Page 40 of The Secrets We Hide
Emmy didn’t know what she was expecting him to say, but of all the possibilities, it never occurred to her that he would actually answer her question.
“Saturdays are pancake day. I cooked breakfast for the wife and kids. I was at home with them until around eleven-thirty, then I told them I had to work for a few hours, and that I was gonna swing by the hardware store to pick up some string for the weed trimmer on my way home.”
“Youtoldthem?” she repeated. “What did you actually do?”
“Swung by a friend’s house.” Reggie rubbed his jaw as he chuckled. “I’ve been catching a little side action with a lady who wishes to remain anonymous.”
It was mind-boggling that so many women found him attractive. “You know I’m going to need to talk to her.”
“You were asking about the lawsuit before. They left me outta the negotiations, and Allison was cagey about the number, but I heard she walked away with a hundred grand.”
Emmy needed to understand why Allison had done nothing with all that cash. “When was this?”
“Like you said, a couple of months ago. The city lawyers ran the numbers. Cheaper to make her go away than fight it.” Reggie shrugged. “Bill didn’t know about the money. She told him the lawsuit fell apart, that I lied in the deposition. Which was fine by me. I was glad she got paid. Gave her the chance to make a clean break. To start over with Mandy.”
Emmy couldn’t help but think of Allison’s voicemail. Maybethe planhad been based on the payout from the settlement. Emmy wondered what had made Allison back out. Legal fees would’ve cut the money in half. Still, with the cash in the blue bin, $350,000 would’ve gone a long way toward starting over.
She asked Reggie, “Did Allison tell you that anybody was hanging around Mandy lately?”
Reggie cut her with a sharp look. “Who was hanging around her?”
Emmy moved to her next question. “How did Bill feel about you screwing his wife?”
He hissed out a stream of air between his teeth. “Made our poker games a tad bit uncomfortable, but you know Bill was cheating on her, too, right? Like, even before they were married.”
“With whom?”
“Any gal he couldwhomit into.” Reggie shrugged again. “He’s a regular at the Dew Drop Inn. He says paying for it keeps things clean, but I wouldn’t call those girls clean.”
Emmy knew who Bill really paid. The Rawleys ran all the prostitutes in the county. She went back to Reggie’s alibi. “I need the name of the woman you were with when the shooting happened.”
“Let’s see how this little investigation of yours shakes out. My lady is a good woman. I don’t wanna blow up her marriage. Or mine.”
Emmy was damned if she’d take his word for it, but there were other ways to find out.
He said, “I know you wanna think Allison hated me after what happened on the job, but we still cared about each other. We were screwing around because we were bored, and it felt good. Neither one of us wanted anything permanent. She looked out for me. I looked out for her.”
Allison wouldn’t be dead if that was true. “Something changed between you two lately. A witness told me you stopped parking in her driveway a few weeks ago. I heard your regular ride got banged up. Kind of stupid to take one of your marked cruisers from the motor pool.”
Reggie scratched his neck.
“We’ve got it all on camera. Dates, times. Your fling lives on Dahlia Drive, right?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Me and Allison fell out a few weeks ago. It was nothing big. We always made up.”
“What did you argue about?”
“About the same damn thing we always argued about. Bill beating the shit out of her and Allison making excuses. He near about knocked her head off. Herniated a disc in her neck. She was having all kinds of pain down her arm. Couldn’t even take the trash out. I thought for sure that was finally it. She was really going to leave him. Then she starts weaseling around like, ‘I dunno, Reg …’” His voice took on a falsetto. “‘Bill’s a good provider, he loves Mandy, he gets in these moods and it’s my fault for not leaving him alone …’”
That sounded familiar, but Emmy wasn’t going to let him off the hook. “Bill told me you tried to put the fear of God into him.”
“More than once. Never did a damn bit of good.”
“Did Allison tell you she filed for divorce?”
“Yeah, after she found out Bill gave her the clap.”
Emmy felt her head spinning. “What?”
