Page 47 of The Husband's Secret
Maybe she shouldn’t, but the explanation made Brenda feel a little better about that awful moment. “Thank you.”
Ginger surveyed the street. “I should get out of here.” She looked to Brenda again. “Good luck. I hope you guys figure all this out and no one else gets hurt.”
With that, she climbed into her car and drove away.
Brenda stared at the envelope where her name was written in bold strokes. It was Scott’s handwriting for sure.
“Let’s get in the car and get to your house,” Ben suggested.
She waited until she was in the car and Ben had pulled out onto the street, then she opened the envelope. It was a handwritten note.
No matter that she and Scott had not been together for so long, a sadness swelled inside her. Dirk Lanier had told her Scott was dead…for real this time. But Ginger didn’t seem to know it. Who knew?
Brenda,
I know this is all crazy right now, but I swear to you I tried to handle it. I wanted to protect you and Janey from this. Unfortunately, that proved impossible. When I was in real trouble and there was no way out, I called the Colby Agency.
Someone from the agency should be there with you by now. You can trust them implicitly. Butdo nottrust anyone else. No one. Please trustno one. Take Janey and go hide somewhere safe. The Colby Agency can help with that. I will get this straightened out, you have my word. I know my word doesn’t mean much to you anymore, but I swear to you I will fix this. Right now, I just need the two of you to stay safe. I will always love you both.
Scott
Brenda squeezed her eyes shut to stop the damned tears. She had thought she was out of tears for Scott. For that matter she couldn’t be sure that man—Dirk Lanier—was telling her the truth. Scott could still be alive for all she knew. This whole thing could be a trick.
Either way, she had to protect Janey, and to do that she had to protect herself. She was all Janey had left.
She called Mallory. Brenda tried to slow her respiration as she waited through ring after ring. The call went to voicemail. She waited a whole minute and called again. Same ring, ring, ring and then voicemail.
“I can’t get Mallory to answer,” she said, the pitch of her voice rising with each word. “I left her a message this morning, but she hasn’t called me back.”
Ben braked for a red traffic light. “Take a breath and tell me what the letter said.”
She closed her eyes and struggled with the mounting panic. “He told me how sorry he was and how he’d called your agency. But the really important part is that he said I should not trust anyone but you and your agency. No one else. Now I’m worried that I shouldn’t have trusted Mallory. I’ve always been able to trust her, but with all that’s happened…”
Her heart raced harder. She couldn’t catch a full breath.
“Okay.” The light changed, and he accelerated away from the intersection. “Does Mallory have any family here?”
“Yes, her mother and father.”
“Call whichever one you can reach and see if they’ve heard from her.”
“Okay. Good idea.” She should have thought of that. A quick scroll through her contacts and she found Mrs. Lawrence’s number. She placed the call, then waited through first one, then two, then a third ring. The call went to voicemail. The panic surged once more. “No answer.”
“What’s her address?” he asked. “Some people don’t keep their cell phones handy all the time.”
Brenda recited the address, then tried the number again. Still no answer.
“Does she have a house phone?”
Brenda shook her head. “I don’t know.” Her heart ached with each rapid thud against her breastbone.
Thankfully Mrs. Lawrence lived on the Oakwood side of Five Points, so it didn’t take long to reach her house. A car in the driveway gave Brenda hope there was someone home. Ben was likely right. Mrs. Lawrence might not keep her phone attached to her the way Brenda did.
She and Ben got out together and walked to the door. While Ben knocked—there was no doorbell—Brenda peeked through a front window. Couldn’t help herself. She was worried sick.
Charlene Lawrence sat in her recliner, mouth open, eyes closed. Fear shot through Brenda like a spear. “Oh my God, she looks dead.”
Ben leaned over and had a look through the window. “I think I see—”
