Page 34 of Forever Dark
“Like what?”
His eyes stayed on the table.“That I’d raised my hand to her once.”
“I thought you said you’d never hurt her?”Selena pressed.
“I… Look… Once.It was just once.And she ran off to the old man blabbing,” Dale said.“That’s how yer reputation gets destroyed.”
Selena and Connor waited for him to elaborate.Give a desperate man enough rope and he’ll hang himself.
Silence held until Dale forced the rest out.“It was one time.One time too many, I know that, so don’t look at me like that.She told Gus, and that old bastard convinced her to get rid of me.I’m sure of it!”
The last words cracked more than he wanted them to.
He put his head in his hands.
“But now,” he said into his palms, “I can’t make up for that.”
The trailer felt smaller then.
Whatever Dale Mitch had done in his life, whatever kind of man he was on his worst days, grief had found him cleanly, like it does everyone.Selena had seen fake grief plenty of times.People covering up their hate for lost loved ones, even their own guilt of being culpable.This did not have the right shape for that.Too ashamed.Too private.Almost angry at itself for existing in front of witnesses.But she could never discount a suspect until she had no choice.
She closed the notebook.
“Mr.Mitch,” she said, gentler now, “if anything comes back to you, anything Brenda said, anybody she was worried about, you call me.”
A card came from her pocket.She set it on the table in front of him.
Dale looked at it but did not touch it.“You think I killed her.”
Selena met his eyes.“I know somebody did.That doesn’t mean it was you.”
Connor rose.Selena followed him, leaving the card where it was.
No one spoke as they crossed the trailer and stepped back outside.
Daylight felt sharper after the dim interior.Wind moved through dead grass near the ditch.Connor took off his hat, ran a hand through his hair, then settled it back on.
Selena looked toward the trailer door behind them.“He’s got a prior for violence.We start our list of suspects with him.But he could be clean.”
Connor nodded, but not fully.“We should look into Gus Farley.”
She turned to him.“I agree.If Dale was a danger to Brenda, she might have told him something important.”
Selena considered that for a moment, then gave a small nod.“Lead the way, Sheriff.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Gus Farley’s house sat on a sagging stretch of road where the mailboxes leaned at odd angles and the porches all seemed to list in one direction or another, as if the whole neighborhood had spent years giving up together.
Selena pulled in behind Connor’s SUV and cut the engine.
For a second she stayed where she was, looking past the windshield.The Farley place was small and weathered, with pale siding gone chalky from sun and rain.A chain-link fence enclosed a front yard cluttered with old flowerpots, a rusted birdbath, and a wind spinner that turned with a tired squeak whenever the breeze touched it.One upstairs window had a blanket pinned over it instead of curtains.
Connor got out first.
Selena followed, shutting her door with a muted thud.The air smelled faintly of damp soil and overheating power lines that ran beyond the homes on this side of the road.
She looked up.At the far edge of the neighborhood, past a strip of scrub ground, an electrical tower rose against the afternoon sky.
