by Dawn Brown
“What are you doing?” Paige asked. Had she woken up in The Twilight Zone?
“I’m putting some things away,” her mother said. “I think it’s time.”
Claire moved past Paige into the room, setting the empty boxes down and kneeling next to them. Carefully, she began folding the clothes from the floor.
This woman was not the same person who just last night sat sobbing in almost the exact same place. She looked similar, but this woman was far more reminiscent of the mother Paige had known before Michelle disappeared. A tiny ember of hope lit deep inside her. Even though she knew better. Her mother’s hands trembled as she folded and packed.
“Have you eaten?” Paige asked. A strange sense of uncertainty filled her.
“I can’t eat yet,” her mother said. She looked up at Paige, meeting her gaze. “I’m going to try. Really, I am this time.”
“That’s good.” Paige swallowed and knelt next to her.
They worked together in silence for what seemed like hours. When her mother stood at last, her back made a strange popping sound.
“I’m tired now,” she said. Dark circles smudged beneath her eyes, her face was ghostly white and her hands shook badly.
“Are you okay?” Apprehension twisted in Paige’s stomach. She hated not knowing what to do.
Her mother shook her head “No. I need to lie down for a while.”
After her mother slipped from the room, Paige finished packing the box she was midway through, filling it with outdated fashion magazines. As she stacked the periodicals, a flat, shriveled rose fell from between the pages of one. When she lifted the ancient flower, the petals fluttered to the floor like tissue paper.
He used to send me flowers.
Weren’t those the words Haley had heard in her dream? The same words spoken by Sandra Gallagher’s alleged phantom hitchhiker. Haley had received two bundles of roses in the past two weeks. Michelle had been getting them too, right before she’d disappeared.
Paige crumpled the rose in her fist. The petals and stem turned to dust and sprinkled to the floor when she opened her hand. There were only two flower shops in Hareton, one on Main Street and one in the mall. How many people bought a dozen roses in December? Not to mention, twice in a two-week span. Would the clerks at the flower shops remember? It couldn’t hurt to look into it.
She showered and changed, and then gave Haley a quick call to let her know she had a couple of things to do before she went over to her house. She checked on her mother before leaving. Claire lay in the bed, dressed in her dirty clothes, her breathing deep and even.
Paige didn’t like leaving her. This was the first time her mother had ever said aloud, at least to her, that she wanted to change. Paige pulled the bedroom door closed quietly. Hopefully, her mother would be okay.
Haley hung up the phone and twinge of guilt nagged at her. She and her sister had barely reestablished their relationship and Haley had just lied to her. Still, she couldn’t help but think this morning’s events were ruled by fate.
“Who called?” Dean asked as he joined her in the living room. The sight of him fresh from the shower, his dark hair still damp and his skin smooth from his recent shave, had her insides tightening.
“Telemarketer,” she lied. Again that twinge of guilt.
“A wrong number and telemarketer within an hour. You should get an unlisted number.” He set his laptop bag by the door.
“Are you kidding? That’s the closest thing I have to a social life.”
His eyes met hers, bright and turbulent. “I could stay here with you.”
“We talked about this already. Matthew said the problem was urgent and he needs you right away. Paige will be here shortly. She just has to finish with my mother and Michelle’s room. I’ll be fine on my own in the meantime.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, taking a step toward her. “Instead of you coming to live with me, I could live here with you.”
Her heart leapt at the thought. Yes, she wanted to scream. “Your business.”
“I’m at job sites more than I’m in the office anyway. I’m working from here now.”
“But your house. You never wanted to live in Hareton.”
“I want to be with you. If that means living here or in a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere, then that’s the way it is. I know what I feel for you, the rest is just logistics.”
“Can I think about it?”
He frowned. “Yes. But I’m a little insulted that you need to.”
“When you come back we’ll talk. What you’re suggesting is a big step and you should think about it a little more.” Her heart all but exploded with the idea of him staying, but how could she ask him to give up his home and move back here just for her? What if it didn’t work out?
“I will.” He bent and kissed the tip of her nose. “But I don’t need to. I really don’t like the idea of leaving you alone.”
“I won’t be alone for long. Besides, you’ve put new locks on the doors, and I’ll even carry around that cell phone you bought me.”
His smile left her breathless. “Really?”
“Yes. I know I wasn’t terribly grateful yesterday, but if the offer’s still good, I’d like to keep the phone.”
He yanked her against him and his lips met hers, hot and needy. Her entire body trembled beneath his touch. The urge to forget everything and drag him back upstairs nearly overwhelmed her, but opportunity had come knocking, or in this case calling, and she didn’t know when she’d get a chance like this again.
“You should go,” she told him, moving away. “Paige will be here soon. If we time this right, she’ll be leaving around the same time you get back and we can pick up where we left off.”
“I like the sound of that.” He kissed her again then slipped out the front door.
Haley stood in the window and watched him drive off. Once his car had turned from the street, she picked up the phone and dialed. Her heart thundered in her chest as the ringing at the other end filled her ear.
“Hello.”
“Lara?” Haley asked.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I’m coming now.”
Lara lowered her voice until she spoke barely above a whisper. “Just you. Not Dean, right?”
“That’s right.”
“No one can know.”
Apprehension shivered over her skin, but she squared her shoulders. She could handle Lara. “Fine. I’ll be there in about fifteen. I can only give you about an hour, maybe two.”
“I won’t need that long.”
The phone clicked in her ear before the dial tone sounded. Shaking her head, Haley hung up the phone and pulled on her coat. She figured she had maybe a two-hour window, if that, before Paige and Dean returned. With each believing she was with the other, they might not hurry.
When Lara had called and asked to meet Haley alone not ten minutes after Matthew had phoned asking for Dean’s help with a client, Haley couldn’t believe her luck. Then Paige called less than a half-hour after that and Haley was set.
Guilt nagged at her, but she clamped down on it. If Paige and Dean would act like reasonable people and stop hovering over her as if she was a child, she wouldn’t need to lie to them. No, she wouldn’t feel guilty. Especially, if Lara could bring her closer to the truth.
Tall fir trees marked the edge of the Williams’ property line, blotting out the unsightly highway. Dark green and laden with snow, their tips stretched out into the charcoal-colored sky above. The radio announcer had called for five to ten inches of snow before tomorrow morning. By no means the worst snow storm Haley had seen, but a good dumping just the same. She hoped Dean and Paige made it back before the snow started.
As she turned from the highway onto the long, narrow lane winding through the trees on a gentle downward slope, the first flakes fluttered from the low hanging clouds. They swept over the hood of her car, big and fluffy, like white feathers.
Nerves gripped her as she parked
in the circular drive before wide stone steps. Michelle had hoped to marry Jonathan, hoped to live in this house, but she was dead now and for all Haley knew her killer could be behind the heavy wood door even now.
She got out of the car. The wind, like an icy whip, stung her face and ears, seeping through her clothes, bringing goose bumps to her skin and chilling her bones. She climbed the steps and rang the bell.
A burly woman, Haley guessed to be in her late fifties, wearing a shapeless blue dress and white apron opened the door. She stared at Haley with pale eyes set in a ruddy square face. “What do you want?”
“I’m here to see Lara,” Haley said, a little taken aback by the woman’s abrupt demand.
“Thank you, Bonnie,” Lara said, from behind the housekeeper. “I’ve been expecting Ms. Carling.”
Bonnie glared a final time before slipping away.
“Come in.” Lara moved aside so Haley could do just that.
“Is she the same housekeeper that worked here when Michelle disappeared?” Haley asked, taking in the marble entry, all soft shades of cream and gold. A huge Christmas tree stretched past the curving staircase, lit with tiny gold lights, and buried beneath gold and cream decorations. A perfect match to the foyer, and with all the personality of a department store Christmas tree. Though, she couldn’t be too critical, at least they’d put up a tree, more than she’d done.
Lara nodded.
“I’d like to speak to her before I leave.”
“You won’t need to.”
And why was that? Did Lara plan to confess? Maybe Haley shouldn’t have come alone, after all. Or at the very least, she should have brought a tape recorder or something. If Lara did end up confessing, it would be her word against Haley’s.
“I’m glad you came,” Lara said, tucking a strand of straight, black hair behind her ear.
“Are you?” Lara didn’t look glad. When she wasn’t nervously picking invisible lint from her fitted black turtleneck and dove gray slacks, she was glancing over her shoulder. Lara looked afraid.
“I am. I have some things I need you to know. Come with me.”
Lara led Haley down a wide hallway to a dark paneled study with furniture made up of smooth shiny wood and rich leathers. Jonathan’s more traditional office?
“Sit down.” Lara gestured to a high-backed chair before the desk.
Haley lowered herself slowly and the soft brown leather creaked under her weight. They stared at each other in silence for a moment, while Haley waited for Lara to begin.
“Could I get you a refreshment?” Lara asked.
Haley shook her head. “No, thank you.”
Silence again. A last Haley asked, “Why did you ask me here?”
“I need to confess.” A bitter smile touched Lara’s mouth, making her look hard. From a small silver case on the desk, Lara removed a cigarette. After lighting the tip, she exhaled a thin blue line of smoke. “Jonathan hates me smoking. If he knew I was smoking in here, he’d be furious. My husband is a very meticulous man.”
“I don’t want to rush you,” Haley said a little annoyed. “But I don’t have a lot of time.”
Lara flicked an ash on to the desk blotter. “None of us do. I would have spoken up sooner if I had realized that there was any real danger. I heard about Al. I’m sorry.”
Haley nodded, her heart racing. What did Lara know? What would she confess to? Had she murdered her best friend for the affections of Jonathan Williams? But what did that have to do with Al?
For a moment, Haley thought of her life before Michelle’s body had been discovered, the routine day-to-day that now seemed surreal and faded.
“I suppose you know I made up the story about Dean and Michelle still sleeping together.”
Haley nodded again, and Lara inhaled deeply from the cigarette between her lips. “I wanted them to break up. The whole thing seems so childish now and yet back then it felt like life or death,” Lara smiled bitterly. “I knew they were serious, but I wanted him. I didn’t love him, but it had to be him.”
“Why?” Haley asked. Would there be a point to any of this, or was Lara just looking to justify her adolescent foolishness?
“My father died when I was very young. My mother was ill-equipped to care for a toddler on her own, both financially and emotionally. Over the years, she lived with a series of men. All losers. I don’t know if she had terrible taste in men, or maybe there are just a lot of awful people out there.”
Where was this going? Haley didn’t understand. Did she plan to fall back on the I’ve-had-a-bad-childhood-and-I’m-not-responsible-for-my-actions bit?
“Most of the men hit her or me or both of us. And they used her up, making her old long before she was. I knew I couldn’t end up like that and Jonathan was just what I needed. If I married him, I would have the security and comfort my mother never did. I had nothing against Michelle, but she had opportunities I didn’t. Your parents sent her to university, while I was stuck working at the diner during the week and Roy’s Tavern on weekends. Hareton didn’t offer a great selection of rich men. If not Jonathan, then who? How would I ever meet someone to give me the life I wanted?”
Lara inhaled deeply on her cigarette. The smoke from the glowing tip swirled and drifted in the air like a ghostly hand grasping at nothing. Haley suppressed the shiver running down her spine.
Could Lara be a borderline sociopath? No guilt, no regret. She’d lied and manipulated to get what she wanted and felt completely justified doing so.
“Why not admit what you did? My God, the people in this town practically ran Dean out and you sat there quietly, knowing none of it was true. What if he’d gone to jail?” Haley couldn’t hide the disgust in her voice. Not that she wanted to.
“I was afraid,” Lara said, her voice warbled some. “Because I knew.”
“Knew what?”
Lara stood and moved around to the far side of the desk. She lifted the letter opener and worked it between the edge of the desk and the drawer. When the lock gave way with an audible click, she set the opener aside and slid open the drawer.
She removed a small black velvet box, popped the lid and held it open to Haley. The diamond ring glittered against the velvet inside.
“You see Michelle was pregnant and I think Jonathan had planned to ask her to marry him, but he’d heard by then. The night Michelle disappeared, she’d come here to try and convince Jonathan that only he could be the father, and that was the last anyone saw of her.”
For a moment Haley’s throat shrunk and her mouth dried up. She could barely form words, but she had to ask. “You think Jonathan killed her in a fit of jealousy, and then you kept quiet so you could marry him?”
“I kept quiet because he agreed to marry me. If he hadn’t, I would have told the police and even his paid alibi couldn’t have kept him from falling under suspicion.”
“How did you know she was pregnant? That she came here to talk to Jonathan that night?”
“She was my best friend,” Lara said, grinding her cigarette into the blotter. “She told me everything.”
The words spoken so simply, so honestly, brought forth a fury she could hardly keep in check. “You’re certifiable. I’ve never known anyone like you.”
“We all do what we must to survive.”
“No, we don’t. We don’t lie for killers so we can marry them, we don’t let families suffer just so we can have what we want, and we don’t let innocent men be accused of murder simply because it suits our needs.”
Lara shrugged. “Needless to say, I will not admit to any of this if asked, but you might want to speak Erin.”
“My sister-in law?”
“Yes. She helped spread the rumor, hated Michelle and she was adamant that I not speak up for Dean. I suspect she may have even contacted Jonathan. I’m not sure why one helped the other, but I think she knows more than she’s admitting to. She might turn on Jonathan in an effort to protect herself.”
“You really know what buttons to press
.”
A cold tight smile twisted Lara’s lips. “Especially, when dealing with someone so like myself.”
Haley stood and left the office without another word. A thin sheen a sweat covered her skin, and a sick feeling gripped her. Jonathan? Did she believe Lara? The woman was a survivor, she would tell Haley anything to protect herself. Even implicate her own husband—and Erin.
Still, Lara had to know Haley would ask Erin to confirm her story. Lara wouldn’t have used her sister in-law, and told Haley just how to manipulate her if she didn’t believe Erin would give credence to her tale.
Outside, the snow fell prettily to the ground. A soft blanket of loose snow had accumulated on the hood and windows of her car. She didn’t bother to dig out the snowbrush from the backseat. Instead, she wiped it away with her coat sleeve, eager to get home.
After sliding behind the wheel, she managed to start the car on her third try. She didn’t wait for the motor to warm up. She wanted to get out of here. Hopefully, by the time she reached town, and a traffic light, the engine would have warmed enough to keep from stalling.
She pressed her foot on the accelerator and sped along the winding drive to the road. How long had it taken Michelle to walk this distance all those years ago? Alone in the dark and cold. Or had she? Maybe she’d never left that house alive.
As the highway came into view, Haley slowed, but didn’t stop. She pulled out onto the empty road and turned toward Hareton. Right away, the car at the side of the road caught her eye. A black Maxima, just like Dean’s.
She swung onto the shoulder and stopped behind the parked vehicle. That couldn’t be Dean’s car. Not so soon. She checked her watch. It was almost four. She’d been with Lara much longer than she’d planned.
Okay, maybe the Maxima could be Dean’s, but why would he leave his car at the side of the road? Haley turned off the motor and opened the door. The wind, ferocious off the field to her right, nearly yanked the handle from her grip.