Read Online Don't You Forget About Me by Suzanne Jenkins - Free Book Online

to pour one for myself.” She pulled out two chairs, waiting for their answer.
    “Coffee would be great—black, please. I’m Tom, and this is Jim,” the younger man said.
    The older officer smiled and said, “No thanks.” She went to the kitchen and returned shortly with two mugs of black coffee.
    “Do you know why we are here?” he asked. Anne thought it was because of Bill’s release that morning from prison and said so. They officers rifled through a stack of papers they brought and looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders. It was news to them. “Tell us about why he was in prison.” Anne related the minimal details she knew,including the gruesome story of the knife against Pam’s mother’s throat. It sounds so awful. Why had I waited for him? She repeated it out loud to the men.
    “I’m not sure why I am still here, why I didn’t leave him. But I am sure you don’t want to hear about that.” She held her mug of coffee, looking down into it as though it contained the answers to life. “I have never said this out loud, but I am afraid of my husband. Why I am telling you two is a mystery; I know there is nothing you can do about it.”
    “The reason we are here is because a woman has filed a complaint, charging you with forgery and theft. Do you know of any reason why she would do that?” Anne sat back in her chair. So that’s what this is all about . She had almost forgotten about it. There was no earthly reason to lie.
    “The woman, Pam, correct? She’s my sister-in-law. She was helping us out each month. Her husband was giving us two thousand a week before he died because my husband’s business tanked. When my husband went to jail, she started sending the checks here, but they were made out to my mother-in-law. She is old and having a hard time with the death of her son, so rather than bother her, I just forged her name, as I do on almost all the correspondence and banking of hers. I certainly wasn’t stealing it.”
    “Well, actually, you were. If someone writes a name on a check and you copy it without that person’s consent, it is stealing,” Tom said. “I think we may have a simple misunderstanding here.” They pushed their chairs back and stood up, very synchronized and professional. “We’ll take your statement back to headquarters and see if we can straighten this out.” Tom extended his hand to Anne.She walked them to the front door and saw them out. She closed the door behind her, locking it, just in case.
    It was time to pick her boys up from preschool. She was sorry Bill had rushed off like the ass that he was, to “surprise” his mother, leaving her alone on their first day back together in over two months. There didn’t seem any point in telling the boys he was home. Yet one more hurtful experience regarding their father to add to the many others, such as forgotten birthdays and cruel spankings for no reason. She wondered why she had mentioned to the officers that she was afraid of Bill. What good did it do? They didn’t acknowledge her comment. She cleaned up the coffee mugs and grabbed her purse, heading for the door. She would walk to pick up her sons and maybe find something entertaining for the three of them to do for the afternoon. It made no sense to hang around, waiting for Bill to show up when guilt or his mother pushed him home.

8
    A s difficult as it was, Bill managed not to break down crying during the ride downtown in the back of the police car. He was totally spent. It hadn’t occurred to him that Sandra would call the cops. Once again, he had underestimated her. They must have been waiting around the corner, because just as she hung up with him, they were there. He was pretty sure that, once he explained why he was at Sandra’s, they would release him. When they were at the mansion together, he had never come near her in a threatening way. He didn’t understand why she had reacted so strongly.
    The squad car pulled into a parking garage under the