The Perfect Wife

by Blake Pierce

  The longer she sat in the car, the more excited she got. It was like the depression of the last few days had never existed. She thought back to the series of locked doors requiring buzzing in, to her interactions with guards, to all the tight lips and furrowed brows, and felt a thrill of adrenaline course through her body.

  And then there was Crutchfield. True, her interview had ended badly, scarily even. But she’d been face to face with a serial killer and come out the other side. Part of it was thrilling. And productive. She’d gotten part of an answer to a question that had been eating at her for a long time.

  Admittedly, it had required opening up to man who had killed almost twenty people; a man who somehow knew her first name and seemingly much more than that about her.

  But that seemed like a small price to pay.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Eight weeks later, Jessie still hadn’t been back to NRD.

  Her confidence that being allowed to visit once would allow subsequent trips seemed to have been misplaced. As summer bled into fall and the weather turned crisp, she wondered if maybe she was genuinely being punished for violating protocol; or if whoever had let her in that room had changed their mind.

  Whatever the reason, she’d had to go to other, sometimes far-flung state hospitals for her weekly practicum assignments. Most of her visits had been to Patton, a hospital in San Bernardino that housed mostly sexually violent patients. It was almost ninety minutes away. Every time she made the trip, she cursed herself for pushing so hard in Norwalk.

  Still, the work was interesting and kept her busy, preventing her from obsessing over her increasingly insular life in Westport Beach. She and Kyle had settled into something resembling normalcy.

  His work at the office was nonstop. According to Kyle, he was so busy that the firm having a location down here wasn’t just opportunistic but essential. In addition to his bonuses and commissions, he was told he’d be given a second raise on top of the original one he got when they moved. But oddly, he was hazy about when that would kick in and how much it would be. Jessie didn’t love that their financial state of affairs, which was always a shared responsibility in the past, was becoming increasingly one-sided. She felt a bit in the dark about where exactly they stood.

  But she didn’t push the issue for now. That was partly because she didn’t want to encroach on the one area where Kyle truly felt like a master of the universe—his work. But it was also because she still felt guilty about the blowup with Kimberly, who hadn’t spoken to her in two months.

  As a result, Jessie had made an uneasy peace with her husband about the time he spent at Club Deseo. He seemed to have endless golf outings and Oath Minders get-togethers. And while she wouldn’t describe him as distant, she couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t always seem totally…present.

  For her part, despite not yet being a formal club member, Jessie went to the obligatory functions of the Hearthkeepers. And as long as she hung close to Melanie, who could always be counted on for an acerbic crack or two, she muddled through. There was still something unsettling about the club she couldn’t quite nail down, a kind of groupthink when it came to propriety and social norms that she found off-putting.

  But by mid-October, she gave up trying to name it and accepted that this just might be how things were done in a ritzy, beach-centric enclave. It was weird and a little stifling. But not so much that she couldn’t lead her life.

  It helped that Kyle, despite his constant absenteeism, did seem committed to their other major endeavor of the fall, making a baby. And on the Monday morning before Halloween weekend, after throwing up twice while getting ready for class, she took a test that proved it: she was pregnant.

  She waited until she was in the car on the way to UC-Irvine to call him with the good news so she’d have uninterrupted time to talk.

  “Guess what?” she asked when he picked up.

  “What’s that?” he asked, sounding mildly distracted. She’d have been annoyed if she didn’t know that was about to change.

  “You know that extra room, the one we left empty because we wanted to save it for any new potential housemates?”

  “I do,” he said, sounding more focused now.

  “We’re going to have to start buying some furniture—very small furniture.”

  “Are you serious?” he shouted, nearly blowing out her eardrum. “You’re not messing around, are you?”

  “Kyle Voss,” she replied mock scoldingly, “do you think I would mess around about something like this? I am completely serious. We’re going to have a baby!”

  “Oh, Jess, that is so awesome! I can’t tell you how excited I am. This is…life altering.”

  “You better believe it, mister,” she agreed. “Our whole world is about to get turned upside down in the best way.”

  “Do you know how far along you are?”

  “No, I just did the test this morning after throwing up a few times. I’ll call my OB-GYN today to set up an appointment. But for now, we should celebrate. Maybe a fancy dinner, if I can keep it down? Want to go somewhere new?”

  “Actually, this timing is perfect,” he said. “I heard a rumor that the next time we go to the club, they’re giving us our official membership invitation—no more provisional status. We should go tonight so they can do it and make it a double celebration. I’ll call ahead so they can prep everything and I’ll say we want to sit in the formal dining room.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” she said, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Kyle, we already visit that place two or three times a week. I don’t consider going there a special celebration.”

  “But like I said, they’ll pull out all the stops for us,” he insisted. “And it will work out perfectly with the official invitation to join. It’s karma!”

  “That’s not what karma means,” she said, trying to contain the anger she felt rising inside of her. “And you’re missing the point. I don’t want to share it with anyone else. I don’t care about the club tonight. I want this to be something special. Let this night just be about us.”

  He was quiet for a few seconds, which made her think he was chastened. She was mistaken.

  “Jessica, we’ll have all the time we need just for us. But I want to share our news with the people who care about us. They’ll be excited for us. And the synergy with the invitation is just too perfect. Besides, it’s much more convenient. Let’s go there tonight and we can do something just for us this weekend, when it’s not so hectic.”

  “Is this how it’s going to be?” she asked, her heart sinking. “Everything’s about convenience because things are so hectic? Are you even going to make it for my first doctor’s appointment? Or do I have to schedule that at the club too?”

  “I’ll make it if I can,” he said calmly, seemingly undeterred by her sarcasm. “But to be honest, if you continue to see the doctor in the city, it will be hard, especially in the middle of the work day.”

  “You’re telling me you might miss the first medical appointment of my pregnancy because of work stuff?” she asked, incredulous.

  “I’m just trying to be honest,” he said. “It’s really far. Maybe you could get a new doctor, somewhere closer. After all, you’ll probably have the baby around here anyway, right? I can ask around at the club tonight. I’m sure we’ll get lots of suggestions for good docs.”

  “I’ve got to go. I’m at school now,” Jessie said, even though she still had fifteen minutes left to get there. “We can talk later.”

  She hung up without waiting for a reply, too upset to react. Instead, she kept her eyes on the road, focusing intently on every turn and lane change, refusing to think about anything other than the details of her route. Occasionally, she wiped a tear from her cheek.

  *

  She’d tried to call her college friend Lacey after class to decompress. Lacey knew Kyle from back in his hardscrabble undergrad days and might have some word
s of wisdom. But as she always seemed to these days, she got voicemail. So, needing someone to vent to and not up for a full therapy session with Dr. Lemmon, she took a chance and called Melanie Carlisle.

  To her surprise, Mel offered to meet for coffee right away. A half hour later they were strolling through one of Westport’s many shopping districts, beverages in hand.

  Jessie was having second thoughts about reaching out because the second she’d mentioned the pregnancy, Mel began happily pummeling her with questions and suggestions about baby prep. It was more than she was up to at the moment so she steered to another topic.

  “Do you know how this is going to go down tonight at the club, with this invitation?” she asked, not realizing until that moment that she’d acceded to Kyle’s dinner preference.

  “It’s always different,” Mel said. “Sometimes it’s a big blowout. Sometimes it’s low-key. I gather you’re hoping for the latter?”

  “Kind of,” Jessie admitted. “I’m not really a big blowout kind of gal. So what happens after?”

  “After what?” Mel asked.

  “After we’re officially in. When do I get a peek behind the curtain to see what the menfolk do at those Oath Minders gatherings? Kyle won’t tell me anything about them and there are so many of them.”

  “To be honest, Jessie, I have no idea what they do there.”

  “How is that possible?” Jessie asked, stunned. “You’ve been members for years, right?”

  “Three years,” Mel told her. “Within days of moving here, Teddy seemed to know about the club and he just started fixating on getting in. I figured that once we settled in here, he’d be less secretive. But nope, he acts like it’s a fraternity and he’d get blackballed if he revealed any of their precious secrets.”

  “No offense, but I didn’t get the sense that you’d put up with such nonsense.”

  “Neither did I. Before we came here, I ruled the roost, made all the big family decisions, handled all the finances. But somehow, in recent years, the dynamic has shifted. I’m not even totally sure how. But he’s much more hands on, much more…insistent that things be done his way. It just kind of happened.”

  “It sounds like you’re not fully on board with the change,” Jessie noted.

  Mel looked at her and seemed about to say something before changing her mind at the last second. She glanced at her watch.

  “I just remembered I have a thing,” she said unconvincingly. “Mind if we cut this short?”

  “No problem,” Jessie replied even though she finally felt like she was getting closer to the bottom of what so unsettled her about this community.

  After they parted ways, Jessie drove home. She kept thinking about how Mel, clearly a strong and capable woman, had somehow ceded so much of her authority and autonomy to her husband.

  Maybe Teddy was a great guy behind closed doors. But everything Jessie had seen of him suggested he was a self-involved, feckless dullard. She didn’t get why Mel was even with him and she certainly didn’t love the influence he seemed to be having on Kyle. Every day, her husband seemed slightly less like the charming and thoughtful guy she’d fallen in love with.

  Once home, despite feeling guilty about it, she found herself rifling through her husband’s stuff, looking for something tangible to explain why he, like Teddy, had been drawn to Club Deseo like a moth to a flame the moment they’d arrived in town.

  After fifteen minutes of frenzied searching, she gave up. She hadn’t found anything suspicious or even mildly clarifying, other than a healthy portion of guilt, which nestled heavily in her gut.

  Her cell phone rang. It was her doctor’s office calling to set up an appointment. She scheduled one for a day she didn’t have class. They asked if she wanted to make it early morning or late afternoon so her husband could come as well.

  “Any time will do,” she said, realizing that whenever it was, Kyle wouldn’t be coming. She managed to wait until she’d hung up to start crying. Only this time, it wasn’t just a few tears like in the car on the way to school that morning. This time she found herself sobbing. And she couldn’t stop.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Jessie felt nauseated. And tired. And out of sorts.

  But she tried to ignore all that and make the best of the night. She told herself that Kyle wasn’t being intentionally insensitive to her wishes. He was just so caught up in his own that he was oblivious to hers.

  That’s why she smiled her way through dinner at the club. They were seated in the formal dining room, as Kyle had requested. But it didn’t make any difference. People came up to them all evening. Some offered congratulations on the impending club invitation, which was apparently an open secret. Others gave well wishes on the pregnancy, which was somehow also public information.

  She would have preferred to keep that quiet until after her first appointment. But apparently Kyle was too excited to hold it in. Or to let her know that he’d spilled the beans. She told herself not to get upset with him, that his enthusiasm had just gotten the better of him.

  Almost everyone was nice. Even Marguerite Brennan, her Hearthkeepers interrogator, was convincingly gracious. Their neighbor, Morgan Miner, stopped by as well. He seemed unaware of the accusation Jessie had made regarding him. But Kimberly, as usual, kept her distance.

  The actual presentation of the invitation was underwhelming. The club president made brief comments, handed Kyle an embossed envelope, and everyone clapped. That was pretty much it.

  When Kyle wandered to another table to talk to a golf buddy, Jessie snuck a glance at the invitation. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to be secretive. It was just as much hers as it was his. And yet, she still tried to be quick about it.

  The formal invitation itself was pleasantly bland. Jessie was more interested in the accompanying receipt. Apparently the going rate for membership in Club Deseo these days was $100,000 a year.

  How can we afford this?

  Almost immediately that question was replaced in her head by another one:

  What the hell are we getting for a hundred grand a year? That’s a lot of money for rubber chicken dinners, tea parties, and golf.

  Her curiosity was suddenly replaced by a sudden, strong urge to go to the bathroom, so she got up and excused herself. Even though she knew it might make things worse, she took a glass of water with her, as her mouth had gotten suddenly, unaccountably dry.

  Is this what pregnancy is going to be—endless, unpredictable body shifts that occur without any warning?

  She made her way to the ladies’ room but immediately saw the line was way too long. She’d never make it. She tapped a passing server on the shoulder.

  “Is there another restroom I can use? I’m pregnant and have to go bad.”

  The young woman seemed to waver for a moment before speaking.

  “We’re not supposed to do this,” she said. “But there’s a staff bathroom down at the end of the hall. When you see the swinging door, make a left.”

  “Thank you,” Jessie said, deciding that maybe this pregnancy thing might have some unexpected perks.

  She walked down the hall, which grew increasingly dark with each step. By the time she reached the swinging door, there was so little light that she had to squint to see. She was about push the door open when she saw a little dogleg in the hallway that headed left. It was easy to miss in the near-darkness. She was confused. Was she supposed to take that or go left after passing through the swinging door?

  She continued down the hallway just to check. After rounding the corner, she determined that this wasn’t the right route. The hallway extended for at least thirty yards and got so narrow that, at the end, only walking single file was possible. Clearly, that wasn’t the way to the restroom or the server would have mentioned it.

  But Jessie was intrigued. So, despite her unhappy bladder, she went in that direction. She moved quickly, intending only to see what was at the end of the hall. By the time she reached it, the walls were so tight that she
felt an unexpected claustrophobia.

  She rounded the corner and almost tripped over a flight of stairs leading to a second floor she hadn’t known was there. At the bottom and top of the stairs were twin, red-hued, old-timey lanterns attached to the wall. They were the only source of light. Jessie was just putting her foot on the first step when she heard voices from above. One of them sounded familiar though the words were unintelligible.

  For reasons she couldn’t explain, she darted back around the corner, out of sight. Only then did she poke her head out slightly to see who was talking. She saw two people. The first was a gorgeous young woman in a tight black minidress and four-inch heels. Tall and tan, with thick black hair that cascaded over her shoulders, she looked vaguely familiar. It took a second for Jessie to identify her as one of the club’s many hostesses.

  The girl was adjusting her dress, which was a little disheveled. The bottom was riding up near her hips, revealing that she wasn’t wearing underwear. After she managed to pull it down, she leaned back and groped the crotch of the man in the shadowy stairwell above her.

  As she carefully stepped down, navigating the tricky steps, he followed her. When his face finally came into view, framed by the red lantern light, Jessie realized why the voice sounded familiar. It was Teddy Carlisle.

  He zipped up his pants and tucked his shirt into them as he walked down the stairs. When he glanced up, Jessie dashed back out of sight. They were moving down the steps slowly but would reach the bottom soon.

  Jessie turned and scurried down the narrow hallway, desperately trying to reach the dogleg bend at the end before they rounded the corner and saw her. She was just about to make the turn when she heard the girl’s voice in the distance behind her, giggling as she said something about getting in her evening workout.