The Winter Man

Read The Winter Man for Free Online

Book: Read The Winter Man for Free Online
Authors: Diana Palmer
he let go of me, I locked myself in the bedroom and called the police.”
    â€œYou didn’t press charges,” he muttered.
    â€œHe was in tears by the time the police got there. He swore it was the alcohol, that he didn’t realize how much he’d had. He said he loved me, he couldn’t believe he’d done such a thing. He begged me not to press charges.” She shook her head. “I should have. But I felt sorry for him. I always felt sorry for him. He had mental issues, but he wouldn’t face that, and he wouldn’t get help. I thought I could do something for him.”
    â€œYou can’t fix a broken mind,” Tony said heavily. “He was obsessed with you.”
    His tone intimated that he didn’t understand why. She knew what Tony thought of her, because John had told her, time and again. Tony thought she was the most boring woman on earth, and he’d need to be drunk to want to touch her. Looking at his expression now, she was certain that John had been telling the truth. She was plain and prim and unexciting. It was a fact she’d faced long ago.
    She pushed back her coffee cup. “After that night, it got to the point that I couldn’t walk out of my apartment without running into John. He said he was going to make sure that I didn’t have any other man in my life, and he was going to watch me night and day. When he told those lies about me, and then started spending the dayin the library, it began jeopardizing my job. I finally decided that I had no other choice than to file stalking charges against him.” She ran a hand over the tight bun she kept her long brown hair in. “It was what pushed him over the edge. I even knew that it would—it’s why I waited so long to do anything about the problem. He swore he’d get even, no matter what it took.” She looked tired, drained of life. “When I knew that he was dead, I was so ashamed, but all I could feel was a sense of relief. I was finally free of him.”
    â€œBut you came to the funeral home,” he commented.
    Her face tautened as she recalled Tony’s attitude when he’d met her there. “Yes. It was the guilt. I had to see him. I thought it might make amends, somehow.”
    â€œAnd you found me, instead,” he replied, grimacing at her expression. “You have to understand, all I had to go on was what John told me. And he told me a lot. He left me a letter, blaming you for his death. I had no reason to doubt him, at the time. Not until Frank told me the truth.”
    Of course he’d believed his friend, she thought. It wouldn’t have occurred to him that Millie wasn’t a wild girl. He didn’t know Millie. He didn’t want to know her. It hurt, realizing that.
    â€œI’m sorry for the way I reacted,” he said stiffly. “I didn’t know.”
    She shook her head. “Nobody knew. I was harassed, blackmailed and slandered by him for years, and he madeeverybody think it was my own fault, that I encouraged him.” Her gaze was flat, almost lifeless. “He was the most repulsive man I’ve ever known.”
    He frowned. “He was good-looking.”
    She glanced up at him. “You can’t make people love you,” she said in a subdued sort of tone. “No matter what you look like. He was coarse and crude, and ugly inside. That’s where it counts, you know. The outside might have been attractive. The devil, they say, was beautiful.”
    â€œPoint taken.”
    She finished her coffee. “Where do I go now?”
    â€œBack to your apartment. I’m coming with you, to see what I’ll need for surveillance.”
    She frowned. “Surveillance?”
    He nodded. “I want cameras and microphones everywhere. It’s the only way we can save your life.”
    And in that moment, she realized, for the first time, just how desperate her situation really was.

M illie’s

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