Free The Murder Pit by Jeff Shelby Page A

doing, she came several steps closer to me, smiling.
    “You’re Daisy, right?” she said, her bright red lips spreading to reveal even brighter white teeth. “Daisy Savage?”
    “I am,” I said. “Who are you?”
    “I thought so,” she said, the smile growing. “I didn’t mean to stalk you. I just wasn’t sure if it was you or not.”
    “And you are?” I asked again.
    She held out her hand. “Helen Stunderson.”
    I hesitated, then shook her hand. “Olaf’s wife.”
    “Ex-wife,” she corrected, still smiling. “Very much the ex-wife.”
    “Right.”
    The smile dissipated. “The police contacted me. About finding Olaf in your home.”
    “Technically, he wasn’t in our home,” I said. “He was in the coal chute.”
    “Yes, that’s what they told me,” she said, nodding. “That is just…bizarre. I was so sorry to hear about it.”
    “I’m sure,” I said. And then, because I didn’t know what else to say, I added, “I’m sorry.”
    “Oh, we weren’t still in love or anything,” she said, waving a hand in the air. “It was over a long time ago. I know Olaf didn’t want it to be, but it was. Sad, really. I tried to be gentle, but it’s difficult when one person wants out and the other doesn’t.” She touched my elbow. “I’m sure you understand.”
    “Well, I—”
    “I mean, it’s so hard,” she said, talking right over me and giving my elbow a gentle squeeze. “You don’t want to break someone’s heart. You don’t want to tell them no. But, my goodness. I deserve to have some happiness, too, and being with Olaf…well, that just wasn’t going to do it for me. And I was, of course, afraid I’d make him miserable.” She forced something resembling an empathetic smile onto her face. “I just tried to let him down easy. That was all I could do. But again. You’ve been there, right? You know what it’s like.”
    “Well, it was a little different for me because—”
    “I mean, what do you do?” she asked, squinting at me and again ignoring my attempt to answer her question. “It hurts to do that. You feel like the bad guy. And I’m certainly not the bad guy. But I didn’t want to stay in a relationship that wasn’t good for either of us. But it was so hard to have him keep coming back and coming back and asking if we could give it one more shot. My heart wanted to say yes just because I hated seeing him so sad, but my head told me it was just best to cut the cord.” She made a snipping gesture with her fingers. “Quick and neat.”
    I paused, wondering if this was another attempt to get me to answer a question she didn’t really want answered. She seemed to be catching her breath and then something flashed through her expression.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, releasing my elbow. “I didn’t mean to just spit all that out at you at once. And accost you here in the library. I apologize.”
    “That’s okay,” I said. “Not a problem.” And it really wasn’t. Compared to the confrontation with Olaf’s sister the other day, this had been relatively easy. At least Helen wasn’t accusing me of murder.
    “But I do have a question for you.”
    “A question?” I wondered if she’d actually let me answer it.
    She grimaced, as if finding the words was difficult. “When you and Olaf dated—”
    “Let me stop you right there,” I said, deciding I’d be the interrupter this time. “We didn’t date. We went on one date. There’s a misconception out there for some reason that Olaf and I were actually together for some period of time. We went on one date and that was it.”
    “Right, right,” she said, nodding. Her hair fell forward and she pushed it off her forehead. “Sorry. Poor choice of words. So…when you and Olaf went on your one date…did he mention me?”
    I frowned. It was an odd thing to ask me, especially since she’d just spent the last few minutes trying to convince me that the last thing in the world she wanted was for Olaf to focus on her