He doesn’t like her. He doesn’t like either one of them. He considers getting up and leaving. He knows he’s within his rights to do so – he’s here voluntarily.
Moen continues to goad him. ‘You haven’t asked who was having an affair with your wife.’
‘Maybe because I don’t want to know,’ Robert says bluntly.
‘Or maybe it’s because you know already?’ Webb suggests.
Robert gives the detective a hostile look. ‘Why would you say that?’
‘We think she was sleeping with your neighbour, Larry Harris.’
He is suddenly furious, but tries to tamp down his anger. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘Sure, you didn’t,’ Webb says pleasantly. ‘That’s not why you slept with Becky Harris, is it, to get back at your wife’s lover? You wouldn’t do that, would you? Just like you wouldn’t kill your wife.’
Chapter Nineteen
GLENDA WAITS IN the Bean for Olivia. She’s late. Glenda glances at her watch again and wonders what’s keeping her. It’s not like Olivia to be late for anything.
Finally she arrives, flustered, and approaches. Glenda has deliberately chosen a table where they can’t be overheard. Looks like maybe that’s a good thing.
Olivia sits down. She’s obviously upset. ‘What’s wrong?’ Glenda asks.
‘You have to promise me you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you,’ Olivia says nervously. ‘Not even Keith.’
Glenda sits up straighter. ‘Of course. I promise. I don’t tell Keith a lot of stuff we talk about anyway. What is it?’
Olivia lowers her voice and says, ‘Becky Harris seems to think Paul might have been having an affair with Amanda.’
Glenda feels a shock run along her spine. She stares at Olivia in dismay. ‘Why would she think that?’
As Olivia explains, Glenda tries to process everything she’s hearing about Olivia’s earlier conversation with Becky. But it’s hard to square with the man she’s known for years. ‘Paul wouldn’t cheat on you,’ Glenda says. ‘I simply don’t believe it.’
‘Me neither,’ Olivia says, her voice fraught with emotion. ‘But why isn’t Paul telling me these things? Why didn’t he tell me he spoke to Amanda? Why didn’t he tell me he thought Larry was having an affair with her? Why didn’t he tell me he was questioned by the police?’
Glenda hears the growing hysteria in Olivia’s voice. ‘I don’t know,’ she says uneasily.
‘I thought we had a solid marriage. We’re honest with each other. I can’t believe he’s been keeping these things from me.’
‘If Paul told the police he thought Larry was sleeping with Amanda, and he was warning her off, I believe him,’ Glenda says firmly. ‘I think it’s much more likely that Larry was cheating on Becky than that Paul was cheating on you, don’t you?’
Olivia nods; she seems relieved to hear someone else say it. ‘Actually, I probably shouldn’t even tell you this, but …’
‘What?’
‘Becky confessed to me that she slept with Robert Pierce. Before Amanda disappeared.’
Now Glenda is truly shocked; she certainly wasn’t expecting this. Finally she says, ‘Well, well. There you go. There are obviously problems in that marriage.’ Then she leans anxiously over the table. ‘Listen, Olivia. You don’t want the police to think Paul might have been seeing Amanda. Then he might be a suspect in her murder. You don’t want that. You don’t want them snooping into your life.’
‘It’s too late,’ Olivia says miserably. ‘I think Paul is already a suspect. I think Becky already told them her suspicions about Paul and Amanda.’
Glenda says quickly, ‘Well, you have to make sure that they drop that idea, fast. Tell them he was with you all weekend.’
‘He probably was with me all weekend!’
‘So, that’s okay then.’
Olivia says, clearly tense, ‘I have to talk to him tonight when he gets home. I’ll ask him why he didn’t tell me about any of this. And I’ll ask him straight out if he told the police the truth.’
Glenda nods. ‘Let me know what he says.’ Now she notices Olivia looking at her more closely, as if noticing for the first time how tired she is. Glenda knows there are dark circles under her eyes – she’d studied herself in the mirror this morning.
‘How are things with you?’ Olivia asks.
‘Not good,’ Glenda admits. ‘Adam seems to hate his father.’
‘Why?’ Olivia asks.
‘I don’t know,’ Glenda says, looking away. ‘They clash constantly. I suppose it’s normal for teenage boys to clash with their fathers. They have to separate themselves, stand on their own.’ She pauses. ‘Mind you, he doesn’t seem to like me much better these days.’
After they part, Glenda walks home, thinking more about what Olivia has told her. Surely Paul wouldn’t cheat on Olivia. She’s known them for sixteen years. But she’s uneasy. She remembers what Amanda was like, the one time she ever really saw her, at the party last year.
It was a warm, sunny day in September. Amanda was wearing a short yellow sundress, showing off her sleek, tanned legs. Her toenails were perfectly painted and she was wearing high-heeled sandals. Glenda and Olivia had stopped wearing short sundresses a long time ago. Now they wore capri pants and flat sandals and talked about getting the veins in their legs fixed. But Amanda was young and beautiful and had never had children, so her legs were perfect, like the rest of her. Glenda remembers how she kept leaning forward, casually showing off a bit of perky breast and lacy bra every time she spoke to Keith, or Paul, or Larry, or any of the other men who had been there. Had she paid particular attention to any of the men that day? She didn’t think so. But they’d all made fools of themselves. Amanda had flirted with each of them, holding court like a Southern belle, while her own husband sat back and said little, drinking beer and watching her indulgently. Amanda would occasionally turn to her quiet, handsome husband and clasp his hand in hers, silently acknowledging that she belonged to him. At the time, Glenda thought he’d seemed proud of her. But now she wonders – is that how it was? Or was he annoyed with her, with the attention she was attracting, and the attention she was paying to everyone but him? Was he angry and jealous, and hiding it? Did he worry that she might be unfaithful?
Every marriage has its secrets. Glenda wonders what theirs were.
When Paul arrives home from work, Olivia is waiting for him. Raleigh’s gone out for basketball practice. It will give them a chance to talk.
She hears him come in the front door and moves from the kitchen to the hall to confront him. She immediately notices how worn out he looks. In fact, he looks like hell. She doesn’t have much sympathy. ‘We need to talk,’ she says. Her voice is tight.
‘Can I take off my coat first?’ he snaps. He reads her face and says, ‘Where’s Raleigh?’
‘Raleigh’s at practice. He’ll be home later.’ He walks past her and into the kitchen. She follows him and watches as he reaches into the cupboard for the bottle of Scotch. Olivia says, unable to keep the anger out of her voice, ‘I know you’ve been talking to the police.’