The Happy Housewife (Samantha Sherman Book 1) (15 page)

Sam realized that she wasn’t helping Celine, so she tried to back off, “Sorry, I’m sure you’re sick of repeating yourself about all this. I don’t mean to push you. I’m just so glad that Dwayne is all right.”

Celine looked startled, “Oh, you’re not pushing me. It’s actually nice to have someone talk to me. I think most people feel badly but don’t know what to say so they keep their distance. I’ve gotten lots of sympathetic looks today but not a lot of contact. Pat and I actually need a break from going back and forth about things with just each other. There is more going on than the awfulness of what happened to Dwayne and Evelyn.” Celine paused, as if remembering where she was and both she and Sam simultaneously checked out the grave site. People were still arriving and they could see the priest talking with Jamie and Byron.

Seemingly satisfied that the ceremony was not about to start, Celine continued, “As I said before, the police were really kind about talking with Dwayne. Detective Barrett, Nathan, sat with him and really eased into it. I could tell he believed him too. We were so happy about Dwayne, but then Nathan explained that they weren’t satisfied with William’s answers and would need to question him further. You see, William was headed out to the construction site for a party, but he won’t name the names of anyone else who was headed out there with him. I guess he’s trying to protect his friends from underage drinking charges, but it’s making it look like he’s connected somehow to what happened.”

Sam put her arm around Celine and gave her a little hug, “I’m sure William will do the right thing. Besides, I’ve actually met Detective Barrett and he’s a little gung ho. I bet Detective Vitriola will pull him back.”

“Oh, Nathan was great, really nice with Dwayne and pretty good with William. I actually don’t blame him for getting frustrated with William. The detective told William repeatedly that they won’t do anything to any of his friends. I don’t understand why William doesn’t get it. We even told him we don’t blame him for what happened to Dwayne. I’m not happy about the party, but Dwayne made his own decision to follow William out there and neither one of them knew that those terrorist people would be there.”

“I’m so sorry, Celine. William is a kid who is so ‘together.’ Maybe he’s just embarrassed to be caught being involved with a party like this. Plus, I’m sure he feels guilty about his brother. Maybe he’s in denial. I’m sure he’ll come around.”

Celine bit her lip and nodded, hugging Sam back with one arm. “I hope so,” she said.

The last of the mourners had drifted in and the final ceremony began. Sam let the words drift over her and stared at the family. They were the only ones sitting down. Jamie seemed to be leaning heavily on Byron who was holding her tightly with one arm and holding Madison’s hand with the other. Sarah was on Madison’s other side gently playing with her hair. Madison looked as though she didn’t know what to do or how to act. Everyone else just appeared drained. It seemed as though there might be other relatives behind them but Sam wasn’t that familiar with the Myer’s extended family. There must be grandparents around somewhere
.

The service at the gravesite went quickly and afterwards attendees filed past the family to give hugs and say a final good-bye. It was just about noon and the morning breeze was now gone. Sam realized she hadn’t put on any sunscreen and mentally kicked herself. She felt like she was slowly baking herself in the sun. She really tried to watch getting sunburned. She could feel the sweat rolling down her back. She tried to subtly wipe her brow as she shuffled forward in the line to pay her respects.

Sam attempted to be patient, giving herself the lecture she would have given Lindsey in the same situation. She just wanted the condolences to be over with. She tried instead to think of something to say, a message that would help. She didn’t want to say the same thing as when she went by the Myer’s house earlier in the week.

Finally, it was her turn. She embraced Jamie first and murmured her condolences. Jamie seemed out of it but smiled at Sam and thanked her. Sam moved down the line giving Madison a big hug. Poor kid.

Finished with the line, Sam felt tremendous relief. Suddenly the prospect of dealing with Helen and the police didn’t seem like such a heavy burden. Things could be a lot worse
.
She thought of the Myer and Walters families as she walked to her car. She opened the car door and could feel the heat roll out of it. She leaned over and put her key in the ignition, started the car, and then waited, giving the car a second to cool down to at least the temperature outside. When that was completed, she hopped in and headed for home.

S
am arrived home at 12:30 p.m., with just enough time for a shower before Don arrived.
Excellent
, she thought. She raced in, shouted hello to Helen, reminded her about what was available for lunch, and then headed straight upstairs to her bedroom. Standing under the cool spray of the shower felt heavenly; calming and soothing. Sam stretched and reached for her towel. She mentally planned out her outfit, and then realized that she didn’t need to dress up for this meeting with Don and Helen. After, all this was Helen’s problem, not hers. Besides, she felt comfortable with Don.

Sam hurriedly grabbed soft jean shorts and an old Coast Guard T-shirt. She left her hair wet and pulled it back in a loose bun. She put on a little moisturizer and lip balm and smiled at herself in the mirror. It was nice to be clean, comfortable, and in the air-conditioning!

Once she was done getting ready, Sam headed downstairs. She still had about ten minutes to get food together for herself and Don. She found Helen in front of the television, well, sort of in front of the television. Helen was actually standing in the family room staring in the general vicinity of the television. A rerun of
All in the Family
was playing.

“Hi, Helen. How are you doing?”

Helen turned around and smiled. She really looked like an every-grandmother. Sam had one set of grandparents left alive that lived close by in Alexandria, Virginia. They were in their late eighties, but Sam thought that they looked the same age, if not a bit better than Helen.
Maybe losing your husband and child does that to you?
Sam mentally chastised herself.

Helen responsed, “I’m good. Well, I’m nervous. I just think this could go so badly today. I don’t know what to say.”

“I would just be honest and tell Detective Vitriola exactly who was at your place on Sunday. I would be careful about shading too much. He is very nice but he sounded the most stern that I’ve ever heard him when I spoke to him to arrange this meeting. You want Detective Vitriola on your side.”

Helen nodded as Sam talked, which Sam had noticed was a habit of hers. Sam suddenly remembered why she had come downstairs. She sped herself up and went to grab the lunch bread. She had promised Don lunch and she could use something herself. “Did you get lunch, Helen?”

“I’m good. I had some cottage cheese. That was about all I could get down.”

Sam smiled sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Helen. This will be over soon though. You know, sometimes during my flying days when I was faced with a task I didn’t like, I would imagine what I was going to do afterwards. Like if I had dunker training, which I hated, I’d picture the meal I would eat after and maybe what movie I would rent. It would really help me.” Sam shrugged, realizing the situations weren’t exactly parallel. “I realize your situation is harder of course.”

“No, that’s a great idea, hon. I’ll try,” said Helen. Sam figured Helen was just being nice to her.

Sam finished the sandwiches and had a couple bites of hers before she heard the doorbell ring. She quickly swiped some water on her hands and dried them on her shorts as she headed to the door. She could see Helen stiffen in the archway between the kitchen and the family room out of the corner of her eye. Helen looked like she was in the military standing at attention.

Sam quickly reached the door and opened it with a huge smile on her face. “Hi … oh, Detective Barrett?” She finished in a question mark and suddenly wished she had gotten dressed and done her hair. Her smile froze and felt shrunk, like a twelve-year-old. The detective had that impatient look on his face that she had seen at Helen’s house.

“Hello, Mrs. Sherman. Don had to go out to Loudoun County at the last minute so I’m here to interview Mrs. Thomas.”

“Oh, o-of course, please come in.” Sam stood back to let him in, cursing herself for her slight nervous stutter when she spoke. Nathan was dressed in slacks, a dress shirt with long sleeves, and a tie. He must be incredibly hot. Sam couldn’t see any sweat on him though. Darn it. She thought for a second about suggesting that they talk on the back deck instead of in the air–conditioning, but stopped herself. She didn’t want to be petty, even if it sounded like a lot of fun.

Nathan walked past her. She peered at his neck as he walked by, determined to find at least one drop of sweat. He looked down at her suddenly and she realized she was staring intently at him. This was not going well.

Without being told where to go, Nathan headed to the kitchen, seemingly done with her. She trailed after him, desperately trying to think of something brilliant and cutting to say. He seemed bigger than she remembered, definitely more football player than tennis player
.
She stopped, shook her head, counted quickly to five, and continued after him.

Sam walked into the kitchen as Nathan was greeting Helen. He seemed abrupt with her too. Helen looked so fragile and scared. Sam’s heart leapt for her. Don would have been so much better. This guy was going to take Helen apart.

“… I understand you have some additional information for us, Mrs. Thomas?” Nathan’s voice was calm but firm. “I’ll be very straightforward with you. If I was running this investigation we would be at the office and this would be very,
very
official. If this venue was agreed on earlier that’s fine, but if I feel as though I’m not getting full, open answers, we will need to go to the office. Do we understand each other?”

Sam thought Helen was going to fall over. She had reached out while Nathan spoke and was clutching one of the kitchen chairs with white knuckles. It looked like her breathing was shallow and she was doing her usual listening nod more quickly than normal.
I hope she doesn’t faint,
thought Sam.

Sam pulled herself together and quickly moved to Helen’s side. Even though she didn’t approve of Helen’s past, she hated to see her bullied. “Why don’t you sit down, Helen?” She put one hand on Helen’s back and used the other to maneuver the chair she was clutching away from the table so Helen could sit down. Helen’s body seemed to go limp and Sam was easily able to maneuver her into the chair. “I’m sure Detective Barrett realizes that the only reason you would have forgotten information is that one of your best friends was murdered in your house and you were in shock.” Sam deliberately used frank language and stared directly at Nathan as she finished. Back off, you jerk, she yelled internally.

Nathan gazed right back at her, paused for a couple of beats and then set his battered briefcase on the table. He then lowered his eyes to the table and began to pull out some items; a pen, a notepad, and a small recording device.

Sam found herself getting anxious. Why didn’t he say anything? Was he just going to completely ignore her?

After what seemed like an eternity, Nathan looked up at Helen, now seated opposite him in a chair with her hands folded tightly together, and at Sam, trying to look nonchalant behind her, “Mrs. Sherman,” Nathan said in that familiar patronizing voice, “I am ready to speak with Mrs. Thomas regarding the facts that she withheld during our last interview. I understand that Don indicated that you could sit with Mrs. Thomas while we talked?”

Sam nodded and started to speak but cut herself off when she saw Nathan’s face darken and he put his hand up a bit. “Mrs. Sherman, you can stay but if you break in again I’m going to have to ask you to leave. This is a police matter and you have no involvement in this investigation whatsoever. I’ve seen you twice now getting over involved. I understand that perhaps this is more than your usual excitement, being a housewife, but this is the real world, not
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
. I have a job to do, and I will do it either here unofficially or officially down at the police station. If you make it hard to do this by interrupting and interfering, I’m going to need to do this officially. Understand?”

Sam nodded again, biting her lip to keep from asking sarcastically if she needed a lawyer. She knew enough from when she was in the military about when a person, particularly a man, was at a breaking point. She sensed he meant what he said, so for Helen’s sake,
sure, Sam, it’s just because of Helen,
she would keep quiet. Well, she hoped Nathan enjoyed this small amount of power he could wield over her. He probably had a miserable home life. She looked at his ringless left hand and decided on the spot that his wife had left him and he was just a bitter divorcee who went home at night, drank too much and fell asleep in front of the television. Alone. Depressed. Crying.

“Okay. Let’s sit down and we’ll go through this from the beginning, slowly and thoroughly.” Nathan went ahead and pulled out the chair opposite Helen and, without being invited to, sat down.

Sam pulled out the chair that was on the side of the table which put her between Helen on one end and Nathan on the other.

Nathan’s voice immediately lost the patronizing tone and became business like. He first asked what Helen had left out of her original story. She proceeded to tell him everything she had already told Sam. In fact, Sam could not believe how forthcoming Helen was. Nathan really must have scared her
.
After being so secretive for all these years, Helen just poured out everything. She included all the information about Clint, Marjorie, and Pete’s existence. The only thing she didn’t cover was what motive her friends might have had to be involved in the killing.