Shadow of Death (10 page)

“Save it! I've heard enough about your affair from your girlfriend. She told me that you lied about the case.”

“She's not my girlfriend.”

“Oh, my bad, your mistress…or better, yet, your future wife because that's what she seems to think. What about the girl at the gym, are you messing around with her, too?”

“Who, Shay?
Naw!”
Troy was offended by the accusation. He understood her suspicions about Cheryl, but Shay???
Really…

“Well, she sure did give me a play-by-play account of everything you did at the gym on Friday. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Cheryl's not the only one.”

“Will you calm down and listen,
please?
I'm not messing around with anyone.
It's not what you think!”
He didn't mean to yell. His anger was misdirected. He wasn't mad at Natalie. It was Cheryl whom he would've liked to see skinned alive and burned at the stake. This whole thing had gotten out of control. Robert had been right. Troy should have told Natalie everything from the beginning.

“You got a lot of nerve raising your voice at me because your girlfriend, or whatever you want to call her, busted you.” Troy, with a lowered voice, tried to explain, but it was useless. Natalie grilled him with one accusation after another.
How long have y'all been having an affair? If you're not sleeping with her, then why didn't you tell me that y'all used to date? How long were y'all together?
It's not like Troy got a chance to fully explain anything. Natalie wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise. He managed to say that he wasn't having an affair with her.
“I'm supposed to believe that you're not havin
g an affair with the woman you obviously felt the need to share our personal business with!”

“I haven't shared our business with her! I try as hard as possible
not
to talk to her. She's been stalking me ever since she helped with the Bible Butcher case. I didn't know what to do.”

“Oh, you don't talk to her?
Really?”
The way she cocked her head to the side and put her hand on her hip, Troy knew he was about to get hit with a huge blow, but he had no idea what was coming. “Tell me, detective, how is it that Cheryl, the lady whom you don't share our personal business with, knew about us getting into it about the birth control pills?”

Right then and there he swore under his breath. It was an occasional bad habit that Troy was still trying to break and one that he'd inherited honestly from his mother. “Natalie—”

“Don't ‘Natalie' me! That's not the only thing your girlfriend told me about us. She knows about the arguments we had when you wanted me to stop working and she knows what happened at my job. She even knows that I got rejected by you Saturday night and that I was wearing red! How could you do this to me, to
us?
I thought what we had was real.” Natalie slumped onto the ottoman and bawled. Troy's heart ripped into pieces. Natalie was the love of his life and to see her broken was more than he could bear. He was beginning to understand the depth of the web of distrust he had woven by not disclosing everything up front. He thought he had been protecting her, when all the while he was falling into the intricate trap that Cheryl had created for him—one that could very well destroy his marriage.

Troy knelt beside her. “Honey, I can't deny that I told her about the birth control pills or that I didn't tell you that we dated in the past. I'm sorry. It was stupid.
I
was stupid. It was when we first got into it and I was mad and—”

“So the first thing you do is go and run your mouth about me to another woman?”

“No.
It wasn't anything like that. I don't know how to explain it.” Troy began telling Natalie everything he should have said years ago, beginning from the first time Cheryl started to harass him. “I thought she was harmless at first and would lose interest. I didn't want to tell you and have you worried about nothing. I wouldn't return her calls or texts, but she kept finding other ways to insert herself into our lives. It wasn't until you called her when I was still in Texas that she knew I hadn't said anything to you and she used that against me. I could never find the right time to tell you.”

“What happened Friday? Why did you lie to me about the triple homicide? Why did you stay gone all night Saturday, rejecting me when clearly I was making advances toward you? And—”

Troy cut in before the questions could continue. She wasn't yelling now. That was a good sign. He gave her his account of Friday evening to the best of his recollection. “That is me in the pictures, but I swear to you that I didn't consciously do anything with her. In every picture, my eyes are closed. She drugged me.” He then went on to explain why he did not have sex with her on Saturday night and why he chose to stay at a motel instead. “I promise I was going to tell you. I don't know how she found out about the lingerie. I haven't spoken to her.” Troy looked and saw Nate's toy still on their dresser. “The car!” He got up and threw it to the ground, stomping it to pieces.

“What are you doing?”

“I think there's some kind of listening device in here.”

“What!”

“Think about it, babe. We don't know who sent this to him and the only way Cheryl can know details that I never disclosed to her is by spying on us somehow. Remember, I was holding the car the other night when I came upstairs and you were dressed up. I know it sounds crazy, but that has to be it. No one we know has admitted to sending the car—not Corrine, Aneetra, or any of our family members. There's no possible way she could know about what you wore Saturday unless she was listening, and the only way she could have done that is with this car.”

Natalie was eerily quiet for several moments as if she were soaking his words in like a sponge. Troy's anxiety level began to decrease as he now felt confident that he was able to explain his side of things to her. He also wondered, to be on the safe side, if they should throw out the souvenir blankets the twins had received. Natalie wiped the few remnant drops from her eyes and took a deep breath. “How stupid do you think I am? It's one thing for you to mess around on me and then have the decency to come clean once you're busted. But, that's apparently too much like right because you'd rather make up this story about her spying on us and stalking and drugging you, and I'm supposed to be crazy enough to believe it. You're like a freakin' giant compared to her!” Natalie was now very much in control of her emotions and her words. They were as sharp as daggers, piercing through Troy's heart. “I trusted you. I've trusted you more than anyone I've ever trusted in my entire life and you made a fool out of me. You left me this morning so you could meet up with her.”

“No, I didn't. I left to go to the FBI office.” He then added the information about what had happened when he spoke to the agent.

“Just stop, Troy! Stop lying to me and yourself. I saw the message you sent to her this morning asking her to meet you.”

That was it…the nail in the coffin.

“If she was harassing you as you say, why would you ask to meet her anywhere?”

Troy tried to explain his logic. “Don't you think that if I was meeting her for some sexual rendezvous, I would've asked to meet at a hotel and not the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center? C'mon, Natalie. Think about it.”

“I have. I've done nothing but think about it all morning. I was on the verge of believing we could work through this if you would have come in here telling the truth. I'm sure, after all the damage I've done to other women's marriages back in the day, I probably had this coming. What goes around, comes around; I get that. I also see that you're not the person I thought you were. The Troy I married would at least be honest, even after making a huge mistake.” She got up, pushing him out of the way.

“Baby—”

“Shut up!”
The race between hurt and hate was over. Hate won by a landslide. “I'm done with you and our marriage. Neither has been what I thought.”

“Where are you going?” He followed her down the stairs, ignoring the vibration of his cell phone.

“I bet you think I'm totally dependent on you, that I'm not going to be able to make it without you or your paycheck. We'll see about that.” She grabbed her keys and purse and attempted to leave.

He blocked her. “Why is your first instinct to always run away whenever there's an issue? You did it when we were dating and any time we've had an argument. You're doing it now!”

“This isn't an
issue!
This is a matter of distrust. You've made a complete mockery of our wedding vows.”

“Babe, please don't leave.”

“It's in your best interest to get out of my way. The way I feel right now, I will be a widow before ever getting the chance to become an ex-wife.”

T
roy was heartbroken as he watched his wife speed away, enraged by Cheryl's latest antics. To escalate matters, when Troy checked his cell phone, he discovered a text from her.

“Hey, honey! I've been waiting 4u? I talked 2 your wife this morn abt us. I know u will b upset, but it's time that she knew. We shudnt keep r love a secret. It's fate. I love u.”

Messing with him was one thing, but dragging Natalie into this sickness of hers was a game that Cheryl did not want to play. Troy wasted no time getting into his truck and burning rubber to get to her address. The argument with Natalie replayed in his head. Simply imagining the pain she must have been feeling was more than he could handle. Troy was aware that one of Natalie's biggest fears was that he would cheat on her. He'd never given her any reason to think that. It was her own insecurity and Cheryl had hit his wife where she hurt most.

He pulled into Cheryl's driveway so fast that he almost side-swiped a maroon car parked on the street and nearly rear-ended Cheryl's sedan. Troy jumped out of his truck and banged on the door of her ranch-style home, shouting at the top of his lungs for her to answer. When she did, he barged in and lost all self-control. Troy, who had never before been physically violent with a woman and loathed men who put their hands on them, found himself with a tight chokehold around Cheryl's neck as he lifted her tiny frame against the wall. He could have literally strangled her to death that very moment. Had it not been for the images of his family that popped in his head, he probably would have, but the visions were enough to remind him of why he needed to keep his freedom. He let go and she dropped to the ground, gasping for air.

For the first time, he took in the surroundings. He'd knocked over a lamp and he felt the burning sensation on his face and neck from gouges Cheryl left while trying to fight free from his grip. The pocket of his dress shirt was torn and there were also drops of blood on the floor. He wasn't sure if it was hers or his. He hadn't hit her. Or had he? Not knowing troubled his spirit. He'd grown up watching his father physically abuse his mother. Though his parents had gotten past that stage of their marriage, and Troy's relationship with his dad had been steadily improving within the last year or so, the propensity toward domestic violence was part of his father's behavior that Troy never wanted any part of. He had his family, his badge, and also his own personal character to consider. Yet, what transpired in these last few moments showed that he was capable of going against himself.

He knew his actions had scared Cheryl; they'd scared him. He loosened his tie as if that would somehow calm his heavy breathing. “Leave my family and me alone,” he said sternly.

She said nothing.

“I never want to hear from you again. Next time I might not let go.” He backed out the door, hopped in his vehicle, and sped away.

Troy drove around with no real destination in mind. His concern was Natalie and where she could be at the moment. He tried calling her several times. He wanted, no, he needed to hear her voice. He knew she was devastated and he wanted to be the one there wiping her tears. For the first time since they'd been married, Troy thought he would lose her. He remembered the pain of when she'd walked out of his life once when they were dating. It wasn't because of infidelity, but because he had been stupid and afraid to admit to her, or even himself, how much Natalie meant to him. He wasn't scared now. He'd tell anyone who'd listen how special she was to him. More than anything, he'd tell her.

There were a few calls that came in from the office that Troy ignored. Part of him felt bad for doing so. What if they were leads to a case? Troy loved his job and often took his cases personally. He didn't have the right mindset to help anyone at this moment when his own life was falling apart. Selfish or not, he simply couldn't do it. He didn't feel like a cop today. He felt like a failure.

Frustrated that he had no idea where to find Natalie and crushed that she wasn't answering his calls, Troy found himself pulling into the parking lot of the rehabilitation residential facility. The last time he was here, he'd been working a case and was desperate to find answers then. Now, he was desperate for another reason. The generally stoic detective, who cringed anytime one of his buddies got too emotional, was in need of a heart-to-heart. He knew he was about to share his feelings with someone who could understand. Troy took a deep breath and removed his suit jacket before going in.

•  •  •

Natalie stared at the white ceiling of the hotel room, fighting the negative voice telling her that Troy's infidelity was inevitable.
“You, of all people should know better. You were a whore. You slept with
married men. You're getting back exactly what you deserve. Did you really
think you would have a marriage that would last happily ever after?”