Almost Forever Read Free Page B

“I heard they’ve been given the all-clear to resume construction.”
    “Yes, all the evidence has been gathered, and the results of the DNA tests are in.” He paused for effect, then continued solemnly. “I’m very sorry to inform you that the remains we recovered are your husband’s.”

Chapter 2
    Justin waited for a reaction, but Lori sat calmly, absolutely no emotion in her eyes. She was either in shock…or cool as a cucumber.
    She took another sip of wine, and he noticed that her hand was shaking. She swallowed, then tilted her head back and exhaled heavily. When she looked back down at him, he could see tears pooled in her eyes. “Wow…dead…after all these years.”
    “Eight years,” he confirmed.
    “And there’s no doubt?” Her voice was still level.
    “No doubt. It took six weeks for the DNA results to come in. But we’re 99.9 percent sure it is Mark Roberts.”
    Lori downed the remainder of the glass of wine and set it on the table. She lifted her gaze to Justin. “Can you tell how he died? I mean, did he suffer?”
    “The ME will be issuing a formal cause of death. All I can tell you at this point, and this is preliminary, is that it appears he died of blunt-force trauma to the back of his skull.”
    “An accident?”
    There was a curious expression in her eyes that he couldn’t quite identify. “Unlikely. It appears he was buried in a shallow grave.”
    “All this time he was so close, and we never knew,” she murmured.
    “Where did you think he was? Surely you noticed he hadn’t come home.”
    A flush rose to stain her cheeks a vivid red. Her head dipped forward, allowing her silky blond hair to fall forward as if she were trying to disappear from his scrutiny. Justin leaned forward, anxious to hear her answer and yet disturbed by her discomfort. He couldn’t remember how many witnesses he had interviewed. He had even felt sorry for some of them. However, he couldn’t remember ever wishing he could stop the questioning and change the subject.
    Instead, he remained silent, allowing her time to compose her response. When she finally spoke, her voice was so soft he had to strain to hear.
    “Mark and I had an argument. A big one. I took Kenzie—she was just a baby then—and drove to the Domain in Austin for a little retail therapy. Mark always told me that all I was good for was looking pretty and spending his money, so I decided to confirm his assessment of me. I stayed in town with a friend, and when I came home the next day around noon, Mark was gone.”
    “Gone?”
    She shrugged. “Gone. His car was here. But his suitcase and some of his clothes were missing. I assumed he had gone on a trip.”
    “He’d done that before…gone off without telling you?” Justin asked.
    She lifted her head and met his gaze. “All the time. If he wasn’t home getting drunk in his office slash man cave, I had no idea where he was.”
    “Did you try to contact him?”
    “I left a half dozen messages on his phone and checked with all of our friends. But it was like he had dropped off the face of the earth.”
    “Did you report it to the police?”
    “After a week went by without any contact, I called the sheriff. But he just laughed it off, saying Mark would turn up.”
    Justin frowned. “He just ignored it?”
    “At first. Everyone figured he’d just run off with some bimbo.”
    “Why would they think that?”
    Lori sighed and gave him an ironic smile. “Because he’d done it before…with me.”
    He personally thought she was selling herself short.
Bimbo
was definitely not the word he would use to describe her. But professionally, his opinion didn’t matter. “So you assumed he was…uh…taking a break from your marriage?”
    Again she flushed, but this time it appeared to be more from anger than from shame. “His last words to me before I left were that he wanted a divorce. I told him to go for it. I didn’t care what he did. Our marriage had completely fallen apart by then. I