“On this woman?”
He excelled at covert surveillance, so he felt fairly confident he could keep Everleigh safe if Brenda turned out to be, as he expected, her attacker. And if she did see them, she’d show her hand. Clarke had a better chance at protecting Everleigh on the offensive than if they were ambushed again.
“Yes.”
“I’ll do anything that will help figure this out,” she told him. “But only after I see Gram.”
He agreed, not altogether happy about the day’s plan, but knowing that he couldn’t keep Everleigh locked up in his condo forever.
Or even much longer.
She wasn’t going to allow it.
Most particularly if he kissed her again. He’d like to assure himself that he absolutely would not, but standing there with her, he wasn’t so sure about that.
Chapter 14
Everleigh went in to see Gram first and was relieved to see that she was pretty much just fine. A little bit of a runny nose. Something that she got on a pretty regular basis in the wintertime. She agreed to hear Clarke out, told both him and Everleigh that she’d think about what he’d said.
She’d responded to it in such a way, though, that Everleigh knew they’d hit home. Didn’t mean Gram would agree to speak with DA Parks or to consider a deal. But she’d at least left the idea on the table to be further pondered.
Taking that as a win, Everleigh was feeling a bit more in control of things as she and Clarke arrived at the home of Randall Bowe and his wife, Muriel. Troy was waiting out front for them and they all went in together.
Muriel hardly glanced over when Clarke introduced Everleigh and nodded in her direction rather than holding out her hand, almost as though dismissing her. Everleigh, not taking offense, was perfectly happy to just nod right back. The other woman, dressed in what looked like designer black pants and a long-sleeved soft and expensive-looking maroon shirt with a matching maroon, gold, tan and black jacket, appeared as though she was ready to head out to some highbrow lunch. In fact, she’d told them to come anytime. She wasn’t leaving the house all day. Everleigh had heard the conversation on the car’s phone system as they’d headed out to the prison.
And she stood there and listened as Muriel answered the detective’s and then Clarke’s questions. Other than seeming rather snooty, Randall Bowe’s wife didn’t seem like a bad woman. To the contrary, Everleigh felt sorry for her more than anything.
She hadn’t asked them any farther into her home than behind the closed front door for warmth. She apologized for having been too upset to speak with the police on the day the allegations had broken. The only thing she’d said then was that her husband was away at a forensic-science convention. She hadn’t even been sure where it was. Clarke had given Everleigh that much in the car.
She had a little more to say this time. First and foremost, the cities where the conventions were to take place—two, not one. “He said he was going to be in New York first and then Chicago,” she told them, her arms crossed and her tone formal. Distant. As though, while she was cooperating, the questions were really beneath her.
As was their being there at all.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” she stated for the second time. And Everleigh wondered if Muriel’s snootiness covered a bone-deep fear she didn’t know how to handle.
It was something she could relate to. One hundred percent. To find out your husband was not at all who you thought him to be...
“We’re not here to accuse you of anything,” Troy said.
“We don’t suspect you of anything, either,” Clarke added. “But we need to find your husband, sooner rather than later.”
“He hasn’t been in touch with me at all,” Muriel said stiffly. “He said he’d be busy, that he wouldn’t be able to call every night, but he hasn’t contacted me at all. In four days’ time, with all this going on, he can’t call me once?”
“Did he say how long he’d be gone?”
“Ten days.”
And then, with a glance at Everleigh, she looked back at the two men. “He’s not at a convention, is he?”
Troy pursed his lips as he shook his head. “We don’t believe so, no. We haven’t been able to find any listed, though now that we know the cities, we’ll be able to confirm one way or the other.”
She nodded. Hugged herself a little tighter. And Everleigh knew for sure she felt for her. Muriel was barely holding herself up—all alone in her big house in a town where her respected and successful husband had just become a pariah.
It wasn’t a smiling time, but she tried to keep her expression soft as the other woman looked at her. Really looked at her. And then back at the two men.
“He really did it, didn’t he?”
They nodded in unison. “Do you have any idea why?” Clarke asked.