Married to a Stranger

by MacDonald, Patricia

  When she walked out of the bathroom, David was standing by the bed, staring down at her open suitcase. He looked up at her. “What’s this?”

  “Is your lawyer gone?” she asked.

  “Our lawyer. Yes. What is going on with you? You seem to be in a strange mood.”

  Emma did not reply. She walked over and put her toiletries into the duffel.

  “Emma,” he said.

  “You lied to me,” she said.

  “Here we go again. How many ways can I tell you? I was not at the cabin.”

  “This is not about the cabin,” she said. “You lied to me about your desk drawer. You said you locked it when we moved.”

  “I did,” he said.

  “No, you didn’t.” She walked over to the desk drawer and opened it, pulling out the picture frame key chain. “You see this?” she said, tossing it to him.

  He turned it over, frowning. “What about it?”

  “There’s a picture in it of me that you took the day we moved in.”

  “So what?” he cried.

  “So, if the drawer had been locked since we moved, how could you possibly have put that photo on the key chain?”

  David stared at her. “I don’t believe this. What are you doing? Building a case against me? Are you working for the cops now?”

  Emma blushed, but she zipped up her bag and lifted it onto her shoulder. “That’s the second time today you’ve compared me to a cop.”

  “Well, excuse me, but I feel a little bit…beleagured. It’s a drawer,” he said. “You’re walking out because of a drawer? That’s my crime? I locked a drawer.”

  She started for the bedroom door, but he blocked her way.

  “Move,” she said.

  He hesitated and then stepped aside. Emma walked past him.

  “All right, wait,” he said. “Will you listen?”

  She stopped, but she did not reply or look at him.

  “All right, look,” he said. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “There is something I’ve been…I probably should have told you this already.”

  Emma stood watching him. Her legs were trembling. “What?” she said.

  “I didn’t want anyone to know. It’s…embarrassing.”

  “What is?” she asked.

  “Emma, I was seeing another woman, when we met…” He heaved a sigh. “Her name is…Connie. She’s a…a flight attendant. She had the idea that we were…serious. It wasn’t true, but I guess I let her think that. Anyway, when I met you, I realized that I’d met the woman for me, and I dropped her. I tried to do it gently, but she was in love with me. She hounded me for a while. She wrote me a lot of letters that made no sense. In fact, they kind of reminded me of the letters you were getting. Kind of crazy.”

  Emma frowned at him. “How crazy?”

  David ran a hand through his hair. “Well, they were…very…intense.”

  Emma peered at him. “And that’s what was in the drawer? This woman’s letters?”

  David nodded. “I don’t know why I kept them.”

  “Where are they now?” she said.

  “Well, after you mentioned the drawer last night I realized how stupid it was to keep them. I mean, the police already want my head on a platter. If they saw those letters…between that, and their so-called witness in the Pinelands, they might jump to the wrong conclusion.”

  “They might think the affair was ongoing,” she said.

  “They seem to have no trouble thinking the worst of me,” he said.

  Emma nodded. “So you got rid of them.”

  “Last night. After you were asleep.”

  “And you never thought to tell the police. Or me.”

  “I should have. I know. But nobody wants to hear about their husband’s old girlfriends. And it seemed like adding insult to injury somehow to have the cops tracking her down. I mean, it was six months ago. I broke her heart, and she wrote me some crazy letters. Didn’t you ever do anything like that while you were in the throes of a broken heart? I didn’t think it was fair to drag her into this.”

  Emma felt as if her head would explode. “My life and the life of our baby is in danger, and you want to protect this woman you used to sleep with? Did it ever occur to you that she might be the person who was trying to kill me?”

  David shook his head. “Emma, it wasn’t Connie. I haven’t heard from her in months. She probably doesn’t even know I got married. Much less where we planned to spend our wedding weekend. Besides, she’s a tiny little woman. She couldn’t even lift an ax, never mind kill someone with it.”

  Emma stood up and picked up her bag. “Your priorities suck,” she said.

  “What does that mean? I’m not protecting her. Emma, put that bag down.”

  “How can I believe you?” she said. “You have too many secrets.”

  He looked stunned. “I have secrets? What about you? Are you saying that you don’t have any?”

  She stared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  He met her gaze defiantly. “Nothing,” he said. “Forget it.”

  Emma set the bag back down on the bed. “No. You brought it up. Let’s hear it. What are you talking about?”

  “All right,” he said, sticking his chin out. “I’m talking about you. And Burke.”

  “Me and Burke?” She looked at him in disbelief.

  “You knew him in college.”

  “That’s no secret. So I knew him in college. So what?”

  “You had an affair with him, didn’t you?” David demanded.

  “An affair? No,” she said. But Emma blushed, thinking about her confession to Burke the night before. But it was nothing. All she had done was confess to a crush. “He wasn’t interested in me. He married my roommate, remember?”

  “And yet he asked you to come here and work for him. After a weekend visit, he asked you to work for him.”

  “Because…,” she said.

  “Because what?” David demanded. “Because of your vast experience? Because there aren’t any other psychologists in New Jersey?”

  Emma blushed furiously. It was a simple question, but she found herself fumbling to answer it.

  David looked triumphant. “I think it’s because he had a crazy wife who made him miserable, and he wanted to resume his affair with you. And then I came along and got in the way.”

  “David, that is not true. You’re just…imagining something that didn’t happen.”

  “How do I know that?” he said.

  “Because I’m telling you the truth,” she said.

  “Well, I don’t believe you.”

  Emma gaped at him. “David.”

  “How do you like it?” he demanded.

  For a moment Emma was stunned. And then she glared at him. “Oh. Oh, I see. This is a game meant to enlighten me.”

  “Games are supposed to be fun,” he said bitterly.

  Emma picked up her bag again. She had packed it lightly, but even so it seemed to pull the stitches that curved around her back. “Well, we’re agreed on one thing. There is nothing fun about this.”

  “All right, stop,” he said. “I was trying to make a point. Of course I believe you. I just wanted you to know how it felt. Now where are you going?”

  “Thanks for the object lesson. My life is in danger, and you’re playing mind games. I’m leaving, David. I’m going to see Jessie for a few days.”

  “Emma, you can’t,” he said, but before he could protest further, the phone rang again. He picked it up and barked into it. “Hello.”

  He listened for a moment, his jaw working. Then he held out the phone to Emma. “It’s for you,” he said. “You’ll never guess who.”

  She took the phone from him as he stalked past her out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Emma, it’s Burke. Am I calling at a bad time?”

  17

  EMMA PUSHED OPEN the door of Tasha Clayman’s room at the Wrightsman Youth Center and l
ooked inside. Tasha’s mother, Nell, was sitting in a desk chair beside the bed where her daughter lay, staring up at the ceiling. Nell stroked Tasha’s arm while Wade Clayman hovered in a shadowy corner of the room, gazing out the window, his eyes filled with worry. Burke had called to tell her that Tasha had begun slipping and refused to see anyone but Emma. Burke had apologized profusely for asking, but he wondered if Emma could possibly find a way to come and talk to her.

  The idea of an exhausting session with the Claymans on her way to the train seemed like more than Emma could possibly manage, but now that she had arrived at the Wrightsman Center, she felt strangely happy to be back, to be needed by a patient. If nothing else, she thought, it would keep her mind off her own problems.

  Wade Clayman turned and looked at the doorway. He saw Emma and greeted her with a cry of relief. His relief turned to dismay as Emma limped into the room on her cane and and he saw the extent to which she had been injured.

  “My God,” he exclaimed. “You poor girl.”

  Tasha lifted her head, oversize on her skeletal frame, and stared. “Dr. Hollis. What happened to you?”

  “I was the victim of a crime,” said Emma, amazed that they were unaware of her situation. It seemed as if the news coverage had been unceasing. But then, having a dangerously ill child took precedence over anything else, she reminded herself. “I wasn’t planning to come in yet, but I am so concerned about you, Tasha.”

  Tasha’s bulging eyes widened, and a rare smile caused her skin to wrinkle into accordian folds. “Thanks,” she said.

  “I need you to work for me today,” Emma cautioned.

  Tasha nodded tentatively. “I’ll try,” she said.

  Nell, who could not tear her anxious gaze from her daughter’s gaunt face, let out a sound between a laugh and a sob. “Please try, Tasha,” she pleaded.

  Wade pulled up a chair for her, and Emma sat down.

  “Let’s talk about disappointment,” Emma said.

  AUDIE OSMUND pulled into the clearing where the old Fiore house stood. It was a run-down farmhouse with asbestos shingles and a roof that desperately needed replacing. Two hundred yards from the house was a tin-roof lean-to, which was probably used now as the barn. Audie got out of his patrol car, climbed up the front step beside a pile of empty terra-cotta flowerpots, and knocked at the door. There were a couple of ears of Indian corn decorating the front door, although some woodpeckers had pecked off most of the corn. There was no car around. He wasn’t optimistic.

  As he waited, he thought about that female lieutenant from the state police. “That was a waste of time,” she had said in a real tight voice after David Webster and his wife drove away together today. “Why didn’t you get a positive I.D. from that witness?” she demanded, treating Audie as if he were a rookie cop. Audie knew from experience that the state police always acted superior, strolling in with their nice suits and fancy haircuts. He was ready for that. But it was harder to swallow when the state cop was a woman like Joan Atkins. She seemed to make a point of keeping her part of the investigation to herself, making sure to keep Audie out of the loop. She was a type of woman he did not care for.

  Still, there was no way Audie could argue on his own behalf. It had backfired. So now Audie was out at the Fiore place, trying to make up for his oversight. No one answered his knock, and when he tried to peep through the windows, he saw that the panes were too grimy to be transparent.

  They haven’t done much for this place, Audie thought. It would probably be different if the husband was still alive. Audie looked around the clearing impatiently. She could be out with the horse, he thought. It was worth a try. He began to walk out toward the broken-down old lean-to, which was overgrown with a blazing red vine and up to the windowsills in dry, brushy grass. He heard a whinny as he approached.

  “Mrs. Tuttle?” he called out. He could discern the horse’s rear end under the lean-to. All of a sudden, the bottom half of a white face appeared out of the shed’s gloom.

  “Who is it?” a deep voice asked.

  “Police,” Audie announced. “Who are you?”

  A teenaged kid wearing a gray sweatshirt and a Philadelphia Eagles cap pulled down to his eyebrows emerged from the lean-to, holding a curry comb. He looked warily at Audie.

  “I live here,” said the kid.

  “You’re Mrs. Tuttle’s son?”

  The boy nodded.

  “What’s your name, kid?”

  “Sam,” said the boy.

  “Well, Sam, I’m looking for your mother.”

  “She ain’t here. She had to go up to Trenton. Some insurance thing about my dad. He was a firefighter. He died in a fire.”

  “So I understand,” said Audie. “Sorry for your loss.”

  “Thanks,” the boy muttered. “Why do you want my mom?”

  “She’s helping me with a case. She came forward as a witness,” Audie said. “Didn’t your mom tell you?”

  The boy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Typical teenager, Audie thought. “Do you have a number where I can reach her?” Audie asked.

  The boy frowned. “No. We had a cell phone, but we had to get rid of it. My mom said we couldn’t afford it. What was she a witness for?”

  “Well, a woman got attacked a while ago at the next place over. Hunter got killed. You must have heard about it,” said Audie.

  “I heard about it. She said she saw that?” the boy scoffed as if his mother was prone to exaggeration. “She didn’t see that. The cops came here and asked us questions after it happened. She didn’t see nothing. We were both home, but neither one of us saw it or heard anything.”

  “No. She just saw some…suspicious activity around the Zamsky place a while back. You see anyone over there in the last couple of months?” Audie asked hopefully.

  “Me? No. I don’t know nothing,” said the kid.

  Audie sighed. “All right, son. When do you expect her back?”

  “Tomorrow, I guess. Maybe late tonight.”

  “Well, I’m the police chief. Chief Osmund. You have her call me,” said Audie, turning away. He did not intend to call Joan Atkins and tell her that he had lost his witness. It might take a little doing, but he was going to catch up with the Tuttle woman and get that I.D. on David Webster if it was the last thing he did. In the eyes of that state police lieutenant, he was only a country cop, but that didn’t mean he was ready to be made a fool of.

  EMMA LED the Claymans through a good session and discovered that she actually felt energized by the encounter. At the end of it, Wade Clayman admitted that he regretted wasting time on late-night business meetings that he could have spent with his daughter, and Tasha had looked at him in amazement.

  On her way out of the center, Emma kept her gaze lowered, so she would not have to explain her life to everyone she encountered. But she had to speak to Burke before she left. She turned the corner onto his corridor and tried not to make eye contact with the person who was coming out of his reception area as she was approaching.

  “Hey,” said an angry voice. “Wait a minute.”

  She decided to assume that the voice was not addressing her. She continued to hobble toward the door of the reception area.

  “I said ‘wait,’” the voice insisted. Emma stopped and looked up. She found herself face-to-face with a glowering man in a black leather vest, engineer’s boots, and wire-rimmed glasses.

  “Mr. Devlin,” Emma said in a wary tone.

  “Well, isn’t this a wonderful surprise. I’ll tell you what I just got finished telling him,” Lyle Devlin said, gesturing back toward Burke’s office door. “You have a lot of nerve, after what you did to my family, sending the police to hound me…”

  “I didn’t…,” Emma protested.

  “What’s going on out here?” Geraldine called out anxiously.

  “I’m going to sue you, and everybody in this place,” Lyle Devlin inisted, pointing a finger at Emma’s chest. “You will be sorry,” he said. “You’ll pay dearly for
this. The worst thing I ever did was to bring my daughter to this sorry excuse for a treatment facility and let you get your hands on her.”

  “I’ll call security,” Emma said faintly.

  Burke, alerted by Geraldine, opened the door of his office and looked out. When he saw Emma forced up against the doorframe by Devlin, he began to shout and rush toward the man. “Hey. I told you to get out of here.”

  Devlin’s face was close to Emma’s. “Security’s not gonna help you, honey.” Before Burke could reach him, Devlin turned his back on Emma and stormed toward the exit. Burke arrived at Emma’s side in a moment, studying her worriedly.

  “Emma, are you okay? Did he do anything to you? Come in and sit down.”

  Emma shook her head. “I’m all right. What set him off?”

  “The police came to question him about what happened to you. About his threats against you. Now he’s all bent out of shape.”

  “He said he’s going to sue the center. I’m so sorry, Burke.”

  Burke shook his head. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Don’t worry about him. He’s blowing smoke. When it comes right down to it, he doesn’t want this whole thing to come out in the open. How did it go with Tasha Clayman?”

  Emma said that the session had gone well, and she had promised to see her again the minute she got back from New York.

  “You’re going to New York?” Burke asked. “Is that a good idea?”

  “It’s just for a few days,” said Emma. “I need to get away from…all the publicity. I have a close friend there. I can hide out at her place.”

  “You’re not driving, I hope.”

  Emma shook her head. “I’ve got a cab waiting to take me to the train. Listen, I’m so sorry that the center got dragged into this. With…Devlin.”

  “I’ll worry about Devlin,” he said. “You take care of yourself. Rest and recuperate. Don’t forget that we need you here. Any chance you’ll be back for your group on Thursday?”

  Emma sighed. “I don’t know yet. I really didn’t want to come in when you called this afternoon. I thought there was no way I was ready to face patients. But it felt really good to be back here. I feel stronger right now than I have since…it happened. I promise I won’t stay away for long. By the way, speaking of my group, how is Kieran doing?” said Emma. “Has he been back since his sister bailed on your meeting?”