Page 37 of Forever Dark
Gus returned carrying a tray with three glasses of lemonade that shook dangerously in his hands.
Selena stood at once.“Let me help you.”
She took the tray before one of the glasses slid off.Gus gave her a grateful nod, though his pride winced a little at the assistance.She set the tray on the table and handed him one of the glasses only after he was seated.
Connor took the second.Selena kept the third untouched on a coaster.
Gus settled back into his chair and looked between them.“Now then.What’s all this about, again?Forgive me, I forget things.”
Connor leaned forward slightly.“Gus, I know it’s hard given the circumstances, but we wanted to know a bit about Brenda’s visits here.”
“Is it true what the radio said, that she was murdered?”
“I’m afraid so,” Selena answered.
“Poor Brenda…” The man looked down at his hands.Selena saw a tear drop onto them.No matter how many times she saw such things, she always felt so painfully sorry for the loved ones left behind.
Selena pulled a tissue from her bag and held it out.He took it automatically.
“When did you see Brenda last?”Selena asked.
Gus dabbed his eyes.“She was here on Tuesday,” he said.“She fixed the loose curtain in the spare room.She put too much pepper in the casserole, like always.”His voice thinned.“We laughed about it.”
Selena said gently, “We heard Brenda helped you around the house.”
Gus pressed the tissue to one eye.“She did.Sweet girl.Stubborn though.”
“What kind of help?”
“Little things.Brought groceries.Tidied up.Took old food from the fridge and scolded me when I tried to keep it anyway.”The tissue trembled in his hand.“She’d bring a nice dinner now and then.Soup if the weather turned.”
“She was paid for that?”Selena asked.
Gus nodded.“Eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“At first she wouldn’t take a penny.”A faint smile came and went.“Said neighbors ought to look after neighbors.But I’m not blind.I could see she was struggling.Car needed work.Rent always hovering over her.So, I persuaded her to take some money each week.”
Connor asked, “How much?”
“About two hundred dollars.”
Connor looked at him over the rim of his glass.“That’s a decent amount of money per week for someone doing a few odd jobs here and there.”
Gus gave a crooked grin.“It’s not like my savings will go anywhere but the state when I die.My kid brother’s gone.Neither of us had children.I enjoyed knowing I was helping Brenda.”
That answer came without hesitation.No embarrassment.No secretive shift in his eyes.If there had been anything inappropriate there, Selena thought, it did not sit close to the surface.
She took out her notebook.“Did Brenda ever talk to you about religion, Gus?”
“Religion?”
“Yes.Church, faith, scripture, things like that.Did she ever mention it?”
Gus frowned and shook his head.“Not that I recall.She didn’t seem to have strong religious convictions one way or the other.”
Selena’s gaze moved past him to a framed piece of embroidery hanging at the rear of the room.Blue thread on cream fabric, worked by hand with care and patience.
