Page 5 of The Husband's Secret
The better point was what he hadn’t said. He hadn’t mentioned Scott.
“DNA from the remaining victim was not a match for Scott.”
Brenda stared at him, her face pinched in surprise. “What?”
The fact that her mind had instinctively and instantly snagged on the idea that something like this was coming when Scott’s name wasn’t mentioned among the results did absolutely nothing to lessen the impact. How was this possible?
“Your husband was not one of the victims in the explosion.”
Brenda thought of the man at the airport, and her mouth opened to tell the detective as much, but no words came out. What he was suggesting made no more sense than the idea that she had actually seen her husband at LAX. If Scott was alive, he would have told her…surely. It had been three weeks. He would have come to see Janey. He would have been trying to salvage his business. No. This couldn’t be right. There had to be a mistake.
Definitely a mistake. This was impossible…wasn’t it?
Chapter Three
5:20 p.m.
Brenda had followed Detective Shelton to the sidewalk. She’d been too stunned to remain sitting down after the news he’d shared. For a good three or four minutes she had stared at the empty street after the detective drove away. In the distance the sun was slowly sinking down to touch the skyline of downtown buildings, but still a couple of hours remained before dark. She stared back at her home. Her daughter was in there playing, totally unaware of the news that would upset her world all over again.
Scott had not died in that explosion at his office. For the hundredth time she asked herself how that was possible. How on earth was she supposed to tell Janey?
Brenda blinked. Good grief, she’d forgotten to order the pizza.
Before she could turn on the sidewalk to walk back to her house, a car pulled to the curb and parked on the street just beyond where she stood. For a moment she braced for whatever insanity might be coming next…then she recognized the vehicle.
The new neighbor. What was his name? Ben…something.
Brenda waved, then gave herself a mental shake. She was supposed to be going inside. She took a breath and started forward, along the sidewalk leading to her small porch. The houses on this street were very close together. All built a hundred or more years ago. White picket fences and loads offlowers and shrubs. The cozy cottage style was one of the draws to the neighborhood. But even this place didn’t feel comforting just now. She felt completely alone, confused…and more than a little scared.
What did this latest turn of events mean? For all his flaws, why would Scott fake his death? Worse, kill two of his colleagues? He had an issue being faithful, but she had never once considered him evil…certainly not capable of murder. But the detective had vaguely insinuated as much.
“Ms. Devers, how are you?”
She paused and turned toward the sound of her neighbor’s voice. He had a nice voice. Calm. Deep. But it was his smile that set her at ease whenever she encountered him.
In spite of herself, she smiled back. “Fine, thank you.”
But was she fine? No. Far from it.
Not even remotely fine. But she had no desire to go into her personal troubles with this man—a stranger, really. He’d only moved in next door two weeks ago. She hadn’t even realized the house was for sale. She had noticed that it was unoccupied for a while, but no For Sale sign had gone up. She had imagined the older man who lived there was away on business…maybe pleasure. Honestly, her life had been so unsteady for the past year she barely noticed anything. Her neighbors likely thought she was a snob.
Again, she shook herself. She couldn’t quite seem to stay on track. Pizza. She was supposed to order pizza.
“I just ordered pizza to be delivered,” her neighbor announced. “Would you and Janey care to join me? It should be here any moment.”
When she hesitated, he tacked on, “I could bring it to you when the order arrives.”
Brenda found her voice. “That’s very nice of you, but Janey is kind of picky about pizza. She only likes cheese.”
A quirk of his lips and his smile was back. “That’s my favorite too. I ordered one cheese and one with everything.” He shrugged. “You never know when a neighbor might drop by.”
Brenda never dropped by on anyone, but she got it. He was attempting to be nice. All her neighbors were nice. No matter that she hadn’t found the time or the initiative to socialize with them, they had all found a way to show their support for her and Janey after Scott’s death.
Except he wasn’t dead.
As exhausted as Brenda felt at the moment, she decided to just say yes. Why not? She could use the extra dash of consideration just now.
“I was just about to order pizza myself so, yes, that would be very nice.” She hitched a thumb toward her door. “If it’s not too much trouble, maybe you could come to our place. I just got back home from a trip to LA and I’m totally spent.”
