Heart of the Storm

by Nicole Stiling

  Juliet perked up. She’d found nothing to imply that Richard had been unfaithful to Gretchen or had reciprocated Tara’s feelings. “I’m listening.”

  Tara took an item out of her tote bag and placed it on Juliet’s desk. It was a greeting card of some sort.

  “Here’s the first thing. It’s a Valentine’s Day card.”

  Juliet took the card and opened it. The front cover showed a woman’s hand, writing a note, with a cup of coffee and a laptop in the background.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day, Co-worker. Thank you for letting me steal your best pens. And then he signed it ‘Rich.’” Juliet shrugged. “I don’t see where this indicates any kind of inappropriate feelings.”

  Tara scoffed. “Really? Who gives their co-worker a Valentine’s Day card? And that’s just the beginning.”

  Juliet sat back again while Tara went for the next item. Her smugness filled the room.

  “Look at this. He left this on my desk a few months ago for absolutely no reason at all.”

  She plunked down a mason jar with a yellow ribbon tied around the cover. There was a packet of peanut M&Ms inside, and a pre-printed note attached to the ribbon. It read, “A little something to brighten your day.” with a bright yellow sun underneath the words.

  Juliet looked at the jar but didn’t comment on it. She assumed there would be some romantic love letter or diamond ring coming out of that bag, because so far, the items amounted to nothing.

  Tara seemed to sense Juliet’s disinterest, because she immediately went back into her bag. She pulled out a bobblehead made in her likeness. It was holding a cell phone in one hand and a laptop in the other. She put it down forcefully on Juliet’s desk so that the little head rattled back and forth.

  “What do you make of this?” Tara asked. Her demeanor appeared to soften as she followed the sway of the bobblehead with her eyes.

  Juliet watched her closely to see if Tara was playing some kind of game. “Not much. Why do you think this signifies that he reciprocated your feelings? It’s a business gift. Was his gift-giving making you uncomfortable?”

  The anger returned. “Of course not! But you don’t think it’s strange to have a bobblehead of your co-worker on your desk?”

  Maybe. “So, he kept your bobblehead on his desk? Was yours the only one?”

  Tara bristled. “No. He kept it next to his.” She pulled out the Richard bobblehead, complete with a book in one hand and the other giving a thumbs-up. The inscription on Tara’s said, “Reading is…” and Richard’s showed “Fun-damental!”

  Juliet sighed softly. “Tara,” she said, deciding on a different approach. “There is nothing here that would make me think differently about the relationship you shared with Richard. He obviously appreciated you as his co-worker. We’ve been through all of his things, both in his office and at home. We went through his car. His phone. There wasn’t anything that gave us the assumption he was interested in another woman.”

  Tara’s eyes filled up, which Juliet hadn’t been expecting. “I know you think I’m crazy, but sometimes you just feel things. You just know. I could tell by the gentle way that he spoke to me, and the softness in his touch. He was trying to figure out a way to tell Gretchen. And then my entire world just exploded into a million pieces.”

  Juliet handed her a tissue. “I need you to be honest with me, Tara. Did Richard ever tell you he was planning on leaving Gretchen? Did he touch you in ways that a co-worker wouldn’t?”

  “He didn’t need to. What don’t you get about that? What do you want from me, anyway? To admit that I killed him? That I killed the one person in this world that made me feel like I was the most beautiful creature on earth? Fine, I killed him. Are you happy?” Tara shouted, rubbing her forehead with her thumb and index finger.

  “Tara,” Juliet said, her pulse quickening. She didn’t intend to come off as stern as she did, but she needed Tara to understand the gravity of the situation. “You just confessed to murder. Is that what you came here to do?”

  “No. I don’t know. Maybe I did do it. Everything about that night is a blur. I know I didn’t mean to do it. I wanted him to have a drink that night, to loosen up, so I could decide if it was the right time to tell him I knew how he felt and that I felt the same. I suggested that we share a little whiskey.”

  Unprofessional, definitely, on both their parts, but not indicative of anything more sinister. “Did you drink with him?”

  “I pretended to, or at least I thought I did. I took a small sip, I think, so maybe I blacked out. I didn’t even think Rich drank that much. I decided it wasn’t the right time. But can you imagine if I’d stayed? He’d probably be alive right now.” Tara dabbed furiously at her eyes and crumpled the tissue into a ball. “Does his wife know? About us, I mean.”

  Juliet’s head was spinning. There was nothing concrete in what Tara was telling her. Tara was clearly delusional based on her belief that they were carrying on a hot and heavy affair when absolutely nothing pointed to that notion as a reality. And taking a drink from a poisoned bottle didn’t equate to her putting the poison in the bottle.

  “Listen, Tara, I think at this point it would be best if you spoke with a friend of mine from the county police force. Her name is Dr. Marron, and she should be able to help you remember some more details about that night. Is that okay with you?” Juliet asked, as she waved Celeste in through the glass partition. Sending Tara to the police psychologist for a clinical interview seemed like the best course of action.

  “You don’t need to speak to me like I’m insane, Lieutenant. You’re being condescending and I don’t appreciate it. Don’t minimize what we had. Just because he couldn’t be open about it doesn’t mean it wasn’t real,” Tara said. She turned when Celeste walked in.

  “Officer Jeffries, would you or Officer Leland take Ms. Wolfe to talk with Dr. Marron? Clinical interview. I think it would be helpful to piece together some of the missing information from the investigation,” Juliet said, giving Celeste a subtle nod.

  Celeste knew what to say. “Of course. I’m sure the others involved with Mr. Kowalski have already had their interviews with Dr. Marron. And if not, they’ll be happening shortly.”

  “So, everyone talks to this doctor? Not just me because you think I’m a psycho?” Tara clutched the Valentine’s Day card to her chest.

  “Nobody said you were a psychopath, Tara. We just want to be sure we’re exploring every possibility. And since you said there are parts of that night you don’t remember, it would be helpful for us, and for you, to have some answers,” Juliet said.

  Celeste took her to the lobby to sit with Officer Leland and went back into Juliet’s office. “What’s up?”

  Juliet shook her head. “I don’t know, honestly. She said she might have killed him accidentally because she encouraged him to have some whiskey, but she didn’t say anything about putting the meds in the bottle. She’s completely convinced they were having an illicit affair, even though it appears that Kowalski had no idea he was a part of it. He may have noticed her flirting, but he didn’t seem to play into it, based on what I’ve seen. I swear to God, anybody looking at this from outside in must think I have Bumbling Cop Syndrome.”

  “What the hell is that?” Celeste asked.

  “You know, on every cop show ever, where the lead investigator misses evidence or overlooks obvious clues or chases cold leads into oblivion where the cop ends up getting shot in the leg and some super sleuth swings in and solves the case in fifteen minutes. That syndrome,” Juliet said. She pointed to the bobblehead dolls still sitting on the edge of her desk. “Get rid of those, would you? I’m sure Tara wants them back. Those things are creepy as hell.”

  “You think she did it? Setting up the blackout as a temporary insanity defense?” Celeste asked, poking at one of the dolls with her pinky.

  “I have no idea. Unless she fabricated a breakup in her head and didn’t tell me about it, the ‘relationship’ was still going fine, according to her. Maybe
Dr. Marron can shed some light on it. Maybe this whole thing is a long con, but I still can’t fathom what she’d get out of it.”

  “Are we going to Goodman’s this afternoon?” Celeste asked.

  “Deagle said his shop is closed today. He’s been low-key watching the place for me. Nothing too exciting yet. He’s not there a whole lot for someone who’s self-employed,” Juliet said. “Deagle went by his apartment earlier, but he wasn’t there, either.”

  “Wow. It seems like we have a lot more weirdos in this town than we thought. Makes Sam the Supermarket Screamer look like a civil engineer.” Celeste looked down at Juliet’s cell phone, which was buzzing with text messages. “At least you can sleep in your own bed tonight. You don’t have to sleep twenty feet away from Sienna and pine for her all night long.”

  Juliet opened her mouth to tell Celeste that her pining for Sienna was about to get a whole lot worse but decided against it. It would devolve into an entire conversation Juliet didn’t have the strength to participate in. She just smiled and nodded and pretended like everything around her wasn’t on fire.

  * * *

  Though it hadn’t been very long, Juliet looked around her house as though she hadn’t been there in months. Everything looked the same, but it felt different. Declan wasn’t home, and not just because she was busy, but because he was angry with her. She couldn’t imagine how he would have reacted if he’d known the full truth instead of just basing it on his instincts. What he’d seen had told him plenty. The fact that Sienna had texted her not long before telling her that she’d be over around nine had only heightened Juliet’s anxiety. It will be fine. They had two options. They could either cut each other out of their lives completely or learn to be friends. The third option, Juliet’s preference, wasn’t really an option at all. One big happy family.

  She found the invoice for the new roof in her mailbox. They’d given Will a hell of a deal and she reminded herself to thank him again the next time she saw him. She tried to push away the guilt gnawing at her stomach, at least for the time being. She was thrilled with the quality of the work and the amount of time it had taken to complete it. She was grateful for how lucky she’d been.

  Without knowing if Sienna had eaten or not, Juliet decided it was better to be on the safe side. She grimaced at the state of her refrigerator. Thankfully, she found a frozen lasagna that hadn’t passed the expiration date yet, so she threw that in the oven along with a few frost-bitten dinner rolls.

  Juliet’s heart dipped as she heard an engine cut off in her driveway. Moments later, she heard the clicking of shoes on her front porch. What seemed like a long time after, a slight knock on the door. It startled her even though she’d been expecting it. Juliet took a deep breath and opened the door.

  On the other side, Sienna stood on her front stoop, laptop bag in one hand and a backpack slung over her shoulder. Juliet smiled at her nervously and decided that Sienna looked nervous too. It would be the first time they’d been alone together without the fear of getting caught or having to explain themselves to anyone.

  “Hi,” Sienna said quietly, wiping her feet on the doormat.

  “Hi,” Juliet echoed, opening the door wider. “Come in.”

  Sienna stood awkwardly in the living room, still holding her bags. Juliet smiled again but felt droplets of sweat bead on her forehead. She probably should have second-guessed the light sweater she’d been wearing. Fall hadn’t completely set in just yet.

  “Wine?” She headed toward the kitchen to get herself a gallon of it.

  “Definitely, thank you. Where should I drop these?” Sienna asked.

  “Oh, you can drop them in Dec’s room. Fresh sheets on the bed and I stuffed all of his crap that was on the floor into a box in his closet. So, it actually looks clean in there for once,” Juliet said. She poured them each a full glass of wine.

  “Something smells delicious.” Sienna sat on the far end of Juliet’s couch and took the glass of wine eagerly.

  “Don’t get too excited. It’s a frozen lasagna. I haven’t been shopping in a while, sorry.”

  “I am totally on board with frozen lasagna. I think just about anything would hit the spot tonight,” Sienna said.

  Their eyes locked for a brief moment before they both looked away.

  “Have you heard from Will?” Juliet asked.

  Sienna shook her head. “I don’t expect to, either. He was pretty angry this morning when I pushed him to sign the papers. Which I get, I really do. I shouldn’t have stayed in the house as long as I have. Even with him out in the pool house, it’s still our house, and that’s unfair.”

  “Okay, but you can’t really blame yourself. You made it clear that it was over. He chose to ignore it. That’s not on you.”

  Silence overtook them. Juliet didn’t think she was alone in her anxiety and unease. She stood and went to the kitchen to take the food out of the oven.

  “Would you mind if we ate out here?” Sienna asked from the living room. “I wouldn’t mind just kicking back and watching something while we eat. It’s been a very long day.”

  Relief washed over Juliet. That was preferable to an uncomfortable dinner at the kitchen table, asking each other to pass the salt and wondering if the rolls were overcooked. “Great idea. See what’s on.”

  The television roared to life on the Weather Channel. Juliet plated their sad looking lasagna and brought it over to the coffee table.

  “Ooh, Final Destination is on. You up for it?” Sienna asked, sounding more interested in something than Juliet had heard her in a while.

  “Always.”

  “I didn’t want to fly for about a year after I saw this movie for the first time. I kept checking the tray table lock and I refused to turn the air on.” Sienna took a small bite of the pasta. “This is actually pretty good.”

  “Have you seen the second one? To this day, I switch lanes if I’m behind a truck carrying giant tree logs. I refuse to be decapitated while I’m driving down the highway,” Juliet said.

  “Oh my God, I do the same thing. Every time I pass a store window, I check to make sure there are no phantom bus reflections in it. I don’t care what anybody says, this franchise is in my top three.”

  A twinge in her stomach made Juliet pause before taking another bite. She watched Sienna for the briefest of seconds, as she tucked her hair behind her ear and took a sip of her wine with a slight smile on her face as she watched the movie.

  “Do you want any more?” Juliet asked, standing up with such abruptness that Sienna physically jumped. “Sorry, I just needed a refill.” Juliet held up her empty glass.

  “Oh, okay. Sure, I’ll take a refill, too. Thank you.”

  Juliet stood at the counter, grounding herself. She picked up her phone and texted Declan good night, even though it was barely ten o’clock. She needed to distract herself. Of course, Declan didn’t respond. Still mad. Juliet’s heart was heavy.

  “Juliet, come sit down for a minute,” Sienna said. She turned off the television.

  Juliet felt her heart pick up speed as soon as the words were out of Sienna’s mouth. What could she need to talk about that warranted turning the television off? Maybe she was moving out of state. Maybe she decided that she was going to give Will another chance. Maybe she didn’t feel something for Juliet after all and wanted to let her down easy. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

  Without responding, Juliet handed Sienna’s freshly refilled glass to her. Sienna took a long sip before placing it on the coffee table.

  Sienna turned so that she was facing Juliet dead-on. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “I’ve always been in control. I’ve always had a plan. This is new territory for me.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I know how this looks. That I’m so afraid to be alone I’m jumping to a new ship before the other one has docked. I can promise you that is not the case.”

  “I didn’t—”

  Sienna held up her hand. “Let me finish. Please. Before I lose my nerve.”

&nbs
p; Thunder rumbled in the distance. Juliet sat back on the couch while Sienna stood, pacing the room, her wine glass in hand. Juliet’s heart continued to beat at twice its normal rhythm.

  “It’s embarrassing, really. Look at me. I’m a woman in my forties pining for my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s ex-girlfriend. My stepson’s mother. I’m like a bad Lifetime movie at this point. But that doesn’t change the facts. I know there are obstacles in our path. I don’t want to be the cause of your relationship with Will turning to shit, and I certainly don’t want to be a strain on your relationship with Declan.”

  A flash of lightning illuminated the dimly lit room. Juliet sat forward, clutching her glass, white-knuckled. Where was Sienna going with this?

  Sienna continued to pace. “Sometimes, fate is cruel. I wonder if my fate is to see that there isn’t an easy road. I tried to settle down with someone who was safe and pragmatic, and it didn’t work. I’ve known it wasn’t working for a long time, and as much as he doesn’t want to admit it, I’m sure Will knew something was off, too. I have a lot of guilt over this thing between us, and I know you do, too. After a lot of thought, a bit of spontaneity, and a good amount of wine, I’ve decided that I’d like to give us a chance. If you don’t want to, I understand and respect your decision. You don’t have to answer me now. But I don’t think relationships should be a struggle, and for me, it’s never come easier than it has with you.” She paused and took in a large breath. “That’s it.”

  Juliet swallowed. That was a lot. She’d never seen Sienna look as vulnerable as she did at that moment, as though she needed reassurance that she wasn’t alone, floating on an inner tube in the middle of the ocean. Juliet set down her glass and sighed heavily. She walked over to where Sienna had turned to the window, watching sheets of rain drifting down the street as the trees blew side to side in the autumn thunderstorm.

  Juliet put her hands on Sienna’s hips and looked out the window over her shoulder. Sienna’s body stiffened at the contact and Juliet heard her breath catch. “You have no reason to feel guilty,” Juliet whispered. Her chin rested on Sienna’s shoulder as she continued to hold her from behind. If that didn’t send a horde of mixed messages, nothing would. “You tried your best, you wanted it to work, and it didn’t. That’s life.”