Widows' Watch by Nancy Herndon

Author:Nancy Herndon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-05-11T01:37:17+00:00

25

Tuesday, October 5, 9:15 A.M.

“He wouldn’t say anything until you got here,” said Leo when Elena found them sitting silently in one of the small interrogation rooms.

“That way I won’t have to keep repeating myself,” said Lance, “and you can tell your mother about the whole thing. I really hated her thinking I might be a murderer.”

“She didn’t think that,” said Elena.

“Well, she must have wondered.”

“You’re saying you’re more worried about what Harmony thinks than us?” asked Leo. “She can’t put you in jail.”

“No one should. I didn’t kill him.”

“You going to tell us you were with someone on the day of the murder?” Leo looked as if he didn’t believe it.

“Yes,” said Lance. “Not only that day, but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before and Tuesday after. I took some sick leave.” He looked defensive. “Well, I’ve never taken any before, and everyone else does it.”

“So you weren’t in your apartment at all?” Elena asked. Surely he hadn’t lied because he was afraid the English Department would find out he’d taken a bogus sick leave?

“I wasn’t even in Texas,” said Lance. “My friend has a place across the border in New Mexico. He grows grapes and vegetables, makes his own wine. Beautiful house.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Leo. “What’s your friend’s name?”

Lance hesitated.

“Look, it’s not going to do you any good unless we can check this out,” said Elena.

Lance sighed. “His name is Bayard Sims. He’s the chairman of Gourmet Cookery at the university.”

“He’s your lover?”

Lance nodded.

“So why didn’t you tell us in the first place? It’s not as if we didn’t know you’re gay.”

“Bayard’s getting a divorce. His wife’s a lawyer here in town, and he wants partial custody of the children. He was afraid, if it came out that he’s bisexual, he couldn’t even get decent visitation rights.”

“So he asked you not to—”

“No! It was my idea. I’d have felt terrible if he lost his children because of me.”

“You’d have felt worse if you were convicted of your father’s murder because of him,” said Elena, frowning. Who was to say that this Bayard Sims wouldn’t lie for Lance?

“There was a case where a lesbian mother lost her kids because of her sexual orientation,” said Lance. “And the divorce was Bayard’s idea. His wife is really mad about it. She wanted them to move back into town and stay together. Neither one of us doubted that she’d use the children against him if she had any idea about—well, about me.”

“So how come you’ve decided to tell us now?” Leo asked.

Lance sighed again. “There’s nothing to keep from her anymore. She left town on business and took the kids with her, so we thought—well, we thought we could have a long weekend together while she was gone, but she—she’d hired a private detective. When she got back Saturday she

told Bayard that he either stayed married to her and dumped me, or he’d never see the children again.”

“So Bayard dumped you.” Elena shook her head. Adultery had sure changed. She wondered if Mrs. Sims had been surprised to find that her husband’s lover was male.

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