The Whispering Room

He sighed and scrubbed a trembling hand down his face. “She was a material witness on one of his cases, okay? That’s how they met. She was having a hard time getting by, like a lot of people are these days. He felt sorry for her and tried to give her a hand now and then until she got back on her feet.

They were just friends. Johnny swore that’s all it was.”

“Then why did he never tell me about her?”

“Maybe he was afraid you’d get the wrong idea.”

No kidding, Evangeline thought now as she gazed down at her son.

But she’d never given Johnny a reason for worrying she’d jump to the wrong conclusion. She wasn’t clingy and emotional, nor had she ever been the jealous type. She was not the kind of wife who harbored unwarranted distrust for any woman who came into contact with her husband. Evangeline had no problem with Johnny having female friends.

After all, she had Mitchell.

So there was no reason for him to keep things from her, even a friendship with a female witness.

Evangeline had always believed their relationship was open and honest and mutually trusting. There was nothing they couldn’t tell one another.

Apparently, she’d been wrong.

Not only had Johnny kept that friendship from her, he’d never mentioned Lena Saunders, either.

Now Evangeline couldn’t help wondering what else she might discover about her dead husband. Something Meredith Courtland said about her own marriage came back to her.

I guess that’s why they say the wife is the last to know.

Maybe the cracks had been there in their marriage all along, but also like Meredith Courtland, Evangeline had chosen not to see them.

Impulsively, she reached across the table and took her mother’s hand. “I’m sorry you’re having to go through this. But all marriages have problems. Maybe Dad will come to his senses and it’ll all blow over.”

“Maybe he will,” Lynette said with a wan smile.

“Can I ask you something, Mom?”

“What is it?”

“What was Dad’s problem with Johnny?”

Lynette looked up in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“It was so obvious he didn’t like him, and I never understood why.”

“Fathers are always protective of their daughters. It’s only natural.”

“Are you sure that’s all it was. Dad didn’t…he didn’t suspect something about Johnny?”

“Like what, honey?”

At her mother’s tender tone, Evangeline felt an unexpected flood of tears. She lifted J.D. to her chest and rested her cheek against the top of his head. He tolerated the affection for a moment before he pulled away.

What if Johnny really had been involved with another woman? What if everything she thought about him, about their life together, was nothing but a lie?

What if he had never really loved her?

“What’s wrong, Evangeline?”

She squeezed her eyes closed. “I still miss him, Mama. Sometimes I don’t think I can bear it, I miss him so bad.”

“I know, honey.”

“At least with Dad, you’ve still got a chance to make things right. But with Johnny…I just keep thinking about all the things I wished I’d said to him before it was too late. I lie in bed at night and all the arguments we ever had go round and round in my head. I remember every petty little thing I ever said to him, the way I used to nag at him for leaving his clothes on the bathroom floor or dishes in the sink. And I wish I could take it all back. I wish…even now…I wish…” She wiped a hand across her wet cheek. “I just want him back. I don’t care what he did…I just want him back.”

Later that night, Evangeline awakened to the strangest feeling. She’d been so certain when she opened her eyes that she’d find Johnny standing over her, she was actually startled when no one was there. Something lingered, though. She thought at first it was his cologne, but it was really just a memory.

Even so, she got up out of bed and checked in the bathroom. Then she padded down the hallway to the baby’s room. She checked every inch of the house before crawling back into bed and huddling under the covers.

Johnny was gone. He wasn’t coming back. Ever.

She rolled to his side of the bed and buried her face in his pillow. But the linens had been laundered too many times and his scent had long ago faded.

And Evangeline knew that no matter how hard she tried, eventually some of her memories would slip away, too.

Fifteen

Hours after Nathan Mallet left Mount Olive, he drove to a bar a few blocks from the cemetery and parked on the street so that anyone tailing him would be sure to spot his car.