Read Once a Widow for Free Online Page A

manner. “I understand.”
    “When did you last see your wife?”
    “About two o’clock yesterday afternoon. She suggested a ride in the cruiser, but I didn’t feel too well—coming down with a cold, I guess.” Richard coughed against the back of one hand. “She asked if I’d mind if she went alone. I said I didn’t mind, but warned her to be careful.”
    “Lieutenant Prentice tells me that she could not swim.”
    “That’s correct, but I never worried when she was on the boat. She is quite expert in its operation, and often took it for cruises along the shore. Sometimes she’d put in at the docks of friends’ houses and visit a while, maybe have a few drinks—you know?”
    Both the sheriff and Prentice exchanged glances and looked interested. The sheriff said, “I see, Mr. Barry. Had she been—uh—drinking when she left?”
    “Not any more than usual,” Richard said lightly. “A few cocktails before lunch, perhaps one or two whisky highballs afterward.”
    “Hmmm,” the sheriff said. “Would you say that she was intoxicated?”
    Richard frowned and said slowly, “No—not really.”
    “Were you drinking, too?”
    “A little,” Richard admitted. “Two martinis before lunch, but nothing afterward.” He gazed at the sheriff with a puzzled expression. “What’s that got to do with it?”
    The sheriff leaned forward and said kindly, “Mr. Barry, I don’t wish to alarm you unduly, but if your wife had been drinking—to excess, apparently—it’s quite possible that she lost her balance and fell overboard, especially during the storm we had today, and not being able to swim…” He spread his hands in a hopeless gesture.
    “I doubt that,” Richard said. “She is thoroughly familiar with the boat, and would take precautions.” He paused, and added with faint grimness, “Of course, perhaps she drank too much at times, but she couldn’t have…” His voice broke and he brushed a hand over his eyes.
    “We just want you to face the facts, Mr. Barry,” the sheriff said gently, “and not harbor any false hopes.” He hesitated, and when he spoke again his voice was sharp and no longer gentle. “Why did you wait until this morning before you reported her missing?”
    Richard looked at him quickly. This yokel is smart, he thought, and I must not sell him short. He said evenly, “I told you she’d been out in the boat before, many times. I didn’t worry too much. When it got dark I turned on the light at the end of the dock for her, as I always do. Then I phoned our home in Cleveland, thinking that she might have taken it into her head to run there, but she hadn’t, and I decided that she was just cruising the lake in the moonlight as she had done before. I took some aspirin for my cold, and a sleeping pill, and went to bed. When I awoke this morning, and realized that she hadn’t returned, I became alarmed, of course, and called the coast guard.”
    The sheriff nodded gravely. “You and Mrs. Barry got along well, I suppose? I mean, you didn’t maybe have a quarrel yesterday, before she left?”
    Richard shook his head. “No, not at all. Oh, maybe we’ve had a few arguments, mostly about her—well, her drinking. But not yesterday. In fact, she was in very good spirits when she left.”
    “High spirits?” the sheriff suggested.
    Richard’s mind worked swiftly. He’d planted the drinking angle, but he must not lay it on too thick. He said bluntly, “She wasn’t drunk, if that’s what you mean.”
    The sheriff nodded. “Were you at home all afternoon and evening?”
    Richard looked at the sheriff once more. The hick bastard is really sticking his nose in, he thought. He’d have to cut him down a little. “Yes, I was,” he said.
    “Can you prove it?”
    “Yes, I can prove it,” Richard said slowly and distinctly, “but I don’t have to and I’m not going to. I’m a tax payer in this county. My wife is missing. I’m very worried and upset. Instead of asking me silly