“Did you marry Wally because your father wanted you to?”
Janette took a moment to think about that. “You ask hard questions, Hannah. I probably did marry him because my father urged me to. Actually, I couldn’t see any reason not to. Wally was perfect for me and he knew the family business. To tell you the truth, I think I married him mostly because there wasn’t any good reason not to marry him.”
Hannah was a bit confused. “So you didn’t love Wally when you married him?”
“I’m not sure. I certainly liked him enough. I trusted my father when he said it would be good for me to marry Wally. It was almost like one of those arranged marriages. Sometimes they work out, and sometimes they don’t.”
“And yours worked out?”
“Heavens, yes! Wally and I have such similar interests. He loves the outdoors, and so do I. He hunts and fishes, and I enjoy hunting and fishing, too. We were actually a perfect match, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.”
“You love Wally now . . . don’t you?” Hannah asked, knowing that she was treading on shaky ground.
Janette turned around and gave Hannah a questioning look. “Do you care?”
“Yes, but don’t answer if it’s too private a question. Sometimes things occur to me and I blurt them out without really meaning to.”
Janette laughed. “So do I! I’ll answer you, Hannah. Yes, I do love Wally, but . . . it’s the quiet kind of love that’s more like devotion. And now, let me ask you a personal question. Have you ever been in love?”
“Yes.”
“Was it quiet? Or was it the kind of all-consuming, insane kind of love that drives people to stay with a lover when better sense would tell them to leave?”
Hannah knew she had to be honest. “It was the insane kind of love. And he left me.”
“Then you’re one of the lucky ones. Do you think you would have eventually left him?”
“I . . . don’t know.”
“Sometimes people just need a little push, a way to escape one of those crazy love relationships.”
“Do you think Lily was in one of those relationships?”
“I know she was! You don’t know how many times I told Lily that she should go for help, or . . . or at least take what they’re calling a chill pill.”
“A tranquilizer?”
“Something like that. They call them all sorts of things, but she needed something to deaden the effect that unhealthy emotion had on her. She was simply going crazy over Sonny’s infidelities.”
“It’s heartbreaking to be in love with someone and know that person is cheating on you.”
“Exactly right. You have to find a way to tamp down that craziness, or something dreadful will happen. I love Lily and she needed someone to help her. I tried, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Lily thought she knew best, but she was so in love that it would have eventually killed her.”
“But instead it killed Sonny and now Lily can recover?”
It took a moment, and then Janette’s eyes narrowed. She stared at Hannah for several seconds, and then she reached into the pocket of her captain’s chair and pulled out a gun. “You know . . . don’t you, Hannah?!”
Chapter Twenty-three
“What do you mean, Janette?” Hannah asked, stalling for time, even though she didn’t know why. No one was coming to help her. Mike was busy writing his reports at the sheriff’s station, Norman was at his dental clinic helping Doc Bennett do an implant, and Andrea was showing a house to a prospective buyer. The only person who knew where Janette had taken her was Craig, and he was probably upstairs in his room at the Inn, fast asleep.
“You know what I’m talking about, Hannah. You suspected all along that I killed Sonny, didn’t you!”
“Actually . . . no, I didn’t,” Hannah told her. “I thought that perhaps Lily killed him.”
“Lily?” Janette sounded perfectly astounded. “Lily is madly in love with Sonny. I told you that. She could never kill him. As a matter of fact, she planned to marry him next week! Right after she kicked that blonde bimbo out of their room, she called me to tell me her plans.”
It was Hannah’s turn to be astounded. “She wanted to marry him after that?”
“Oh, yes. He woke up right before she left that morning and they talked. He told her the only reason it had happened was because he missed her so much, and he was lonely.”
“And Lily believed him?”
“Of course she did. Some women are silly that way. They always believe the men they love. Lily told me that she knew everything would be all right, as long as she married Sonny and went to every fishing tournament with him.”
“But . . . how could she . . .” Hannah stopped speaking, remembering how she’d deluded herself into thinking that Ross had left her because she’d done something wrong.
“You’re remembering your own experience, aren’t you?” Janette asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell me about it. I’m curious. I don’t have to worry about Lily any longer. It’ll take her a while to fall in love again, if she ever does. I’m just so glad that I could do something to help her. I love my daughter so much, and I’ve been searching for a way to prove it to her. Thank goodness I finally found it!”
Janette is insane, Hannah’s mind told her. Think of some way to keep her talking about herself. It could buy you some time.
“You’re right, Janette. I did have a very bad experience, but my feelings aren’t important. I’m much more concerned about Lily.”
“You are?” Janette was clearly surprised. “But you just met Lily, didn’t you?”
“I did, but I liked her immediately. And thinking back about the way Sonny acted made me sad that Lily hadn’t fallen in love with someone who was worthy of her.”
“Exactly right!” Janette smiled. “What sort of man do you think would be right for my daughter?”
“I’m not sure, but I hope it would be someone like your husband. You seem very happy with him, Janette.”
“I’m not sure happy is the right word. I’m content and that’s good enough. Wally gives me everything I want. And he’s taken care of me so well. He never blamed me for my addiction.”
“I would hope not!” Hannah said, hoping that her voice had an inflection of truth. “It wasn’t your fault, Janette. Many women suffer from postpartum depression after childbirth.”
“That’s what the doctors told me, but it didn’t make it any easier. And I tried to stop taking the drugs, Hannah. I really did! It was just that I would get so depressed, and then the anxieties would plague me. I had to do something to keep myself from feeling that way.”
“Of course you did,” Hannah told her. “I’ve never experienced anything like that, but if I do, I’m sure I will feel exactly the same way.”
“I was gone for so long,” Janette said, sitting down in the captain’s chair again. “I would beg to go home, but the doctors said I wasn’t well enough yet, that I wasn’t done with my treatment. They warned me that if I went home then, I’d get sick again and have to come back. I didn’t want to go see my daughter, hold her in my arms, and then have to lose her all over again.”