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Maybe I can find a necromancer to bring the bastard back from the dead and kill him all over again. This time with my own special nuance.
"I didn't fall."
Gamó. "Tell me."
"Lenny is my brother-in-law. I can't believe I'm telling you this. He was in an accident when he was a child and suffered a traumatic brain injury. I was supposed to watch him when my husband and father-in-law were out of the house."
Traumatic brain injury can mean a lot of things. "What was the impact of the injury on Lenny?"
"He lacks impulse control. He'll get fixated on an idea and lash out at anyone who prevents him from following through."
She doesn't have to spell it out. With her being her brother-in-law's primary caregiver, that person would have been Lucia, more often than not.
"He's an adult now?" I ask.
"Yes."
"And when you lost the baby?"
"Yes."
"A large man?" Even an average size man would be bigger than Lucia, but a large one would be damn near impossible for her to control physically.
"Yes." Her voice is soft, laden with old grief.
"Your bastard of a husband expected you to care for and protect his brother who was an adult sized male?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Lenny wanted something I wouldn't give him. We fought. I tried to get away. He shoved me. The stairs were too close, and I went flying. When I woke up, my baby was gone."
And those bastards probably blamed Lucia for not being able to handle Lenny. She said her husband is dead. Is her father-in-law?
"How did your husband die?"
"A workplace incident. Something went wrong at the club and both he and his father died."
I am not a good man. I hope those bastards suffered before death. "That's why you came to Portland. You left your old life behind."
"Yes."
I can't stand the pain that single word holds, and I pull off at the next exit. We're close to the mansion, but I'm not ready to take her there. I discovered a park with a sunken rose garden when I was doing recon for the area. Finding a parking spot on the street near it, I pull in, maneuvering the X7 to fit between two cars.
I turn it off and get out. Lucia is still sitting in her seat with her seatbelt fastened when I come around the passenger side of the truck and open her door.
I reach over her and press the button to release it, and then carefully pull the belt away from her as it retracts. "Come on."
She looks past me. "Where are we?"
"Someplace I can hold you while you talk."
"A park?" she asks, like that's the strangest place I could have brought her.
I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her close. "Yes, a park."
The roses have bloomed and died already, their bushes in hibernation for the winter, but it is still a peaceful place. A few walkers and joggers power along the path that runs the perimeter of the park, but only a couple of people are in the sunken garden itself.
