Free Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal by Ann Rule Page A

reply. She knew virtually nothing about what Bart had done and with whom he might have been involved before she met him. It hadn’t seemed to matter at first.
    In retrospect, it was easy to see what Jenn Barber saw in the man she fell in love with. Bart was handsome and muscular, with chiseled features, a man who knew precisely how to dress and how to approach women. As far as Jenn knew when she met him, he had had no serious relationships since he finished dental school. That was true enough—he had had no important public relationships. Sometime in his early career as Dr. Bart Corbin, however, Bart had begun a clandestine affair with a woman who worked in the business side of a dental practice where he occasionally moonlighted. It was a dangerous liaison. The woman was married, with two small children, and she was torn between her husband and Bart—who had led her to believe that she was very special to him, so special that he suggested that their lives would always be closely connected.
    Jenn knew nothing about this woman when she first met Bart. Almost certainly, she didn’t know about a different woman decades older than Bart who some would say was also engaged in a physical affair with him.
    No. Dr. Bart Corbin appeared to be a most eligible bachelor, and his meeting with Jenn Barber providential. He was a frequent customer at Barnacle’s; he made it a regular stop after he finished a day of treating dental patients. His younger brother Bobby worked at Barnacle’s as the doorman, and Bobby’s future wife, Suzanne, worked there, too. It was 1995 when Bobby introduced Bart to Jenn. She liked the fact that he was very tall. At six feet three inches, he could actually look down on her, something that didn’t happen very often.
    Bart was sometimes a bit inscrutable, but that made him more interesting, and he was certainly fun to be around. Like almost everyone who described Bart’s best trait, Jenn was drawn to his wittiness. He could offer a quick and hilarious comment on almost anything that came up in conversation.
    And Jenn knew that Bart stared at her when he didn’t know she was looking. That was nice.
    They began to date, and Jenn was in high spirits. Bart appeared to be happy, too, and falling as much in love with her as she was with him. When Jenn brought Bart home to meet Max and Narda, they were pleased. Although he was seven years older than Jenn, she and Bart seemed to be a good match. Max Barber watched Bart’s interaction with Jenn, and he was gratified to observe that the tall dentist seemed to care a great deal for his daughter. That was the most important thing to Max, who was very protective of his three daughters. As many fathers would, he liked the fact that Bart was a dentist, a professional man. He would make a good living in a “helping” profession.
    There was only one thing that Max found off-putting: Bart’s conversation was sprinkled with profanity. That wasn’t the mark of a gentleman, and it grated on Max. Still, as he came to know Bart better, he no longer noticed his swearing. He liked Bart as a future husband for his “Jenni,” and the two men had a lot of interests in common; they often went fishing or boating together.
    Of course Jenn’s parents didn’t know about the other women in Bart’s life. He kept that side of himself completely obscured. But he certainly did not give up his younger paramour. As it turned out, the older woman wasn’t around long enough to cause any waves.
    Jenn often confided in Narda, her father Max, and her sisters. But she tried never to tell them more than she thought they could handle easily. During her early courtship, there was nothing untoward to tell them.
    Narda was anything but judgmental. After Jenn and Bart had dated for a few months, she assumed that Jenn had probably stayed over with Bart on occasion, spending the night. Although Jenn currently lived at home with Max and Narda, she had lived with her former boyfriend.
    “Jenn was