Those rumors were still going around because I made sure they circulated. I had to keep up the idea that my father wasn’t actually dead. Every once in a while, I would call a friend back home, ask if my father had been seen. I would drop little hints about what he might be doing or where he might be. Suddenly, it was like everyone wanted to imagine he was there. They would try and comfort me, telling me that they thought they saw him at his old hangout. Soon, the rumor mill spread that my dad was back. It died down, of course, but it was enough for people to keep the idea of him being alive.
“How long?” I asked, pretending to swipe a tear from my eye.
“No one’s talked to him about it. It’s hard to say for sure.”
“Then how do you know he’s dying?”
He sighed heavily. “Lorelei, you know what cirrhosis of the liver looks like. The symptoms were all there, and I guess a few people even tried to get him to go to the doctor, but you know your dad.”
I huffed out a laugh. Now people were actually saying they had tried to help him…a dead man. If they ever found out that the man had been dead since I was a teenager, they would all feel like idiots. But this was good for me, and for Matthew. It kept us out of the spotlight.
“Look, there’s still time to go say goodbye.”
I said my goodbyes a long time ago, right before I helped Matthew dump his body in the mine. We had to carry him for a long time before we felt it was safe to dump his body. And that whole time, all I could think about was how glad I was to be rid of him. I didn’t have to live in fear anymore. I could just live my life. Little did I know that my decisions would change the course of my life so drastically. What I thought was making my life better turned out to be the worst mistake of my life, because I lost Matthew.
We pulled up to the police station and I took Callum’s hand as I stepped out of the car. Taking a steeling breath, I walked inside with my head held high. They had me wait around for about ten minutes, and I found it difficult not to fidget. I had been preparing for this, but I had hoped this day would never actually come.
When the officer led me back to a room to talk, I took a seat in the uncomfortable metal chair and did my best to sit still. Callum rested his hand on top of mine for just a moment for reassurance and when the door swung open, I felt like I could handle this.
“Mrs. Henning, I’m Detective Barnes. Thank you for coming down. I understand you no longer live in the area.”
“No, I moved after my husband’s death. I found it too painful to remain in the house.”
He frowned slightly, looking at his folder. “The house…right the ten thousand square foot house.”
“It was a little big for my tastes.”
He nodded, smirking slightly. “I’m sure it was.”
He took his seat and opened the folder on the table, flipping through some pages. He was trying to make me wait as long as possible, but I was ready for this. I had nothing to hide. Well, not about Arlen.
“Mrs. Henning, there have been some accusations that you had something to do with your husband’s death.”
I didn’t say anything, and he stared me down, waiting for me to say something.
“Mrs. Henning, do you have anything to say about this?”
“I would say that my husband died of a heart attack, and you can check the hospital records.”
“We did that. Your husband was a relatively young man. Can you tell me why you didn’t request an autopsy?”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “A forty-seven year old man dies suddenly of a heart attack and you don’t find an autopsy necessary?”
“Officer, I don’t mean to be rude, but since you already are, I’ll be fairly blunt with you. I talked with Arlen’s doctor after he died. I asked the very same question, how a young man could die so suddenly. He assured me that given the amount of stress that Arlen was under on a daily basis, a heart attack wasn’t that uncommon. And since he was home alone at the time of his heart attack, by the time we got him to the hospital, there was nothing they could do for him. So, you ask why I didn’t have an autopsy…I didn’t have one because the doctor explained things to me and it made sense. I didn’t want my husband to be butchered when he’d already suffered enough.”
“And this doctor…”
“Doctor Kinsley. You’re more than welcome to go speak with him if you want. I’ll have his medical record released to you, if that’ll make you feel better.”
The officer sat back, obviously not having any response for that. He flipped the folder closed and nodded. “Well, I think that clears things up, but I will be requesting his medical records.”
“And you’ll get them. Now, if there’s nothing else, I have a few errands to run before I head home.”
“And where is home now?”
I stood and smirked. “I’m sure you already have that in your database, detective.”
Andrew
I didn’t know what else to do. Now that I had confirmation of what Lorelei really was, I had to tell Eric. I couldn’t let him go back to that house, knowing what I knew. It was too dangerous for him, even if he wasn’t the target. If she suspected he knew anything, he would be a casualty in this whole mess.
I hesitantly walked up the steps to Eric’s house, trying to figure out how to tell him that I knew all along what she really was. He was
