Blaine DeLano

DeLano, Blaine

Appeared in Dark in Death (late February, 2061)

Personal Information

• Description: About five-five, gym-fit build in narrow black pants and a casual black sweater, with a sleek cap of brown hair with hints of red around a quietly attractive face and deep brown eyes
• Age: 43
• Height: 5 feet, 5 inches (165.1 cm)
• Hair: Brown with hints of red
• Eyes: Deep brown
• Address: Corner lot, three-story house in Brooklyn
• Relationships: Heather DeLano (daughter); Piper DeLano (daughter); Audrey DeLano (mother); Craig Jefferson (ex)
• Occupation: Novelist

Literary Work

• The Hightower Chronicles - series of 11 books featuring police detectives Hightower (male) and Dark (female)
  • Devil’s Due, which got Peabody seriously thinking about being a cop after reading
  • With Prejudice (Spring, 2059 release) - features Hightower but also has appearances by Dark
• The Dark novels - series of eight books - spin-off with Deann Dark, a police detective in the first one, who turns in her badge at the end of the book and turns to private investigation.
  • Dark Falls - part of both series since they were partners, first in the Deann Dark one.
  • Dark Days
  • Dark Deeds
  • Sudden Dark (Fall, 2059 release)

Interesting Facts

• She had a low-register voice with a smoothness, along with a faint remnant of a Brooklyn upbringing.
• When she married, she was a teacher and had been working on her doctorate, but gave it up as Craig wanted her to stay at home, keep the home, and tend the children. Although she was content being a professional mother, she began to feel the squeeze with the limitations of her social activities and outlets. She accepted thet Craig was a very old-fashioned, traditional man, and he provided for them. She accepted that he wanted a son and didn’t interact as much as she would have liked with the girls. She accepted that he wanted things done a certain way, and his response when she didn’t reach that level was subtle insults and coldness. She had a lovely home, was expected to be a charming hostess, to be a fully involved mother, but she wanted something for herself.
• She began writing while her daughters napped or on the rare occasions when she was allowed to let her mother take them for an afternoon, but told no one. After she finished it she contacted a college friend who worked in publishing. She read and liked it, gave her some editorial suggestions, which she made, and she sent it again, she bought the manuscript.
• She had her mother take the girls overnight and arranged a special dinner for Craig - his favorite meal, candles, flowers, champagne. He thought it was to tell him she was pregnant because she hadn’t mentioned going off birth control, but she told him about the book. He asked how she had so much free time, saying it was because he did all the work, and told her she’d lied and deceived him to hide her ingratitude. He took her plate, dumped the food on the floor to remind her she only had food and shelter because he provided them, and then hit her again and again. He ordered her to destroy the manuscript, tell the friend he suspected her of having sex with she’d made a mistake, clean up the mess she’d made, then come upstairs and do what his wife was obligated to do. She cleaned up, took a picture of her face, with the bruising and the blackening eye, and let him rape her, pretending to enjoy it.
• In the morning she fixed his breakfast and apologized again when he demanded it. When he left for work and she was sure it was safe, she packed what the girls needed and left. She went to her mother’s house, her mother called a lawyer friend of hers, arranged for a neighbor to keep the girls while they went to the police and filed charges, and she filed for divorce. He claimed she’d committed adultery, but of course there was no proof since she hadn’t, that she was an abusive wife and mother, but again no proof, and made the next several months very hard.
• She went to therapy and wrote another book. He pled down the assault, did community service, agreed to rehab for domestic abuse, and two years probation, remained bitter but remarried and now has a son and a biddable wife.
• She knew Nadine casually, had been on Now a few times and gave a good interview. Eve thought she was smart and steady, and Nadine agreed (Nadine brought her to Central).
• She had consulted with Morris a few times and she sometimes asked Detective Olivia Diaz procedural questions - she was one of the detectives she went to when Craig tuned her up, and was now retired.