A Truth for a Truth by Emilie Richards

Emerald Springs. But fifteen years had passed. Win was not a well man, and I doubted an affair was on his mind. I knew Marie spent most of her time in South Carolina, and that her house here had gone up for sale. So I thought there was nothing to worry about. I always hated the way we left, because this was one of my favorite churches. Maybe I thought if we came back, we could put a better spin on things. End happily? I don’t know. There were enough good reasons that coming back seemed to make sense.”
    Jack was leaning on his forearms, as if to move closer to Hildy. “And the night he died? How did you find out about the affair?”
    “I didn’t invite Marie to the party, of course, but she came with Geoff Adler. I gather they often attend parties together. I was upset, but I decided to ignore her. I did, until the party’s end when I saw her in the corner of our side yard with my husband. Geoff had already gone home. Marie lives close enough to walk. No one else was out there, and Win and Marie didn’t see me. They were as close as Siamese twins.” She looked embarrassed. “Oh, I guess that’s not the politically correct way to say that.”
    “Don’t worry,” Jack said. “So you suspected that the affair was ongoing or about to start up again?”
    “I didn’t interrupt, but once Win came back inside, I slipped out and challenged her. She told me . . . She told me Win loved her, had always loved her, and that they’ve been together every chance they could since we left Emerald Springs. She said all those times when I thought he was at meetings out of town? He was with her!”
    I was sorry I’d eaten the muffin. My stomach was rolling. I felt awful.
    “We had words,” Hildy said. “Loud, ugly words, then she left. I found Win, and I told him what Marie had said. We fought. Of course, he said Marie was lying, that she’d waylaid him that night, and he’d told her as gently as he could that they would never have a relationship again. He claimed he hadn’t seen her at all through the years, except once when we’d come back here to visit. He said she waylaid him that time, too. He reminded me that moving back to Emerald Springs had been my idea, not his, and he’d been afraid of this.”
    “Was that true?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
    “Does it matter? If he was having a secret affair with her, we could have lived anywhere and it would have continued. Moving here just made it more convenient. And at this point, I can’t even remember who talked about moving back first.” Hildy reached for a tissue box on the corner of the desk.
    “Whether he was or wasn’t having an affair doesn’t seem to make much of a difference now,” Jack pointed out. “The fact that you’d been told about one is important, unfortunately.”
    “I didn’t kill him!” Hildy sniffed. “At least not outright. If I’d been the murdering type, I’d have wrung his neck. But I was furious. I did shout at him when he was supposed to be avoiding stress, and I left him to finish the cleanup alone, when maybe he should have been off his feet and resting.”
    “Getting angry at somebody and telling them what you think isn’t murder,” I said.
    Hildy didn’t look convinced. “I went for a walk. When I got back, I didn’t see Win, but the kitchen trash can didn’t have a bag inside, and it had been pulled out toward the center of the room. I assumed he was emptying it, and I was glad I didn’t have to face him just then. But when time passed and he didn’t come back inside, I opened the back door to see where he was. I even wondered if Marie had come back and they were outside together. And that’s when I found him clutching his chest by the garbage cans. He gasped my name and 911, then he fell forward and died.”
    “Okay.” Jack waited, and when she didn’t speak, he added, “Anything else before I call Detective Sergeant Roussos and find out what’s going on with the investigation? Because I don’t see