sweat under each arm. He
was smoking a cigarette with the air of a man who’s quit the habit and has taken it
up again under duress. A second uniformed officer was standing just inside the door
to my right.
I leaned against the frame, but Gavin scarcely looked up.
I said, “You knew what she was doing, but you thought she’d take you with her when
she left.”
His smile was bitter. “Life is full of surprises,” he said.
I WAS GOING TO have to tell Robert Ackerman what I’d discovered, and I dreaded it. As a stalling
maneuver, just to demonstrate what a good girl I was, I drove over to the police station
first and dropped off the data I’d collected, filling them in on the theory I’d come
up with. They didn’t exactly pin a medal on me, but they weren’t as pissed off as
I thought they’d be, given the number of penal codes I’d violated in the process.
They were even moderately courteous, which is unusual in their treatment of me. Unfortunately,
none of it took that long and before I knew it, I was standing at the Ackermans’ front
door again.
I rang the bell and waited, bad jokes running through my head. Well, there’s good
news and bad news, Robert. The good news is we’ve wrapped it up with hours to spare
so you won’t have to pay me the full three hundred dollars we agreed to. The bad news
is your wife’s a thief, she’s probably dead, and we’re just getting out a warrant
now, because we think we know where the body’s stashed.
The door opened and Robert was standing there with a finger to his lips. “The kids
are down for their naps,” he whispered.
I nodded elaborately, pantomiming my understanding, as though the silence he’d imposed
required this special behavior on my part.
He motioned me in and together we tiptoed through the house and out to the backyard,
where we continued to talk in low tones. I wasn’t sure which bedroom the little rug
rats slept in, and I didn’t want to be responsible for waking them.
Half a day of playing papa to the boys had left Robert looking disheveled and sorely
in need of relief.
“I didn’t expect you back this soon,” he whispered.
I found myself whispering too, feeling anxious at the sense of secrecy. It reminded
me of grade school somehow, the smell of autumn hanging in the air, the two of us
perched on the edge of the sandbox like little kids, conspiring. I didn’t want to
break his heart, but what was I to do?
“I think we’ve got it wrapped up,” I said.
He looked at me for a moment, apparently guessing from my expression that the news
wasn’t good. “Is she okay?”
“We don’t think so,” I said. And then I told him what I’d learned, starting with the
embezzlement and the relationship with Gavin, taking it right through to the quarrel
the travel agent had heard. Robert was way ahead of me.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“We don’t know it for a fact, but we suspect as much.”
He nodded, tears welling up. He wrapped his arms around his knees and propped his
chin on his fists. He looked so young. I wanted to reach out and touch him. “She was
really having an affair?” he asked plaintively.
“You must have suspected as much,” I said. “You said she was restless and excited
for months. Didn’t that give you a clue?”
He shrugged one shoulder, using the sleeve of his T-shirt to dash at the tears trickling
down his cheeks. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess.”
“And then you stopped by the office Friday afternoon and found her getting ready to
leave the country. That’s when you killed her, isn’t it?”
He froze, staring at me. At first, I thought he’d deny it, but maybe he realized there
wasn’t any point. He nodded mutely.
“And then you hired me to make it look good, right?”
He made a kind of squeaking sound in the back of his throat, and sobbed once, his
voice reduced to a whisper again. “She shouldn’t have done
was smoking a cigarette with the air of a man who’s quit the habit and has taken it
up again under duress. A second uniformed officer was standing just inside the door
to my right.
I leaned against the frame, but Gavin scarcely looked up.
I said, “You knew what she was doing, but you thought she’d take you with her when
she left.”
His smile was bitter. “Life is full of surprises,” he said.
I WAS GOING TO have to tell Robert Ackerman what I’d discovered, and I dreaded it. As a stalling
maneuver, just to demonstrate what a good girl I was, I drove over to the police station
first and dropped off the data I’d collected, filling them in on the theory I’d come
up with. They didn’t exactly pin a medal on me, but they weren’t as pissed off as
I thought they’d be, given the number of penal codes I’d violated in the process.
They were even moderately courteous, which is unusual in their treatment of me. Unfortunately,
none of it took that long and before I knew it, I was standing at the Ackermans’ front
door again.
I rang the bell and waited, bad jokes running through my head. Well, there’s good
news and bad news, Robert. The good news is we’ve wrapped it up with hours to spare
so you won’t have to pay me the full three hundred dollars we agreed to. The bad news
is your wife’s a thief, she’s probably dead, and we’re just getting out a warrant
now, because we think we know where the body’s stashed.
The door opened and Robert was standing there with a finger to his lips. “The kids
are down for their naps,” he whispered.
I nodded elaborately, pantomiming my understanding, as though the silence he’d imposed
required this special behavior on my part.
He motioned me in and together we tiptoed through the house and out to the backyard,
where we continued to talk in low tones. I wasn’t sure which bedroom the little rug
rats slept in, and I didn’t want to be responsible for waking them.
Half a day of playing papa to the boys had left Robert looking disheveled and sorely
in need of relief.
“I didn’t expect you back this soon,” he whispered.
I found myself whispering too, feeling anxious at the sense of secrecy. It reminded
me of grade school somehow, the smell of autumn hanging in the air, the two of us
perched on the edge of the sandbox like little kids, conspiring. I didn’t want to
break his heart, but what was I to do?
“I think we’ve got it wrapped up,” I said.
He looked at me for a moment, apparently guessing from my expression that the news
wasn’t good. “Is she okay?”
“We don’t think so,” I said. And then I told him what I’d learned, starting with the
embezzlement and the relationship with Gavin, taking it right through to the quarrel
the travel agent had heard. Robert was way ahead of me.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“We don’t know it for a fact, but we suspect as much.”
He nodded, tears welling up. He wrapped his arms around his knees and propped his
chin on his fists. He looked so young. I wanted to reach out and touch him. “She was
really having an affair?” he asked plaintively.
“You must have suspected as much,” I said. “You said she was restless and excited
for months. Didn’t that give you a clue?”
He shrugged one shoulder, using the sleeve of his T-shirt to dash at the tears trickling
down his cheeks. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess.”
“And then you stopped by the office Friday afternoon and found her getting ready to
leave the country. That’s when you killed her, isn’t it?”
He froze, staring at me. At first, I thought he’d deny it, but maybe he realized there
wasn’t any point. He nodded mutely.
“And then you hired me to make it look good, right?”
He made a kind of squeaking sound in the back of his throat, and sobbed once, his
voice reduced to a whisper again. “She shouldn’t have done
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