‘No.He just… liked it.’
There was an edge to Sheila’s words, and Ella had been a detective long enough to know that married couples lied to themselves as much as they did each other.No one wanted to admit that the person they’d sworn their life to might be hiding pieces of themselves.
‘Sheila, I need you to think carefully.Is there anyone who might’ve wanted to hurt Eddie?Someone with a grudge, maybe?’
Sheila’s head whipped towards Ella then.‘Are you serious?Who would… Eddie was the nicest guy in the world.’
‘I understand he was a good man, but even good men have enemies.If there’s anything you can think of…’
A long silence broken by Sheila’s uneven breathing.Her brow puckered as though she was sifting through a mental Rolodex – but then her mouth twisted and fresh tears spilled over onto her cheeks.
‘No, there’s no one.He was...Everyone loved him.’
Ella had heard this before.Everyone was loved.Nobody had enemies.It was almost never true, but that didn’t mean Sheila was lying.It meant she was grieving, and grief made a saint out of anyone who wasn’t around to contradict it.If she wanted answers, she was going to have to dig for them herself.
‘Sheila, this might sound like a strange question, but did Eddie have any connection to the logo of the theater he worked for?’
‘Huh?What do you mean?’
Ella realized it was a dumb question, but she couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it.She tried a different angle.‘Did he ever have a figurine of the theater logo?The ballet dancer?’
Sheila blinked away the residue of tears.‘No.Why would he?’
‘Sorry.It doesn’t matter.’
Sheila rubbed at her red-rimmed eyes with the heel of her hand.‘I just don’t understand.Who would...We were trying so hard to start a family and some psycho just...’Her words dissolved into a gut-wrenching sob.‘The last thing we did was fight about it.’
There it was.The hairline fracture in the Foxalls’ facade.The night Eddie died, he and his wife hadn’t been playing the loving couple.They’d been at war, and war always had casualties.
‘You were fighting?About what?’
Sheila flinched as though Ella had struck her.‘It...It doesn’t matter.Let the dead rest and all that.’Her bottom lip quivered and a part of Ella wanted to tell her that it was okay, that she could keep her secrets and her shame, but doing so wouldn’t bring her husband’s killer to justice.
‘Sheila, I know this is painful.But I need you to be honest with me.What were you fighting about?’
Sheila shook her head, and then the words came flooding out like she’d lanced a boil.
‘Kids.That’s all it was ever about recently.I wanted them so badly and we tried.God, we tried everything.But then Eddie got sick.Cancer.They caught it early but not before it...’A vague hand wave towards her lap.
Understanding dawned.‘It affected his fertility.’
‘Killed it.’There was no mistaking the bitterness now.‘One day we’re picking out names and the next I’m watching him puke his guts up from the chemo and knowing it’s over.’
Ella’s own stomach twisted in sympathy.She’d never experienced it first hand, but she guessed fertility struggles were an ordeal that could suck the joy out of even the healthiest relationship.She fixed Sheila with a searching look.‘How did Eddie handle it?’
‘Head in the sand.At first he tried.He cut out the cigarettes and booze, but when it didn’t happen he...’Sheila’s voice warbled and died, and she seemed to collapse inward.‘He gave up.’
There it was.The ugly, unvarnished truth beneath the fairytale marriage.An illness and infertility igniting the powder keg of preexisting resentments until something had to give. The silence yawned between them as Ella grappled with her next move.Every cop instinct screamed at her to push forward and see what nastiness lurked beneath, but the human part knew that there was a limit to what the living could bear.
So she did what she swore she’d never do.She let it lie.
‘Thank you, Sheila.I know that was difficult.I just have one more question, and then I’ll leave you be.’
Watery blue eyes met hers.‘What?’
‘Your back door.Did Eddie often leave it unlocked?’
‘What?No, of course not.Eddie would never do that.He was as paranoid about home security as I am.’
