Page 36 of She Didn’t See It Coming

Paige Mason has been alone in her apartment all morning. She hasn’t wanted to see anyone. She wonders if she should go back to work soon, to keep her mind off things, because her brain is cycling ruinously. She needs to think about something else.

She hears a knock at her door and freezes. Who the hell is that? She’s so jumpy. Her first thought is the detectives—are they back again? As she hesitates, the knock comes again. She hurries to the door and opens it. She is completely surprised to see who’s standing there.

“Paige,” Donna Houser says. “Can I come in?”

Donna is alone, and so bowed down with grief that it hurts Paige to look at her. “Yes, of course,” she says, opening the door wide. “I’ve just made some tea. Do you want some?”

“That would be nice, thank you,” Donna says tiredly.

Paige finds herself in her small kitchen, sipping tea across from Bryden’s mother at the table by the window. Donna seems reluctant to start. “How are you holding up?” Paige asks at last.

The older woman says, “I’m not, really.”

Paige nods sadly back at her, at a loss for what to say. She doesn’t know what she can do for her.

As if she’s just read her mind, Donna clears her throat and says, “I was hoping, as Bryden’s best friend, you might be able to tell me more about her life before she died.”

Paige is both taken aback and immediately uncomfortable. She thinks about how she’d had sex with Sam whenever Bryden was away on business, and flushes.

Donna seems to notice and says, “You knew she was having an affair—with this man she had the accident with.”

Trapped, all Paige can do is nod.

“I just find it so hard to understand,” the older woman says. “I thought Bryden was happy with Sam. It’s like everything I believed about my daughter’s life is a lie. I was hoping you could tell me what was really going on.”

“I know. It’s so hard to understand,” Paige agrees, swallowing. “I thought they were happy too. I was stunned when she told me about Derek. It was—I thought it was so out of character for her.”

Donna leans in over her tea. “But there must have been a reason. Bryden wouldn’t risk her marriage, her family, that way. Was she unhappy? Was Sam not good to her?”

Paige feels ashamed, sitting across from Bryden’s mother, who doesn’t know what she was doing with Bryden’s husband in the marital bed. She says, “She didn’t say they weren’t happy, just that she’d started seeing this other man, and that Sam didn’t know.”

“You’re sure he didn’t know? Because the detectives seem to think he did.”

“He didn’t. Bryden was so sure he didn’t.”

Donna sighs and slumps in her chair. “I’m not sure I believe that.

Maybe Bryden thought he didn’t know, but he could have.

” She pauses and adds fretfully, “I’m so worried about Clara.

They have to solve this quickly. We have to know the truth.

What if Sam did do this to her?” She whispers, “What if he gets away with it and Clara has to grow up with him?”

Paige sees the naked horror on the other woman’s face. She reaches out and puts her hand on top of Donna’s and says, “I honestly don’t think Sam could have done it. He loved her so much, Donna. He isn’t a violent man.”

“I’m not so sure,” Donna says. She gets up slowly. “I’d better get back to Jim. We’re going to look at funeral homes.”

···

Derek Gardner is working in his home office when Alice storms into the house. He comes out to greet her, takes one look, and says, “What’s wrong? Where have you been?”

“I have been to see Detective fucking Salter,” she says.

“What? Why?” Derek is instantly uneasy. He didn’t know about this. What the hell was she doing, going off to talk to the detectives without telling him?

“She called my cell this morning, when I was in the car on my way to work, and asked me to come to the station. So I went.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, for Christ’s sake?” He’s angry.

“Oh, I don’t know. You don’t tell me everything, do you?” It’s a jab, and it pisses him off even more.

“Let’s not play games, Alice. This is serious. Don’t fuck around.”

“It wouldn’t be serious if you didn’t fuck around,” she points out acidly. She’s pissed off too.

He needs to dial it down a notch. He has to think about damage control.

They are standing across from each other in the living room, both too tense to sit down.

Derek eases his voice off the throttle. “Just tell me what happened.” He hopes she hasn’t done him any harm.

He knows she’s smart. He knows that she is an accomplished liar and dissembler, and that she can usually keep her cool. But not always.

“She wanted to know about you and that Bryden woman.”

“What did you say?”

“I told them you had nothing to do with her, other than that accident.”

“Good,” he says, beginning to relax a little.

“Is it true?” she asks.

“Yes, it’s true. I didn’t sleep with her, and I didn’t kill her. For fuck’s sake, Alice!”

She looks back at him coldly. “She said that you were seen at a hotel with her. Taking a room.”

“That’s bullshit! She’s lying to you.”

“That’s not all they said.” But then, like the diva she is, she doesn’t tell him what else they said. Instead, she walks to the window at the front of the room and looks out onto the street, her back to him.

He runs one hand through his hair in frustration. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

She turns around to face him. “They also know about the other woman. The one whose name you refuse to tell me.”

Shit. No wonder she’s so angry, he thinks.

They’ve waved this in her face and hurt her ego.

He never thought he’d get caught. But Alice was too smart for him.

“You know why I can’t tell you her name,” he says.

They’ve been over this. He can’t tell her because Alice might do something to harm her.

Alice has a nasty streak. He takes a deep breath. “Tell me what they know.”

“They know that you took her to the White Stag Hotel.”

He narrows his eyes at her. He doesn’t want to protest too much, so he keeps his mouth shut. But it’s not good that they know he has cheated on his wife. And he fears they will use it to drive a wedge between them.

“But,” his wife says, “we might have a bigger problem than Bryden Frost.”

“And what’s that?” Derek asks sharply. Sometimes he finds his wife a bit trying.

“They were asking me about Mom.”

His adrenaline spikes. “What about her?” But he knows. There’s only one reason the detective would bring that up.

“Salter’s been looking into you, and she found out that I—we—inherited her estate when she died. And she found out about the hit-and-run that hasn’t been solved.”

“Fuck,” he mutters.

“Yes, a bit worrying, isn’t it?” Alice says. “She wanted to know how much of the inheritance went into your business.”

“The nosy bitch.”

“She was also surprised to learn that neither of us were interviewed as suspects.”

“ Fuck ,” Derek repeats, running a hand through his hair again. He looks across the room at her. This isn’t good at all. “Was she just fishing? Or was she genuinely suspicious?”

“I think she’s genuinely suspicious,” Alice answers, “of you. She thinks you killed Bryden Frost, and now she also thinks you killed my mother.”

“She thinks I killed her?”

Alice approaches him and smiles at the irony of it.

“That’s what she said. She wanted to know where you were that night.

I said we were at home together. She accused me of covering up for you.

Asked me if I really wanted to live with a man who probably murdered a woman and stuffed her in a suitcase, and who ran over my mother for her money. ”

“But we both know that you killed your mother, Alice.”

“I know that, and you know that, but the detectives don’t know that.”

He looks back at her beautiful face with growing unease. “This isn’t good.”

“No shit.”

“You shouldn’t have spoken to her,” Derek says angrily.

“Like I had a choice? She was always going to bring me in, and you know it. They even read me my rights.”

“We need to think,” Derek says. “We may not be able to prove where we were that night, but if we always back each other up, they’ll never be able to prove you did it.”

“If we always back each other up, they’ll never be able to prove you did it either.”

“What the fuck are you saying, Alice?”

“I’m saying it’s your fault we’re in this mess! If you hadn’t been fucking Bryden Frost, they wouldn’t be looking at what happened to my mother.”

He bites his tongue.