Widow's Secrets

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  She was so much more than that.

  “I like them.”

  “Really?” Her eyes drifted over his face before she averted them again.

  “Oh, yeah.” He meant it, too. “They’re different from anything else I’ve ever seen.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  She didn’t seem to receive compliments easily. “Have you sold any?”

  “Yes.”

  For the first time Kent thought he spied a hint of a smile on her lips. Intrigued, he motioned with his fingers. “Come on. Tell me more.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m interested in your work.”

  “We both know you didn’t come here to talk about my paintings, Officer Olson.”

  “My name is Kent. How about you call me that?”

  “Fine.”

  Pleased to have made that bit of progress, he said, “You’re right, I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not being sincere. Now, tell me about your career, Liana.”

  “All right. I show most of my work at an art gallery in Cincinnati. They’ve been pretty popular.” She edged to the doorway. “Now, can we go ahead and discuss whatever you came to talk to me about?”

  “Of course.” He gestured to the ladder-back chair next to him. “Want to sit down?”

  “We can’t talk here. Come on.”

  She led the way down the hall, out of the bright room and into the muted silence of the living room. He was disappointed; he couldn’t deny it. A part of him felt like she was determined to keep that part of her personality safely away from him. Almost like she feared he would taint it.

  When she chose the wooden rocker in the corner of the room, he wondered if she did that deliberately. All the other places to sit were at least three feet away from her.

  He supposed he didn’t blame her.

  Forgoing the lumpy couch, he perched on the edge of a cushy-looking easy chair. “Liana, I’m going to be honest with you. Several months ago I messed up a case and got demoted. I’ve been assigned to cold cases and I need to solve several of them in order to get my old job back.”

  “That’s why you decided to tackle Billy’s case.”

  “It is, but it isn’t the only reason. It’s the department’s obligation to close these cases. Our job is to serve the public and, consequently, Billy Mann.”

  She rocked back in her chair. “I’m sorry. Closing the case might help your career but it’s not going to make much difference to mine.”

  “Why is that? You don’t want the person who murdered him to pay for his crimes?”

  “I want a lot of things, but that doesn’t always mean I need them. Besides, to be real honest with you, Billy and me...well, we weren’t exactly happy together.”

  “Libby said in her report that he was abusive. Is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did he do to you, Liana?” he asked softly. “I couldn’t find any record of hospital visits.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Just because I didn’t go to the hospital doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

  “You’re right. Of course you’re right. All I’m trying to do is get a better understanding. I promise.”

  She turned her head slightly away from him. “I don’t want to talk about that time. It’s taken me a while to get over the damage he did to me.”

  He was the son of a cop and a lawyer. He’d been on the force for years. He wasn’t unaware of domestic abuse. He’d answered dozens of calls during his two years on patrol. But in spite of all that, he couldn’t help but feel affected by Liana’s words. It was like a punch to his gut. He could practically feel her hurt inside him, and it triggered a protective instinct in him that he hadn’t realized he possessed. It didn’t make sense and caught him off guard.

  “How about we work together to find Billy’s killer?”

  Her face went slack. “Come again?”

  “I intend to do my job, but I’m hoping there’s a way I can do it without hurting you more. Perhaps, if you get involved, you can gain some closure.”

  “I don’t know about that. I don’t know if I need closure.”

  “How about this, then? Someone killed your husband. That can’t be ignored or taken away. That means whoever did it has been spending the past ten years of his or her life free. Maybe even killing someone else. That’s not right.”

  A second passed. Two. “No, it’s not,” she murmured.

  “I’m going to need your help, Liana. You know the area, you knew Billy and you knew who he spent time with.” He paused, watching that information sink in. Quietly, he added, “How do you think we can do this? How can we work together, Liana?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah.” He was tempted to ask why she was so stunned but he kept his mouth shut. At least that was one thing he’d learned from his years on the force. If you stayed quiet long enough the other person would talk. Silence really bothered some people.

  Looking more agitated, she got to her feet. “Officer Olson, I... I don’t know what to think right now.”

  “About...?”

  “About you. About going back to the past. About even trying to help you get the answers.”

  Boy, she’d been hurt. He didn’t know if it was even possible to regain her trust in the police force. It was doubtful that she would ever think of him as anything but her enemy.

  But he had to try.

  “Maybe we can come up with a compromise,” he said at last. “If I do my best not to get in your way, maybe you won’t mind answering my questions.”

  “You’re talking as if I have a choice.”

  “Everyone has a choice, Liana. God gave you a good brain and a heart. But here’s what I can’t ignore—Billy might have been a terrible person. He might have been a bad husband, and he might even have deserved to be punished for some of the things he did to you.” He paused. “However, when he was twenty-four years old, Billy was abducted, half-strangled, shot and then thrown on the ground hard enough to create another fracture in his skull. Then his dead body was dumped in a place where no one found him for ten years. That’s a real bad way to die.”

  She didn’t say anything. Just stared. He wondered if it was from fear or because she simply wanted him out of her house.

  Kent turned to face her and softened his voice. “Just as important to me, Billy never got the time to change. Maybe he wouldn’t have. But Liana, sometimes people do change. They become better. They seek forgiveness and try their best to make amends. He never got that chance.”

  Something he said seemed to resonate with Liana. Her whole posture eased. “People do change, don’t they?” Her voice was whisper-soft. “Some even become better.”

  “They do if they want to. If they’re given the opportunity. All I can do is try to give him the chance he was denied. I can’t save him, Liana. But I can make sure that the mystery surrounding his death is solved. I think he deserves that much.”

  “You’re right.” Looking resigned, she lifted her chin. “Billy wasn’t good to me. But he wasn’t all bad. At one time, when I married him, he was who I thought he’d be. So he...well, he deserves that much. At the very least.”

  Feeling relieved, Kent nodded. “All right, then.”

  It was only later, when he was driving home, that he remembered the slight smile that had appeared on her lips. He also recalled the way that smile had affected him.

  It didn’t make sense. Not at all.

  Chapter Four

  Liana couldn’t believe what she’d done. After just one brief hour in Kent Olson’s company, she’d gone from actively trying to get him out of her house to agreeing to become his sidekick. What had she been thinking?

  To make matters worse, she’d received an email from Kent first thing the next morning. In his message, he’d given her three dates to choo
se from—all within the next week. Liana was supposed to pick one today so he could work on their plans—which, she feared, was mainly to go see where Billy’s body had been found. She didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to go anywhere alone with Officer Kent Olson, and she especially didn’t want to see the place Billy’s body had lain forgotten for ten years.

  But now it didn’t look like she had a choice.

  “Liana?”

  The sound of her name shattered her musings and caused her heart rate to spike. Pressing a hand to her chest, Liana turned to Angel. “Sorry. I was daydreaming.”

  “You okay? You looked like you were gonna jump right out of those ugly shoes of yours.”

  Angel loved to tease her about her well-loved, scuffed Keds. Appreciating the break from her thoughts Liana smiled at her friend. “I’m good and my shoes are still on.”

  “In that case, care to join in the fun? We’ve got a full house, you know.”

  “Sorry.” She picked up a water pitcher, refilled her customers’ water glasses and took an order for pecan pie from an older couple.

  But over the next three hours of her shift, she was jumpy and nervous. It was like all of her fears about Billy—and his murder—were haunting her in plain sight. Every time the Dig In Diner’s door opened, she’d glance at it warily, practically expecting one of Billy’s old friends to walk in with a loaded gun, or another cop in uniform to pull her outside for questioning.

  “Liana, come on back to the office. We need to talk,” Viv said moments after their last customer of the night walked out.

  Viv didn’t get irritated much, but Liana wasn’t surprised at the woman’s tone. Obviously, her boss had had enough of her mistakes. With a sinking feeling, she nodded. “It’s my night to mop. I’ll be there as soon as—”

  “The mopping can wait.” Waggling three of her long French-tipped manicured nails, Viv motioned her forward. “Come along now.”

  After glancing at Angel, who raised her eyebrows, Liana followed.

  Both Viv and Gabe were sitting on the refurbished chairs in the back of their office, which was barely bigger than the average storage closet. Liana hesitated before sitting down on the third. Rubbing her palms along the seams of her blue polyester uniform, she sat as still as she could and waited for the reprimand.

  What could she say, anyway? She’d been completely out of sorts today. Even the customers had noticed and showed their displeasure in their tips.

  Gabe cleared his throat. “Liana, I’m just going to go ahead and cut to the chase. What is going on with you?”

  “Nothing. I’m just having a bad day. I didn’t sleep all that well last night and I guess it showed.” Noticing that neither Viv’s nor Gabe’s expressions changed, Liana rushed on. “I’ll be better tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, that’s not really going to cut it,” Viv said. “You’re scared out of your wits about something. All day you’ve looked like you were about two minutes from running out the back door and going into hiding.” She leveled a dark brown-eyed stare on her. “Why don’t you give us all a break and share what’s happened with you. And tell me the truth, now.”

  She knew Viv was right. Not only had she been acting strangely, but her bosses also deserved her honesty. “The truth is that I recently received some news that was kind of hard to hear,” she admitted. “But don’t worry. I can handle it.”

  Viv folded her arms across her chest. “How are you gonna do that, honey? By working through everything all by yourself?”

  “Well, yes.” It was what she did.

  “Now, why is that?” Gabe asked.

  The question caught her off guard. “I’m sorry?”

  Gabe’s burly shoulders lifted. “I thought you liked working here.”

  “I do.”

  “Viv and I try to take care of everyone like they’re our family. We thought you felt the same way. Am I wrong?”

  “No.” When Gabe raised his eyebrows, she added, “I mean, no, you’re not wrong. You both are kind and I do feel like part of the family here.” She took a fortifying breath. “But Gabe, I don’t expect y’all to deal with my problems.”

  “What problems are those?” Viv asked. She had a gleam in her eye, telling Liana that she was pleased she’d caught her off guard.

  It was obvious that Gabe and Viv were experts when it came to tag-teaming their employees. They were pros, and in comparison, she was a babe in the woods. “It has to do with the cop’s visit here last week.”

  “How so?”

  “He called me and then stopped by my house yesterday.”

  Gabe’s expression turned into a hard mask. “Is he threatening you about something? You can tell him to go away, you know.”

  “Officer Olson hasn’t been like that.” She took a deep breath, starting to realize that the only person she was keeping her dark past a secret from was herself. “He’s in charge of my ex-husband’s cold case.”

  Viv blinked. “Say again?”

  And that was how messed up her life was. Though lots of people knew that she was a widow, and some people had known that Billy had been in the running for worst husband ever, she’d never told anyone at the diner the real story. She’d gotten the job at Dig In two years after Billy disappeared.

  “Billy, my husband, went missing ten years ago. I assumed he was dead. Seven months ago they found his body and examined it. And then they realized he’d been murdered.”

  “Liana, honey, you’ve worked here eight years. Eight! Why did you never tell us any of that?”

  “I wanted to forget about it.” Feeling Viv’s hard-eyed stare burning a hole, she added, “And I was embarrassed.”

  “Because he died?”

  Viv’s voice was incredulous, and Liana didn’t blame her one bit. She really should’ve tried to be more open about her past. “It wasn’t because he died...it was because of who Billy was.”

  Gabe grunted. “Getting information out of you is like pulling teeth. Who was Billy?”

  Frustrated, both with their questions and with her own reticence, she blurted, “He was a bad guy, okay?” Liana got to her feet. “For years I thought he’d just left me. But then, seven months ago, I found out that he hadn’t just run off. He’d died. Now it looks like it was definitely murder.”

  Viv’s eyes widened. “Oh my.”

  Liana swallowed. “Yesterday I agreed to help Officer Olson try to find the killer.”

  Viv snapped her fingers. “He asked and you agreed...just like that?”

  Liana flinched. “No, not just like that. But it’s not like I had a choice. He’s a cop.” Forcing herself to tell the truth, she added, “Plus, as bad as Billy was, he didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

  “So you were just going to keep all this to yourself, come in here, take orders for eggs and then play detective on your nights off?” Viv asked.

  Liana didn’t appreciate the sarcasm. “Look, this conversation isn’t easy for me. I... I’m used to hiding my bad parts.”

  “We all are, but sometimes we do such a poor job of hiding it, nothing is really hidden at all,” Gabe said. “We care about you, girl. Let us help.”

  “Thanks, but there’s not much you can do.”

  Gabe’s voice deepened. “If you’re afraid of us gossiping about your past, don’t be. We wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “I understand.” Edging to the door, she said, “Is it okay if I mop those floors now? It’s getting dark out.”

  Viv pursed her lips. “Sure, Li.”

  She walked out of the office feeling like her whole life was spiraling out of control.

  And to see Angel looking more ticked off than she had all day—which was saying a lot. “Good. You’re back.”

  “Sorry.” She picked up the mop and ran to the back room to fill the bucket with hot, soapy water. “I’ll finish up.”


  Angel reached for the ties of her apron, but then dropped her hands. “No, we’ll finish up together. I’ve got a date, but I’m not going to enjoy myself if I know you’re still here, toiling away.”

  “I’ll be better tomorrow. I promise.”

  “I sure hope so.” Throwing a hip out, Angel struck a pose. “I’m a good waitress, but even I can only do so much.”

  “Noted,” Liana replied with a smile. Angel had been teasing, of course, but her attitude was as good a wake-up call as Kent’s words about Billy’s death and her bosses’ reminders about their concern.

  It was time to stop pretending that she was fine and that she could handle all her problems by herself—especially since it was becoming pretty obvious that she was the only one who was getting fooled.

  Chapter Five

  On Sundays Kent went to church. It was as simple as that. At least, that was what his parents had taught him. Like a lot of his friends, getting up early on Sunday morning, showering, running to the car and then sitting on a pew for an hour wasn’t something he’d looked forward to.

  Actually, on a lot of Sundays, only a fear of his father yelling at him to be respectful had gotten him into the Lord’s house.

  But then, just when he’d started thinking that there were a dozen other things he’d rather be doing, the pastor would say something that sparked his interest. Then, next thing he knew, he’d be sitting a little taller, singing a little louder and feeling a little better.

  Of course, Jessie Warner had a lot to do with his improved spirits, too. Jessie was in his youth group, loved being involved and often used her smiles to rope him in. And since he could think of nothing better than spending every spare minute with her, he’d had no problem being wherever she was.

  Sitting beside his parents, Kent was thinking about all of that as he watched the rest of the congregation approach the altar to take communion. Yes, coming to this same building for thirty years was a habit, but it was one of the best habits he had. The prayers and familiar rites felt like they were encrypted into his soul. He was better for it.