The New Husband(88)

But why? What could possibly be his motive for the attack?

In their private meeting, Detective Wheeler had learned of the connection between Nina and Dr. Wilcox, but he was no closer to an answer regarding motive than she was. Nina turned her attention to her daughter, whom she thought looked oddly placid. She assumed Maggie was in shock, and maybe that’s why she did not look as bewildered as the rest of the family.

“I know my dad,” Maggie said flatly. “He wouldn’t have hurt that woman.”

Nina didn’t share a fraction of her daughter’s conviction. Glen—his life, his choices—made it impossible to discount the improbable.

“What makes you say that, Maggie?” Detective Wheeler asked.

Nina caught something in her daughter’s expression—the eyes mostly. A weight was there. She could see it clearly, had seen it clearly for days now, even at dinner tonight before the big bomb dropped. Maggie was holding something back. Glen was alive. Glen was around, nearby. Maggie was acting oddly. Nina put it all together and came to an extremely unsettling conclusion.

“Sweetheart,” Nina said to Maggie, her voice low, thinking she might have figured something out. “Have you been in touch with your father?”

Guilt radiated off Maggie like a miniature sun. Her eyes filled and then the tears streaked down her face like a pipe had burst. Her body shook as she gulped for air between anguished sobs. Nina crossed the room with hurried steps, taking her daughter in her arms. Connor looked utterly shaken, as if he’d absorbed a brutal hit on the football field and couldn’t catch his breath. Only Detective Wheeler didn’t look completely stunned, or even slightly surprised. No doubt he was accustomed to people keeping all sorts of secrets.

For the next fifteen minutes, Maggie confessed to everything: the Talkie friend request from Tracy Nuts; her promise in subsequent messages to keep the secret; their phone conversation from a number she had traced to Vermont.

“What did you do to make him run away?” Maggie asked her mother with tears in her eyes. “Dad told me you did something and that’s one of the reasons he had to disappear. What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Nina said. “I did nothing.”

“What exactly did he say? You can tell us; it’s safe to tell us now.”

Wheeler’s relaxed approach seemed to have the intended effect of getting Maggie to open up.

“He told me to get along with Simon better because he wouldn’t have to worry about money and stuff, and then he said … he said he was hiding for a reason, that he had hurt people, but he said Mom did bad things, too, and that she was partly responsible for his situation and he couldn’t let it go unpunished.” Maggie’s speech was rushed as the words came tumbling out. “I didn’t understand any of it.”

Nina stifled a gasp. What had Glen become? She had barely known him to get angry. What could have filled him with such rage? What role could she have possibly played in that transformation? And why viciously attack a perfectly innocent soul to punish her? Was that the punishment he’d told Maggie about? How would he even know she was seeing Dr. Wilcox? None of it made any sense. For whatever reason, Glen had laid the blame squarely on her shoulders. How dare he accuse her of anything? She had been nothing but a loyal and loving wife to him. How could Glen possibly point at her when he had been fired at work, he was lying, he was stealing from his family, he had hooked up with the waitress and perhaps others?

Nina didn’t have many answers, but after piecing together events from the past few days, she understood at least one thing.

“You were talking to your father on the phone when I came to your room the other night, weren’t you?”

Nina sounded incredulous, but not upset. Thinking of her own father, she believed she would have done the same had roles been reversed. She hugged Maggie even tighter, letting her cry, knowing every tear her daughter shed was a little less weight to carry.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Nina said, rocking Maggie in her arms the way she had when she was younger.

“He told me I couldn’t tell anybody. That I had to keep it a secret, that it would be very bad for him if I told you or Connor, like he might be killed or something if anybody found out.”

“It’s very good of you to be honest with us, Maggie,” Detective Wheeler said. “For the time being, I suggest everyone stay extremely vigilant. Maggie, we’ll need your computer, your phone, to run forensics, see if that can help us pinpoint a location.”

Nina wanted to see those secret messages Glen had exchanged with Maggie, but she’d speak with Detective Wheeler about it in private. She didn’t want her daughter having anything else to worry about.

“Is Glen a threat?” Simon asked the detective. “Could he show up here?”

“Anything is possible now,” he said.

Simon cupped his face in his hands. Nina pulled Maggie into her body, keeping an arm draped around her shoulders, her protective motherly instincts taking hold.

“You need to talk to the bank where Glen worked,” Nina told the detective. “He was fired from his job years before he disappeared, and I think something there set this whole train in motion.”

Wheeler made a note.

“Speaking of jobs—Nina, your job,” Simon said, looking first to Nina and then to Wheeler. “Is it safe for my wife to keep working?”