The Ex Who Wouldn't Die (9 page)

Her father cleared his throat.
Amanda
refused to look at him. She didn
'
t have to. She could envision his reproving expression.

"So after you threatened Charley, he let you into his apartment?"

Amanda shifted on the hard, wooden chair. "Sort of. I
stomped on his foot with my motorcycle boot
, and when he bent down, I shoved past him."

Daggett flinched. "When you were inside his apartment, did you see anything unusual?"

"Greasy pizza boxes, dead French fries, empty beer cans, dirty socks. The usual. Charley was not a neat freak."

"
So the place was a mess. W
hat happened
after you got inside
?"

"Nothing. We yelled at each other some more, but it was even more pointless than usual. He was obsessed with that stupid gun, and I was obsessed with divorcing him. Finally I threw up my hands and left."

"This gun Charley gave you, was it a
.38
revolver
?
"
Daggett
asked.

"
Yes. But you already knew that, didn
'
t you? I registered the gun.
Law-abiding citizen."

"
Would you be willing to bring your gun in for us to test fire so we c
an
eliminate a possible match to the bullet that killed your husband?
"

"
No,
"
Brian
said, but
Amanda
overrode his protest.

"
Yes. I
'
ll be happy to do that,
"
she stated firmly.

"
Good.
"
He shuffled his notes.
"
So, what time would you say you last saw Charley?
"

"About five-thirty. I
left
his apartment,
got
on my bike and rode away. I didn
'
t look back because I knew he
'
d be standing in his doorway, watching me.
" She shivered. "He always did that, went to the door and stood there a
nd watched me
,
trying to look pitiful
and make me feel bad
. Surely at least one of those neighbors saw him after I left.
"

Daggett
shook his head, his face inscrutable.
"
The nei
ghbors say you
ran
out of the apartment, slammed the door, raced
down the stairs and rode away as if the devil was chasing you, but Charley never opened the door or came out.
"

"
Oh.
"
Amanda
bit back a brief, unexpected feeling of rejection.
I
t was a good thing if he did
n't come to the door and look longingly after her
.
No reason to feel rejected.
"
Okay, but what about the
gun
shot? Surely all those people who were fascinated with our fights
would have
heard a loud gunshot
if I
blew him away
while I was there. T
hey
apparently
heard every word I said
, and I can't shout nearly as loud as a gun."

Daggett shook his head. "
Sofa cushion. Homemade silencer. Nobody heard the shot. Nobody saw Charley after
you went inside
his apartment
.
"

Amanda shifted uneasily. Apparently her father and Brian hadn
'
t been overreacting when they
'
d insisted on accompanying her
or when they'd warned her to say nothing
.
This was starting to get scary. They might really arrest her. Put her in jail.

"Who found Charley?" she asked quietly.

"One of the neighbors. Said he went over to borrow a cup of sugar."

Amanda
snorted. "More like a can of beer or a baggie of marijuana."

Daggett lifted an eyebrow but made no comment. "When Charley didn't answer the neighbor's knock, he tried the door. Said Charley often left it unlocked. Sure enough, it opened, and the neighbor walked in to see Charley's body.
H
e went home and called the cops."

"I wonder if he got his cup of sugar first."

Daggett looked down at his notes but not before she saw the edges of his lips twitching upward. He'd like to smile, she thought, but he sure wasn't going to let her catch him at it.

"
We
'
d really appreciate it if you
'
d bring in the gun and a list of anybody Charley had dealings with,
" he said, lifting his gaze to hers, his stern look restored,
"
victims of scams, rejected girlfriends,
buddies, a
nybody
.
"

"
I
'
ll bring in my gun, you can compare it to bullet that killed Charley, and when it doesn
'
t match, we
'
ll be done, okay?
"
Amanda moved to the edge of her chair, ready to rise, ready for this to be over.

But the detective leaned back, obviously ready to continue.

"
How did you get along with Charley
'
s family?
"

At least that was an easy question.
"
Charl
ey didn't have any family
.
His parents were both dead by the time he was ten, and his younger brother drowned a year later
.
" There was, she thought, no need to go into the horrible details. None of Charley's life story was pertinent to the
present
situation.

The silence in the room reminded her of the silences she typically caused at family gatherings.
It would seem she had
expanded her silencing ability
to police interviews
.

Amanda stole a
glance
at her father. He was looking at his knees.
That wasn't a good sign.

Brian appeared to be as puzzled as she at the reaction to her uncomplicated answer.

"
Both your husband
'
s parents are very much alive,
" the detective finally said,
"as well as two
brothers, t
hree
sisters, several aunts and uncles
, nieces and nephews
and too many cousins to count. Half the population of
Silver Creek
,
Texas
, is related to your
deceased
husband.
"

Chapter Five

The walls of the room seemed to move closer, making it harder to breathe. Silence whirled around her, trapping the words inside her head where they
bounced from one side to the other and back again
, echoing over and over.

"
Both your husband
'
s parents are very much
alive, as well as
two brothers, three sisters, several aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and too many cousins to count. Half the population of Silver Creek, Texas, is related to your deceased husband
."

Her oft-repeated assertion that every word out of Charley
'
s mouth had been a lie took on a new depth of meaning.

Charley had a family, a large family. She had in-laws
she'd never met, never even known existed.

Charley had claimed to be an orphan from Waco, had told her in graphic detail how his father, a twice-convicted drug-dealer, had been shot by an aggrieved husband when he'd caught Charley's father with his wife in a local motel
the night Charley was born
. Then when he was ten, his mother, a prostitute, died in his arms of a drug overdose.

If his parents had any relatives, none stepped forward to claim Charley or his five-year old brother, Grady. Both had been sent to foster homes. Before a year was out, Grady drowned in the Brazos River, though Charley had taught him to be a strong swimmer. The couple had later been charged with physical abuse by another foster child, and Charley felt sure they killed his brother. As for Charley's experience, he lived in five different foster homes where he'd been used and abused and discarded, finally running away to Dallas when he was sixteen.

Amanda had cut him a lot of slack, excused much of his bad behavior, because of his troubled childhood.

Now as she contemplated the extent of his duplicity, she realized all those lies had tipped the scales in her decision to marry him. When she'd been indecisive, he declaimed sadly that he didn't blame her for not wanting to marry someone who was the son of an adulterer and a prostitute, someone who'd never been a part of a family and would likely be a poor excuse for a husband and father.

She'd protested that her own family, while intact, was certainly no model for a '50's TV series, and to prove she didn't hold his unfortunate circumstances against him, she had, of course, agreed to marry him.

Lies, lies and more lies.