Chapter 4

Over the next few days, Margaret thought about the girl who likes to make her own coffee and clean up after herself even though nobody expected it. Jennifer was more comfortable driving her own car and eating at a seedy bar-restaurant where there were live bands on weekends, maybe a fistfight, and someone would probably fuck in the restroom or parking lot.

That said a lot about the kind of girl Jennifer might be and even more about a married woman who had immediately recognized what kind of place Jennifer took her to and felt at home there.

When Jennifer did come to the house, it was only when Tony was there, and she didn’t stay for dinner. Margaret couldn’t help assuming it was because she had mentioned Kansas, but it could have been for a number of other reasons. It wasn’t like Jennifer lived there.

She didn’t and was often gone for days and even a week or more. Still, it bothered Margaret. She told herself that was because she had blown an opportunity to get to the truth, but the house wasn’t the same without Jennifer around.

Samantha pulled herself up into the Cadillac Escalade with a groan. “Christ, I need a fuckin’ stepladder to get in this thing.”

For the first time in over a week, Margaret heard someone swear, and it was refreshing. “It’s not my fault your legs didn’t grow more.”

They laughed, and Samantha said, “Yeah, you got the legs and I got the tits.”

It had been so normal for them to joke about themselves and cut up like kids even when they weren’t young anymore. That had happened too soon; both of them were forced to grow up too fast.

“You got the ass, too,” Margaret said.

“Lucky me. You’re a well-proportioned lanky redhead, and I got to be short with big tits and a giant ass.”

“And from what I saw, the men thought that was sexy as fuck, and so do I.”

“It’s amazing how different we were and yet so much the same.”

A minute later, Margaret was still staring out the window with her head slowly nodding. Jennifer coming into her life had been a trigger for Margaret. Things that had been hidden deep, old memories, had invaded her mind. At first, it had been her subconscious mind, and Margaret hardly noticed.

But, it would have been obvious if she could have stepped out of herself and watched her interaction with Jennifer. The verbal sparring, giddiness, and slap on Jennifer’s butt were reminiscent of times past with Samantha.

Now, sitting in her hundred-thousand-dollar SUV, carrying on with Samantha, Margaret realized why she had so enjoyed dinner with Jennifer. A wave of sadness washed over her, and suddenly, there was a tear tumbling to her lap. Margaret quickly wiped her eyes, cleared her throat, and asked, “Did you find anything?”

“Are you all right,” Samantha asked as she rubbed Margaret’s forearm.

“Yes, fine, I was just lost in thought for a second.”

“Yeah, me too,” Samantha said.

“Tell me what you found.”

“Well, the good news is Jennifer never murdered anybody, and as far as I could find, she’s never been arrested, not even for drunken disorderly. Which is more than I can say for a lot of people I know.”

“So what’s the bad news?”

“Who says there’s bad news?”

“You wouldn’t have started with the good news if there wasn’t.”

“Okay, this isn’t necessarily anything bad. Maybe I missed something, but without breaking any laws, I couldn’t find anything about her living in Hutchinson or going to USC.”

“But you could have missed something?” Margaret asked.

“I could have, but more importantly, it sounds like you hope I did. Shouldn’t that tell you something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know,” Samantha said. “You’re not comfortable with this. It’s not like you.”

“Just tell me, knowing what you know, what would you do?”

“I can’t say without knowing what your motives are. What set this in motion? Why? Are you jealous?”

“Jealous! Why on earth would you say that?”

“Just a thought,” Samantha said. “You might not want her to take Tony away from you or vice versa. You do like having her around as a friend, don’t you.”

Margaret had convinced herself that she had Anthony’s best interest at heart, but really she didn’t understand why this had become so important to her. She wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to hurt someone with their past. What right did she have? “Just tell me what you would do. Assume I’m worried about Anthony getting hurt.”

“I don’t know what I would do, but if I were you, I wouldn’t use what I found. I’d talked to Jennifer ask her to tell you about herself. Give her a chance to tell you.”

“So you did find something bad.”

“Bad? Who am I to say what’s bad?”

“You know what I mean.”