Page 60 of Her Dying Secret

I feel her head shake. “No, sweetie. We’re not dead.”

“Can we leave now?”

His shadow blocks out all the light around us. Before she can answer, he reaches down and drags me away from her. “Neither of you are going anywhere.”

FORTY-THREE

Deirdre Velis sat at the head of Denton police station’s conference room table, smiling at Josie and Turner. She was easily five or more years older than Seth. Her long silver hair was pulled back into a ponytail that sat low against the nape of her neck. Fine lines gathered at the corners of her brown eyes and around her lips. Her large cloth purse looked hand-sewn. The cream-colored sweater she wore over a simple white cotton shirt was worn with age. A smell of wood polish floated around her.

Josie had made the introductions while she and Turner sat in the two seats to Deirdre’s right. Turner had already spoken with Deirdre by phone, so Josie let him take the lead.

He flashed a smile. “Thanks for coming all the way down here.”

Deirdre returned his smile, although with no teeth showing. She folded her hands on the tabletop and took a deep, bracing breath. “I’m sorry I missed you last night. Thank you for speaking with me. I don’t watch the news, but I do listen to the radio and when I heard Seth’s name, I knew I had to call. We go way back. He was still in high school when we met.”

Turner’s fingers drummed against the arm of his chair. “No kidding. Guess those high school girls couldn’t compete with a sophisticated woman like yourself.”

Josie wondered if that was supposed to be a compliment, or if it was Turner’s backhanded way of asking if Deirdre had entered into a sexual relationship with Seth while he was still a minor. Either way, Deirdre kept her tight smile in place. “He worked summers on my uncle’s farm down in Fairfield. Nothing happened until he was old enough but yes, we fell deeply in love. We were together for many years. I wanted to get married. Settle down and have children. But Seth refused. He thought…well, he’s always had some problems.” She tapped a finger against her temple. “Here. He says it was from the service, but the truth is that he was starting to have some pretty strange thoughts before he went in.”

“Delusions,” Josie said.

Deirdre nodded. “Yes. The older he got, the more…entrenched they became. Now, don’t get me wrong, he isn’t some kind of monster. He’s not unhinged.”

Josie had a sudden flash of spittle raining down on her face while Seth tried to strangle the life out of her. The words ‘monster’ and ‘unhinged’ definitely came to mind, and yet, Josie wondered if there was something else at work that had caused him to escalate from his abuse of Mira to kidnapping and torturing her sister for the span of a year. Josie still felt they were missing something important. Rebecca had said something similar to what Deirdre was telling them.

Seth presents quite normally most of the time. He’s quiet, polite, pleasant. He’s not a monster.

Turner said, “You sure this guy isn’t a monster, because?—”

Under the table, Josie kicked her leg to the side, making contact with his ankle. He glared at her.

Deirdre said, “I guess I should rephrase that. The Seth Lee that I met and fell in love with decades ago was not a monster. Even when his…issues were at their worst, he was still the man I loved.”

“Did he hit you?” Turner asked pointedly.

Deirdre swallowed, looking down at her folded hands. “Yes. Sometimes. When he was extremely agitated, wrapped up in his…thoughts. When he got that way, there was no reasoning with him. Many times, I tried to make him get help, but he would never agree. I suppose I pushed too hard, because he left.”

“He left you?” Turner said. “As in broke up with you. When was that?”

“About ten years ago now, I think.”

Which meant that their relationship had overlapped with his and Mira’s. Josie said, “Did you know that Seth was seeing Mira Summers?”

Deirdre’s mouth pressed into a thin line. Anger flared in her eyes, but she kept her composure. When she spoke, her words were carefully controlled but Josie felt the undertone of fury. “I suspected. Seth would disappear for months, sometimes even years at a time. I had no way of knowing if he’d been faithful. Whenever I asked, he lied and said there was no one but me.”

“But he left you. At that point, he didn’t tell you about Mira Summers?” Turner asked. “Or their secret kid?”

“No. Never.”

By now Rosie would be ten. The end of Deirdre and Seth’s relationship had coincided with Rosie’s birth. Coincidence? Or was she too embarrassed to admit that she’d known? It was one thing to find out your man was cheating on you. It was quite another to find out he’d had a baby with another woman, especially when you had wanted to have children with him at one point and he had refused. “When is the last time you saw Seth?” Josie asked.

“Oh, just a couple of weeks ago,” Deirdre replied. “That’s why I’m here. We have been broken up for the last ten years but there have been times that Seth has come to me, desperate for money. His own brother won’t help him, or so he says. I felt badly for him so when he needs work, I let him do deliveries for my store.”

“Furniture delivery,” Josie said. “In a box truck.”

Deirdre smoothed her hair behind her ears even though no strands had come loose. “Yes. I pay him in cash. That is all he will accept. He doesn’t even have a credit card or a bank account anymore. I give him a list of items and the addresses they’re meant to go to and then he loads them into one of my trucks and delivers them. There aren’t a lot. I sell antique and vintage furniture. There’s not a high demand, but enough to keep my store open and to be honest, as I get older, it’s a lot harder for me to do that kind of lifting.”

“Does he ever help you with furniture repair?” Josie asked.

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