Chapter 2 #2
She thought about it and shrugged. “I don’t know this Richard guy anywhere near as well as I know Debbie.
I’d not met him before the weekend, so I don’t know if he went through the same kind of change or not.
He did appear to be just as smitten with her as she was with him. That much I’m sure of.” She sighed.
“At the beginning, I was thrilled for her. It seemed as if she’d really made a connection, but then this demon child inside her emerged, as if it had been waiting for the right circumstance to finally get out and to be the absolute worst person she could be.”
Eric studied her closely.
Eden shook her head. “Yeah, I know. I sound as if I’m the worst person ever, saying something bad about Debbie, now that she’s dead. God help me, that’ll be brutal when I go into work. I just won’t say anything. That’s probably the best way to handle it.”
“Not say anything about what?”
“About the personality change,” she replied. “Although my boss is likely to ask a million questions as to why Debbie quit on him, and then he’ll be looking for more of an explanation. I don’t know what I’ll tell him.”
“Since she is now deceased, I don’t think there’ll be very much in the way of explanations for anybody.”
She stared at him, and it suddenly hit her. This person she had spent so much time with, this best friend who she had had a huge falling out with, was dead—even though Eden still now hoped they could get beyond it.
Not just ill, or missing, but dead. Debbie was gone.
Eden sat back, tears welling in her eyes. “I know that you don’t believe me and that you have absolutely no reason to, but I’m telling you something is very wrong here.”
He tapped his finger on the table, but it was more of a thoughtful I’m-thinking-about-this kind of thing.
She couldn’t even be sure that he was thinking as much as he was figuring out how to exit the house of this crazy woman. “I don’t have any answers for you. I haven’t a clue what happened to her,” she added.
“But you do know that I have to ask.”
“Ask what?” she said, bewildered. “Go ahead and ask.”
He nodded. “Where were you last night? Up until I called you?”
She stared at him blankly for a moment and then flushed, knowing exactly what he was asking her. “Meaning, did I kill her?” she asked baldly.
“Meaning that, if foul play were involved and if what you’re saying is correct, you’re the one with the motive.”
“What?” she asked, shocked at how quickly that had turned around on her.
“Because she chose a man over me? Good God.” She laughed, sounding a bit hysterical.
“Women have been doing that since the beginning of time.” She took a deep breath.
“And, just to let you know, if I would kill anybody, it probably would have been him.”
“You don’t like him?”
She wasn’t even sure how to explain the reaction she had to Richard.
“I don’t know if I don’t like him because I don’t even know him.
I don’t have any idea who he was as a person, but I had an off feeling about him.
The way Debbie responded to him was alien to me, even for her, and it was just compounded by the strange way that it escalated. ”
“And yet you told me that initially you were thrilled for her.”
“Yes. Because she was so happy, and it looked as if she had met somebody who thought well of her, the same as she thought of him. But soon enough it seemed that it was going way too fast, and she needed to slow down and to take a step back.”
Then she stopped, took a deep breath, and continued.
“As I told you earlier, she has done this before. Fallen fast, I mean. To the point that she’s given up her previous spaces and has moved in with various boyfriends, only to have them beat the crap out of her, dump her outright, or bring another girlfriend home and throw Debbie out on the street.
I just wanted her to slow down and to confirm this wouldn’t be a repeat of those relationships. ”
“How many times would you say that’s happened?”
“Three recent breakups. I know at least two of her other friends would back me up on that because we’ve all pitched in to get her moved on from bad situations.
” Eden took a deep breath to calm herself.
“I don’t know how to explain that part of her life.
It’s as if she vibrated at a level where she attracted a certain type of men. ” She frowned. “Sounds stupid, right?”
“Are you trying to say that she attracted men who mistreated her?”
“Is that even possible?” she asked, staring at him.
“You tell me.”
“What’s that saying about water? Something about water finds its own level.
I was hoping, because she’s been free and clear for the last few months—as in not dating—that she saw things more clearly now,” she explained.
“We just thought that maybe she was working on herself and looking for men who were a little more stable, a little more normal. Not the kind who would put her in the hospital again.”
“Did she ever press charges on the ones who put her in the hospital?”
“Oh God no.” Eden rolled her eyes. “She never wanted to be the kind of person who would do that, and I think the men knew it too.”
Eden continued. “Debbie’s also never had kids, for which I am grateful.
I was always there for her,” she whispered, her tears welling up again.
“But I feel like this time I failed her somehow, though I don’t know what I was supposed to do.
I tried to get her to slow the hell down, to give them some time to get to know each other before she quit her job and moved in with him. ”
Eric nodded in apparent sympathy.
“I couldn’t believe it when she told me she’d already texted her boss and quit. Who does that?” she asked, staring at him. “She hadn’t even known Richard a whole weekend.”
“When did this relationship start?”
“Right after the meet and greet. Debbie and I spoke a couple times, and she was already making life-changing decisions. Considering her history, I couldn’t trust him or her.
I was never invited to share coffee, a drink, or a meal with them or anything.
In fact, she used my warnings to point out that I was bitter and jealous instead. ”
He pulled out a notebook and wrote down something as she continued.
“I was really concerned for her. She seemed hypnotized or something.” Eden raised her hands, her palms showing.
“I was hoping that this Richard guy—who was promoting self-care, wellness, and all these good things—might be a different sort than the men who Debbie normally hangs out with. But I couldn’t possibly tell you if he is a good man or not.
This all happened over the course of a weekend. That’s all it took for Debbie.”
Realizing that she was starting to babble, she shook her head.
“Look. I was here last night. I was alone. I don’t have an alibi.
I talked to my mom at—” She pulled out her phone and showed him her call history.
“There, it was like nine o’clock last night.
She laughed at me and told me it would all blow over.
To give Debbie six weeks and she would come back, crying again, like she does every time.
Debbie did call me twice …” She again checked her call history.
“I didn’t answer,” she admitted. “I was too upset and didn’t want to hear any more ugliness. ”
“I’m sorry about that,” Eric replied, putting down his notebook. “I’m also sorry for the fact that she won’t be coming back after six weeks. This time her disappearing act is permanent.” With that, he stood and walked to the front door.
Eden trailed behind him, not even sure what to say in response to that last comment of his, which struck home in a way that she hadn’t really expected it to.
And of course it was true, but Eden didn’t have anything to do with her friend’s death.
All she could think about now was the fact that, if she had been more overjoyed about the new relationship, Debbie would be alive today.
She looked over at Eric and asked, “Will you let me know the autopsy results?”
He frowned and asked, “Does she have any family?”
“No.” Then she winced. “Debbie told me that she had named me as the executor of her estate. This was years ago. I presume it remains the same.”
“In that case,” Eric noted, “I will see that you get a copy of the autopsy, if and when we get to the bottom of this. Did she have anything worth giving away?”
“I don’t think so. I never saw any signs of wealth.”
“There might be something in her bank account. She’s been working for a few years, hasn’t she?”
“Yes, but it won’t be very much. She had a spur-of-the-moment boyfriend who thoroughly cleaned out her bank account. The last one actually,” she clarified, “and we all lent her enough money to get into another apartment, away from him.”
“And she never paid you back?”
“We didn’t ask for it back. At least I didn’t. I assumed she didn’t have it.” She took a deep breath. “So, when I go to work today, am I to tell my boss, or will you contact him?”
“I will be contacting him as a matter of course,” Eric shared, “but you can tell him the news. I’m here because you’re about the only name in her address book.”
She stared at him, shook her head, and muttered, “We got her a new one after she got a new phone. After the last boyfriend, it was necessary because he was a … Let’s just say that it was pretty ugly.”
“So that’s another question. If this is foul play—and I don’t know that it is, so keep that in mind—but would this last boyfriend have done anything if he found out Debbie was head over heels with this new guy?”
She stared at him in shock, then sank down into the nearest armchair. Nodding slowly, she said, “Honestly, he might. I just … don’t know how he would have known about her new apartment.”