Loves Me Not

TWENTY NINE

AFTER
DETECTIVE BRETT PORTER

I show up at the house twenty minutes later. There's news vans and reporters stationed on the street. I'm not sure what else these vultures want. Ben peeks through the curtains, then opens the door quickly to let me inside.

"They bothering you?" I ask him.
"Won't leave me alone. They keep asking if I did this. If I hurt Catalaina."
"Well did you?"
He gives me a look.
"Let's sit," I say. "We need to talk."
"Oh God, what is it now?"
"Kitchen?" I ask as I start to walk there. I've become so familiar with the house now. I could navigate through the entire place with my eyes closed and I still wouldn't be able to uncover all of the secrets that his fiancé has been hiding.
He brings an empty plate to the sink and sits down across from me.
"Have you been eating?" I ask, because I know it's something my mother would say.
"Barely. I don't have an appetite. The neighbor has been bringing meat loafs and casseroles."
"Sweet lady."
"Yeah," he nods solemnly. "So what happened now?"
I hesitate before I begin. "I was reading through her journal, just as you suggested," I say to him. Then I remove the piece of paper I printed out and slide it towards him. "Take a look."
He picks it up and I watch as his eyes skim the page. He finishes reading and looks at me. "What the hell is this?"
"An entry. From the twentieth of March."
"Catalaina wrote this?"
"Yes. Do you have any idea why? What might have possessed her to be feeling this way?"
"I have no idea what goes on in her brain half the time! I had no idea she even..." he trails off.
"Ben, I need you to think back to that time – the end of March. What was happening in your life around then? I need something substantial."
He thinks for a moment, racking his brain for answers that I'm sure he doesn't have. "I don't know," he finally says, coming up blank.
"When did she tell you that she had an affair?"
"It wasn't an affair," he says quickly. "It was a one-time thing. And she told me around the end of February."
"So a month later," I say to myself. "What else happened around that time?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, sure, we get into fights sometimes. Sure, she has bad days. But nothing severe enough to warrant this?"
I sigh. "I had a feeling you were going to say that." Because at this point, it's become painstakingly clear to me that Catalaina didn't share much at all with her fiancé.