by Laurèn Lee
“You’re that guy. The guy who killed his parents!”
I rolled my eyes, “Yes, he is. And you’re that woman sleeping with my husband. Now, as I said before, and as I won’t say again, you need to leave.”
Lucas crept closer and closer to where Helena and I stood, holding one arm suspiciously behind his back. I watched him from the corner of my eye, and I also watched Helena rummage through her purse to find her keys. She said she would be leaving in just a moment.
As Helena’s head was down, Lucas slowly removed his hand from behind his back and what happened next emerged as though time slowed down and sped up all at once. Lucas held a brass elephant statue which had come from my office in his right hand. He raised the statue high above his head and before Helena knew what was coming, he brought the elephant down forcefully against her skull, dropping her to the floor.
Blood seeped out of the wound and created a pool of crimson, warm liquid surrounding her body like a river around a moat.
“That’s better,” Lucas said, dropping the statue to the floor.
35
Past- Six Months Ago
“Dr. Delilah Hedley,” I said answering my office phone.
“Yes, this is Franklin Morse. I was hoping to speak with you for a few minutes. Have I caught you at a bad time?”
Franklin Morse was a high-profile attorney, one of the best in the state. I wondered why he might be calling me. I knew I didn’t have any pending cases involving any of my current patients.
“No, this isn’t a bad time. How can I help you?”
“Well, I have been representing a client, and we may need your services,” he began.
“You may need my services? Who is your client?”
“I’m not at will to reveal much more information than that, but I’m very confident I will be able to have my client cleared of all charges. However, it may be a look of good faith if my client seeks professional therapy after his release.”
“So, you are mostly trying to retain me for when your client is set free?”
“Yes, precisely.”
“This is a very odd request. I must admit, Mr. Morse.”
“Please, call me Franklin.”
“Usually, I have a preliminary meeting with a potential client to see if we’d be a good fit for a working, therapeutic relationship. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to help the patient without speaking with them first.”
“Please consider this a favor to me, Dr. Hedley. And in return, if you ever find yourself needing legal counsel, I would take on your case.”
I snorted. This guy had some audacity asking for a favor like this. One that I may never use in return.
“If I agree, I would like to know the name of your client.”
“Ah, Dr. Hedley —”
“I’m afraid that is my one and only condition. I won’t promise to treat a patient without knowing their name and who they are.”
“That seems fair. His name is Lucas Finch.”
36
EVENING HERALD
Hot Murder Turned Cold Case
The police department has officially concluded the murder investigation of Helena Woodruff has turned cold.
“We will continue to take tips and follow any lead we come across, but at this time, we have no hard leads to chase,” Captain Moonie announced this morning.
Helena Woodruff was found brutally murdered just a few weeks ago, and further investigation found Woodruff was with child.
Only one person of interest had been questioned, but the man was eventually let go due to lack of evidence tying him to Woodruff’s murder.
It may seem that Helena and her unborn child may not get the justice they deserve after all.
PART II
37
Present
I looked down at Helena and a pool of blood oozed from her head. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry, I wanted to be sick. Instead, I just stood there, staring at what Lucas had done. Looking up at him, I saw he looked as normal and poised as ever. He didn’t look at all affected by what he’d just done. My heart told me Helena was dead, but another part of me wanted to check her pulse. Maybe we could save her? Maybe she was still alive?
Lucas must have seen the panic and confusion in my eyes. “She’s dead, Delilah. Even if her heart is still beating, there’s no way she’d be able to live her life as anything but a vegetable.”
“What do we do?” I asked slowly. As thoughts swirled around my head, I felt short of breath. It felt as though a rhinoceros sat on my chest. Tears poured out of my eyes. A panic attack caught me by surprise.
Lucas carefully stepped over Helena’s lifeless body and pulled me into his arms. “There, there. Everything is okay. Breathe, yes, just like that.”
Being in his arms and the pressure of another body against mine calmed my nerves. I practiced the breathing techniques I often used with my patients suffering severe anxiety.
I pushed Lucas away, “Jennifer! Jennifer knows she was here. What if she tells someone else?”
“Jennifer won’t be a problem.”
“You can’t kill her, too!” I shrieked.
“Delilah, Helena never introduced herself, and you never said her name in front of Jennifer. Not to mention, Helena doesn’t look much like herself, Jennifer would never recognize her.”
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God!” I wailed, ignoring his attempt to comfort me. Turning to Lucas, “Why did you do that! We could have just asked her to leave. I was handling it!”
“You were? It seemed like if I hadn’t stepped in, you would have done the deed yourself, Delilah.”
Was he right? Would I have killed Helena myself if he hadn’t done it first?
“It’s better this way, I promise.”
“Is that how you justified killing your parents?”
“Yes,” he responded casually.
“Okay, what do we do now? We need a game plan. We need to get her out of here and clean up any evidence left behind,” I paced around the waiting room, careful not to step on the dead body smack center in the middle of the room. “Bleach. We need bleach,” I whispered to myself.
“I’ll take care of everything,” Lucas promised.
“What?” I asked incredulously.
“I’ll dispose of the body, you just go home or something. Make sure you have a solid alibi.”
I stopped pacing. He was right. I needed to distance myself as far away as possible from my office. It was a crime scene, now.
“Do I have to go home, though? I’m not sure I can face James.”
“You need to, Delilah. You could become a suspect if this ever surfaces. Make sure you make a few phone calls at home, too. Just in case the police ever want to pull your records, your alibi will be foolproof.”
“For someone who’s only killed once, you seem way too prepared’.”
“Who says they were my first?”
Chills ran down my spine and yet Lucas just became a lot more interesting, if that was even possible.
“Okay, I’m leaving. Is there anything else you need from me? Is there anything else I need to do?”
“Just go home. Act natural. And make sure you don’t leave the house at all. Make some phone calls, go online, do whatever it takes to secure your footprint is tied to your house.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Please, this is just another day for me, Delilah.” he said.
38
Present
I needed a distraction, something, anything to calm me down and take my thoughts off the dead body in my office. Thinking of what I could do to not only keep my brain occupied but also establish part of an alibi, I decided to go grocery shopping. I chose the market closer to our house, and farther away from my office.
Making sure to keep calm, cool and collected, I grabbed a cart and began wove up and down various aisles. Just in case the surveillance footage of me shopping ever surfaced, I wanted to make sure I appeared serene and complacent.
What c
ould I possibly do about Jennifer, though? I didn’t want to involve her in this, and yet I didn’t want her to implicate me in the crime mistakenly. Deciding to give her a call, I held my breath and dialed her cell.
“Dr. Hedley? Is everything okay?”
“Oh yes,” I confirmed, “Everything’s fine. I’m just at the market and wondered if we needed anything for the office?”
“Oh, phew! Um, I think we need some more mints for the waiting room,” she began.
A flashback slapped me across the face, as I thought back to Helena lying in a pool of her blood right next to the table holding a jar of mints.
“Mints. Got it. Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of. Hey, did everything work out okay with that woman?” she asked in earnest.
“Oh yes. She was just lost and maybe a little confused. Looking for the bus line, I think.” I wondered if that sounded legitimate.
“That’s good, I was worried.”
“Well, I’ll be here for another half hour or so, if you happen to think of anything else we need. Just give me a call or text me,” I said cheerfully.
“Sounds good, talk to you later!”
I mentally patted myself on the back. I thought I performed admirably. Continuing to shop around, I grabbed supplies for dinner, snacks, and a few bottles of wine. Also grabbing a bag of mints for the office, I decided to go up and down a few more aisles. I wasn’t ready to go home just yet.
Strolling down the detergent aisle, my heart nearly stopped in my chest. A woman with electric red hair was bent over reading the back of a fabric softener bottle.
It couldn’t be Helena, she was dead. But, oh, this woman looked just like her! She even wore a tacky silk blouse just as Helena would’ve worn.
“Helena,” I whispered, hoping the woman would hear me and turn around. I needed to know if it was her or not. Sweat droplets fell into my eyes and I carelessly wiped my forehead with my sleeve, surely smudging my makeup.
The woman stood, and continued to walk down the aisle. I followed her. I knew Helena was dead. I’d seen her die. I felt her lifeless body, but what if I’d imagined it all? What if I was going crazy? I kept a close tail on the redhead, my heart thumping madly.
All of a sudden, the woman stopped and I crashed into her back, causing her to screech out in pain and whip around to see her assailant.
It wasn’t Helena who’d greeted me with an angry stare.
“Watch where you’re going!” the woman growled rubbing the back of her calves where my cart had rammed her.
“I’m sorry,” I stammered, but she had already walked away.
The cool and calm demeanor I thought I could hold onto slipped through my fingertips. I had to leave. I couldn’t play happy go-lucky any longer. I went to stand in line at the checkout and hastily loaded the belt with my purchases.
“Would you like to donate to the women and children’s shelter?”
“Sure, why not,” I said cackling much to the confusion of the cashier.
“Uh, thanks,” the greasy teenage boy said.
After paying, I nearly jogged out of the grocery store and took a deep breath of fresh air as I found my car in the parking lot.
Driving home, I wondered what Lucas was doing at the same moment. How would he manage to clean up and dispose of the body? Even though it frightened me he might be a seasoned killer, at least it meant he knew what he was doing. I trusted him. In fact, he might be the only person I did trust these days.
Carrying my groceries into the house, I braced myself for seeing James for the first time today. I knew he was home; he parked his car in the garage always. I hadn’t changed the locks yet, so it didn’t surprise me to see him. He wouldn’t have left yet anyways. He was too much of a coward.
I set down the groceries on the kitchen counter and put some of the cold foods away. James must have heard me come home because I heard him dash down the stairs, pounding each step as he took it.
“Delilah! There you are!”
“Yes, here I am,” I said airily.
“We need to talk,” he panted.
“About?”
“Helena, she’s missing!”
39
Present
My heart took a nosedive as though I had just jumped out of an airplane without a parachute.
Act natural. Act natural. Act natural.
I guffawed, “What are you talking about, James?”
“She’s not answering her phone, and she’s not home,” he panicked.
“You do realize not every woman must cater to your every need around the clock, right? She’s probably just busy, or maybe, she doesn’t want to talk to you,” I sneered.
“She always answers my calls!”
“How sweet.”
“Delilah, please! What if something happened to her?”
“You're paranoid. She could be sleeping, or maybe she’s at a doctor’s appointment or something,” I suggested.
“No, she tells me when all her appointments are,” he pointed out.
“What a good father-to-be you are.”
“Should I drive over there again to see if she’s okay?”
“James, stop. I’m sure she’s fine. Why don’t you go clean up and help me make dinner? I’ve gotten enough supplies for a nice roast.”
He thought about it for a second and quickly agreed. “Yeah, that sounds nice. I’ll go take a quick shower and be down soon.”
He leaned in to kiss me and much to my distaste; I let him.
While James showered, I desperately wanted to call Lucas to see how everything was going. I wanted to know if he’d taken care of the body and if my office looked as though a murder never happened. But, I knew a call or text to him would show up on my phone records if they ever came to light. It would look extremely suspicious if a therapist called a patient’s cell phone outside of therapy. It wasn’t professional. It also wouldn’t look good considering said patient was previously accused of murdering his parents then having a mental breakdown. I still wondered how he was able to fool the judge and jury into thinking he didn’t commit the murder. Lucas had to be one of the smartest people I knew. If anyone was incompetent, it had to be the judge who couldn’t see through him.
I opened a bottle of wine just as James came downstairs, his hair still dripping from his shower. He smiled and took it upon himself to pour both of us a glass of wine just before he chopped up the celery and carrots I had laid out.
If anyone told me that one day I’d be cooking dinner with my husband while ignoring the fact he’d cheated on me with another woman and impregnated her, I’d have laughed in their face. I desperately wanted James out of the house, but for tonight he could stay. I needed my alibi.
“How was your day?” he asked casually.
“It was fine. I only had one patient. How about you?”
“It was good,” he said with no further explanation. “Did, uh, Helena come to your office today?”
I nearly choked on my last sip of wine.
“No, why would she?”
“She mentioned last night she wanted to talk to you again. You know, about everything. Are you sure she didn’t come to see you today?” He paused chopping the vegetables and looked at me.
I stopped what I was doing as well, and returned his stare. “I didn’t see your mistress today, James. I had one patient, and then I spent some time taking notes and studying before I went to the supermarket and came home.”
“Okay, thank you for telling me the truth,” he said, returning to his chopping.
If you only knew.
“Anyways, how do you know she’s not with another man, right now? I mean clearly, she doesn’t have any respect or regard for the sanctity of marriage. What if this child isn't even yours?”
I wanted to stir the pot. I wanted him to doubt his relationship with Helena.
“She’d never do that.”
“How do you know? I thought you’d never cheat on me and father a child who wasn’
t mine, but here we are.”
“We are in love,” he whispered.
“You love her and yet you won’t leave me for her. Why is that, James?”
“I love you both.”
“You can love two people, but you can never be in love with more than one person at a time. It’s just not possible.”
“I think you’d like her, Delilah. She’s sweet and smart.”
“Are you trying to convince me how good of a person your mistress is right now?” I threw down my hand towel, put my hand on my hip and faced him.
“I never meant for any of this to happen. I swear.”
“Excuse me for not buying it, but I have no faith in your words right now. Your actions tell an entirely different story,” my voice began to rise.
Calm down, Delilah. Don’t lose your cool.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t believe me either. Maybe we could raise the child together?”
I snorted, “That may have been the most absurd thing you’ve ever said. This isn’t some quirky 80’s sitcom where we can pretend everything is fine and dandy. This is real life. Plus, I still want a divorce, James. Then, you will be free to be with Helena and your child. Again, if it’s even yours.”
He hung his head but nodded.
“Dinner should be ready in about a half hour. Finish cutting those vegetables and put them in the crock pot with the meat. I’m going to shower.”
Climbing the stairs, I felt the weight of what I’d been party to deep inside my chest. I knew it was wrong, but the only fear I had was of getting caught. I thought my husband cheating and fathering a child was the worst thing that had ever happened, well going to jail would trump that scenario tenfold.
I stood in front of my mirror as I undressed. I slid my blouse off my shoulders and noticed a spot of blood staining my shoulder. I looked at it closely and wondered where else Helena’s blood could be hiding. Hopefully, Lucas was smart enough to thoroughly check before leaving. Licking my finger, I rubbed away the blood spatter. The same blood which would’ve run through the body of James’ child.