Page 10

Present day

Bend FBI office

“Was Assemblyman Bell a frequent drinker?” asked Agent Keaton. “Could he hold his liquor?”

Noelle stared at him. “Seriously? That’s your question for me? You want to know about Derrick’s drinking habits.” She leaned forward, her arms crossed on the table, and looked Keaton in the eye. “Derrick never got drunk. He was always in control of himself.”

“What about drugs? You’re aware that he had a lot of meth in his system at the time of his death,” said Keaton.

“I was told that. As far as I knew, Derrick didn’t use drugs. Legal or illegal.”

“What do you think of the meth?”

“I don’t know.” The question had haunted her for years. Years after his death, she’d recalled that in his always-immaculate car, she’d once seen white powder on her seat. At the time, she’d assumed it was from a powdered doughnut because he’d been very stressed and eating erratically.

He’d been murdered six months later.

Could that have been meth?

Powdered doughnut makes more sense.

Maybe.

“I have no answer for where he got meth or why he’d used it.

He’d told me he hated the feeling of being out of control, so he never drank too much and didn’t do drugs.

He drank lightly for the social aspect.” She paused, remembering all the nights he’d sat in her bar watching her.

“Derrick’s only interest in alcohol was how to use it on others to get what he wanted.

He loved to mingle and talk. He had big plans for his future and wanted to meet other people who could help him get there. ”

“Did that include you, Detective?” asked Agent Rhodes. “Being someone who could help him?”

Noelle swallowed. “No. I wasn’t a stepping stone for him.”

“Are you sure?” asked Keaton. “You nicely fit the visual image of a political wife.”

“You’re asking me if the man I married only picked me because he thought I could help him get elected to office?

” She laughed. “I was poor. Divorced. I tended bar. Doesn’t sound like there are any political benefits at all.

” She let her face go blank. “We fell in love. That was it. No ulterior motives on anyone’s part.

I loved my husband, and he loved me. It was perfect. ”

Keaton leaned back in his chair. “Did his family view your relationship that way?”

“I don’t understand what his family’s opinion of me has to do with Derrick’s murder.”

“We’re just trying to see the bigger picture,” said Keaton.

Noelle waited a long second. “His mother didn’t like me. No one was good enough for her son.”

That still stings.