Page 6 of The Husband's Secret
“No problem. I’ll see you in a few minutes then.”
She paused on her porch and watched through the vines and shrubs as he walked up onto his own and unlocked the door. Benjamin “Ben” Clark—that was his name. From somewhere in Illinois.
The house had been sold and he’d bought it online. She remembered him mentioning something about that the one time they had spoken across the fence from their respective backyards. Right after he moved in, she thought. If she recalled correctly, he’d moved for work and considered himself very lucky to nab this place and be able to move in without waiting for the owner to move out. An expedited closing date had been crucial. Funny how those details came back to her now that she thought about it.
Some days she wasn’t sure where her brain was.
Brenda wandered through her house to her daughter’s room, where she was still dressing and undressing her dolls.
Janey looked up and smiled. “Blossom likes her new necklace.”
She had the angel necklace draped around and around the purple-haired doll she had named Blossom. “I’m glad,” Brenda said. “The pizza will be here soon. Mr. Clark from next door is bringing it over.”
Janey scrunched up her face. “Mallory says our new neighbor is very handsome but strange.”
Brenda couldn’t help herself; she laughed. Then she cringed. “Please don’t say anything like that to him when he brings the pizza.”
Big blue eyes staring up at her mommy, Janey nodded. “Mallory says he kept waking her up when she spent the night. You know when you was at that place about the movie.”
“How did he wake her up?” Brenda went on alert. Mallory hadn’t said a word about any issues.
“She said he kept coming and going.” The four-year-old made a knowing face. “She’s a light sleeper, you know.”
Brenda bit the inside of her jaw to prevent the new laugh tickling her throat from popping out. “I’ll ask her about it.”
Janey turned to her other dolls and started talking for Blossom, inviting them for a tea party by the pool. Her new Barbie Dreamhouse had a pool.
Brenda walked back into the living room and checked out the front window. No sign of a pizza delivery vehicle. She might have time to call Tate Jenner’s wife. The idea of what the detective had told her still rocked Brenda to the core. It was insane, really.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and scrolled through her contacts. Since she only had Tate’s cell phone number, she called the number for the house. Two rings later someone picked up.
“Hello.”
Lena. The wife.
“Lena, hello, this is Brenda Devers.”
“Brenda.” She cleared her throat. “How are you and Janey?”
“We’re getting through one day at a time. You and Trek okay?” Their son, Trek, was seven years old. Brenda could only imagine how difficult this was for him. Unlike Janey, who still thought her daddy would come back one day, Trek understood that was not the case.
“Fine. We’re fine.”
A strained silence stretched between them. Maybe she shouldn’t have called.
“I was just wondering if you’d heard from the detective conducting the investigation into the explosion.” Brenda held her breath.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to get out of this conversation, but she’d needed to talk to someone else caught up in all this. Lena had lost her husband and the father of her child. They were in very similar boats. She and Lena hadn’t become good friends as Brenda had initially expected they would. They spent time together whenever their husbands arranged some work thing disguised as a family get-together. Their kids played together well…but she and Lena never really hit it off. Now they were both widows—
Except Scott might not be dead… The victim in the office at the time of the explosion they had assumed was Scott was not him. Shock and defeat sucked at her, forcing her to lower into the nearest chair. The whole idea was insane.
“My attorney, Mr. Harris Carlisle,” Lena began, then cleared her throat, “has advised me not to speak with you or anyone involved with the investigation.”
Her attorney? “You have an attorney?”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Brenda. Please don’t call me again.”
The call ended. Brenda stared at the screen. Why would Lena’s attorney advise her not to talk with Brenda? The officewas jointly owned by Scott and Tate. It wasn’t like Lena could sue Scott or his estate for damages any more than Brenda could sue Tate or his estate.
