Page 31 of The Husband's Secret
Ben focused on the road as it wound up the mountainside, rising to the top and rolling into an elite housing development.
“Do you have a key?”
“Yes. I’ve only been here a couple of times, but he gave me one. For Janey, I guess. Just keep following Ledges Drive until you reach Ledge View, then turn right. After that it’s the first house on the left.”
The houses were large, the lots estate sized. Ben wasn’t surprised. Scott Devers had a history of living large. He liked excessively expensive sports cars and, clearly, elegant mansionssurrounded by other elegant mansions. The contrast between him and Brenda was stunning.
“Turn into the driveway and I’ll get out and open the garage door.”
Ben followed her instructions, waiting with the engine running as she entered the code for one of three garage doors. When it opened, she stepped aside and motioned for him to pull inside. Smart decision. It was better to avoid being noticed if possible.
Once he was inside, he shifted into Park and shut off the engine. The door closed behind him. As he emerged, he noted the workout area in one of the other bays. All state-of-the-art equipment. In the third bay was a vintage Porsche. Again, Ben noted the astounding difference between Scott and Brenda.
Brenda waited at the entrance door to the house.
“I assume you have the security code in case the alarm is activated.”
She nodded. “I do.” She unlocked the door and walked in.
Ben stayed close behind her. The house was dark save for lights from appliances and electronics and the meager remaining daylight filtering through the plantation shutters. Quiet too. No signal the alarm required a code.
“I guess the police called for the alarm to be turned off,” she said. “They certainly didn’t call me asking for a code.”
“That’s the usual protocol,” Ben offered. “I should go first as we walk through.”
She waited for him to walk past her. He used the flashlight app on his phone as he went. Just enough extra light to see clearly. No need to alert the neighbors.
The kitchen was large, modern. Lots of gleaming white and polished stainless steel. High-end commercial-grade appliances the man likely never used. Rich hardwood floors. Posh furniture.
They moved beyond the dining room into the massive great room with its view looking out over the infinity pool and the cliffs behind the house. The sun was fading, sending long shadows across the treetops.
“Any place in particular you believe we should look?” Signs the police had done their work were everywhere. They had taken the place and everything inside it apart.
She surveyed the chaos. “You mean someplace they haven’t already looked?”
He laughed, or attempted to. “If such a place exists, yes.”
“I suppose we can just keep going from room to room and maybe something will pop out at me.”
Room by room, they plowed through the mess left by the official search. Then up the grand staircase to the bedrooms, where they did the same there. They checked for hidden places in souvenirs Scott had purchased in South America on one of his many trips. But none had secret openings or false bottoms.
If the man had any evidence hidden here, it was long gone. They found nothing. No messages written on the walls. Not one thing.
Outside on the rear patio, Brenda stared out over the lights below. Darkness had fallen, so the lights from the city in the valley beneath them were all there was to see, other than a few stars overhead. Gas streetlamps flickered along Ledge View Drive, but their glow was dim. He suspected not diminishing the starlight was the point.
“We should go,” he suggested. There was nothing more to do here.
She had to be exhausted, emotionally and physically.
“This was what he always wanted.” She turned to Ben. “This glamorous lifestyle. Bragging rights.”
Scott Devers had grown up a poor kid on a farm in the tiny community of Princeton, Alabama. He’d done well for himself…until a couple of years ago.
But money hadn’t been his only obsession.
Ben’s attention settled on the woman standing so close. Her husband hadn’t appreciated her…hadn’t respected her. That, in Ben’s opinion, was where his long line of bad choices had begun.
She gazed out over the valley below once more. “I hope for Janey’s sake he doesn’t end up dead again. I don’t want to have to explain that to her.”
