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Decker had no words of solace. He waited a few moments then continued. “Did Ma
A long, suffering sigh. “He came back about four hours later. By then, Belize and I managed to clean most of it up…but it still reeked.”
She swallowed hard.
“Ma
“And what did Belize say to that?”
“Belize did whatever Ma
“I thought it was Ma
“Suddenly the roles reversed and Ma
“How could you tell?”
“Belize was constantly trying to talk to him and Ma
Decker was battling off a terrible hand cramp. “Tell me what happened next.”
Lindie kept shaking her head, trying to rid herself of the dreadful images. “We spent the entire night cleaning the place up. By morning, you could have eaten off the floor, it was that clean. As soon as the bank opened, Ma
She blew out air.
“I stayed in the hotel room, terrified, panicked, horrified, catatonic…waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ma
She turned away from Decker. Her profile showed tears ru
“This is so hard.” Another swallow. “Toward the end of the week…around two in the morning, Belize came back to the hotel in a panic. He ordered me to pack the bags…that we had to leave. I was so scared and numb, I just mindlessly obeyed. I was constantly afraid that the police were going to arrest us. I thought they had finally caught up. In a way, I was relieved. But that wasn’t what happened at all.”
Decker waited.
“Ma
“We were out in a flash. We drove and drove into the middle of the Mohave Desert. We buried him somewhere in the middle of nowhere. By the time we finished, it was close to daybreak. We left Nevada and drove to New Mexico because that’s where Belize wanted to go. As he drove he told me what had happened that night. He said that Beth had become enraged and suddenly charged Ma
“What did Belize say that Ma
“He didn’t say. He kept saying it was self-defense, but the law wouldn’t see it that way. Especially now that Ma
“Do you actually believe that Ma
She shrugged haplessly. “I don’t know who killed Beth. I never questioned Ray’s story.”
“And do you also believe that Ma
“Totally.” Lindie was on surer ground. “Ma
Decker nodded, although he suspected that Lindie was now speaking as the loyal wife. It was clear to him that Belize Hernandez had killed Beth. Now he was just wondering if he killed his brother as well.
Lindie was still talking. “…kept saying he would rather die than to go back to prison. He told me I needed to help him, that we needed to start a new life together…from scratch. From where I was standing, that sounded like a great idea.”
Decker nodded.
“Belize actually convinced me that it was better that Ma
“Still, you went with Belize to southern New Mexico?”
“He had convinced me it was Ma
“Do you still believe that?”
“I never asked, Lieutenant. I’m not going to start now.”
Decker understood. “So you went with Belize to New Mexico.”
“Yes. We stayed there for about two years. As soon as we got there, Belize changed his name to Raymond Holmes. That was fine with me. Ray took odd jobs in construction. Then we moved to Arizona, where the building trade was booming. He worked for a firm and learned the business inside and out. My husband’s a smart man.”
“When did you become Mrs. Holmes?”
“About a year after we moved to Arizona. We settled down into some kind of parody of a normal existence. When Silicon Valley started its construction boom, we moved to San Jose. Ray began a business renovating old homes. He did very well financially. We had kids. We joined a real church. We never spoke about the incidents again.”
“And you never thought about leaving him?”
“I thought about leaving him all the time, Lieutenant. I thought about leaving him when I suspected he was having an affair with that flight attendant. It turns out I was right. I knew he was lying. For all his being a criminal, Ray was always a terrible liar. I could always tell when he was trying to snow me. I knew in my heart of hearts, he was lying about the flight attendant. I suppose I just chose not to believe the truth. You have to understand that I was very good at denying what I didn’t want to deal with. Staying with him was easier than divorce. And I think in the back of my mind, I didn’t know what Ray might do if I tried to divorce him and take half of my rightful assets.”
“You thought he might get violent?”
“Maybe. We had this weird relationship, Lieutenant. We were stuck with each other forever simply because neither of us trusted the other one out of our sight.”