“This is difficult to say, your being her daughter and all.”
“Mrs.—Nancy, don’t pull any punches. I just want to find who did this.”
“I didn’t know your father very well. He and your mom didn’t go out much together. But Sally enjoyed the social circle we had down here. Very much.”
Michelle noted the emphasis on the last words. “How much is very much?”
“I don’t like to talk out of school.”
“Listen, if my mom was messing around on my dad, that’s very important to know, Nancy. Do you know who she was seeing?”
“It was more than one, actually.”
Michelle slumped back in her chair. “How many more than one?”
“Three, at least that I knew of. Two moved away, the last about a month ago.”
“Where’d they move to?”
“One to Seattle, the other overseas.”
“And who was the third?”
“You didn’t hear this from me because it’s not common knowledge. Your mother was very discreet, I’ll give her that. And I don’t know if they were, well, you know, intimate. Maybe they were just spending time with each other. Maybe they were just lonely.”
“Who?” Michelle said calmly, although she wanted to fire a round into the phone to make the woman answer without any more qualifiers.
“Doug Reagan.”
“Doug Reagan? As in Donna Rothwell’s steady, Doug Reagan?”
“That’s the one. Do you know him?”
“Not really, but I think I will now. How long were they having an affair?”
“Well, I thought they were still having it, up until your mother died, I mean.”
“Wait a minute, how do you know all this?”
“Your mother confided in me. We were very good friends.”
“So no one else knows that you know?”
“I don’t know if she told anyone else. But I’ve never talked about it to another soul until right now. A confidence is a confidence. But now that she’s gone, well, I thought you had a right to know.”
To know that my mother was a slut. Thanks.
“Are you there, dear?”
Michelle snapped back. “Yeah, I’m here. Would you be willing to tell the police what you just told me?”
“Do I have to?”
Sean put a hand on Michelle’s arm and shook his head.
“Maybe not,” Michelle said quickly. “At least not right now.” She paused. “Uh, did my dad know about… the things my mom was doing?”
“As I said, I didn’t know your father that well, but he always struck me as a man that if he did know he would’ve done something about it.”