Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (25 page)

Chapter 2
4

ANN TORE UP THE SHEET OF PAPER
with the strange biblical quote
until the pieces were too small to tear and then
she
flushed the confetti-like paper down the toilet
.
She stood there, watching the water swirl in the bowl, making sure that all of the pieces were gone.
Calm down and get busy, she told herself, as she
walked into the living room and
sat down at her sewing machine
.
She needed to
finish Danielle’s
fancy witch costume.

I can’t believe Lawrence wrote
that
note
, she thought
, or the one I got yesterday
.
He’s always left
love poems or sweet notes
with the words from an old love song
for me
, never anything like this
.
Is this whole thing my fault?
Did he think that I was leading him on?
Did he perceive my being friendly and nice to him to mean that I was interested in him romantically?
That’s not true
.
Still, what
could’ve provoked
him
to write something so threatening to me?
I haven’t behaved any differently toward him lately.
I don’t understand what’s changed.
W
hat sins
could the note be referring to
?
What sins
does he think I’ve
committed? she wondered.

No,
she decided,
there was no way Lawrence had written
either of those notes
.
But, and this terrified
her
, if not Lawrence, then who
?
What did the biblical quote mean
?
Was it some kind of warning
?
Flashes of TV news stories and bits of conversation on the radio about the Westwood Strangler suddenly popped into her mind
.
Did the strangler leave written messages before killing his victims
?
She didn’t know
.
She silently berated herself for not paying more attention
.
Like most people, she’d always assumed that something like that would never happen to her
.
It
always happened to
someone else, a stranger
.

What should I do
?
I can’t tell David because then I’d have to tell him about the other notes and poems and that would be humiliating for Lawrence and embarrassing for me
.
And, if David thought I was encouraging Lawrence in that way, he would be livid and I definitely don’t want to give him another reason to be angry with me. I know he’d confront Lawrence
and
, if he did,
it would be so uncomfortable for us to live here that we’d have to move
and I sure don’t want to move
.
I can’t
call the police
either
because David would
surely
find out about that.
But what else can I do?
she silently wondered.
When did I stop being able to confide in David? I used to be able to tell him anything.

Her hands shook as she fed the material for the witch’s hat under the needle
.
The machine made a steady whirring sound as she pushed her foot down on the pedal
.
Her thoughts drifted back to when she and David first met.

It was a few months after her grandmother died. Ann had just graduated from high school
.
Her sister, after getting her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati, had been accepted to Wake Forest University of Law and was planning to move to North Carolina before classes started in the Fall. Marnie had asked Ann to go with her but Ann decided that it was time to stop “tagging along” with her older sister. She knew that she needed to make a life of her own; she needed to find a job. The ad in the
Western Hills Press
, the area’s weekly newspaper, described a full-time position that sounded perfect for her.

She was nervous as she opened the front door to the West Side Insurance Agency. The receptionist, Ruth, a petite, gray haired woman of about sixty, looked up from her typing and greeted Ann with a smile.

“Hi,” Ann said. “I’d like to apply for the job in the paper.”

“Well, honey, you come with me.” She handed Ann a job application and ushered her to a small seating area. Ann filled out the form and waited for a few minutes before Ruth came back and showed her to the office of Mr. Langley, the office manager.

Stu Langley stood up from behind his desk and shook her hand. He was probably in his late fifties, Ann guessed, of average height and build with a slight paunch and a very definite receding hairline. He smiled, motioning for her to sit down, and began to look over her application. After a few minutes, he cleared his throat and peered at her over glasses that slid down past the bridge of his nose.

“So, this would be your first job?” he asked.

“Yes. I know I don’t have any experience but I’m willing to work hard and I’m very dependable,” she replied.

“I’m sure you are, Ann.” He pointed to her application. “I see that you’ve taken all business courses. No interest in going to college?”

“No. I never have. I guess my older sister is the student in the family. Ever since I can remember, she’s always had her nose stuck in a book.”

He laughed. “Well, that’s interesting but I think
you
are exactly the person we need to fill this position. How would you feel about starting on Monday?”

“Really? Yes. Absolutely!”

They shook hands again and Ann practically floated out of his office. She was so happy. As she passed the receptionist’s desk, she stopped to say goodbye to Ruth and there, leaning against a wall, was a handsome man with blondish hair. He reminded her of the actor, Robert Redford, when he was young, in the old movies she’d seen on TV.

“Well, Ann, how did it go?” Ruth asked.

“I can’t believe it. I got the job!” Ann replied, grinning.

“I knew you would. I could tell. Congratulations!”

The handsome man cleared his throat and Ruth laughed. “Ann, this is David Kern, one of our agents. David, Ann Malone. She’s going to be my new assistant.”

That was the beginning, Ann remembered. What started as flirting with each other in the office turned into lunches and then dinner dates and finally in David’s proposal of marriage. And here we are, all those years later, and our marriage is in serious jeopardy. What went wrong? she asked herself. Was it something I did or something I didn’t do?

She
was so engrossed in
her thoughts
that she
didn’t hear the kitchen door
open and
close or the sound of footsteps coming toward her
.

She felt a hand on the side of her neck and screamed. In the space of a few seconds, so
much went through her mind
.
Did she lock the back door or had she forgotten
again
?
Her heart was hammering in her chest
.
Oh my
G
od, she thought, is it the strangler
?
What should I do?
Deciding that her only hope was to try to escape, she pushed herself up, ready to run out the front door when she heard his voice, David’s voice.

“Ann, what’s the matter
?
It’s me.”

She
let out a long breath
.
Relief flooded through her
.
“Oh, my God, David
,
y
ou scared me half to death!”

“I’m sorry
.
I’m really sorry,” he said. He brought
his left arm from behind his back and
hand
ed
her a bouquet of red roses
.
He
bent
down and brushed a gentle kiss across her cheek
.

“Ann,
I want to apologize.
I’m so sorry about last night
.
Will you please forgive me?”

She
looked into her husband’s blue eyes
.
Unbelievable, she thought, how dramatically and how quickly they could change
.
One minute they were calm and loving eyes but, when he flew into one of his rages, they could turn stone cold and hateful in an instant
.
The eyes are the mirrors of the soul, she couldn’t help thinking.

She took a deep breath
, exhaling slowly
.
“David,
I forgive you but
we need to talk
.
We can’t go on like this
.
Your drinking
…
and your tempe
r
… .
”

“I know
.
I know
.
I need to change
.
I will change
.
You’ll see
.
Just give me a chance
.
Please
.”
He took her hand in his
.
“I love you, Ann.”

“I love you too but
… .
”

The living room door swung open and Davey and Danielle charged into the room
.
“Mommy,
I’m
hungry!” Davey said.

“Mom, we waited for you to call but Davey started whining that he was starving so we came down,” Danielle said.

Ann looked up at the
wall
clock above the
fireplace
.
“No wonder you’re hungry,” she said
.
“I’m sorry
.
I didn’t realize it was this late
.
Why don’t you two go in and change your clothes
?
I’ll have dinner ready before you know it
.”
She turned off the sewing machine, pushed her chair back and
went
into the kitchen, followed by David
.
She laid the roses on the counter and turned to him, “I’ll put these in water as soon as I
get
dinner
started
.
They’re beautiful, David
.
Thank you
.”

As she got the ingredients for dinner out,
she
couldn’t help wondering how much the
roses had cost and where David had gotten the money to buy them. It’s not like we have extra
             
money, she thought, but I can’t say anything or it’ll sound like I’m ungrateful and that would definitely make him angry
.
I sure don’t want that
.
I just want to keep the peace.

* * * *

David followed
Ann
into the kitchen and sat down at the table, watching her prepare dinner
.
Within a few minutes, she had rigatoni boiling in a pan, sauce simmering and the ingredients for a salad on the counter
.
As
she
chopped green peppers, onions and tomatoes, David’s mind wandered back in time.

It wasn’t long after his father had left them
.
He was seven years old, sitting at the kitchen table, using watercolors to paint pictures in his Superman coloring book while his mother prepared dinner
.
She was slicing large, juicy red tomatoes and humming a tune as she worked
.
All of a sudden,
hi
s hand accidentally bumped the glass of water he used to clean his paintbrush
.
Water spilled all over the table
.
He
reached for the glass but it tumbled off
of
the table, hit the floor and shattered
.
He jumped up, grabbed a dishtowel and began to wipe up the water
that
was ruining his coloring book and running onto the floor.

His mother rushed over, the knife held straight out in front of her, pieces of red tomato skin and juice dripping from the blade
.
She snatched the dishtowel from his hands
.
Shaking the knife at him, she screamed, “What do you think you’re doing
?
This is my good towel!”