Forgotten Husband

by Susan Bella Ikin

  With that, Mrs Santos whirled on me.

  “But you used to drink coffee, didn’t you! You used to drink a lot of it, and now you won’t have any!” She went to the pantry and took the tin of ground coffee out, thrusting it out at the police. “Take it! I bet you find something in there! The clever little witch tried once before to get all his money, now she’s got a better scheme. If she’s a widow, she gets it all doesn’t she?”

  I stared at Mrs Santos, finally seeing that she wasn’t just a mean woman, she was cruel and heartless, and nothing I would ever do would be good enough. I drew myself up to my full height.

  “I’ve put up with a lot from you, but that’s just too much. Clear out your things and get out of my house. You’re fired”.

  “You can’t fire me! I don’t work for you, I work for Mr Barrow!”

  “Well, he’s not here, and I’m his wife. Unless the police are going to haul me away in handcuffs right now, I’m firing you. Get off the property, or I’ll have these officers escort you out”.

  “That’s not necessary”, said Jeff from the doorway, holding Michelle out to me. “Mr Barrow hired me to protect his wife and daughter, if this woman is upsetting you, I’ll escort her out if she won’t go”.

  The police had been watching this interplay like they were at a tennis match, and as they stood silently, Mrs Santos finally huffed out of the room, shortly afterwards I heard the front door bang. I looked at the police who were watching me quizzically.

  “There’s a lot of history there, and today was the last straw. You can think what you like, I don’t care, but I wasn’t going to be accused of trying to kill my husband by that woman. Now, you’re welcome to take whatever you want from the kitchen, I’m going to see if I can get my daughter to have a nap, it’s been a long day”.

  “Before you go, Mrs Barrow, we need to go through the bathroom with you. Mouthwash, toothpaste, anything like that, that might have been ingested, we need to take that too”.

  Just as I was about to show them the bathroom, I heard yet another voice. I turned to see Mitch’s lawyer – Steven – walking into the room, dropping his briefcase on the kitchen bench.

  “You’re not taking anything without a warrant. Do you have a warrant?”

  “It’s fine”, I said, “I want to know what the source of the poison was. They can take anything they want. If you come with me”, I said, indicating the forensics officers who had been watching the drama unfold, “I’ll show you the bathroom and you can do your stuff while I put Michelle in her cot”.

  After finally settling Michelle, I went into my bathroom where I saw the officers going through our toiletries. They had already bagged the toothpaste, and on seeing it, a memory surfaced.

  “You know, I had some toothpaste in my bathroom when I first came here, but it must have gone off or something. I thought it tasted funny, so I threw it out”.

  “When was that?”

  “It was a while ago, just after I put my things back in here”.

  They looked at each other, a silent question seeming to pass between them, and I sighed.

  “Look, things were difficult when I first came back, and Mitch and I were occupying separate rooms at first. When I moved back into the master bedroom, I put my things in this bathroom. It was just after that I threw the toothpaste away. That tube was already here, it must have been Mitch’s. We’ve both been using that, and I’m not sick, so it can’t have been that”.

  After what seemed like forever, finally the apartment was empty, I even managed to send Jeff away. I knew that he and Frank would probably watch the apartment anyway from wherever it was they went when they left for the day, but I just needed him out. I crawled into the bed that I shared with Mitch, and buried my face in his pillow, trying to breathe in his scent. Mrs Santos must have changed the linens today, because all I could smell was laundry detergent, and I began to cry, denied even the small comfort of Mitch’s scent.

  ~

  Of course, Mrs Santos was proved to be right. There was poison in the coffee grounds. Although surprisingly a small amount of arsenic was detected in my bloodstream, and thankfully none was found in Michelle’s the police eventually did what I expected them to do, and arrested me. I had been visiting Mitch every day, trying to keep him updated on what was happening, and the arrest happened at Mitch’s bedside, with the hospital staff trying to restrain him from lunging at the arresting officers. Although he was improving, he was still weak, and I asked him to stop resisting before he hurt himself. Jeff promised to take care of Michelle until Amy could collect her, I didn’t want her going anywhere near the police station, or being taken into care because neither Mitch nor I could care for her. As if the day couldn’t get any worse, someone had tipped off the press, and there were photographers clamouring for a shot of me being hustled into the station. The police had taken pity on me and draped a coat over my head, but although my face was hidden, my identity was not. After being processed, I was placed in a holding cell, where I would have to spend the night due to the late hour. Steven had called and arranged for a bail hearing the next morning, but I would have to spend the night locked up. I sat on my hard cot and stared at the wall, wondering what looked familiar. Had I ever been arrested before? I laughed to myself as I reasoned that I would find out soon enough. Steven would be able to tell me something like that. When the lights were turned out for the night, I was still sitting on my bed, looking at the wall, and I just slipped down, lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, wondering how everything had gone so spectacularly wrong.

  Melbourne, Australia, two and a half years ago.

  I opened my eyes, and stared at the ceiling. This wasn’t my room. Where was I? Where was Mitch? I sat up, my head throbbing, and stared at the blank wall. Trying to ease the pounding in my head, I sat forward, leaning down so that my head was almost resting on my knees. I flinched as the movement caused all manner of aches and pains, and I held out an arm in front of my face, seeing for the first time the bruises along my arm. They almost looked like finger marks, as if someone had squeezed my arm really hard. I tried to remember, but the only thing I could remember was something smelly being held over my mouth, I being unable to breathe, and then – blackness. My hand went to my belly. My baby! The doctor had confirmed my pregnancy, I was going to tell Mitch tonight – wait, was it still today, or how long had I slept? I groaned as I felt sick now, and looked around wildly, seeing a bucket in the corner. I just made it to the bucket before I lost the contents of my stomach, and while I was still bent over it, retching, I heard the door open behind me. I whirled around, almost losing my balance, and saw a man with a ski mask, holding what looked like a taser. He had a plastic bottle of water in his hand, and put it down on the ground, watching me the whole time and holding the taser pointing in my direction. The door then slammed shut, and I heard it lock. I moved towards the bottle of water, checking it carefully. It didn’t appear that the seal had been broken, or that the bottle had been tampered with, so I opened it and took a small sip. I couldn’t detect any strange taste, so I took a longer sip. Moving over to the bed gingerly, I sat down again before checking myself over for more bruises, finding some on my legs, and after feeling some pain while breathing, discovering some on my sides as well. Clearly I had been kidnapped, and it didn’t take great intelligence to work out why. Mitch was wealthy. Well, more than wealthy, he had pots and pots of money, and so it was more than likely that I was going to be held to ransom. If it had been a random kidnapping for something else, I wouldn’t have been left alone, or at least I hoped that I hadn’t been kidnapped by some pervert or a serial killer, so I would just have to wait, and watch for an opportunity to escape. I looked at the bruises on my legs again, realizing how personal this kidnapping was, it wasn’t just because of the money. My head ached as I tried to remember what had happened, so I decided to leave that train of thought for a while and come back to it. I had more important things to worry about right now. I knew that kidnappings often we
nt badly, and I had a lot to live for, I thought as I rubbed my still flat belly while thinking of Mitch. Mitch wouldn’t hesitate to pay whatever they asked, I knew he loved me, and I just hoped that I got to see him again soon.

  After some more time had passed – I really couldn’t tell how long as I didn’t wear a watch and of course they had taken my phone from me – I heard the door again, and turned to look as a man, probably the same one, stepped in, gesturing for me to scoot to the end of the bed. When I did, he plopped a little plastic tray down, and I looked down to see what must have been a frozen dinner that had been microwaved, with a plastic fork stuck in it. He tossed another bottle of water on the bed, then left again.

  “I’ll be sure to leave a good tip”, I shouted at the closing door, looking at the unappetizing food. I picked up the tray and ate the food anyway, knowing that my baby needed food, and so did I if I was going to try to escape.

  Melbourne, Australia, current day.

  I woke up in shock, staring at the ceiling of my cell. So that was what had happened? I had no idea how much time had passed, my memories had started in a dream, and had continued in a stream of consciousness, even when I had woken. Everything was blurred together, yet I remembered everything. Everything. I remembered my kidnapping, I remembered who the man in the mask was, I remembered working out who must have hired him. Sitting up and leaning forward, I put my hands in my head, wondering what to do. I felt sick, physically and emotionally. Frank had been right, the risk of me regaining my memory had been dangerous, but in this case, it had almost been Mitch who had paid the price, because no-one could have known that I had stopped drinking coffee when I was pregnant. I had been almost addicted to the stuff before, and had drunk many cups of coffee each day. Mitch on the other hand, only drank a couple of cups, so the doses he must have ingested were much smaller. If I had been still drinking as much as I used to, I would probably have been dead before anyone knew that I had been poisoned. I sat there for hours, trying to plan a course of action that would get me exonerated while trapping the person who had kidnapped me, and tried to kill me, and had poisoned Mitch. It had taken me a while to work out how I even had a small amount of poison in my system, as I hadn’t touched a drop of the coffee, but I thought I knew how it had been done, although I would never be able to prove that.

  Finally, I was taken from my cell, and escorted to the court. As expected, it was packed full of spectators, and Steven squeezed my hand reassuringly when I started to tremble.

  “How are you holding up, Helen?”

  “Not all that well. Can you arrange for me to see David, my doctor? Even if I don’t make bail?”

  “You’ll make bail, don’t worry about it. The evidence is only circumstantial, and you can plead that you need to care for Michelle. David will still be in hospital for a few days, so she only has you. Just sit tight, I’ll get you out of here, then we need to make arrangements for your trial”.

  True to his word, Steven was soon whisking me from the court, and bundling me into a car. I smiled when I saw who was driving.

  “Jeff! So good to see you, can you get us out of here?”

  Thankfully the windows were tinted, so once the doors were closed I could relax a little, and once we were safely inside the apartment, I took myself off to a shower while Steven arranged for Amy to bring Michelle home. I braced myself for that visit, and was not disappointed by Amy when she turned up.

  “Steven, I can’t believe you think Michelle will be safe with her! Why can’t I keep her until Mitch gets out of hospital? Surely you don’t expect him to just come back here, she’ll try again!”

  I stood up and gently extricated Michelle from Amy’s grasp. Michelle had been looking from me to Amy, and I could see her little lip start to wobble.

  “It’s alright, Michelle. Aunty Amy is just a bit upset. Can you go and show Jeff the pictures Daddy took of you at the beach? You remember Jeff don’t you? I’ll be right out here when you’re finished”.

  Michelle seemed unsure, but looked up at Jeff, who she knew from our various outings, and then held out her hand for him to take. He looked at me and nodded, letting me know that he had picked up on my unspoken request to take as long as possible to look at the photos we had printed out for Michelle to look at, to remind her of our fun days at the beach. As they disappeared down the hallway, and after I heard the door softly close, I turned to Amy and took a deep breath.

  “Amy, I know you’re worried about Mitch, that’s the only reason I’m not shoving you out that door right now with a footprint in your arse. Now listen to me, and listen to me properly. I would never hurt Mitch, I love him, and he loves me. We have a child together, and want to raise her together. Someone tried to kill me, but poisoned Mitch by mistake. Sooner or later the police will work out the truth, I’m sure of it. In the meantime, if you want to stay a part of Michelle’s life, you can speak to me like a human being. I know it’s hard for you, to be polite to me, but it’s time you learnt. I’ve taken a lot from you in the past, but not any more. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve had a very tiring day, and I want to spend some time with my little girl before we go in to see her Daddy. Goodbye”.

  I turned my back on Amy and went into the kitchen, hoping that she wouldn’t follow. I heard Steven talking softly to her, and somehow he managed to get her to leave. Turning as I heard his footsteps walk towards me, I raised a brow.

  “I’ll talk to Miss Barrow when she calms down a little. Everyone is very stressed right now, I’m sure you understand. Now, we need to make arrangements about your trial. I’ll need to instruct a barrister, do you trust me to choose one?” At my nod he continued. “Ok, I’ll ask around for some recommendations, we need someone with experience at criminal trials. In the meantime, have you and Mitch thought about Michelle’s care if something were to happen to you both? Let’s just say you end up in jail, and Mitch is out of the country, or has a relapse, do you want Amy to have charge of Michelle?”

  “What do you mean? As much as she hates me, she loves Mitch, and I’m sure she would look after Michelle properly. Or are you suggesting Mitch’s parents take Michelle? Because all things considered, I’d rather she go to Amy, Mitch’s parents are really cold and give me the creeps”.

  Steven tried unsuccessfully to smother a smile, before he continued.

  “Well, maybe Miss Barrow would be the best carer, but what about putting in an extra layer of protection? If Mitch was unable to take charge, God forbid something should happen to him, but just say it did, do you want Miss Barrow, or her parents, in charge of Michelle’s financial future?”

  “What are you suggesting, Steven? Some sort of trust? Shouldn’t you be talking to Mitch about that?”

  “Well, Mitch has already set up a trust for Michelle, but perhaps you should think about granting power of attorney over her affairs, just in case things don’t go well at trial. Have a think about it, hmm?”

  I rubbed my temples, too much was going on, and I still wanted to go into the hospital.

  “Look, Steven, it’s been a long day. If you’re suggesting you be appointed Michelle’s guardian or something like that, can I talk to you tomorrow about it? How about you draw up some papers, and drop them in tomorrow, I’ll look them over then, and we can discuss it, ok?”

  Steven smiled and clapped a hand on my arm, just as Michelle and Jeff appeared in the room.

  “Fair enough, I’ll draw something up today, and bring it by tomorrow. You get some rest, you look exhausted”.

  As I was showing Steven to the door, the intercom went off, announcing David’s arrival in the lobby. I authorized his entry, and when the elevator doors opened to let David out, Steven got in, and with a wave, disappeared towards the ground floor. As we walked back into the apartment, Michelle still clinging on to my hand, I saw Jeff standing there, watching us. I turned to David.

  “I’m going to ask a big favour of you David, I want you to come into the hospital to visit Mitch. I’ve got a bit to say, and I want you
there, is that possible?”

  David smiled wanly at me.

  “I cleared my calendar for the rest of the day. I figured when a client gets out of jail, she needs some extra therapy time, so I’m all yours for the rest of the day”.

  “Extra therapy time, yes, that sounds about right. I think I’m going to need more before we’re done”.

  Jeff led us back down to the car, which he had garaged in the basement carpark, to avoid the press that was still clustered outside, and we all went to the hospital. When we got there, both Michelle and I threw ourselves into Mitch’s arms.

  ~

  I sat in the interrogation room, dry eyed as the police tried to break me.

  “You got out on bail yesterday morning, and by the end of the day, your husband was dead. We know you were there, it will go a lot easier on you if you just tell us why you did it. You had to know you’d be the prime suspect. How did you expect to get away with it?”

  “Just tell them everything you know, Helen, I’m sure there’s an explanation for it all”.

  I stared at Steven, frustrated beyond measure.

  “But why, Steven? Why would I do it? Tell them I’ve got nothing to gain by killing Mitch”.

  Steven’s mouth firmed into a straight line and he held my gaze.

  “I can’t say that, Helen, I can’t mislead the police, I’m sorry”.

  “What do you mean, Steven? What are you talking about?”

  “You’re my client, Helen, and I’m not saying you killed Mitch, but you do stand to gain from his death. You stand to inherit everything, so you can’t say you would have nothing to gain, but you don’t have to admit to anything if you didn’t do anything”.

  “How could I inherit everything? What about Michelle?”