Chapter Three
Brenda had followed Detective Shelton to the sidewalk.
She’d been too stunned to remain sitting down after the news he’d shared.
For a good three or four minutes she had stared at the empty street after the detective drove away.
In the distance the sun was slowly sinking down to touch the skyline of downtown buildings, but still a couple of hours remained before dark.
She stared back at her home. Her daughter was in there playing, totally unaware of the news that would upset her world all over again.
Scott had not died in that explosion at his office. For the hundredth time she asked herself how that was possible. How on earth was she supposed to tell Janey?
Brenda blinked. Good grief, she’d forgotten to order the pizza.
Before she could turn on the sidewalk to walk back to her house, a car pulled to the curb and parked on the street just beyond where she stood. For a moment she braced for whatever insanity might be coming next…then she recognized the vehicle.
The new neighbor. What was his name? Ben…something.
Brenda waved, then gave herself a mental shake.
She was supposed to be going inside. She took a breath and started forward, along the sidewalk leading to her small porch.
The houses on this street were very close together.
All built a hundred or more years ago. White picket fences and loads of flowers and shrubs.
The cozy cottage style was one of the draws to the neighborhood.
But even this place didn’t feel comforting just now.
She felt completely alone, confused…and more than a little scared.
What did this latest turn of events mean? For all his flaws, why would Scott fake his death? Worse, kill two of his colleagues? He had an issue being faithful, but she had never once considered him evil…certainly not capable of murder. But the detective had vaguely insinuated as much.
“Ms. Devers, how are you?”
She paused and turned toward the sound of her neighbor’s voice. He had a nice voice. Calm. Deep. But it was his smile that set her at ease whenever she encountered him.
In spite of herself, she smiled back. “Fine, thank you.”
But was she fine? No. Far from it.
Not even remotely fine. But she had no desire to go into her personal troubles with this man—a stranger, really.
He’d only moved in next door two weeks ago.
She hadn’t even realized the house was for sale.
She had noticed that it was unoccupied for a while, but no For Sale sign had gone up.
She had imagined the older man who lived there was away on business…
maybe pleasure. Honestly, her life had been so unsteady for the past year she barely noticed anything.
Her neighbors likely thought she was a snob.
Again, she shook herself. She couldn’t quite seem to stay on track. Pizza. She was supposed to order pizza.
“I just ordered pizza to be delivered,” her neighbor announced. “Would you and Janey care to join me? It should be here any moment.”
When she hesitated, he tacked on, “I could bring it to you when the order arrives.”
Brenda found her voice. “That’s very nice of you, but Janey is kind of picky about pizza. She only likes cheese.”
A quirk of his lips and his smile was back. “That’s my favorite too. I ordered one cheese and one with everything.” He shrugged. “You never know when a neighbor might drop by.”
Brenda never dropped by on anyone, but she got it. He was attempting to be nice. All her neighbors were nice. No matter that she hadn’t found the time or the initiative to socialize with them, they had all found a way to show their support for her and Janey after Scott’s death.
Except he wasn’t dead.
As exhausted as Brenda felt at the moment, she decided to just say yes. Why not? She could use the extra dash of consideration just now.
“I was just about to order pizza myself so, yes, that would be very nice.” She hitched a thumb toward her door. “If it’s not too much trouble, maybe you could come to our place. I just got back home from a trip to LA and I’m totally spent.”
“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 office was 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.
Unless she already knew that Scott wasn’t dead and maybe the police now saw him as the primary suspect.
Brenda almost called her back, but she didn’t. Instead, she called Detective Shelton.
“Shelton,” he said rather than hello. The sound of traffic told her he was still on the road. Maybe headed home by now.
“Detective Shelton, this is Brenda Devers. I’m sorry to bother you but I just called Lena Jenner, and she said her attorney advised her not to talk to me.
Do you have any idea why she would get that kind of advice?
Scott and Tate were partners in the business and in the office.
I can’t imagine why she would see me as some sort of enemy.
” She just couldn’t fathom what was going on.
A sigh hissed across the line. Brenda braced herself for news she obviously wasn’t going to want to hear.
“Since your husband was not in the office at the time of the explosion, even though his car being in the parking lot and the fact that he told you he had a meeting there implied he was, it suggests…”
He didn’t have to say the rest. “You think Scott arranged for this man to be in the office and to die in his place.” Dear God, there was no longer any way to ignore where this was going.
“There is no reason to believe otherwise,” Shelton pointed out.
It was true then. The victim was a presumed setup and the detective believed Scott had arranged for him to be there.
“Why would he do that?” Brenda couldn’t fathom the reason. Scott had life insurance, but how would that benefit him if he was supposed to be dead?
“There was a business policy in place. If anything happened to one or both partners, all debts and damages were covered. It appears,” he said with audible reluctance, “the business was in deep financial trouble.”
“What? No. He bought a house last year. How could he be in financial trouble?”
“The house on The Ledges,” Shelton said, “was leased. Not purchased.”
A new wave of shock radiated through her.
Brenda didn’t know what to say. “Okay,” she finally managed to get out.
“Scott and Tate were partners. If the business was in trouble, that would involve both of them.” She couldn’t stop thinking about how Lena refused to speak with her…
had retained an attorney. A big-deal attorney at that.
“Ms. Devers, the bottom line is that your husband, Scott,” Shelton explained, “is no longer a victim in this investigation.”
Her breath left her in a rush as the reality of the situation sank fully in. “He’s a suspect.” The words croaked out of her, no matter that she had known this was coming.
“Yes.”
“Who was the other man—the one I buried.” This was too much.
“We don’t know yet,” Shelton explained. “But you should be aware that given this latest turn of events, we’ll be applying for a warrant to search your home, Ms. Devers. Your bank accounts will be frozen.”
“Wait, we’ve been separated for a year. We each have our own bank account.” This was not right.
“The two of you were still married. There’s not a lot more I can tell you, Brenda.” That he used her first name had her going cold. “My advice? Go to an ATM and take out as much cash as you can as quickly as you can.”
The call ended and Brenda simply sat there for a time.
This had to be wrong. A mistake of some sort.
Why would Scott kill his partner and arrange for someone else to die in his own place?
Was he trying to outmaneuver their creditors?
Surely they weren’t mixed up with loan sharks. It was ridiculous to even think…
No matter how she analyzed what she had just learned, the truth was Brenda knew nothing of Scott’s business dealings.
He did his thing and she did hers when it came to careers.
She was aware his company was an investment firm, but she had no idea about the details or the clients.
In fact, she actually knew very little about Scott’s partner, Tate.
Or his wife. She just assumed…too much apparently.
She had made a terrible, terrible mistake allowing herself to be so oblivious.