Page 121 of Hell Hath No Fury

Her entire body sagged in surrender. “When we were still together, but I was starting to see Sonny a little more clearly, he must’ve sensed he was losing his hold on me. He was never good at letting go. Even worse when it wasn’t his idea. So he bought me the ring in an attempt to buy my affection.”

“Did it work?”

“For a time. He also promised to leave Ashley.”

“And his daughter,” Matthias added.

Fran met his gaze. “Yes.”

“You were okay with that?” Fergusson asked. “Him abandoning his child?”

“Okay with it?” Fran echoed. “By then, I wasn’t okay with much of anything, but I did consider that getting Sonny out of Daphne’s life might be the best thing I could do for her.”

Matthias caught the puzzled look on Fergusson’s face. It matched his own confusion.

“How so?” the trooper asked.

Fran’s expression darkened. “I told you. Sonny was cruel. Oh, he could be charming when he wanted something, but it was a cover.”

“Cruel how?” Fergusson asked, his tone soft.

“With me the abuse was verbal, but I have no doubt it would’ve escalated if I’d stuck around.”

“What about with his wife?”

Fran’s eyes shifted, not meeting either of the troopers’ or Matthias’s. “He beat the crap out of her.”

How the hell had they missed that? If Fergusson’s face was any indication, he was wondering the same thing.

“There are no police reports about this,” Fergusson said.

“Ashley would never report any of the abuse.”

“How well do you know her?”

“Very well. She was in our high school class, too, but I didn’t hang out with her back then. It wasn’t until after Sonny and I broke up. I asked her out for coffee. I wanted her to know about the affair and that it was over. I wanted to warn her to get the hell out of that marriage while she could.”

“And?”

“She already knew, and apparently I wasn’t the only one.”

Matthias was beginning to form a different picture of Ashley Jones.

“She put up with his infidelity?” Fergusson asked.

“I think she welcomed it. If Sonny was out catting around, he wasn’t focused on her. She told me that after he and I broke up, he gave her one of the most brutal beatings of their marriage. I felt horrible, but…” Fran shrugged. “What could I do? I wasn’t about to sacrifice my life for hers. I apologized to her. She understood. We actually became friends. I guess because she could confide in me. After all, very few people knew Sonny as anything other than an attractive, amiable guy who was once a high school football hero.”

Lukan had a hand pressed to his forehead. “Why on earth did she stay with this monster? You said you warned her.”

“I said Iwantedto warn her. Ashley shut me down. She told me all she knew how to do in life was to be Sonny’s wife and Daphne’s mother. Sonny only ever left bruises on parts of Ashley’s body that she could cover up, so she could keep up the image of being the happy spouse. Like that made everything okay.”

“What about her daughter?” Lukan asked.

“Daphne was always Ashley’s one big demand on Sonny. She told him she’d never report him or what he did… unless he ever laid a hand on their daughter.” Fran looked from Lukan to Fergusson before settling her gaze on Matthias. “She told me if he ever touched Daphne, she would end him.”

Fran’s words chilled Matthias. He’d bought Ashley’s role as a distraught, grieving widow. Fran offered another picture of the tiny woman in the pink hoodie. Now, Matthias tried to fit Ashley into the role of killer. Not only of her husband, but of Patrick Winslow and of Tina Neidermeyer. Could Ashley have moved Sonny’s body, dug a grave, and buried him in a torrential downpour?

The puzzle pieces didn’t fit, and there was something else Fran hadn’t explained sufficiently.