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“Really?”
“Yes. I left it there.” Why did she feel as though she’d told a secret? He had to know.
“Thanks. I’ll read it later. As you can tell, I haven’t had time to go through her stuff yet.” He pulled out a chair and sat beside her.
“It’s been three years.” Would she have waited this long to go through Matthew’s stuff if she hadn’t been in prison? Possibly. “Haven’t had time, or you couldn’t bring yourself to do it?”
“You caught me. I stop by the house and check on it every week or so. But when I walk through that door, I expect to find her here, waiting for me. Then reality sets in, which is sometimes too much.” He inhaled a deep breath.
“At least you’ve been able to grieve at your own pace, and you still have the privilege of going through her things and remembering. When you feel the time is right, you’ll get to it.” She’d been stripped of that crucial step. “I’d give anything to hold one of Matthew’s suits and smell his scent on his collar.” She blinked back a sudden tear and sniffed. “Did you happen to see Jacob?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.” Brett rubbed his chin. “Your son is a cute little tyke, all decked out in his uniform. Carol brought him in to say goodbye to his grandfather before she took him to preschool.”
“Uniform? Preschool? He’s too young for that.” Her son was only two, nearly three. He needed love and tender care, not the discipline of a schoolteacher. He needed to play and run around and not be stuck in some stuffy classroom.
“Relax. From what Carol said, he only goes there until two o’clock three days a week.” Brett reached over and touched her hand. “He’s fine. And happy. Looks a lot like Matt.”
She didn’t want Brett’s sympathy. She wanted to find Matthew’s killer so she could take care of her child herself. Her eyes went to the planner. “How did you pry this out of Walter’s hands? And did he have Matt’s cell and laptop too?”
Brett rose from his chair and grabbed some Sunny D from the fridge. “I bought some groceries on the way home. Want some?”
“No.” She didn’t like that he’d ignored her question. “Why don’t you want to tell me how you got this?”
He poured himself a glass and returned to the table. “Because I had to lie.”
Her first impulse was to remind him that he didn’t have a problem lying to her last night but decided not to. No need to stir up an argument. Instead, she encouraged him to go on by motioning with her hand. “And...”
“And... I hated doing it, but it was the only way he’d part with the thing.” He took a swallow of juice. “He had placed the planner on a table, like a shrine or something. I told him I wanted to look through it to see if Matt mentions some place that you two liked to go, that you might hide there.”
“At least half of what you said was true.”
“Walter told me to keep the planner as long as I needed it but to take good care of the thing. He said Sheriff Kennard still has the cell and laptop.” He shrugged like what he’d had to do to get it was water under the rickety bridge he now stood upon to help her.
“I appreciate all you’re doing.” Out of gratitude, she patted his arm.
He placed his hand on top of hers. “I knew what I was signing up for. It was my choice.” He took what seemed to be a cleansing breath, then said, “What captured your eye a moment ago?”
Dania pointed to Val’s name.
“And he is?”
“An old boyfriend of mine.”
“Ah, the plot thickens. Does he have all the digits on his hands?” He looked straight at her.
“Yes, but he also has a lot of friends, being as his father is Eli Wheeler.”
“Eli Wheeler, the man who owns Wheeler Land Management and also the biggest cattle auction house in the state of Montana?” Brett’s forehead creased.
“Yes. I don’t know Val’s friends.” His buddies, who had seemed to follow him around, had always made her nervous.
“Are his friends the reason you broke up with him?”
“No. Val and I met during our freshman year at a high school football game between the school here and Bozeman High. The drive between Bear Claw and Bozeman to visit each other wasn’t too bad. But when I left for college, which was more than three hours away, we broke up. A couple of years later, when he heard that I’d married Matthew, he got pretty upset. But then, after Matthew died, I got in touch with him to see if he could help, and he came to the trial every day to support me.”
“Hmm.” Brett leaned back. “Sounds like Val has several sides. You may have just found us a good lead. Tell you what—”
A knock came at the door. Dania’s heart leaped in her chest. She looked to Brett. “What are you going to do?”
