Chapter 7

Nothing like having the truth shown to you in such a way that it freed you from all the strings you've somehow been wound up in and tied up in knots over. Doreen felt as if the burden had been lifted from her, and Nan was right. Doreen had given away far too much of her power to that husband of hers, and now that he was gone, the best thing she could do to say a concrete goodbye would be to solve this mystery, clearing her name and Mack's. Then everybody could move forward, without Mathew's shadow hanging around like a dark cloud.

She was sorry Mathew was gone for his sake, but not for her own, and even being able to freely admit that was shockingly healing as well.

As soon as Nan was gone, Doreen grabbed her notebook, headed down to the river, and sat there with the animals, trying to figure out a plan of attack. She needed to go to the crime scene again, assuming it had been cleared up enough that she was allowed to get near it. She presumed at this point in time it had been. She figured Corey would trace Mathew's movements from the time he arrived in Kelowna to the time he was murdered. That wouldn't be quite so easy. So Doreen would take another approach. Mathew had a man of affairs, as he used to call him, a male secretary, business manager, or something along that line. She remembered him as Reggie, during their marriage.

She pulled out her phone, checked to see if she happened to still have his number. When she found it, on impulse, she called it. When Reggie answered, she identified herself, afraid there would be an immediate hang-up, but instead he perked right up.

"Doreen, it's so lovely to hear from you," he said.

She sighed in relief. "Here I was thinking you wouldn't even talk to me."

"You wouldn't have killed him," he stated, his tone sad. "He was a difficult man to be around. I know that, but I also know that your heart is good and kind. I'm glad you've moved on."

"Not only have I moved on, I've formed an odd hobby."

He laughed. "I do believe I've heard about this, as Mathew himself told me about your penchant for solving mysteries." Then he stopped. "Are you working on Mathew's case?" he asked curiously.

"It's certainly something I need to do. I have to ensure that I don't end up on the hook for this one," she shared.

"Of course. Sadly the police always look to the spouse—or, in this case, ex-spouse—and you are the perfect suspect, being in the middle of a divorce, as well. Yet he did sign the papers," Reggie noted.

"Apparently he missed a couple signatures, so they aren't signed and sealed," she stated in frustration. "So, what should have been a closed, over, done deal apparently isn't quite so clear-cut anymore."

"Oh dear." He hesitated and then mentioned, "He did tell me that he was reconsidering his options."

"Ah, I don't know who he reconsidered them with, but I'm guessing somebody didn't like the new choices he was making."

"No, and he certainly did have some,… shall we say, rather unsavory friends?"

"Yes, I know. Although a lot of that I would think happened when I wasn't around."

"He never did let you in on the business side of his life, did he?"

"No, absolutely not. As you well know, anytime I walked into the room, you guys clammed up. I wasn't given anything but papers to sign, if and when he needed me to, and beyond that?… I didn't have anything to do with his business life."

"Maybe that's for the best," he murmured. "When you think about it, it leaves you in a much better position right now."

"Only if the police believe me when I tell them that I didn't kill Mathew," she stated. "And honestly, they're not too cooperative at the moment."

"Right, given the circumstances, I don't imagine they'll be terribly cooperative with anybody."

"Have they contacted you yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, but I am expecting them."

"Yes, you should be. Obviously anybody connected to this mess will be part and parcel of it."

"Of course, and I will cooperate fully."

"I appreciate that. Do you have any idea what he was even doing here?" she asked curiously. "He didn't contact me, which is odd."

"He didn't?" Reggie asked.

"No, the first I saw him was when I found him, unfortunately."

"Oh dear, did you actually find him?"

"Yes, at the Chinese food place," she shared. "That's what I don't really understand. Why he was even there?"

After a moment's hesitation, Reggie admitted, "He did ask me for a list of your favorite hunting grounds."

She stopped and stared at the phone. "Oh, good Lord," she muttered. "Did you tell him of this place?"

"I do remember you used to complain that you couldn't get Chinese food whenever you wanted it, which was such an odd thing, considering the amount of money you have."

"You mean, the amount of money my ex had," she corrected.

"Sorry, I forgot. He didn't believe that Chinese was good for you, as I recall."

"Not good for me, not good for my waistline, not for anything," she replied in a dry tone. "So you told him that I would be at a Chinese food restaurant?"

"No, no, not at all. I didn't know where you were or where you might have gone, but I did remind him that you had this penchant for Chinese food."

"Huh," she muttered. "It seems a little too much of a coincidence for him to have gone there, then me to have shown up as well."

"I do know that he may have… I don't even know if I should be saying this."

"You might as well because, if we don't start speaking up, none of us will get any answers. Not to mention I can be on the hook for this."

"Fine. He may have hired somebody to follow you."

Her breath let out in a single gush. "Wow." She could hardly formulate the words in her brain. "That's so him, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Reggie said apologetically. "When he wanted to know something, he didn't waste time and energy. He just went right to the source."

She sighed. "Do you know who he hired?"

"Somebody he's used off and on, and they are from down here."

"Okay, that's good to know," she said. "Did he tell you why he wanted to see me?"

"I think he was hoping for one last-ditch effort to charm you back into his life again."

"But he knew that wasn't possible," she stated. "I made that very clear the last time."

"He mentioned how he got you to go out for dinner with him, and he thought that maybe he could get you to ditch your country boyfriend and come back to him."

"I don't think he thought that at all," she declared. "I'm not sure where his brain was at, so I don't know what he thought would have supported that idea to begin with." Another long moment of silence came from the other end, and she just waited. Reggie was definitely a poker player. He could generally outlast the rest of them, and it was always her that broke. Not this time though.

"He hadn't stopped caring," Reggie shared, with difficulty. Then he gave her the name of the person Mathew had hired to follow her.

When he gave her the name, she wrote it down, then stared at it. "It's not somebody I know," she murmured. She would look him up online, so she had a face to go with the name. Plus she would have to remember to share this with Corey.

"No, it's a newer one," Reggie noted. "Mathew's made a lot of changes lately."

"Was he worried about something?" she asked him.

Reggie hesitated and then, with a sigh, replied, "I guess it doesn't matter now, and, if it helps solves this, I'll tell you. Although I'm sure I should be speaking to the police."

With a note of humor, she reassured him, "They'll be getting in touch with you soon enough, don't worry. But, hey, anything you can tell me would give me a jump on them."

"Should you be getting a jump on them?" he asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," she admitted, "but I'll end up sharing everything with them anyway. If my friend was handling the case, it wouldn't be an issue, but, because he's been deemed too close to the situation, it's all become far more difficult."

"Of course," Reggie said. "We always want to keep our friends close and our enemies closer. The problem is, with this case, I'm not sure who is who."

"I understand, and I am sorry, Reggie. I know that the two of you were very close."

"We were, but a lot of times I didn't like who he was and what he was doing," he admitted, with a heavy sigh. "I threatened to quit on two occasions and was prepared to see it through."

"Oh my, I didn't know that."

"After he hit you the first time,… and again after he hit you the second time."

She sat back and sighed. "You mean, the first and the second time that you knew about."

There was silence at the other end. "Yes, I guess that is true. He swore to me that he wouldn't do it again. Abusing women, the one thing I couldn't tolerate."

"Yet Mathew told me the one thing he couldn't tolerate was my being disobedient," she shared, blindly staring off into the distance. "I had no idea you even talked to him about it."

"That was also one of the things about him—complete and utter silence was the rule, remember?"

"Yes, loyalty, that was everything to him." She sighed. "It's too bad he ended up in such a mess at the end."

"It's too bad he didn't stick with what was good and honest and treat it right. Although I will say that, after Robin died, he went through a time of rethinking his life—and you were a part of that."

She heard the smile in his tone when he spoke those words. "Not that I ever aspired to be considered a rethink," she noted in a dry tone, "I am glad that something good may have come from Robin's death after all."

"That was a pretty rough one here too."

"I'm sure it was."

Reggie said, "It seems you've been through a lot these last few months."

"Too much," she replied, "though at least I didn't have to resort to eating dog food."

A shocked gasp came on the other end. "No. Surely he gave you money to live on, didn't he?"

She snorted. "You should know. You handled the books for him."

"No," he corrected, "only the household accounts. He has an accountant for the books." He waited a minute and asked again, "Did he not give you anything?"

"No, he let me have my old car, which was mine before we married, and I took Mugs, and that was it, whatever I could fit in my car, whatever he didn't withhold from me," she explained. "He was supposed to pay for the hotel, while I got a job and better situated, but, of course, he didn't do as he said about that either."

"Oh, good Lord," he whispered, shocked.

"Apparently you didn't know him quite so well either, huh?"

"Not about that, no," he whispered. "And, of course, he wouldn't have told me because he knew how much I already disapproved of the way he treated you."

"I'm really glad to hear that," she shared. "More because I didn't know anybody cared about what happened. It's nice to know that you at least cared a little bit," she murmured. "Though somehow it feels very wrong to even be having this conversation over his dead body right now."

"I understand."

"Have you contacted Roger, his lawyer, at all?"

"No. He usually contacts me, when needed. Roger knows I'm here, and I'm to continue maintaining the house, until somebody can sort out what we're supposed to do," Reggie replied.

"Do you have enough saved up for a pension? Do you have a place to go?"

"It all depends on if I'm mentioned in the will.… I would like to think so, but I don't know that for sure."

"No. Unfortunately none of us do, do we?" she noted. "I don't know what'll happen now with me either, since he hadn't completely signed the actual divorce document. I thought it was all done and taken care of, but apparently it wasn't."

"So intent was there, and yet I'm not so sure," Reggie pointed out. "Remember that part about doing a major rethink?"

"Yes, but he still had to have my agreement for that rethink to go through, so to speak," she argued. "And I had already made it abundantly clear to Mathew that I'd had all I could stomach of him and his antics. I wouldn't put myself within range of his fist anymore."

"I am so sorry about that. I had no idea how often that happened."

"I wouldn't have known that you cared either," she added, "but enough of that. I'm free and clear, and I'm a heck of a lot happier now."

By the time she finished talking with him, she had a bunch of names, including the private detective Mathew had hired and an idea of where he'd gone and why, but that still didn't explain everything. Just before she disconnected, she asked Reggie one more time, "Did you have any idea what was going on in his world? Something that could result in this?"

"For sure? No," Reggie replied. "The lawyer might know. They were friends. His accountant might know. They were friends too. But I think the bottom line was, he got himself into trouble and had no way to get out."

"So, not divorcing me would have helped his problem? Because wanting me back could only be about money."

Reggie hesitated, then spoke. "Unfortunately, I think so."

"So, it was money based?" She was shocked.

"Knowing Mathew, I would assume so, but I don't know for sure," he murmured. "If you find out anything, please let me know."

"Ditto," she said. "We will get to the bottom of this."