Faye Kellerman - Suspense Magazine
Faye Kellerman - Suspense Magazine
Faye Kellerman - Suspense Magazine
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lue, two-door Honda. Mary frowned. Had one of the kids<br />
gotten a new car? And why would Bobby be home before<br />
his 6:00 p.m. shift ended? He never took time off, but then,<br />
neither did she. Closing the office early never happened.<br />
Today was just a fluke.<br />
She let herself in silently, clutching Bobby’s gift in a white<br />
plastic bag, smiling, hoping this would put Bobby in a good<br />
mood. Maybe they would have a pleasant evening together...<br />
Down the hall, she heard a woman laughing. Not her<br />
daughter. Ice grew in Mary’s heart. She slowed her steps even<br />
more. At the door of their bedroom she saw them jostling<br />
about in her and Bobby’s bed. Some dreadful instinct told her<br />
that this wasn’t the first time her husband brought someone<br />
home when Mary was gone.<br />
The next few minutes were an eerie calm for Mary. She<br />
went into the living room, loaded the gun like an expert and<br />
walked to the door of the bedroom.<br />
“Hi, Bobby,” she said, feeling a bit surreal.<br />
“Whaaaa?” was all her husband could manage before her<br />
gunshot, the first she’d ever fired, found its way to his throat<br />
and silenced him forever.<br />
The woman, someone Mary thought she knew slightly<br />
from Bobby’s Rotary events, screamed once, before the<br />
second shot, also perfect, landed in her temple and ended<br />
her life as well.<br />
Mary, still calm, turned and walked out of the house. The<br />
street was quiet. If anyone noticed her drive up, so be it. She<br />
was planning to turn herself in anyway. Eventually, that is.<br />
No point in pretending it didn’t happen.<br />
She got in her car and started calmly driving, away<br />
from town, away from her office, past the city’s industrial<br />
plant, towards the town where her daughter, Nella lived and<br />
worked. She stopped, turned around and went back to the<br />
industrial plant. As if watching someone else do the deeds,<br />
she broke the gun into three pieces with unusual strength.<br />
She found some vats of bubbling chemicals that smelled<br />
horrible. She dumped each piece separately in three different<br />
ones. She then threw the bullets, accessories, receipt, bag and<br />
all other things connected with the purchase in a big boiling<br />
vat nearby. In the car, she looked at herself in the mirror as if<br />
looking at a stranger. She smiled...so calm. Why, she looked<br />
almost ten years younger, at least.<br />
She carefully brushed the style out of her newly done hair.<br />
With some baby wipes that she kept in the car, she removed<br />
all traces of her makeup. She looked around, and when she<br />
saw she was totally alone, stepped out of her new, expensive<br />
dress and was back into her old, drab work clothes within<br />
five minutes. The dress and new shoes also found their way<br />
into a bubbling tomb.<br />
She drove quickly back to the office, walked around it,<br />
opening it up as if she’d never been gone. She sat down at<br />
her desk and pulled out her checkbook. Two minutes later,<br />
John and Cindy Jacobs walked into the office, Cindy pulling<br />
a defiant looking thirteen-year-old Elizabeth with her.<br />
“Hey, gal, didn’t I tell you to take some time off? Why are<br />
you still here?” John asked, smiling.<br />
“I’m doing some personal stuff.” Mary said sweetly. She<br />
held up her checkbook. “Balancing things.”<br />
“Shouldn’t be hard for you.” Cindy said, admiringly.<br />
“That is the one thing I can’t do. When I was married, my ex<br />
did all that stuff. Can you imagine that? An accountant who<br />
can’t balance her checkbook?”<br />
“Hey girls, I’d love to keep this going, but I’m hungry. I’ve<br />
got a great idea. Mary! Why don’t you and Bobby join me and<br />
Cindy for supper tonight? My treat.” John asked.<br />
“I’m not sure if that would be possible.” Mary said.<br />
“Oh, c’mon, you two never do anything together. Give<br />
him a call.”<br />
“He might not be where he could take a call,” Mary said.<br />
“Isn’t he the foreman at that factory? Sure he can take a<br />
call. Hey, I’ll call myself. He won’t turn me down. What’s the<br />
number there?”<br />
Mary told him and John dialed it. He frowned after<br />
talking with someone for a few minutes.<br />
“Now that’s amazing, Mary. You really should have<br />
closed the office today of all days. I’d forget today’s your<br />
anniversary,” he paused, “he’s home, waiting to surprise you.<br />
He told the fellas he had to go home early. Funny thing, I<br />
thought you got married in May.”<br />
“I did,” Mary said calmly. “May 15, 1975.”<br />
Again, she felt the calm sweeping over her, an odd sense<br />
of peace making her feel as if nothing would ever touch her<br />
again.<br />
John’s frown deepened.<br />
“That’s bizarre. Why would he tell folks he needed off<br />
from work for that reason then? Must be some mistake. Want<br />
to call him at home?”<br />
“Sure,” Mary said, evenly. She dialed the number, listened<br />
and shook her head. “No answer,” she said.<br />
“Well, this is just strange,” John said. He pulled his car<br />
keys out of his pocket and shook them in the air as if it helped<br />
him puzzle the situation out. “Okay, well, never mind. That<br />
leaves you. And it’s not your anniversary. So, you come eat<br />
with me and Cindy. Bobby will just have to fend for himself.<br />
He can do that, right?”<br />
“I’m sure he can,” Mary said.<br />
Cindy and Elizabeth backed out of dinner at the last<br />
second, so that left John and Mary to dine at a small seafood<br />
and steak restaurant on the edge of the town’s picturesque<br />
river. They chatted happily, and before long, the day turned<br />
to evening. As they got back to the accounting office, John<br />
handed her his cell phone.<br />
“Call him again. That’s just out of character for him, to<br />
say he was going home for a reason he wasn’t.”<br />
Mary dialed obligingly.<br />
“Same result,” she said after letting the phone ring a<br />
14 <strong>Suspense</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> September 2011/vol. 026