Page 53 of The Woman Left Behind

Harry stood, rounded his desk and offered his hand. “I’m Harry Moran.”

She took his hand but said, “I’m not going to tell you my name, because…”

She didn’t finish that, and from her nervous demeanor, Harry didn’t push it.

He swung out an arm to indicate she should sit. She did, and he resumed his own seat.

She started it. “I heard you’re looking through old files. Dern’s files.”

His interest was already piqued, but it got even more so with that opener.

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“Because you’re, uh…looking into Dern, I, well my friends told me that I should come in and tell you something.”

“And what would that be?” Harry asked casually, not applying too much pressure, even though he really wanted to know.

“I work in an…office. I…a while ago, I got a divorce. After I did, Leland Dern would come to my office, like…”—she shifted anxiously —“repeatedly. It made me uncomfortable. I was a single mom. But back then, I had a four-year-old, he’s, erm…older now.”

She rolled her shoulders and clenched her jaw.

Harry sat and waited, his gaze steady on her, keeping his hands from forming fists because he sensed where this was going.

Part of the mess that got Leland Dern’s ass put in prison was not following through with the investigations of two deputies who had complaints of sexual coercion lodged against them.

Though, Dern doing anything of that nature himself was new.

He was not surprised at Lillian’s report of her mother catching Dern’s eye, and Dern throwing a tantrum because he got his feelings hurt, even to the point of instigating a frameup.

That was just the kind of guy he was.

But this kind of thing was ballsy, blatant…

And worst of all, it hinted at a pattern.

Being attracted to a woman you couldn’t have was one thing. Being butt-hurt she didn’t like you back came with the territory. It was just Dern who would act out egregiously on something like that.

Criminally stalking another one and using your deputies to help you was a-fucking-nother.

She continued, “It seemed like he was on the make. No, it didn’t seem like it. He was. I mean, I met him only once, at the Hideaway. I didn’t even really process it at the time, except he was kind of…skeevy.”

Dern was all kinds of skeevy.

Harry nodded encouragingly.

“I don’t know how he found out where I worked, but he did. The more he showed, the more I tried to put him off, the more he seemed to come after me, until I didn’t have a choice. I’d had enough, so I told my ex-husband about it. Obviously, we didn’t get along, but we shared our boy. Even if we didn’t get along, he wasn’t happy about it either.”

“All right,” Harry said quietly.

She swallowed visibly then kept talking.

“Darrin…I mean, my ex, he went to speak to Dern to make him back off. But this only caused Dern to…well, he…” she trailed off.

“He’s not here anymore, ma’am,” Harry reminded her. “And I worked here for a decade when he did. I’m not sure there’s much you’ll say that will surprise me. But it might be something I need to know as we go about the business of cleaning up after him.”

“Okay,” she whispered, and it sounded almost pained.

Harry felt bile rise up his throat.

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