Married to a Stranger (14 page)

E
MMA LOOKED
from the lieutenant’s face to that of her husband.

David had fixed Joan Atkins with an implacable stare. “We’ve cooperated with you people more than we should have,” he said. “We’re leaving now.”

“Go ahead,” Joan said to Emma. “Ask him.”

“Ask me what?” David said. He peered at Emma. “What are you supposed to ask me?”

Joan gazed at him coolly. “When was the last time you were here at your uncle’s place?”

“You know damn well,” said David. He shook his head. “My wife doesn’t need to go over this again. She wants to cooperate with you people, but she doesn’t need to relive this experience again.”

“Before the day of the attack,” said Joan.

David made a face. “I don’t know. I was…what…ten years old. I came down here with my aunt and uncle and a friend of mine.”

“That doesn’t agree with our information.”

“Maybe I was twelve,” David said. “So sue me.”

“We have a witness who saw you here recently.”

Emma watched him. His eyes blazed. “What witness?”

“A reliable witness,” said Chief Osmund.

“Well, that’s bullshit,” said David. “Come on, Emma.”

“Did you forget to tell us about a more recent visit?” asked Audie.

Emma felt her stomach turning over. She put her hand out to steady herself against the car.

“All right. That’s it,” said David. “We are leaving. We should never have talked to you. You’re making this crap up and I have had enough. And my wife has clearly had enough.”

Chief Osmund and Joan Atkins looked at each other.

“Go ahead, Mr. Webster. We’ll be in touch.”

Without another word, David opened the passenger door on the Jeep and boosted Emma up. She looked from Chief Osmund to Lieutenant Atkins. Atkins did not look at her but handed David the keys. David slammed the door. Then he walked around to the other side, climbed in, and put the key in the ignition. The two police officers watched them make a K-turn in the clearing and raise a cloud of leaves and dust as they headed off down the dirt road.

David and Emma didn’t speak until they reached the highway. Finally, without looking at her, David said, “You should never have put me in that situation.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she snapped.

He did not reply. They were silent the rest of the way home. For once, Emma did not fall asleep in the car.

I
T WAS
three o’clock by the time they returned to Clarenceville, and it had begun to rain. David came around to her door and offered her his hand.

“Let me help you,” he said.

“I don’t need any help,” she said.

David sighed and let her make her own painful way out of the car and into the house. Once inside, David went directly to his office.

“What are you doing?” she said.

“Calling Yunger. He needs to know about this…mystery witness.”

She followed him to the office door and saw him pick up his cell phone from the charger and punch in the number. Yunger was not at his office. David left him a message. “I have to speak to you. It’s urgent.” When he saw Emma standing in the doorway, he turned his back on her and spoke quietly.

He replaced the phone and turned to look at her. Emma was studying him with a pained gaze. “All right. What is it?” he said.

“Why did you lie to the police?”

“Lie about what?”

“About being at the cabin,” she said.

David shook his head. “You’re beginning to sound like a cop.” He raised his hands in surrender. “All right,” he said. “Don’t believe me.”

“You heard Detective Atkins,” Emma cried. “They have a witness.”

“Emma, she’s making it up. She’s trying to turn you against me, and it’s working,” cried David.

“She said it because she thinks you are lying.”

David sighed and avoided her gaze. Finally he said, “Look, I am their only suspect. They are not doing anything to find the real killer. So they feed you these lies.”

“All you have to do is tell the truth,” she said. “If you were there before, just say so. Why is that so difficult?”

“Because I wasn’t,” he said. “Why do you believe them? Because they’re cops? Because cops never lie? They’re trying to frame me, and you’re letting them.”

“Now it’s my fault?” she cried.

“Why is my word not good enough for you? The so-called witness was obviously mistaken. They are only seeing what they want to see.”

Emma frowned.

David looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Can’t you take my word for it?” he asked. “You’re my wife. I love you. I need you to have faith in me. Is that so much to ask?”

Emma heard a car door slam. She craned her neck to see out the window. “That was quick. It’s Yunger.”

“You didn’t answer me,” he said.

“You better go talk to your attorney,” she said.

“Thanks a lot,” he said. He edged past her out the door of the office. Emma reddened and did not meet his gaze. She felt guilty about her stubbornness. What he said made sense. In a way. The witness could have been mistaken. And she owed him her trust. Emma heard the front door slam. She walked over to the desk and looked out the window. Yunger, a distinguished-looking bald man with black eyebrows, holding a briefcase, and David, were standing on the front walk, talking, their collars turned up against the drizzle.

She sat down heavily in the desk chair, and her gaze fell on the handle to the desk drawer. Glancing out the window to make sure they were both still outside, she tugged at the handle.

She expected resistance, but this time the drawer slid open smoothly. Since last night he’d unlocked it. She looked in at the contents. There was the usual assortment of junk one might find in a desk drawer. A stack of film cards. An address book. Paper clips and rubber bands and pencils. Nothing a person would lock away from view. At first she was relieved, and then she had a disquieting thought. If he
had
locked up something secret in there, he had now removed it. It wasn’t there anymore. He had disposed of it, or put it in a new hiding place. She opened his file cabinet, wondering if she would recognize whatever secret thing he had hidden if she saw it.

And then she thought about what she was doing, and she sighed. What is the matter with you? Why must you think the worst of your husband? He loves you. You told him that you trusted him. You’re letting the suspicions of the police turn you into a doubting, harping wife who snoops through his things. It was probably just as he said. He’d locked it when they moved. To keep all this worthless junk from falling out. And when she called it to his attention, he unlocked it.

She went to close the drawer. As she did her gaze fell on the key ring, which sat in the well of the desk drawer. She picked it up and looked at it. There was one key on the key ring, which had a plastic photo frame as its handle. On one side of the frame was a paper label that read
GAR-DEN SHED
. Inside the frame was a photo of her that David had taken. She was wearing a baseball cap and overalls and she was stacking lawn furniture in the shed. Her face was smudged with dirt, and she was smiling ruefully at him as he took her picture. Her expression seemed to say, put down the camera and help me with this. It was a cute picture, a sweet idea. He had framed the picture as a special way to remind him what the key was for. She started to smile, and then her smile faded.

The front door opened and she heard their voices in the front hall. She closed the drawer and got up.

“Have a seat,” she heard David say to Yunger. “You want a beer?”

Yunger shook his head. “No. I’m going back to the office.”

“I want you to meet my wife, Emma,” David said. “Let me see if she’s lying down. She had kind of a tough morning.”

Emma walked out of the bedroom.

“Hey, honey, I was just coming to get you,” said David. “This is Mr. Yunger. This is my wife, Emma.”

“Hey, Emma. Call me Cal. Nice to meet you,” said Yunger, extending his hand.

“You too,” said Emma, shaking it.

“Listen,” said Cal Yunger, “I know you’ve been through an awful lot. Now they’re pulling phantom witnesses out of the air. I just told your husband outside. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. If they were so sure about this witness, they could have brought him to the funeral to identify your husband. Obviously, they didn’t do that, so my guess is that they’re not sure this I.D. is going to hold up. And we know it’s not going to hold up, because David wasn’t there in the first place.”

“Will you excuse me?” said Emma. “I’m very tired.”

“Oh sure,” said Yunger, looking slightly taken aback. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you all right, honey?” David asked.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Just tired.”

Before he could reply, she went back into their temporary bedroom, closed the door, and locked it behind her.

E
MMA SAT DOWN
on the desk chair. For a few moments, she sat there thinking. Then she picked up the phone on the desk.

She dialed Stephanie at the middle school and got one of the secretaries in the office who said that Stephanie was out.

“Did she go home?” Emma asked.

“No. She went to Trenton for a meeting.”

Emma thanked her and hung up.

Where else could she go? she thought. She thought about calling Burke but immediately dismissed that idea as inappropriate. He was David’s friend and her boss. She didn’t want to drag him into this. She looked at the phone, thinking of her mother, wishing she could magically transport herself to Chicago and be taken care of, like a child.

For a moment she felt guilty, remembering that her mother had tried to send someone to care for her—the nurse, Lizette—and Emma had effectively caused her to leave. But it wasn’t a nurse’s care she needed. She needed the care of someone she loved, someone she could trust. She thought she could even tolerate Rory’s company if it meant being with her mother, but she knew it was too much of a trip to make in her condition.

All of a sudden, the phone rang. Emma picked it up. “Darling,” said Kay McLean, “I know you’re mad at me and I don’t blame you, but I just had to call you.”

Her mother’s voice was like a soothing balm. “Mom, I was just thinking about you,” she said. “Really. Just this minute.”

Kay chuckled. “Well, we’ve always had a little mother-daughter telepathy, haven’t we?

Emma smiled, knowing it was true. “I guess we do.”

“What’s the matter?” Kay asked. “How are you feeling? Did the nurse come? I know you told me not to interfere but…”

“She was here,” Emma said carefully.

“Was? Isn’t she still there? We hired her until further notice.”

Emma sighed. “She…left. I guess she got a little peeved because I…left the house without telling her.”

“Emma!” her mother cried. “She was supposed to be there to take care of you. To protect you.”

“I know, Mom,” Emma said, not really wanting to discuss it. “And I appreciate it. Really, I do. I guess I’m just wishing I could come and be with you. Get away from here and…hide out for a few days.”

“Really?” Kay said, a suspicious note in her voice. She covered it immediately. “Emma, that would be wonderful. Why don’t you do it? Oh, nothing would make me happier than to be able to take care of you.” Then she hesitated. “Honey, is anything wrong. I mean, has something else happened?”

Emma shook her head. “No. Not really. I’m just feeling…stressed out.”

“Well, you just get on the next plane, darling. Are you up to the trip?”

“That’s just it,” said Emma. “I don’t think I am. My luggage. The airport. The security lines. The concourse. That long walk to the gate.”

“You don’t have to walk. They have those trams. You know, the ones that beep to make you get out of the way,” Kay said eagerly.

“I can’t do it. Not yet. It’s too much for me.”

“Oh, Em,” Kay said. “Then let me come there.”

“No. Better not,” Emma murmured.

“I hate being this far away from you,” said Kay.

Emma nodded, but tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t speak.

“Honey, listen to me,” said Kay. “If you need to get away, why don’t you go up to New York and visit Jessie? You can call a car service and have them take you right to her door.”

“Mom, she’s on bed rest. She’s in no shape for company.”

“Now, Emma, listen to me. I talk to Aurelia all the time. Jessie has all kinds of help. Her mother has made sure of it.
She
listens to her mother. And there’s lots of room in that apartment. She’s bored to death, stuck at home. You just call her and tell her you’re coming.”

Emma thought of Jessie’s cheerful face and the warmth she always saw in her bright eyes. “Do you think I should?” Emma asked, feeling like a child again, looking to her mother for answers.

“Yes, you absolutely should,” said Kay. “Do you want me to call her and arrange it, or will you do it?”

“I don’t know,” said Emma.

“Please, honey. It would be good for both of you.”

“Okay,” said Emma. “I will. Thanks, Mom.”

“Call me from Jessie’s,” Kay insisted, hanging up.

Before she could change her mind, Emma punched in the number of her dear old friend and asked if she could visit. Jessie started peppering Emma with questions. “Listen,” said Emma, “I got your beautiful flowers in the hospital, and I know you want to know everything, but I just can’t talk right now. I promise I’ll tell you everything when I get there.”

Jessie reacted like the true friend she was. “How soon can you be here?”

“I’ll be on the next train.”

“Can’t wait,” Jessie said. “We’ll lie around together. You and me and our not-quite babies. It’ll be like one of our old sleepovers.”

Emma did her best to sound enthused. Then she hung up the phone and sat, staring out the front window at the drizzling sky. Part of her wanted to just stretch out on the bed and pull a blanket over her. She was so weary that she felt like weeping. But there was a knot in her stomach, and she knew she would not sleep. Get up, she thought. Get out of here. Put two or three things in a bag. She couldn’t carry anything heavy. If she needed clothes, she and Jessie were about the same size. She knew her mother was probably right about calling the car service, but she couldn’t wait to get out of here. She would take the train. It was an easy trip by train in those big comfortable seats. Besides, she had always loved train rides. Resting her head against the windows, watching the landscape go by. None of the anxiety she associated with airports and planes.

She went over to the closet, pulled a light, microfiber duffel bag out, and put it on the bed. Then she walked over to the closet and took a nightie and a burnt orange tunic top and stretchy black pants that she could comfortably wear over her bandages. She folded them into the bag. Then she unlocked the bedroom door and limped to the bathroom, where she took her toothbrush, a box of bandages, and her medication. Jessie would have everything else she would need.

When she walked out of the bathroom, David was standing by the bed, staring down at her open suitcase. He looked up at her. “What’s this?”

“Is your lawyer gone?” she asked.

“
Our
lawyer. Yes. What is going on with you? You seem to be in a strange mood.”

Emma did not reply. She walked over and put her toiletries into the duffel.

“Emma,” he said.

“You lied to me,” she said.

“Here we go again. How many ways can I tell you? I was not at the cabin.”

“This is not about the cabin,” she said. “You lied to me about your desk drawer. You said you locked it when we moved.”

“I did,” he said.

“No, you didn’t.” She walked over to the desk drawer and opened it, pulling out the picture frame key chain. “You see this?” she said, tossing it to him.

He turned it over, frowning. “What about it?”

“There’s a picture in it of me that you took the day we moved in.”

“So what?” he cried.

“So, if the drawer had been locked since we moved, how could you possibly have put that photo on the key chain?”

David stared at her. “I don’t believe this. What are you doing? Building a case against me? Are you working for the cops now?”

Emma blushed, but she zipped up her bag and lifted it onto her shoulder. “That’s the second time today you’ve compared me to a cop.”

“Well, excuse me, but I feel a little bit…beleagured. It’s a drawer,” he said. “You’re walking out because of a drawer? That’s my crime? I locked a drawer.”

She started for the bedroom door, but he blocked her way.

“Move,” she said.

He hesitated and then stepped aside. Emma walked past him.

“All right, wait,” he said. “Will you listen?”

She stopped, but she did not reply or look at him.

“All right, look,” he said. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “There is something I’ve been…I probably should have told you this already.”

Emma stood watching him. Her legs were trembling. “What?” she said.

“I didn’t want anyone to know. It’s…embarrassing.”

“What is?” she asked.

“Emma, I was seeing another woman, when we met…” He heaved a sigh. “Her name is…Connie. She’s a…a flight attendant. She had the idea that we were…serious. It wasn’t true, but I guess I let her think that. Anyway, when I met you, I realized that I’d met the woman for me, and I dropped her. I tried to do it gently, but she was in love with me. She hounded me for a while. She wrote me a lot of letters that made no sense. In fact, they kind of reminded me of the letters you were getting. Kind of crazy.”

Emma frowned at him. “How crazy?”

David ran a hand through his hair. “Well, they were…very…intense.”

Emma peered at him. “And that’s what was in the drawer? This woman’s letters?”

David nodded. “I don’t know why I kept them.”

“Where are they now?” she said.

“Well, after you mentioned the drawer last night I realized how stupid it was to keep them. I mean, the police already want my head on a platter. If they saw those letters…between that, and their so-called witness in the Pinelands, they might jump to the wrong conclusion.”

“They might think the affair was ongoing,” she said.

“They seem to have no trouble thinking the worst of me,” he said.

Emma nodded. “So you got rid of them.”

“Last night. After you were asleep.”

“And you never thought to tell the police. Or me.”

“I should have. I know. But nobody wants to hear about their husband’s old girlfriends. And it seemed like adding insult to injury somehow to have the cops tracking her down. I mean, it was six months ago. I broke her heart, and she wrote me some crazy letters. Didn’t you ever do anything like that while you were in the throes of a broken heart? I didn’t think it was fair to drag her into this.”

Emma felt as if her head would explode. “My life and the life of our baby is in danger, and you want to protect this woman you used to sleep with? Did it ever occur to you that she might be the person who was trying to kill me?”

David shook his head. “Emma, it wasn’t Connie. I haven’t heard from her in months. She probably doesn’t even know I got married. Much less where we planned to spend our wedding weekend. Besides, she’s a tiny little woman. She couldn’t even lift an ax, never mind kill someone with it.”

Emma stood up and picked up her bag. “Your priorities suck,” she said.

“What does that mean? I’m not protecting her. Emma, put that bag down.”

“How can I believe you?” she said. “You have too many secrets.”

He looked stunned. “I have secrets? What about you? Are you saying that you don’t have any?”

She stared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He met her gaze defiantly. “Nothing,” he said. “Forget it.”

Emma set the bag back down on the bed. “No. You brought it up. Let’s hear it. What are you talking about?”

“All right,” he said, sticking his chin out. “I’m talking about you. And Burke.”

“Me and Burke?” She looked at him in disbelief.

“You knew him in college.”

“That’s no secret. So I knew him in college. So what?”

“You had an affair with him, didn’t you?” David demanded.

“An affair? No,” she said. But Emma blushed, thinking about her confession to Burke the night before. But it was nothing. All she had done was confess to a crush. “He wasn’t interested in me. He married my roommate, remember?”

“And yet he asked you to come here and work for him. After a weekend visit, he asked you to work for him.”

“Because…,” she said.

“Because what?” David demanded. “Because of your vast experience? Because there aren’t any other psychologists in New Jersey?”

Emma blushed furiously. It was a simple question, but she found herself fumbling to answer it.

David looked triumphant. “I think it’s because he had a crazy wife who made him miserable, and he wanted to resume his affair with you. And then I came along and got in the way.”

“David, that is not true. You’re just…imagining something that didn’t happen.”

“How do I know that?” he said.

“Because I’m telling you the truth,” she said.

“Well, I don’t believe you.”

Emma gaped at him. “David.”

“How do you like it?” he demanded.

For a moment Emma was stunned. And then she glared at him. “Oh. Oh, I see. This is a game meant to enlighten me.”

“Games are supposed to be fun,” he said bitterly.

Emma picked up her bag again. She had packed it lightly, but even so it seemed to pull the stitches that curved around her back. “Well, we’re agreed on one thing. There is nothing fun about this.”

“All right, stop,” he said. “I was trying to make a point. Of course I believe you. I just wanted you to know how it felt. Now where are you going?”

“Thanks for the object lesson. My life is in danger, and you’re playing mind games. I’m leaving, David. I’m going to see Jessie for a few days.”

“Emma, you can’t,” he said, but before he could protest further, the phone rang again. He picked it up and barked into it. “Hello.”

He listened for a moment, his jaw working. Then he held out the phone to Emma. “It’s for you,” he said. “You’ll never guess who.”

She took the phone from him as he stalked past her out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

“Hello?” she said.

“Emma, it’s Burke. Am I calling at a bad time?”