Page 32 of Forever Dark
“Yeah.She dumped me like a sacko’rotten potatoes.”
Selena looked at the man.“And how did you take that?”
“I climbed inside a bottle,” he said.“But I didn’t do nothin’ to her.I wouldn’t, if that’s what you’re gettin’ at.”
Connor stayed near the door, quiet for now.
Selena took out her notebook.“Where were you two nights ago?”
Dale’s eyes shifted about.
“Here.”
“Alone?”Selena pressed.
“That’s what I said, ain’t it?”
“Doing what?”
He barked a short laugh with no humor in it.“Drinkin’ in my trailer like I said.Which is none of your business.”
Selena wrote the answer down without reacting.“Anybody who can confirm that you stayed here?”
“No.”
“And Brenda didn’t ever come by here at night to try to make up?”
“I said I hadn’t seen her.”
The anger came quickly.Too quickly.Not all of it aimed at Selena, she thought.Some of it was panic trying to dress itself up as defiance.
She softened her tone a notch.“Mr.Mitch, I’m not here to question you as a suspect.”
That was a lie, and both of them knew it.Still, there were lies meant to move a conversation rather than end one.Dale’s shoulders lowered a fraction, though his eyes remained watchful.
“I just need to understand Brenda’s life,” Selena said.“Did she have religious ties?Go to church anywhere?Talk about St.Bartholomew’s?”
Dale snorted.“Church?Brenda?”
“That’s a no?”
“She weren’t exactly righteous, let’s put it that way.She didn’t have time for church.”
Selena tried another angle.“Did she know anyone in Eagleton connected to the St.Bartholomew church?”
“No idea.”
“Any enemies you knew about?”
“Everybody’s got enemies.”
“Did Brenda have any dangerous ones?”
He gave her a long look, then glanced at Connor as if deciding which of them he disliked more.“People didn’t always get on with her.”
“Why?”
“Because she kept runnin’ her mouth.Loose with her mouth.And that wasn’t all she was loose with.”
