Second Choice Wife novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Deputy

"It's midnight," Heath said.

"I know what time it is. I was a deputy for thirty-one years." Eugene Depew stepped over the threshold without being asked and looked around the foyer like a man pricing it. "Nice place. Your father kept it nicer. Hello, Mrs. Garrison."

"Mr. Depew."

"Naomi, isn't it? The librarian. I hear you've got guts."

He was heavier than I remembered, with a grey crew cut and big freckled hands.

He had a face you'd trust to give you directions.

I felt Heath standing beside me.

"What do you want?" Heath asked.

"A talk, man to man." He set the manila folder on the hall table. "Bridget came home from the lake in tears. She says you said some things this morning. I'd like to know what's changed."

"Nothing has changed."

"Then why's she crying, son?"

"She knows why."

Eugene's smile stayed put.

"Let me say what I think," he said easily. "I think you've been whispering to your wife about an old, sad night that you took full responsibility for. I think it's gone to your head. You've got a pretty girl on your arm now who thinks you're a hero."

"I'm in the room," I said.

"Yes, ma'am. I know."

He opened the folder with one thick finger.

There was a typed page inside, yellowed, with a signature at the bottom in a boy's careful handwriting.

"Statement of Heath Richard Garrison, sworn at the Larkfield County Jail, August twenty-third," Eugene read aloud. "'I was the driver of the vehicle. I had been drinking. I did not see the pedestrian.' Signed, witnessed, filed." He tapped it. "That's your name, son. Under oath. Ten years old, and it's never been wrong once."

"You wrote it," Heath said.

"You signed it."

"You put the pen in my hand."

"I put a lot of things in your hand. Mostly breathing room." Eugene closed the folder gently. "I'm going to tell you how this goes if you start talking. First, there's a sworn lie in the county record with your signature on it. Second, there's a lovely girl named Joelle Kitto sitting in a small apartment over a dry cleaner who thinks she knows exactly who hurt her. You tell her different, and you're telling her you stood back for ten years and watched her hate the wrong person. You think she thanks you for that?"

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