Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 38

Harold pulled into the Butler's drive first. He parked sideways in front of the garage so no one could leave the garage in a car without hitting his SUV. Janice pulled up toward the front walk. They both got out of their vehicles and made their way to the front door.Janice rang the doorbell. She looked at her watch. It was ten-thirty so they might be in bed. A light went on in an upstairs room and the curtains moved. A few minutes later they could hear someone coming down the stairs. Carol Butler peeked out the curtain of the window next to the door. She opened the door a crack, pulling her pink, furry dressing robe around her. "Officer Jones, Officer Carter, what are you doing here?"

"It's Detective Jones," Harold said through gritted teeth. "We had a few more questions for Mr. Butler."

"He's not home," Carol said. "He went to Louisville earlier to go to a Derby Festival party tonight."

"Would you mind if we come in and ask you a few questions?" Janice asked.

Carol shrugged, "I guess not." She stepped back and pulled the door open. "Come in."

Harold and Janice stepped into the foyer and Carol led them into a formal sitting room that was filled with antique furniture.Carol sat on the edge of one of the chairs while Harold and Janice both sat on the couch facing her. "Mrs. Butler," Janice began.

"Please call me Carol. I feel like you are talking to Damon's mother when you call me Mrs. Butler."

"Of course," Janice said. "Carol, you said that you had never met the person who called himself Junior and told you about Kenton Jenkins having an affair with your husband, correct?"

"That's right. Other than that phone call, I'd never spoken to him."

"Did you recognize or think you recognized the voice?" Harold asked.

Carol thought about that for a few minutes, trying to recall the man's voice. "No, now that I think about it, it sounded a bit muffled, like he had a bad connection."

"Or maybe was disguising his voice?" Janice suggested.

Carol shrugged. "I guess he could have been." She thought about it for a few minutes more and shook her head. "I don't know. I was so freaked out when he told me that they, Kenton and Damon, had been sleeping together for over two years. I said he was lying and he said that he knew about me and Kenton, too, and that we had started about a year ago. I asked him how he knew, and he said that Kenton liked to brag about his conquests."

"So Kenton had been bragging to this person about having an affair with both you and your husband?" Harold asked.

"I guess so," Carol said quietly. She let out a long, heavy sigh and shook her head. "Things are so messed up. I've lost my best friend. Damon is not speaking to me. Barbara is trying to help me deal with all this, but she has her own problems. Mom and Dad want me to move home to Atlanta to be with them, but I can't leave Damon. I told him that I wanted to try to work things out, but he gathered his stuff and said he was going to Louisville."

Janice saw the tears forming in the other woman's eyes and went over to her. She took her hand and knelt in front of her. "I know this is hard, but it might help us to know when the problems between you and Damon started and why you ended up having an affair with Kenton Jenkins. Anything that you can tell us that might give us a clue as to why someone would kill Kenton would be helpful."

"Well, that would probably be at the beginning," Carol laughed. "I wanted to have kids, but Damon didn't. We did try, though, and I had a couple of miscarriages."

"How sad," Janice said, sipping her coffee.

"Yeah, I'm glad now, but I was depressed about it for a long time. Damon was always a workaholic, so he was gone a lot. When we lived in Atlanta it wasn't so bad because I was close to my parents, but when we moved here, I didn't know anyone but Emily."

"When did Kenton start coming on to you?" Harold asked.

"The first time I met him," Carol laughed. "He was a huge flirt. Emily ignored it for the most part. I don't know how. I would have been furious, but I'm also a very jealous person."

"What did Damon say about that?" Janice asked.

"Oh, he didn't know about it. Kenton didn't do it in front of him."

"You and Damon don't really seem to have anything in common, how'd you end up together?" Harold asked.Carol smiled at the memory. "Damon was working for my father's attorney in Atlanta. I thought he was so handsome. He was always very nice and polite. We used to talk about politics and social affairs. Damon was a stickler about knowing who was who in the political arenas. I just loved to gossip." She paused to sip her coffee. "My parents liked him a lot, especially my father. He thought he would be a perfect husband. Damon didn't act like he was interested in our money or what we could do for him through our connections." Carol paused, thinking back. "You know, it's funny, now that I think about it, but we didn't really date in the traditional since. Damon visited our house, and he and I would talk but we didn't go out on dates. I'm really not sure what sparked his decision to ask me to marry him. We hadn't slept together yet. I think my father liked the idea of having a lawyer in the family, so he encouraged the engagement. We'd really only known each other for about six or seven months when we got married."