Cinn full secrets, p.11
Cinn-full Secrets, page 11
“I know I don’t have any right to ask,” Adrienne told Erin over the phone. “You helped me out when Mr. Fontainbleau was killed… and I just… I don’t know who killed Simon, but it wasn’t me.”
Erin made noises of agreement, though she wasn’t sure what to say to Adrienne. It would make sense to say that she believed Adrienne and knew she hadn’t had anything to do with Simon’s murder. But she didn’t think she could make her tongue form those words.
“What can I help you with?” she asked finally, after fumbling about for some response.
“I just thought you might be able to help me figure out who did it. Maybe… it was probably something to do with something he did when he was out of town. I know that Simon was no saint,” she admitted. “If he thought he could make a buck without too much work… he was always running one scam or another. Maybe someone wanted to get back at him.”
“Maybe,” Erin agreed.
“He was crook… I didn’t want to know what he was involved in. I never wanted to know what he was up to, how he was bringing in the money when he did. And it wasn’t very often he actually brought something for me and the kids. When he did, I knew it was best not to ask where it came from.”
“I’m not sure how I can help,” Erin protested, when Adrienne trailed off.
“When I finish work this afternoon, I’ll be over at Prosts’. Cindy said I could use her computer, but I’m crap when it comes to computers. I thought maybe you could help me to… see if we can figure out some stuff about Simon’s past while Cindy watches the kids. If there are—were—people looking for Simon… it might explain what happened.”
Erin wasn’t the best on computers herself, though she had grown more proficient in the time she had been in Bald Eagle Falls.
“I shouldn’t ask,” Adrienne said again. “I know you’re busy with other things. But if you could help me…”
“Okay,” Erin agreed. “Of course. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much, but we can try.”
She got the details from Adrienne as to what time she would be at the farm and agreed to meet her there.
Erin had been to the Prost farm before, off in “the sticks” outside Bald Eagle Falls. It was a goat farm. They circulated the goats through a couple of pastures, and Erin didn’t see any of them close to the house or old barn. They were probably in the upper pasture or the newer barn.
After pulling into the driveway, she stayed in the car, looking for the guard dog. Adrienne came out of the house a minute later and motioned her in.
“Dog’s tied up behind the house,” she said, noticing Erin looking around for it. “He won’t bother you.”
Erin could hear the shouts of the children as they played, and hoped they knew enough not to get too close to the dog. But maybe he knew them well enough now that they could approach him and could talk and play with him without any danger.
“Thanks for coming,” Adrienne told Erin. “Can I get you some tea?”
Erin nodded. “Sure. That would be nice.”
They would ease into the computer searches. It would be best to get more background from Adrienne before they started so Erin had a better idea of what to look for. Adrienne probably knew more about Simon’s past than she was willing to share initially.
Adrienne took her into the kitchen and Erin sat at the table while she watched Adrienne put the kettle on to boil and put a little basket of tea bags on the table for Erin to sort through. She picked out a ginger peach tea. She smelled the tea bag before putting it in front of her. It smelled like summertimes with Clementine. She could remember her great-aunt making them iced ginger peach tea as a special treat on hot summer days.
“How long did you and Simon know each other?” she asked.
Adrienne considered. “About… ten years, I guess. We met each other in high school when my family moved into town. I was… I didn’t make friends easily. I was kind of an outsider. But Simon was nice to me. He would talk to me and didn’t make fun of me for being from away. I guess… I fell for him because he was one of the few people who accepted me.”
“That’s nice. I’m glad he was welcoming.”
“Simon was always eager to meet the new girl,” Adrienne said, unsmiling. “I’m not sure it was a demonstration of his good character.”
CHAPTER 25
Adrienne brought the teapot over to the table. She poured for Erin and then herself, selecting a green tea.
“But the two of you stayed together,” Erin observed. “A lot of couples don’t.”
“I probably shouldn’t have. I should have just dumped him and gone on with my life. But I kept taking him back when he showed up again. Pretending that it was going to be different. That I believed he was going to be different every time. That this time, he would stay, and help to support the children. Help raise them so it wasn’t just me all by myself.”
Adrienne sighed and swept her thin, straight hair back over her ears and behind her shoulders. She looked not just exhausted after a busy workday, but world-weary. She was younger than Erin, yet had been through so many trials with her children and Simon. Erin had been through her own tough times, but at least she’d only had herself to look after. She couldn’t imagine going through it all with young children to look after as well. Putting a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. Trying to take care of them or arrange for childcare. Erin didn’t know how she had managed it.
“What did he do when he was away? Do you have any idea?”
Adrienne sipped her tea, frown lines between her eyebrows. “He would go off, saying he’d heard of an opportunity. Or saying that he had a job interview or had gotten hired for something. But I knew that most of the time, he didn’t have a new job. He just had… an idea of something else he could do. A new scheme. Or scam. I always wanted to believe him. But after a while, I knew it was just… him getting tired of the quiet life and chasing rainbows. He loved the kids, and I’d like to think he loved me too, in his own way. You always want to believe that a man really loves you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Erin admitted. She too had dealt with that longing. That wish or pretense that the man she was with really loved her, was devoted to her, and would do anything for her. She hoped that she’d found that with Terry, but she often found herself doubting either his devotion or that, this time, she had found something different, and she and Terry were in it for the long haul. It had lasted longer than most of her relationships, and Terry really was a good guy. But sometimes she worried she was just lying to herself.
“I know that there were other women,” Adrienne said. “I knew that when he went off somewhere for weeks or months, that he wasn’t keeping himself for me. He would come back and sometimes I would be able to smell her on his clothing, until everything had been washed a few times. It wasn’t just hotel soap.”
She sniffled and wiped her nose with a tissue tucked in her pocket.
“When he was with me, I wanted to believe that he’d realized the error of his ways and had come back to me for good. But after a while… I realized how bad that was for the kids. And I tried to change. To be tough and not just take him back. Sometimes that made him mad and he would take off again. Others… he would try to prove himself. Try to show me how much he had changed.”
“But it didn’t last.”
“It never did. If it lasted longer than the time before, I would get to thinking that it might stick this time. But it never did.”
Erin wished she could hug Adrienne and make her feel better. But Adrienne was not a touchy-feely person. She kept herself aloof most of the time. Even asking Erin to help with the computer work and have tea together was very unusual. And Erin found shows of affection awkward enough without trying to judge whether Adrienne would accept her ministrations. She wished she had someone like Betty Thompson there to tell her what to do next.
Adrienne took another sip of her tea and looked at her watch. “We’d better get started. I want to be done by the time Bella gets home.”
Erin waited for a more thorough explanation, but Adrienne didn’t clarify. Maybe Bella would need the computer for homework when she got home.
Adrienne brought her cup with her and motioned for Erin to do the same. They climbed the stairs to the small bedrooms, and Adrienne led her to a tiny computer station wedged into one corner of the master bedroom.
“Internet here is pretty slow,” Adrienne warned. “Someday maybe they’ll get that satellite connection here but, right now, it’s just over the phone lines.”
They sat down, Erin taking the computer chair and Adrienne perching on the corner of the bed, close enough for her to see most of what Erin was doing on the computer.
“So I’m not sure exactly what you want,” Erin said tentatively. She typed Simon’s name into the search bar, and most of the results on the screen were obviously for other people. Erin scrolled through them, looking for Simon’s face. She found him on one of the social networks and clicked his name to pull up his profile. She and Adrienne skimmed through the last few entries he had made before his death.
“I guess…” Adrienne leaned forward, looking at the details. “Does it say where he has been? Who his friends are? That kind of thing. Then maybe there will be something on their social media… maybe some pictures of him or things he was involved with.”
Erin looked through the pictures and entries on his timeline. She opened a new document and started noting the places and people with their profile links. Simon’s timeline was pretty innocuous. Only a few posts a year. There was a picture of him with Adrienne and some of the children crowding into the frame. Erin looked at the date. Two and a half years previous. That might have been the last time he’d been home with them. Erin could see the joy in Adrienne’s eyes at the family being together.
And then he had left.
She followed the links to some of his friends. Some of them posted more actively than Simon. Others had profiles that were completely locked down so that only their few close friends would be able to access anything.
They were generally a rough lot. Erin glanced at Adrienne’s face to see if she recognized any of them. Were any of them the men who were looking for Simon, who wanted to collect his debts from Adrienne?
Adrienne just shook her head. “No one from around here.”
Drinking pictures. Pictures of them with barely clad girlfriends. Trucks and motorcycles. Off-roading holidays.
Erin went back to the initial search that she had done and started clicking on some of the results that didn’t have pictures beside them. Some of them were obviously not him. Erin accidentally clicked on another profile on the social network she had found him on and hovered the mouse cursor over the back button.
“Wait,” Adrienne held up her hand. They both watched the page load over the slow internet connection. It was Simon’s picture, but it was not the same profile as they had already looked at. Erin looked at the details along the left side of the page. “Arizona,” she pointed out, shaking her head. “Maybe it’s one of those fake profiles? He got hacked?”
A picture appeared on his timeline. Simon holding a couple of children on his knee. Towheaded twins about two years old. The comment posted with the photo said that he was grateful for his family and professed his love for them. Erin scrolled down a little to look at other comments, puzzled. She glanced over at Adrienne, who was staring at the screen, her face white.
A picture of Simon with a short-haired blond woman with an angelic face in a flowery cotton dress.
A picture of two red-skinned twins in a hospital bassinet.
CHAPTER 26
Erin swallowed. She copied his girlfriend’s profile to her document and glanced through the few posts for any friend mentions. She pressed the back button and the pictures disappeared.
“He has another family,” Adrienne said hollowly. “A newer one.”
Erin shook her head in disgust. “That’s really dirty,” she said sharply. “That’s really unfair. If he’s going to go off and start another family, what’s he doing coming back here and trying to work things out with you?”
Adrienne shook her head. “He wouldn’t stay. He never did before. He just wanted the money.” She took a couple of large gulps of her tea. “I kept telling myself that it wasn’t about the money. But look at her. She’s not going to be satisfied squatting or living out of her car or some shelter. And those babies…” Adrienne’s voice broke.
“Oh, Adrienne.” Erin wished there was something she could say. She had nothing to offer to comfort her. Adrienne had been taken by a scoundrel. Taken in by him over and over again. She had trusted him even though she knew what kind of a person he was. She had allowed him back in and he had just kept taking from her, someone who had nothing. Meanwhile, he had started another family somewhere else.
Erin typed Simon’s name into the social media search bar and clicked the search button. The profiles with matching names were listed on the screen. Simon Simpson was not uncommon, and there were a number of them scattered across the world. Erin narrowed the results to just the United States. Simon wasn’t a jet setter. He hadn’t been traveling to other parts of the world. Just the United States. There were still a lot of profiles. She started scrolling down the list, looking at the profile pictures. Some of them had only avatars. Some of the photos were not clear at thumbnail size. Erin clicked on one and, again, Simon’s face appeared on her screen.
Erin wished she could take it back. What was she thinking, searching for him again? She had already discovered the first two profiles. What need was there to find any more?
Adrienne swore under her breath.
This time, the woman Simon was with was a redhead. She was tagged as Tate Banks. Erin wrote down the name. She scrolled down the timeline. As with the other profiles, Simon hadn’t posted very often. Once or twice a year and, sometimes, it wasn’t even a picture or explanation of what he was doing. Some were just memes or Christmas graphics that said nothing about him.
But there he was, several days’ growth of beard, cheek pressed against Tate’s, and a little boy below their chins. Maybe a five- or six-year-old. Black hair. Darling little dimples as he grinned up at his parents. Erin felt sick.
“No, no, no,” Adrienne murmured, looking at the little boy. She shook her head. “How many more are there?”
Erin shook her head. “I don’t know. And there is no saying how many he might have never created profiles for. He might have told them he didn’t like social media, and these are just the ones who talked him into it. There’s no way of knowing.”
“I knew there were women. I didn’t think… I never knew that there were children. And so many of them… I thought there was another woman. Maybe two regulars. And the others were just… one-night stands. Just… satisfying a physical need. But this…” She closed her eyes to block it out and shook her head.
“It’s too much,” she told Erin, waving it away with one hand. “I don’t want to see any more. Now I know what he was doing… fine. He was a worse kind of dog than I ever imagined.”
Was it worse to establish multiple families than it was to pursue one-night stands? Erin supposed it was the children who made the difference. Not the length of the relationship. Adrienne had always thought that her children were the only ones. That he would always come back to her because she had the children.
“I don’t want to see any more of that,” Adrienne insisted. “You can give that to the police. Have them chase every one of these women down and talk to them. See if they have alibis. If any of them knew about me. Maybe one of them followed him here.”
“Okay. Is that it, then?” Erin glanced around for a printer to send her document to.
Adrienne shook her head. “I want to know what else he was doing. I know the police are going to come after me. Who else is a better suspect? They know I had a motive. And he would have met me anywhere if I called him or sent him a message. I was the one who could get close to him, who had something that he wanted. So they’re going to come after me.”
Erin didn’t deny it. But she still wasn’t sure what Adrienne wanted her to do next.
“All of those different places,” Adrienne said, motioning to the list Erin had typed up. “All of those friends. I want to know what else he was doing. If he was involved in something.” She hesitated. “I never wanted to know what he was doing. I didn’t want to know where the money came from. It was better if I didn’t know, if I didn’t have anything to do with it. I know there is no way that he would have given me all of his money, but sometimes it was thousands of dollars. We had credit cards that had to be paid off, vehicle loans with back payments due. He had bookies and loan sharks. A couple of times, we had houses where back rent was due. He would sweep in, pay everyone off, and leave me with a little spending money. It was never enough. But it was something. And I knew how much other stuff he had to pay off. I never believed it was one big win. I think… it was something else.”
“Some other scheme or scam,” Erin repeated what Adrienne had told her earlier.
“Yeah. There was always something. Another way to make it big. And sometimes… it paid off. But I didn’t want to know what.”
“And now you do.” Erin stared at the computer monitor. “I have no idea how to find anything. It isn’t like he would post about it online if it was some scam or something illegal.”
“But people do,” Adrienne insisted. “The police catch them—drug dealers, fraudsters, murderers—because they post about it. Brag about it. They want everyone to know what they did.”
“Well… when was the last time he came home with a lot of money?”
Adrienne thought about it and gave her an approximate date two years earlier. Erin wrote it down.
