Page 64 of Such a Good Wife

Silent tears stream down her face. I already know what happened.

“I was walking over to Lucky’s on my break. I guess I didn’t see the car coming down Landry.”

I look at my feet and take a slow, deep breath. She watches me, my doubt in her story evident. She touches the blue rings above her collarbone when she sees me looking.

“Well, sounds like they’ll discharge you tomorrow. I can take you home then, if you want.” I trail her to the door. She looks at the ceiling with her chin quivering and tears welling.

“He came to the club,” she says, and waits until I walk over and sit down for her story. “I saw him with a woman—someone I had never seen before. It was a few days ago in town.”

“Who?” I ask eagerly.

“I don’t know. Brunette with nice shoes.”

My heart is racing when she says this and I’m greedy for more information, but I wait.

“He grabs at my stocking when I pass him at the club, tries to get my attention and I ignore him. I’m mad. But you can’t ignore Joe Brooks. It’s his worst trigger. He tries again later on—tries to buy a lap dance in the back room, and I turn it down. Girls can always turn down those requests. I had a break, and walked over to the truck stop ’cause I remembered I had to get bread and milk for Ronny Lee before I went home later. He followed me out, I didn’t know.”

“Jesus. Lacy, you didn’t tell anyone? The nurse or anything?”

“You still don’t understand. There’s no point. It will get worse.” She tenses up trying to raise her voice, then whimpers in pain, settling herself back.

“I’m sorry. I just—how is this possible? How can he get away with this? It’s insane.”

“It happens all the time. Not just me.”

“So all because you rejected him.”

Her answer is in her silence.

“I shouldn’t have fought back. He woulda just gone back inside, but I hit him back, and that last blow, he bent my wrist and got a good shot at my face, that’s when I got knocked out. He’s usually careful not to get a hospital involved, but he just left me there. Some guy driving past called the police, I guess.”

I hand her a tissue from the bedside table.

“I don’t even know what I can say. I’m so sorry, Lacy.”

“Worst part is, he’ll be back. He has to apologize now. That’s how it goes.”

“Did the woman you saw him with—did you see what she drove?”

“No. Why?”

“Did you get her name, or if she was from out of town?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her around. Why?”

I tell Lacy everything I’ve learned, about the photo linking Val and Joe, about the blackmail, about the flimsy alibi and what Cinnamon said about him being there that night. I tell her that I think he’s working with Luke’s ex-wife for the inheritance money, and I need to find out more. If I can prove an involvement between them—messages that are damning—I can...expose them. Something. Anything. She sits still, shocked by all of this information I’ve unloaded on her.

“Well, shit, I can get into his computer. I know the password,” she says.

“What?”

“Yeah, he thinks I’m too dumb to notice probably. The password is his birth date. And he stays automatically logged into his email and stuff. I could help you find out.”

“No. No way I would put you in a room with that sociopath on purpose.”

“Look, you helped me. Besides, he’s gonna call until he can apologize, so there’s no avoiding seeing him again. Only thing is, if he saw me do it, he’d...” She doesn’t have to say he’d kill her. I can tell she’s thinking over the details of how it could work. “It would have to be at his place because his computer is there, but I’m never allowed to stay the night at his apartment, so I don’t know how I’d do it.”

“I have an idea,” I say. “This will work. I’ll pick you up when you’re discharged tomorrow, and we’ll talk about it. Yeah?” I place my hand carefully on her arm and squeeze. She places her hand over mine. It feels like a secret handshake we are creating, a bond of trust somehow.

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