The Schuyler House

by Cade Haddock Strong

  As soon as I step foot onto the sidewalk, I’m struck at how busy the streets are for a weeknight. I rack my brain for the reason, and it finally occurs to me that it’s Cinco de Mayo. DC always did celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style with everything from pub crawls to parades, and that would explain why so many festive people are wandering the streets.

  I cannot believe that it’s already May. As I continue to walk home, I decide it’s time for me to take a trip to Vermont. I really want to pay a visit to my farm. I stashed almost all my share of the cash from the heists in an old deer stand on my land, and I want to go get it before someone else finds it. It would also be good to check in with Todd and, if time permits, grab a few of my personal belongings from my sublet in Burlington.

  I decide to give Todd a call when I get home to tell him I’m considering a visit to Vermont.

  “Do you think I’m crazy?” I ask.

  “Nah, I mean, you shouldn’t advertise your visit or anything, but it’s been complete radio silence as far as the police are concerned. I think the last time I heard anything from them was February,” he says.

  “All right, well, that’s encouraging,” I reply.

  “I don’t think you’re totally out of the woods yet, Mattie, but I’m definitely off their radar, and I think that bodes well for you too.”

  “Well, that settles it. I’m coming.”

  “How are you going to get here?” he asks.

  “I’ll probably take the train,” I answer. Amtrak runs a daily train between DC and Vermont that is aptly called the Vermonter.

  “You’re welcome to use Kat’s old Subaru station wagon when you’re here. I just haven’t had the heart to sell it yet.”

  “Thanks, Todd. That’s very kind of you. I want to try and come up next weekend, but I’ll drop you a line when I know for sure,” I reply.

  * * *

  Over dinner the next night, I tell Alex that I’m thinking about heading up to Vermont the following weekend, and she insists on coming along even though it’s high season for Hemlock. “There is no way you are going without me!” she protests as she gets up to help herself to seconds of the delicious polenta with grilled vegetables she managed to whip together after work. “Plus, how are you going to get there?”

  I explain my plan to take the train and then drive Kat’s car once I get to Vermont.

  “How long will it take by train?”

  “Well, the train makes a lot of stops between DC and Vermont, so the entire journey takes more than twelve hours each way…but, unlike flying, you can get up and walk around a train.”

  “Why don’t we take my truck?”

  Eventually, I agree that driving makes sense, and honestly, I think I’m somewhat relieved not to have to drive Kat’s car around. Plus, I admit, it would be nice to have Alex along with me for what is likely to be an emotional trip.

  It will take us at least nine hours to get to Vermont if we drive, and we’ll go right by New York City, so I propose that we stop there on the way up and have dinner with Ellen and Andy and Sandy. I really want Alex to meet them, and it will help break up the drive.

  After dinner, I do the dishes and Alex heads to her study to catch up on some emails. When I’m done, I poke my head into her study. “Hey, I am going to give Todd and Ellen a call to confirm the dates with them.”

  “Cool. I’m really excited to meet them. This is going to be a little adventure!” she says, and gives me a wink.

  I head back out to the kitchen and call Ellen and Todd.

  As Alex and I are getting ready for bed later that night, I give her a quick update on the travel plans for Vermont. “I talked to both Todd and Ellen tonight,” I say as I look for the toothpaste in the medicine cabinet.

  “Oh, good. Are they both around this weekend?” Alex asks as she spreads some sort of wrinkle-be-gone potion on her face.

  “Yep, they’ll both be around. The plan is for us to stay with Ellen in New York on Friday night. She’s going to check with Andy and Sandy and see if they can join us for dinner.” I pause briefly to put toothpaste on my toothbrush. “Then we’ll meet up with Todd for dinner in Vermont on Sunday. Does that all sound okay?”

  “Yep, it all sounds good to me. Will we head back to DC on Monday?”

  “Yesh, wowl dwive back fewst ting Mowday mawning,” I say with a mouthful of toothpaste. I rinse my mouth and try again. “Yes, we’ll drive back first thing Monday morning.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Alex and I hit the road right after lunch the following Friday to make our way to New York. Traffic is surprisingly light for a Friday, and we get into the city a little after five o’clock. We circle the block near Ellen’s apartment and manage to find a legal parking spot on the street a few blocks away. We gather our luggage out of the back of the truck and walk down the street toward Ellen’s apartment building.

  The doorman greets us as we walk in the lobby. “Good evening. How may I help you ladies?”

  “Good evening. We are here to see Ellen Church,” I reply, and he reaches for the phone to call up to her apartment.

  “All set, ladies. Let me show you to the elevator.”

  Ellen is standing outside her door when we get off the elevator on her floor. She gives me a hug and kiss on the cheek and then turns to Alex. “Mattie has told me so much about you, Alex. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “So much, huh?” Alex grins at me, and I blush.

  “Oh, god! You guys have it bad.” Ellen laughs and then leads us into her apartment.

  Alex and I freshen up and join Ellen in the living room for a glass of wine before we have to go meet Andy and Sandy for dinner. As we sip our wine, Ellen peppers Alex with questions. I know Ellen means well and her questions are generally benign—how long have you been in DC, how long were you married, where did you grow up, where did you go to school—but she’s still putting Alex through the wringer. Finally, in an effort to give poor Alex a break, I ask Ellen how things are going on her end.

  “Well, Sandy was over here a few weeks ago, and we ran into an old professor that has lived in the building for something like forty-three years. Anyway, Sandy introduced us, and after that, I kept running into him. One day when we ran into each other in the mailroom, he mentioned that he was just returning from his weekly bridge game. So, of course I told him that I was an avid bridge player, and he invited me to join his weekly bridge group.” Ellen turns to Alex. “I’m not sure if Mattie told you, but I am a total bridge fanatic. I lived in Manhattan for a while after law school, and my ex-husband and I were in like three bridge groups. Seriously. It’s weird—playing bridge always helped relax me because it was one of the few times I could totally block out work.

  “Well, to make a long story short,” she continues, “the professor and I got to know each other a bit better, and he recently asked me to help him with some legal research for a new book he’s working on. So, between playing bridge, the legal work for Andy and Sandy and the book research, I’m keeping pretty busy…which is good.”

  “That is really great, Ellen!” I say.

  “Yeah, it’s funny how things work out.” She glances at her watch. “We should probably make our way to the East Village to meet Sandy and Andy.”

  * * *

  The next morning, I run out and buy some New York City bagels, and Ellen makes us bacon and eggs before Alex and I jump back in her truck to continue the drive to Vermont.

  Once we wind our way out of the city, Alex looks over at me. “So, run me through our nutty Vermont itinerary again.”

  I give her a sympathetic smile and start to run through all that I hope to pack into our brief trip to Vermont. “Sure! Okay, well, tonight we stay in Burlington. Which reminds me, I need to find us a hotel for the night. Todd invited us to stay with him in Vermont, but I decided that was too risky. I figure I’ll just find a room on the Hotels Tonight app. What do you think?”

  “Works for me,” she replies as she drums the steering wheel softly to
the beat of the song on the radio.

  I find a pretty sweet deal at the Hilton in downtown Burlington, so I book that. “All right, we’re all set with the hotel so we’ll stay in Burlington tonight. I figure we can just grab dinner when we get there and hopefully get to bed at a reasonable hour. Then, we can swing by my apartment in Burlington first thing in the morning before we drive out to my farm. The visit to the farm will likely take a few hours, especially since we have to go in the back way. Like we discussed before we left DC, I think it’s best that we avoid cruising up my driveway in broad daylight.”

  I look over at Alex, and she nods in agreement so I continue. “After that, we’ll meet Todd at Ellen’s house in Stowe for dinner. Ellen’s brother is using the house for the weekend, but he will be long gone by dinnertime on Sunday so Ellen suggested we meet Todd for dinner there… and then you and I can also spend the night there. I guess that’s about it. We’ll head back to DC on Monday. Does that all sound agreeable to you?”

  “Sure. It sounds like quite a little escapade, but I am totally up for it!” she says with a chuckle.

  We arrive in Burlington after dark, valet the truck at the hotel and head inside to check in. We drop off our bags, and then Alex and I walk along Church Street—a pedestrian marketplace that extends for about ten blocks in the center of town and is completely and permanently closed off to cars. We pop into a few shops, and Alex goes crazy when we come upon an old-fashioned candy store. She fills a bag with a few carefully selected but gross-sounding flavors of jelly beans. Afterward, we sit on a bench outside the store and take turns tossing jelly beans into the air and trying to catch them in our mouth. The jelly beans are in fact pretty disgusting, but I’m laughing so hard I don’t care.

  We decide to head over to Flatbread and order a take-away pizza. While we wait for it to be prepared, we decide to grab a beer at the bar. The restaurant is buzzing, but I spot two empty stools at the end of bar and start to elbow our way through the crowd.

  After surveying the vast selection of beers they have on tap, Alex and I both order a local pale ale called Yard Sale because we like the name—a yard sale is when you take a serious wipeout on the ski slopes and leave your equipment strewn in your wake. I’m only mildly worried that someone will recognize me, but I am sporting a baseball hat and we’re in a dark corner of the bar, so I figure I’m probably safe. My biggest fear, of course, is running into Conrad, but he lives way down in Charlotte, and I know he never steps foot in the city on the weekends.

  I get a text on my phone just as we’re finishing our beer to alert me that our pizza is ready. Alex goes up to get the pizza from the take-away window while I settle the bill with the bartender. While I’m trying to get his attention, I notice that the bar sells one and two-liter growlers (basically a jug of beer), so I order one of those and then head over to find Alex by the front door.

  “Look what I got!” I hold up the growler for her to see.

  “Sweet, I didn’t know they sold those here.” She gives me a high five.

  We head back to the hotel, inhale our pizza and polish off the growler before climbing into bed to watch a movie.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Alex motivates me to get out of bed early the next morning to go for a run along the lakefront before breakfast. I moan and groan at first, but once we start running, I punch her arm softly. “Thanks for getting my sorry ass out of bed!”

  “You’re welcome. Maybe that growler we had last night was not such a great idea, huh?” she asks with a laugh.

  “Yeah, no shit, but it sure was good,” I reply as I try to keep up with her pace.

  After the run, we take a quick shower and walk over to my sublet.

  We make the visit to my apartment very brief. I have no interest in lingering, and I grab my laptop and a few other personal items before we lock up and start to walk back to the hotel.

  Alex pauses after we’ve walked a few blocks. “Do you ever worry that Todd or someone else will turn you in to the police?” she asks.

  “No,” I answer somewhat confidently. “Todd and Sarah’s ex-husband Jake are the only people that have any idea about the full extent of our burglaries. Jake has no idea where I am or how to contact me, and I know Todd would never say anything because, ultimately, he would be implicating Kat and possibly himself. Plus, I trust Todd completely.”

  I tell her briefly about the fiasco with Conrad and subsequent visit from the police. “Calling him was a huge mistake on my part and almost got me caught,” I say. “But, I haven’t tripped up again and hopefully, as far as he is concerned, I’ve disappeared into thin air.”

  I add, “Before I decided to come to Vermont, I did ask Todd if he’s heard from the police recently and he said he hadn’t. As far as I know, the police still only know about our involvement at Schuyler House. That puts me and Ellen pretty low on the criminal totem pole.” I look over at Alex to make sure I’ve adequately answered her question.

  “That all makes sense, I think,” she says as we reach the hotel.

  “How about I run up and grab our bags from the room while you check out?” I suggest.

  “Good plan. I’ll also ask the valet to bring the truck around.”

  I gather our belongings from the room. By the time I get back downstairs, the valet has already retrieved Alex’s truck. We both climb in, and I direct her out of the city and toward my farm, which is located about fifteen miles from downtown Burlington in a small, rural town called Jericho.

  We take I-89 to Richmond and then take back roads that start off paved but eventually turn to dirt. My farm is on a dirt road, off a dirt road, and the driveway up to the cabin is nearly a quarter-mile long. Alex slows as we pass my place, but we don’t pull in since we’ve already agreed that it’s too risky to just drive up the driveway. Instead, I guide her to a nearby trailhead for the Long Trail—the oldest long-distance trail in the US; it was actually the inspiration for the Appalachian Trail and coincides with it for about one hundred miles.

  We park her truck in the small dirt parking area near the trailhead. It’s slightly overcast but otherwise a fairly nice day; however, there is only one other car in the lot. I am not that surprised though because it’s only May and the trail is likely to be very wet and muddy given that the snow has only recently melted. We both change into hiking boots, load up our daypacks with some supplies and hit the trail.

  We hike for about a half mile and then, after checking that no one else is around, cut off the trail and bushwhack for another quarter mile or so until we step foot on the eastern edge of my property. I lead the way to my cabin. When we finally reach it, I go in search of my spare key. I left one of those magnetic Hide-A-Key cases stuck to the underside of an old, rusted wheelbarrow, and I’m able to locate it pretty easily. I extract the key from the case, open the cabin door and lead Alex inside the small space.

  “This place is so incredibly cute,” Alex says as she looks around the cabin.

  “I know, isn’t it?” I say with a sigh as my eyes wander over the rustic décor, small open kitchen, wood burning stove and bedroom loft. “I really love this place…I’d always thought that I’d keep the cabin even after I’d built a larger house on the property.”

  I try to set my emotions aside and focus on the task at hand, but it’s hard not think about my old life, the life I had to walk away from. Living in DC has made it easier to push it all to the back of my mind, but now, standing here in my cabin, so many memories come rushing back. I loved it here, and I’d planned to grow old here. Now that future is far from certain. I know I made my bed and I have to sleep in it, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

  I sit down on a small stool near the fireplace and try to pull myself together. Alex rubs my back. “You okay?” she asks.

  “Yeah. It’s just hard,” I reply and let out a long sigh. “I’m glad that you got to see the place though,” I say and give her a smile.

  “Me too, baby.”

  Eventually, I get up and start
to scrounge around for a hammer and screwdriver. Once I find them, I grab a flashlight off the wall, and we head back outside.

  “So, where to now?” Alex asks.

  “To the deer stand! Follow me, it’s not too far.” I lead the way toward the more wooded section of my property.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The deer stand is made of two-by-fours and plywood and has a metal roof. It sits up in a large maple tree about twenty-five feet off the ground and has a wooden ladder that reaches to the ground. I scale the ladder and poke my head inside the stand. The interior is fairly basic and includes only a built-in wooden bench covered with a strip of carpet and a few wooden shelves. I crawl up inside the stand, pull out my hammer and start working to try and loosen a section of the plywood floor. I quickly get one of the boards loose and lift it up to expose a small cavity underneath. I reach for my flashlight and shine it around the cavity until I find what I’m looking for: a moldy blowup camping mat tucked in the back corner. I switch off my flashlight and step into the cavity.

  By now, Alex has joined me up in the deer stand, and we work together to pull the mat out of the floor. It’s pretty heavy, but finally we manage to drag it up onto the intact part of the floor and spread it out. My hands are filthy, and I wipe them on my pants and push my hair out of my face before grabbing my flashlight again. I turn it on and scan the mat to look for a duct tape patch. When I hid the money up here, I’d cut a hole in the side of the camping mat, slipped the cash inside and then patched the hole back up with duct tape.

  Finally, I locate the patch, peel it off and reach my hand deep inside the mat. I feel around and pull out the first bundle of cash that I touch. I continue to pull out bundle after bundle until I can no longer find any more with my hand. Just to be sure, I shine my flashlight around inside the camping mat and, seeing nothing else, toss the mat aside.