Red Picket Fences

by Daphne McLean

  Suzanne couldn’t help but laugh. She was the kind of person who laughed when people fell. “So, now, the killer is still out there, and was possibly in your home, but why?” she asked.

  “I’m still trying to work that out,” Jennifer replied. “All he or she had the opportunity to do was rifle through my junk mail and smash a wine glass. I’m really not sure what they were looking for. I have an idea, though.”

  “Care to share?” Suzanne asked. “Or are you going to save it for our next walk?”

  “Remember that piece of mail that was delivered to me by mistake the other day? The one addressed to Ethan?”

  “Yes. The one from Fident.”

  “How did you remember that?” Jennifer asked. “I’ve been wracking my brain for hours, and here it’s right on the tip of your tongue.”

  “Just a good memory, I guess!” Suzanne said.

  Jennifer noticed a shift in the pitch of her friend’s voice, and her usually relaxed and confident demeanor changed. She stiffened, and a forced smile appeared on her face.

  “Are you hiding something from me?” Jennifer said with a frown.

  “Don’t be silly.” Suzanne brushed her off. The women were almost back to Jennifer’s house. “Ready for lap 4?” she asked.

  “Um, no,” Jennifer replied.

  William was sound asleep in the stroller. She hoped to transfer him to his crib so she could take a shower and decompress a bit. It was a gamble, a game of chance, but in the game of ‘Does Mommy get a break?’, the prize was always worth the risk.

  “I’m beat. I think I’m going to try to shower and get some rest,” she said.

  “Okay!” Suzanne replied in an overly cheerful way. She really was behaving oddly.

  “Talk later?” Jennifer said in the hope that Suzanne would come clean with whatever she was hiding.

  “You betcha!” Suzanne replied, and pumped her fist in the air.

  “Suzanne? ‘You betcha’? Are we from the Midwest now? Are you binge-watching Fargo without me? What’s going on?” Jennifer asked.

  “Okay, fine,” Suzanne said. “I watched one episode … or three. I’ll wait until you catch up!”

  Jennifer stood there for a moment, trying to decide how she felt about her friend’s behavior. Her head had started to throb, so her thought process was cut short. She’d figure it out after a nice hot shower.

  “No worries. I’m probably not going to get to it anytime soon. Watch away!” Jennifer said as she turned toward her house.

  She stopped and grabbed the mail from the mailbox. She did her usual thumb-through, and as she fumbled through the hodgepodge of bills and junk mail, she dropped a few things. She was bending over slowly to gather up a postcard advertising free carpet cleaning and a coupon mailer when she noticed something shiny in the grass by the mailbox. She leaned in to take a closer look, and as her eyes focused, she saw that it was a cufflink.

  Jennifer’s knees buckled as realization hit her. She had to hold on to William’s stroller to stay standing, and she yelled across the street for Suzanne.

  The funeral, the chase, the intruder knocking into the mailbox as he ran away. The cufflink she was looking at belonged to John Miller, Ethan’s business partner.

  “Honey, what’s wrong? The color has completely drained from your face. What’s that you’re looking at?” Suzanne asked breathlessly.

  “Cufflink,” was all Jennifer could muster.

  “Cufflink? From where?”

  “It’s the intruder’s. He—” Jennifer swallowed hard. Her mouth was dry. A panic attack was setting in. She pressed her hand to her chest. “He smashed against the mailbox as he was running away from me. It must have fallen off. The same way it did before.”

  “The same way what did before? What are you talking about, Jennifer? Don’t pick it up. It’s evidence. We’d better call the chief or Jimmy. Maybe that cufflink will lead us to the killer.”

  Jennifer knew better than to touch it. There was bound to be at least a partial print or some touch DNA on it.

  “I know who it is,” Jennifer said. “When I was running into the church. When I had to, you know … ”

  “Pee,” Suzanne said impatiently. “Yes, I get it. Go on.”

  “I knocked into John, Ethan’s business partner, on my way in. His cufflink went flying. Remember?” Jennifer asked.

  All of a sudden, it hit Suzanne as well. She had helped John look for the cufflink in the parking lot. Her jaw dropped, and she turned a whiter shade than Jennifer.

  “Well, this is awkward,” Suzanne said. “I’m going on a date with him tomorrow.”

  Suzanne paced her living room floor. She kept trying to speak, but she was so overcome with anger that she would stop before words could come out of her mouth, and then she kept pacing.

  Jennifer was sitting on Suzanne’s white couch. She stared at it in wonder. How does it stay so white?

  They had successfully moved a very sleepy William to an old Pack ‘n Play Suzanne still had and had put him in the office off of the living room. Suzanne was drinking Scotch, and Jennifer was drinking herbal tea, even though she wanted some Scotch … badly.

  “Are you okay?” Jennifer asked sheepishly. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a date?”

  She had never seen Suzanne this angry before, not even when the twins had stolen the minivan and taken it for a joyride up to Lacy’s Deli two miles away. They had been stupid enough to try to buy cigarettes and wine coolers. Lacy, of course, knew them and Suzanne. She also knew that not only did they not have their driver’s licenses, they weren’t old enough to buy cigarettes, much less wine coolers. That was nothing compared to the rage Jennifer was seeing today.

  “Is that what you’re concerned about? The fact that I didn’t tell you I had a date? It’s not like you’ve been very forthcoming or available lately,” Suzanne replied.

  Ouch. That stung. But Jennifer shook it off.

  “Although that was a bit harsh,” she began, “I was trying to spare your feelings.” She tried to keep her tone as even as possible, trying to keep the discussion from becoming an argument. “I’m not looking for a fight. I’m just trying to process everything. Just when I think I’ve gotten caught up, some new mind-blowing information is thrown at me. I’m not concerned that you didn’t tell me you had a date. I’m concerned that you made a date with a murderer. Sarah’s murderer. What do we do?”

  “I don’t flipping know!” Suzanne shouted. “You know, I finally dip my toes back into the dating scene, and the first person I attract is a murderer. First, my lousy cheating husband, and now a killer. I have impeccable taste in men! Impeccable, I tell you.” Suzanne picked up a cigarette and tried to light it but paused when she looked back at the room William was sleeping in. “I wonder if he knows Sarah was my cousin, and he’s feeling all-powerful knowing he hooked me. The flirty talk, the good-morning texts, the—”

  Suzanne stopped short. “That snake!!!” She started to tear up. “Jennifer, I told him about the letter. I had no idea. I mean, things really started to heat up after that. Whatever that letter was, it was tied to their business. He wanted me to get it from you that day, and I told him I would get around to it. I didn’t see the rush. I guess he became impatient, because he broke in that night. He’s still been asking me about it, though. Covering his tracks.” Suzanne slumped down on the couch.

  “Did he tell you how it was related to their business? Maybe it was from a client?” Jennifer asked hopefully, although she knew full well that if the explanation was as innocent as that, he wouldn’t have broken into her home. “Suzanne? Did he know about Staten Island?”

  Suzanne started shaking. She rested her head in her hands. “I didn’t know what you were doing there. During your drunken escapade, you let it slip that that was where you went. I mean, I was curious why you were there with Jimmy, but I figured I’d talk
to you about it after your hangover went away. I mentioned it to John because it was a funny story that I thought I was sharing with someone who was truly interested in me. I would never intentionally put you, Peter, or that sweet little boy at risk. You know that, right?”

  Suzanne continued to sob.

  Jennifer knew her friend wouldn’t ever intentionally harm her or her family. She trusted Suzanne and couldn’t imagine the guilt she was feeling.

  Joey Mazzetti might have met his match in the smooth operator department. John was good.

  “Listen, how were you supposed to know?” Jennifer said as she hugged her friend. “We’re okay. We’re safe. John managed to get away with the piece of mail he needed. Now, we just let the chief deal with him.” It hit Jennifer then that she needed to call Jimmy and the chief.

  “What can they do?” Suzanne asked. “First, they need to process the cufflink, then somehow it needs to concretely tie to John. How long is that going to take? In the meantime, what am I supposed to do? I have a date with the man. Don’t you think it’ll be a bit suspicious if I cancel? He’ll run, or come back to finish us off.”

  Jennifer didn’t want to admit it, but Suzanne was right. They needed more evidence to link John to the murder before she could bring this to the chief or Jimmy.

  “Do you know what that piece of mail was for?” she asked.

  “No. He just said it was an important document for their business, and it was time-sensitive.”

  Jennifer picked up her smartphone and typed the word F-i-d-e-n-t into its search bar. She read through the results for a minute, leaving Suzanne in limbo.

  “Well?” Suzanne asked after she took her last swig of Scotch. “What did you find out?”

  “We’ve identified a motive,” Jennifer said confidently. “Fident is a business insurance company. John must have taken out a policy for Deliver-ese. Guess who the beneficiary might be?”

  “John, of course,” Suzanne said flatly.

  “He must have wanted to get to the mail before anyone else did so they wouldn’t put two and two together. We need to get it back, or at least get a photo of it in John’s possession. It’ll prove that he was the one who broke in.”

  “I have a plan,” Suzanne said. “It might involve you chasing after the bad guy one last time. You up for it?”

  Jennifer looked down at her phone. The screen saver was a family picture where she was laughing and holding William. He had a wide, open-mouthed smile and was reaching out excitedly for the camera while Peter looked on adoringly.

  She knew she was in John’s crosshairs and needed to stop him before he came back to finish the job. She needed to betray her promise to Chief Fitzgerald in order to protect her family.

  “I’m in,” she said. “What’s the plan?”

  Chapter 20

  Suzanne slipped on her navy wrap dress and nude heels. She affixed a small brooch to the middle to keep the top part of her dress closed. Jennifer had told her that she should still try to look good, but not too inviting.

  She turned to face Jennifer, who was sitting on her bed, staring off into space. She grabbed her pearl earrings and necklace and sat down on the bed next to her friend.

  “Do you mind helping me with these?” she asked, holding out the pearl necklace. “I haven’t worn this for ages. It was a gift from my ex, Karl. An anniversary present. This was much more extravagant than my gift to him; a ladder. He actually made me feel special, for once. Turns out it was purchased with an ulterior motive in mind.”

  “What was it?” Jennifer asked flatly.

  She was in a stupor. She felt nervous, excited and terrified all at once. She kept focusing on her breathing so she wouldn’t go completely off the rails.

  “It wasn’t actually for me,” Suzanne said. “I stumbled on it in his underwear drawer. I thought it was his cheeky little way of surprising me and rewarding me somehow for putting away his laundry for nearly 20 years. Turns out it was for his current wife — no, wait.”

  Suzanne paused to think. “It was for the in-between wife. That didn’t last long. His current wife was his divorce lawyer’s secretary. Anyway, the wife in between her and me was an exotic dancer. She didn’t like pearls. Thought they aged her. Karl was planning on taking the necklace back, but I found it. He felt guilty that he hadn’t remembered our anniversary. I mean, what was he going to do in that moment, anyway? I was wearing it and smiling from ear to ear.”

  Suzanne was rambling. She rambled when she was nervous. She was also sharing details about her past, which was something she rarely did with anyone. Jennifer felt guilty for not being as engaged as she wanted to be. She couldn’t quite get over what they were setting out to do.

  The plan was simple. Suzanne would drive to John’s house to meet him for the date. They would have a drink and leave for the restaurant. As they walked to the car, Suzanne would ask to be let back in to use the bathroom. John would hopefully let her back in, and Suzanne would request that he go back to warm up the car. She would then go to find a back door or window and unlock it, and text Jennifer the location she had left open and any other details she had observed about the house. Suzanne and John would leave. Jennifer would sneak in and take pictures of the other cufflink, the letter, and the house, and get out. They would bring everything to the chief and Jimmy after the date.

  Jennifer didn’t like the fact that Suzanne was going to be alone with John in the car, so they had decided to get a decoy phone that Suzanne would pretend was hers in case he got any ideas. All the while, she would be sharing her exact location on her real phone, which she would have hidden in her brassiere. Peter would be home with William, monitoring both phone locations, and if either one of them went astray, he would contact Jimmy and the chief immediately.

  Hopefully, the letter and the other cufflink will be easy to find, Jennifer thought.

  After she had gone over the plan for the millionth time in her head, she was able to snap back to it and process what her friend had just told her.

  “How did you find all of this out? How do you know the pearls weren’t for you?” she asked as she fastened the clasp.

  Suzanne turned around with tears in her eyes. “I found out a few weeks later from her, the dancer. He dumped her for being too demanding, and she was getting revenge. Little did she know, she was destroying a family. I guess it worked out for her in the short term, because he went crawling right back after I gave him the boot,” she said.

  Jennifer smoothed a strand of her friend’s hair and grabbed her hand. “I’m sorry. You must have been devastated to find out he was cheating,” she said sympathetically.

  “Oh, don’t be silly, Jen. I knew he wasn’t being faithful. We just didn’t talk about it. I handled it better that way. I’m really good at pretending everything is fine when it’s not,” Suzanne said as she dabbed her eyes.

  “Why, Suzanne? You’re beautiful, talented, and the most giving person I know. He didn’t deserve you.”

  Suzanne let out a sigh. “I didn’t want to rock the boat. We had two kids who were just starting high school who thought they had a happy family. I only had 4 more years. Then I was going to leave. Once she put it out in the open, I just couldn’t pretend anymore.”

  “Why did you keep the pearls?”

  “Simply put, I like pearls!” Suzanne said with her usual flair.

  She was game-facing, and it was time for Jennifer to do the same. She could hardly believe it when Peter had agreed to the plan. He hadn’t even protested, although Jennifer had kind of hoped he would. It was funny: she’d spent years of their marriage begging him to let her be independent and to trust her instincts. He finally did, the one time she wanted him to step in.

  The fact was, Jennifer was scared. However, even Peter had agreed, this plan would be the quickest way to bring John to justice. If Jennifer had learned anything by immersing herself into true crime
, it was that law enforcement needed to operate within a certain set of parameters in order to have a strong enough case to file charges. That was why she wasn’t taking the evidence with her, but taking pictures as proof. The chief could get a warrant and gather everything the right way, but it would be faster because he would know what to look for.

  “Ready, friend?” Suzanne asked as she grabbed her bag and took one last look in the mirror.

  Jennifer inhaled sharply and then exhaled. “Not even a little, but let’s go!”

  Chapter 21

  Jennifer followed Suzanne over to John’s house in a rented car and parked a few houses away. John had also been transferred by Centech, and lived in the next town over, a place called Peabody. Peabody was an upper-middle-class town, and John lived on a street littered with eight-hundred-thousand-dollar McMansions, each one more ostentatious and gaudier than the last. Hummers, expensive pickup trucks, and fully loaded SUVs with flashy rims and chrome everything were parked in nearly every driveway. Housewives with big hair and neon nails, wearing animal print and dripping in diamonds, were walking their teacup pooches around as they checked out Jennifer’s car.

  Being in this neighborhood made Jennifer appreciate Pembury Acres and the quiet little tight-knit community she lived in. Instead of one-upping each other, they helped each other. Instead of walking dogs and gossiping, they had potlucks and gossiped.

  Jennifer laughed. There was always gossip. She had just found that the gossip in her neighborhood was more innocent and funnier, until now. That was why she was here: not only to keep herself safe, but to keep them all safe, and to bring peace to Sarah’s family and her children.

  Jennifer hadn’t realized how much she loved her little community, her little house, her little failing garden, and her chicken coop until that moment. Getting lost in thought was just what she needed to pass the time. Suzanne had been in John’s house for 15 minutes, and Jennifer had gotten three messages so far: