“Why did you fall for him?”
She gazed at a bare stretch of wall so that she didn’t have to see what Seth was thinking.
Voice tight, she said, “He’s handsome, maybe the most intelligent person I’d ever met, seemingly committed to a lot of good causes. He...has this sort of force field. I guess it’s charisma, but once people are sucked in, they want him to like them. They tend to do what he suggests, too.”
“Sounds like a warlock.”
“Yes. I never figured out if he really is well-intentioned in his stances on issues. Maybe I satisfied his need for control while he had me.” She hated feeling shame, didn’t deserve to feel it, but that was a battle she hadn’t entirely won yet. “It was classic. He didn’t want me to work, always thought of something the two of us could do when I planned to get together with a friend or Mom or Allie. His intensity kept me from noticing. I thought this sort of passionate closeness was normal in the first year of marriage.” She meant to laugh, but the sound was discordant. “Then he started giving me the silent treatment if I displeased him, which was awful since half the time I had no idea what I’d done or said. The first time he hit me, I almost left him, but he groveled, and I was sure I’d provoked his temper, and...” Her muscles rigid, she hadn’t moved since she’d started talking. “Only then it happened again. And again. I made up my mind to leave him. Unfortunately, the housekeeper called to let him know I was packing to go, and he came home. He beat me so badly, he had to take me to the ER. I think the doctor there suspected, but I made up some story because Richard was sitting there holding my hand, so loving and solicitous. After that, he told me no woman left him, and if I tried, he’d kill me. That made me wonder—” She hesitated.
“About?”
“He’d been married before, to a woman he met when he was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. She’d died in some kind of accident, supposedly.”
Seth said something she was just as glad not to hear.
“I was essentially a prisoner from then on. The housekeeper lived in, and a man started work as sort of a butler but really more of a bodyguard—and prison guard. After that, no matter how careful I was, I couldn’t please Richard. I made visits to half the emergency rooms in the city. He kept entertaining with me as his hostess, but he made sure I never had a chance to be alone with any of the guests.” She let out a long breath. “I’m not sure I’d have had the nerve to latch onto someone I didn’t know very well and beg for rescue, anyway.”
“But you did escape.” Seth’s voice was guttural.
“Yes. I waited for a chance when no one was watching. I’d been stealing a little bit of money at a time from Richard. He’d drop his coins or a few dollars on the dresser at night. You know.” Her shrug had to look as stiff as it felt. “I didn’t need much. When I saw my chance, I walked out. No coat, I couldn’t take anything. I...had bruises on my face. I walked quite a way before I saw a taxi. When I got in, the taxi driver took one look at me, then drove me to a hospital. A social worker called a women’s shelter for me. Someone came to get me.” She stopped.
“You were pregnant.”
Helen turned her head slowly to look at him. His face remained impassive, but his eyes glittered with what she knew was fury. Seeing that let her relax a little. It comforted her.
“I had been feeling tired and nauseated for several weeks, but I thought it was stress. Thank God I left when I did.” The alternative still horrified her. “He had no idea I was pregnant.”
Seth leaned forward. “Do you have scars?”
“I... Only a couple. He...mostly broke bones.”
Muscles in the detective’s jaw clenched. His blue eyes burned into hers. “Will you show me?”
Startled, she shrank back. “Show you?”
“Your scars.”
He needed proof, she supposed. After a moment, she nodded.
His chair scraped back. Bending her head, she tugged the collar of her sweatshirt aside so he could see the spot low on her neck.
“He sometimes smoked cigars. Expensive Cuban ones, of course. He sort of stabbed me with the burning tip of one.”