“Yes,” David said lamely.“Can we just talk for a few minutes?”
Daisy looked hard at him.“What did you say your name was?”
David thought for a moment, then decided to risk being honest.“I said it was Dr.Allen, but that’s not true.It’s probably better if you don’t know my real name.”
“You knowmyreal name.”
“I know.I just…” He scrambled for a reason to conceal his identity that didn’t sound crazy and couldn’t come up with one.God, I’m really bad at this.
Daisy sighed and stepped back.She opened the door, revealing a petite, dark-skinned woman in her early forties.Her face was lined, and her eyes red-rimmed.She wore a floral print dress that flattered her figure but somehow accentuated the pain in her expression.
Behind that pain was a practiced hardness that reminded David of Faith when they’d first met.This woman wore a thick shell to protect her vulnerable inner self from a predatory world.
“Come in,” she said.“If we’re gonna talk, then we should do it inside.”
David smiled.“Thank you.I really app—”
“Don’t thank me.If you knew what was good for you, you’d let this go.”
David followed her into the home.The foyer was expansive and decorated with marble statues of revolutionary war heroes, or did David guess by their tricorn hats and frilled collars.He wasn't sure exactly who they were.
Past the foyer, the décor became decidedly more homely.The parlor into which she escorted him possessed furniture of good quality but modest expense, gray stitched cloth sofa and chair around a carved ash coffee table that sat atop a quilted yarn rug.The walls were bare, but nails and mounts remained where pictures had once been hung.
“You can sit if you want,” Daisy said in a voice that said she’d prefer he didn’t.
"I'll stand, thank you," David said."I won't be here long."
Daisy nodded and took a seat herself.She lit a cigarette and took a deep drag before blowing the smoke directly in front of her.The fresh smoke lifted the acrid aroma of stale smoke from the room, and David spied an ashtray on the floor in front of the couch.That habit would take decades off of Daisy’s life, but David guessed she had bigger problems to worry about right now.
“I don’t know what Richard was working on,” she said, “but whatever it was, it had him out at odd hours and coming home haunted.”
The look in Sierra’s eyes flitted across David’s face again.“He never talked about it?”
“No, never did.”Daisy took another drag on the cigarette.“It was top-secret stuff for the Marine Corps.I guess with dogs because he kept coming home with dog hair on his coat.I’m allergic to dogs, and I’d always get a sneezing fit when he came home.”
“Where did he work?Do you know?”
“Nope.Never told me that either.”She puffed her cigarette again.Her expression was still hard, but more of the pain showed through her reddened eyes.
“I understand he was killed in a car accident?”
Daisy scoffed.“Yeah.That’s what they say.”
“You don’t believe it?”
Daisy chuckled bitterly.She drew deeply from her cigarette, then bent low and tamped the butt out in the ashtray at her feet.Smoke trailed from her mouth and nostrils as she sat.“I believe that Richard got himself into trouble.I don’t know how or with who.I just know that the last three months of his life, he came home wide-eyed and furtive, like he was sneaking around and just waiting to get caught.I’d believe he was stepping out on me except he was also more…” She reddened slightly.“Well, he was very… excitable.I guess that’s maybe why I didn’t think so much about it.I told myself there’s no way he can be in trouble if he comes home and makes love to me like that every night.”Shehmphedand pulled another cigarette from the pack.“Easier to believe that than the truth, I guess.”
David decided to be blunt.“Do you believe he was killed, ma’am?”
Daisy met his eyes.Moisture wetted hers, but he wasn’t sure if they were tears of grief or irritation from the cigarette smoke.“I think he got himself into trouble,” she repeated.“I think he tried to get out of it, and it caught him just the same.”She lit her next cigarette and asked through the side of her mouth, “Are you in trouble, Dr.not-Allen?”
“I’m hoping to put a stop to some trouble,” he replied.
She laughed, a short, sharp bark that ended when she took her first drag on the cigarette.“Yeah.Aren’t we all.”
David got the sense his welcome was wearing thin.“Ma’am, is there anything at all you can tell me about Richard or his work that might have contributed to his… accident.”
Daisy paused a second.Then she met David's eyes.Hers were cold now, bitter, slightly contemptuous, and utterly devoid of pity."Richard didn't know when to leave well enough alone.You don't either.I can see that.You've got the same earnest look he had."