Chapter 43

Deirdre Velis sat at the head of Denton police station's conference room table, smiling at Josie and Turner. She was easily five or more years older than Seth. Her long silver hair was pulled back into a ponytail that sat low against the nape of her neck. Fine lines gathered at the corners of her brown eyes and around her lips. Her large cloth purse looked hand-sewn. The cream-colored sweater she wore over a simple white cotton shirt was worn with age. A smell of wood polish floated around her.

Josie had made the introductions while she and Turner sat in the two seats to Deirdre's right. Turner had already spoken with Deirdre by phone, so Josie let him take the lead.

He flashed a smile. "Thanks for coming all the way down here."

Deirdre returned his smile, although with no teeth showing. She folded her hands on the tabletop and took a deep, bracing breath. "I'm sorry I missed you last night. Thank you for speaking with me. I don't watch the news, but I do listen to the radio and when I heard Seth's name, I knew I had to call. We go way back. He was still in high school when we met."

Turner's fingers drummed against the arm of his chair. "No kidding. Guess those high school girls couldn't compete with a sophisticated woman like yourself."

Josie wondered if that was supposed to be a compliment, or if it was Turner's backhanded way of asking if Deirdre had entered into a sexual relationship with Seth while he was still a minor. Either way, Deirdre kept her tight smile in place. "He worked summers on my uncle's farm down in Fairfield. Nothing happened until he was old enough but yes, we fell deeply in love. We were together for many years. I wanted to get married. Settle down and have children. But Seth refused. He thought…well, he's always had some problems." She tapped a finger against her temple. "Here. He says it was from the service, but the truth is that he was starting to have some pretty strange thoughts before he went in."

"Delusions," Josie said.

Deirdre nodded. "Yes. The older he got, the more…entrenched they became. Now, don't get me wrong, he isn't some kind of monster. He's not unhinged."

Josie had a sudden flash of spittle raining down on her face while Seth tried to strangle the life out of her. The words ‘monster' and ‘unhinged' definitely came to mind, and yet, Josie wondered if there was something else at work that had caused him to escalate from his abuse of Mira to kidnapping and torturing her sister for the span of a year. Josie still felt they were missing something important. Rebecca had said something similar to what Deirdre was telling them.

Seth presents quite normally most of the time. He's quiet, polite, pleasant. He's not a monster.

Turner said, "You sure this guy isn't a monster, because?—"

Under the table, Josie kicked her leg to the side, making contact with his ankle. He glared at her.

Deirdre said, "I guess I should rephrase that. The Seth Lee that I met and fell in love with decades ago was not a monster. Even when his…issues were at their worst, he was still the man I loved."

"Did he hit you?" Turner asked pointedly.

Deirdre swallowed, looking down at her folded hands. "Yes. Sometimes. When he was extremely agitated, wrapped up in his…thoughts. When he got that way, there was no reasoning with him. Many times, I tried to make him get help, but he would never agree. I suppose I pushed too hard, because he left."

"He left you?" Turner said. "As in broke up with you. When was that?"

"About ten years ago now, I think."

Which meant that their relationship had overlapped with his and Mira's. Josie said, "Did you know that Seth was seeing Mira Summers?"

Deirdre's mouth pressed into a thin line. Anger flared in her eyes, but she kept her composure. When she spoke, her words were carefully controlled but Josie felt the undertone of fury. "I suspected. Seth would disappear for months, sometimes even years at a time. I had no way of knowing if he'd been faithful. Whenever I asked, he lied and said there was no one but me."

"But he left you. At that point, he didn't tell you about Mira Summers?" Turner asked. "Or their secret kid?"

"No. Never."

By now Rosie would be ten. The end of Deirdre and Seth's relationship had coincided with Rosie's birth. Coincidence? Or was she too embarrassed to admit that she'd known? It was one thing to find out your man was cheating on you. It was quite another to find out he'd had a baby with another woman, especially when you had wanted to have children with him at one point and he had refused. "When is the last time you saw Seth?" Josie asked.

"Oh, just a couple of weeks ago," Deirdre replied. "That's why I'm here. We have been broken up for the last ten years but there have been times that Seth has come to me, desperate for money. His own brother won't help him, or so he says. I felt badly for him so when he needs work, I let him do deliveries for my store."

"Furniture delivery," Josie said. "In a box truck."

Deirdre smoothed her hair behind her ears even though no strands had come loose. "Yes. I pay him in cash. That is all he will accept. He doesn't even have a credit card or a bank account anymore. I give him a list of items and the addresses they're meant to go to and then he loads them into one of my trucks and delivers them. There aren't a lot. I sell antique and vintage furniture. There's not a high demand, but enough to keep my store open and to be honest, as I get older, it's a lot harder for me to do that kind of lifting."

"Does he ever help you with furniture repair?" Josie asked.

"Sometimes."

The awl. It was used in upholstery repair. Woodworking. Things that might be necessary in a store that sold vintage furniture. She looked over at Turner to see if he'd made the connection as well, but he had slipped his phone out from his pocket and was holding it in his lap, looking at something surreptitiously. Was he serious? Dared she hope it was work-related?

"Did you ever see him with Rosie Summers?" asked Josie. She got her phone out and pulled up Rosie's photo. She turned it toward Deirdre.

A flash of something crossed Deirdre's face. Resentment, hostility, maybe. Or…was that bitterness? Because she had met Seth first and wanted to bear his children, but he'd rebuffed her and then had a child with another woman? She shook her head. "He's always alone when he comes to my shop. Like I said, I had no idea that he and this other woman had had a child together."

"How about April Carlson?" Josie pressed. "You never saw him with her?"

"I told you, he's always alone, so no."

"Do you have any idea where he might have kept her? Where he might keep Rosie?"

"I wish I did," said Deirdre. "No. Seth never stayed in one place very long. If he's got hideouts, I was never privy to them."

Dead end after dead end. Turner was still engrossed in whatever was on his phone. His thumbs tapped against the screen.

Josie swiped from Rosie's school photo to the drawing they'd found at the accident scene. "Does this look like any place that you've seen before or are familiar with?"

Deirdre peered at the drawing. Her brow furrowed. She gave a little chuckle. "A place? Detective, that looks more like…an eye to me."

Josie pocketed her phone. "Does Seth stay with you? At your home, or at your store? Maybe during the winter months?"

Seth's whereabouts during cold weather had been nagging at Josie's brain from the beginning.

"My home is connected to the store but no, he doesn't stay with me. Not anymore. It's just not a good idea, given our history. Besides, he doesn't trust…being indoors. He thinks there are cameras hidden to spy on him. I've told him thousands of times there aren't, but he'll never believe me."

"How often does he deliver for you?" asked Josie. "Several times a year? Weekly?"

"It's very sporadic," Deirdre said. "Some months there are no deliveries and other months there are a half dozen a week. If Seth happens to stop by—I have no way to reach him—then I let him do it."

Turner nudged Josie with his elbow and whispered, "We got a tip."

"You let him take one of your trucks, but you have no way to reach him?" Josie said. "How do you know he'll come back?"

Deirdre laughed. "Because he needs money. I pay for the gas in the truck. I give him cash for…whatever he needs to spend it on. It's not much, but clearly, he needs it. Listen, I came here today because he's got my truck. I thought if I gave you the license plate number, maybe you'd be able to find him faster."

She reached into her purse and pulled out a copy of a registration for a box truck. Pushing it toward Josie, she said, "Unfortunately, it doesn't have GPS. It's pretty old. No bells or whistles."

"This will help," said Josie. "Ms. Velis, do you know where he lives? Where he stays?"

"I've never known," she sighed. "He always said he just went from campground to campground. If he had some sort of steady work gig, he'd stay with a coworker. That's what he always told me. But now I know he's had another woman all these years. Had a baby with her. Maybe that's where he was when he wasn't with me. Maybe he's got some other woman on the hook right now and she's hiding him."

There was no mistaking the bitterness in her tone.

Turner looked up from his phone and peered at Deirdre. "You know this guy is a loon. Now you know he kidnapped a couple of women. Stabbed both of them. Killed one of them. In fact, he almost got this one the other night." He elbowed Josie in the arm.

Deirdre gave her an appraising look. Josie was glad she'd taken the time that morning to use concealer on the bruises dotting her throat.

"Turner," she said, her tone a warning.

Naturally, he just kept going. "He didn't even balk at coming after a lady with a gun. Tell me, Deirdre. Aren't you even a little bit scared of this guy? What happens when he shows back up at your store with the truck, this time knowing he's wanted for murder and a whole bunch of other bad shit? This guy is seriously off the rails."

"Detective." Deirdre unfurled her fingers and placed her palms on the table. "I know how to handle Seth. I've had thirty years of practice. If he shows up at the store, I'll call the police and he won't have any idea I've done it until you've arrived."