Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [readnow TXT] 📗

again.” Ed drew breath, went to say something, but subsided into silence with a small grunt. “But you thought you had found somebody, didn’t you, Sue?”

She looked startled for a moment. “I? Well, not really… not exactly…”

I smiled. “You fell in love. Didn’t you?”

Her cheeks colored. “Yes, I did. How did you know?”

“I worked backwards. And when I did that, it made sense. When Matt had gone, the man you were so dependent on emotionally, it made sense somehow that you would turn to his best friend, the man who was so dominant in the group, the man whose personality ruled the roost. You fell in love with a man who wasn’t yours. You fell in love with Ed.”

Ed was staring at us both like the world had gone mad and it was our fault. “What? Susanne? Me? What are you talking about?”

I shrugged again. “Little comments here and there, I started piecing it together and it made sense. Without realizing it, just by being that alpha male in your group of friends, he was giving you at least some of the support you needed. And I think, at first, that was enough, wasn’t it?”

She nodded. “I loved Mary. She was a good friend, simple, kind, a good mother. Our boys were like brothers.”

“You would have been content to love him from afar.”

“I would.”

I looked at Ed, whose eyes were scandalized. “But then, Ed, you went and fell in love with Rosario. And as if that wasn’t enough, you bought a house in Morris Park. In two devastating blows, you destroyed the group, broke Sue’s heart, and tore her life apart. First her husband, then you, and then her whole life. You left her with nothing.”

He was staring at Sue, aghast. She said nothing, just gazed down at the grass. I went on.

“I’m pretty sure you had picked up the signs. Ed told us he made no secret of his feelings for Rosario. But something tells me the tipping point came when she told you herself. I’m guessing she was pretty excited, and because Marta had backed off a bit, you were probably her closest female friend at the time. His big trial was coming to an end, and he was going to leave Mary and marry her. That must have been a knife in your heart.”

She nodded, then raised her eyes to meet mine. “I thought I was going to die. The pain was like nothing I have ever felt, even when Matt died. I left, but then I came back that afternoon, knowing he would be there. I knew it would be hell, but I needed to see it. His car was parked out front. He was there such a long time. I thought I was going crazy, knowing what they were doing in there. I cried and cried, until I felt I had no more tears inside me. Then I saw him come out, looking happy, looking so…” She shook her head, her face eloquent of bitterness and hatred. She hissed the words like a snake, “In love! I watched him drive away. Then I climbed the steps, rang on the bell. She opened the door, like him, so full of happiness and joy, her eyes bright, her hair rumpled from sex. We went into the living room and… I don’t remember what happened next. The next thing I do remember is being on the floor, sitting on her, with my hands around her neck, and my thumbs pressed deep into her throat. Her face was grotesque, purple, swollen…” She looked over at Ed. He had gone a ghastly, deathly gray. She said, “If you had seen her then, you would not have loved her.”

He began to sob and tremble. I stood and walked over to him. He stared up at me, with pleading, sobbing eyes, like he was begging me to tell him it wasn’t true. I reached down and took the gun from his limp fingers.

As I sat again on the wall, he said, “Why, Susanne? Why? She loved you. She loved us all!”

“But I loved you. And all you could see was her. We were happy, the four of us. And then she came along, and took over. I hated her for that.”

I sighed. “So for the second time in your life, you had this big, empty space. But you were lucky in one thing, weren’t you?”

She nodded.

“Your son. Handsome, brilliant. I bet not a day went by that you didn’t see Matt looking at you through his eyes.”

She was staring down at the grass again, smiling, lost among the reflections of the past.

“But there was one thing, wasn’t there? His friendship with Luis you could just about handle, but his friendship with Angela, that must have been tough, especially as they started growing up, moving into puberty, becoming young adults.”

She spoke without any real emotion. She said, “She was very like her mother. So pretty, so sweet-natured…”

“Did you warn him to stay away?”

She nodded. “He got angry. We started having rows. He told me he couldn’t wait till he could afford to move out. That hurt me.”

“You know he had a girlfriend, right?”

She gave a small snort and pointed at Ed. It was an oddly humorous gesture. “He was married! It doesn’t stop them. When they decide to go away, they go away…”

“So Friday night he called, in the wee, small hours. He was drunk, he was at Angela’s and he planned to stay there the night. It must have been building up over time, like Rosario’s ghost rising up from the dead, to steal yet another one of the men you loved and depended on emotionally. What happened? Where did you get the gun?”

“It was Matt’s. He and Ed both felt it was important to be able to protect their families.”

“An automatic, right?