery Drake, the young boy who had lived next door to the Akerses on 44th Avenue, spotted Nancy crossing MacArthur Boulevard with her children. Nancy had put on quite a bit of weight since Avery last saw her, but he recognized the kids almost instantly. He had often spent time with Zeb and Isabelle and their father at the park just up the street. Over the last few years, Jeremy had become a regular in their pick-up basketball games, and frequently spent time playing Frisbee with his kids, and romping with the family dogs.
But Nancy had a new man on her arm, someone Avery had never seen with either Nancy or the kids. He wondered who this person was, and what had happened to Jeremy. A few days later, he saw the young man again, this time as he and Nancy walked in the front door of the liquor store where he worked.
Unbeknownst to him, the couple lived in the apartment building right across from the store on MacArthur Boulevard. He watched as Nancy and her companion browsed the aisles, picking up a six-pack of beer and some inexpensive wine.
But Drake would not learn who Jim was until several weeks later when he picked up The Washington Post and read the front-page headline about Nancy’s murder.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
By 6 P.M., the temperature outside had dropped from a sweltering eighty-eight to a balmy sixty-four degrees. A thin, low-lying layer of clouds moved slowly across the sky as Nancy Richards Akers nervously waited in the living room of the Washington, DC brownstone which only months earlier she had called her home.
It was Saturday, the fifth of June, and Nancy was counting the minutes until her two youngest children bounded down the staircase and—she hoped—greeted her with the hugs and kisses she had missed so much over the past ten months. It was startling, even to her, that so much time had elapsed since she had escaped from her stultifying marriage to Jeremy and moved into a basement apartment with her young lover.
But the price had been high.
Nearly a month had passed since her last journal entry on May 10th. While anguish and anger usually inspired her writing, calmer times allowed the tireless novelist a welcome break in her non-stop entries. But the weeks leading up to June 5 had been filled with a special kind of torture for Nancy, leaving friends to imagine that the blank pages of her journal may have meant that she was too depressed to continue writing.
One friend recalled Nancy telling her that on some nights she was so exhausted that she threw on her nightgown, smeared some toothpaste over her teeth, looked at her wearied image in the mirror and fell into bed. But instead of falling asleep, she would find her mind teeming with snapshots of the day and with exploding thoughts of rage, frustration, and worry.
Starting in mid-May, Jeremy had begun a three-week campaign of new tortures for Nancy. Yet, no record of them can be found in her journal, leaving only her friends to describe what transpired during this most difficult time in Nancy’s life. Finny, her attorney, and her friends all painted very different pictures about Nancy’s relationship with Jeremy in the final weeks.
Finny recalled that his parents seemed to be getting along reasonably well until the day that Jeremy caught Nancy rifling through his office papers. Outraged, and convinced that she was looking for information to use against him in their upcoming custody battle, he forbade her from coming to the house when he was not there, and changed all the locks on the doors.
Nancy’s attorney said that he did not sense that anything was out of the ordinary. Beginning in early April, Alan Soschin noticed that his client had shifted her focus away from the day-to-day squabbles with Jeremy about their kids, and was concentrating on the legal details of her separation. She did not express any concern or fear for her safety. Instead, he recalled that she was looking forward to the upcoming mediation hearing and was curious to see how Jeremy would react before the mediator.
But one of Nancy’s friends contends that Jeremy was torturing her emotionally, refusing to take her calls and forbidding her to see the children. She even witnessed Jeremy’s increasingly odd behavior first-hand when he showed up at her home to pick up Zeb and Isabelle. When she answered the door, she said that Jeremy questioned her aggressively about Nancy, asking how often she visited, and angrily accusing her of enterta
ining Nancy in her home with Jim by her side. The woman explained that she cared about both Jeremy and Nancy, but wasn’t going to get in the middle of their marital problems. When he continued to confront her, she let him know that she did not like his tone and she told him to back off. Immediately, Jeremy shrank back and apologized.
By some accounts, Jeremy’s behavior seemed to worsen as the court date approached. Nancy’s friend remembers hearing from a mutual acquaintance about an incident in which Jeremy had harassed her while she was out for a stroll. The woman recounted how he had raced up to her on the sidewalk, and accused her of conspiring with Nancy and her friends to ridicule him behind his back. Standing just inches away from her, he ranted on about how Nancy and her friends were probably all getting together on a regular basis to talk about him, and laughing about what a loser he was. The woman grew scared at Jeremy’s paranoid thinking and listened as he continued to carry on about the imaginary meetings. Eventually, she was able to break away from him and run home.
It was clear even to Jeremy’s closest friends that the battle-hardened Vietnam veteran was coming apart at the seams. His business in shambles, Jeremy was losing his means of financial support. Worse yet, it was slowly becoming clear to him that Nancy was not coming back to him—ever. His children were all he had left, and he seemed to be on the verge of losing them, too.
Even Nancy sensed that he was a man on the edge. Weeks before the murder, she again confided in a friend that Jeremy had vowed that he would kill her before he granted her a divorce. Yet, she expressed her continued belief that her children were in no danger and continued to allow them to live in the custody of a man whom she said had verbalized murder threats.
Nancy told her friends that it was hard for her to believe that the man she had married, the man she had chased in hot pursuit clear across the country, the man with whom she had raised three children, had mutated into such a monster.
Fatal Romance: A True Story of Obsession and Murder Page 19