It was all he could do not to run to his car and speed back to his house. But he kept his cool; took deep, even breaths; and willed his daughter to be as smart as he’d raised her to be. He exhaled loudly when the boys finally said their goodbyes and ambled off down the drive. As Lauren safely entered the house and he heard the click of the lock turning behind her, he exited out of the security app in time to see the body bag hefted onto the stretcher. The attendants began pushing it over rocks and uneven ground up to the ambulance parked several hundred yards away, waiting to take the person—whomever he was—to be identified. Now Nico would wait to see if his questions would be answered, and whether those answers would spark a great many more questions.
Polly
She listened to the message a second time, making sure she had a handle on the situation, keeping the panic at bay a moment longer. This time it wasn’t Calvin calling, but Dwight, her personal banker, letting her know that her husband had been to the bank and would she please call him back because he had “some concerns.” She clutched the phone to her chest, rolled her eyes to the ceiling as if seeking heavenly aid, though she and the Lord had stopped speaking years ago. It was never too late to ask, she thought. She recalled her second husband, Paul Ferry, who had loved God far more than he’d loved her. In the end, it had come between them.
During that marriage, she’d carted Norah to church, well, religiously. Maybe that had done damage to the child, brought them all to this point in time. Norah had known Polly was no church lady, eyeing her with a knowing that made Polly so uncomfortable she had scolded the child. Polly had pretended to be someone she was not so that Paul Ferry would love her. Had this been a message she’d transferred to her daughter? That it’s OK to be duplicitous for the sake of a man?
She’d been a bad mother. That was why she was here; that was why Norah was in jail. In that moment, guilt joined anxiety, a dynamic duo that could take her out completely if given the time. But she couldn’t give in to them. Not today, with Violet coming home from school and dinner to make. You worry about one thing at a time, she told herself. Now, you call Dwight. Later, you figure out where you went wrong with your only child. She hit the button to return the call.
“Dwight?” she asked when he answered. “What’s going on?” She had intended to keep the panic out of her voice, but she failed from the get-go.
“Well, Calvin was here. And we just about didn’t get him out. I thought he was maybe gonna pull some kind of siege until we got you here. Like a hostage situation?”
“Uh-huh,” she agreed, picturing Calvin stalking back and forth in front of a cowering Dwight. In her mind he held some sort of automatic weapon, though Calvin possessed no such thing. He did own a shotgun, though. And a little pistol. She’d never bothered to consider what kind.
“After he left, I had a talk with our manager about getting one of those scanners for weapons installed. I’ll be honest, Polly, he seems unhinged.”
Dwight was also not able to keep the panic out of his voice.
“Yeah, he keeps leaving me messages when I don’t answer his calls,” she said. “He’s getting angrier.”
“And you’re sure he doesn’t know where you are?”
She looked over her shoulder, as if Calvin might be lurking. “Pretty sure,” she said.
“You better make certain sure. He’s looking hard for you. And hell-bent on finding you.” She shivered a little at his choice of the words hell-bent. Calvin had more than a little of the devil in him.
She thought about calling the police, but to tell them what? The last thing she needed was questions about her money. And if she called the police, they might start digging deeper because of her connection to a suspected criminal. No. She was on her own with this one. “I’m somewhere he would never know to track me down at, and I’ve got the GPS turned off on my phone so he can’t see where I am. I think I’m safe.”
“OK,” Dwight said, though he didn’t sound convinced. “Just one thought—I know it was your money that you brought into the marriage, and I certainly understand your desire to keep it. But in a court of law, he might be able to get half of it. You sure you shouldn’t just hand it over, issue him divorce papers, and turn him loose?”
“Maybe,” she said to appease Dwight, to make him think she was being reasonable. The truth was, this was her money, brought into the marriage by her, and certainly not earned together. Calvin had already spent more than his share, helping himself with the entitlement that only a good-looking man could possess. She didn’t intend to hand any more over just because Calvin was potentially violent. She’d dealt with violent men before and lived to tell the tale. She’d take her chances with this one.
“Well, you think on it, and contact me if you’d like to make some arrangements. I’d be happy to meet you somewhere, get the money to give him, and then you could be free to go on about your business, whatever it is.”
“That’s kind of you, Dwight, and above and beyond the call of duty.”
Dwight laughed nervously. “I’m just protecting my own neck, truth be told. I’d like to know that joker isn’t going to be a problem. I really don’t want to see him ever again.”
“Me neither,” said Polly.
She promised to call Dwight once she’d made her decision, even though her decision was already made. She would hunker down and hope that Calvin would eventually give up and move on to some other sugar mama. She tried not to think about how relentless he’d been in his pursuit of her, how determined he’d been, wearing her down like water wears down a rock. Eventually she’d just given in. But she was done giving in to men, letting go of things she valued—her money, her pride, her daughter—to keep them happy. She thought about Norah, staying in jail instead of giving in and producing her client list. She would take a page from her daughter’s book and stand her ground, despite her fear. What was that quote someone had posted on Facebook? “Courage is being afraid and doing it anyway.” Something like that.
“One more thing,” Dwight said as she was about to hang up. “You never told me you had a daughter. All this time I thought you never had children.”
Her blood went from hot to cold in an instant. “What makes you say that?” she asked, even though she knew the answer.
“Calvin mentioned it. He said you were probably hiding out with your daughter. Is that where you are?”
She swallowed, her heart flopping wildly inside her chest. She wondered how in the world Calvin could’ve found out about Norah. And if he knew she had a daughter, then he might also know her name, or where she lived. She’d underestimated Calvin.
Polly chose her words in response to Dwight carefully, hoping she sounded far calmer than she was. “I prefer not to say where I am,” she said. “You understand.” A feeling came over her: the feeling that Dwight might not be entirely on her side. Never trust a man, her gut told her. Even one as benign as Dwight Richards. “I better go, Dwight,” she said. “Thanks for your concern.”
“I’ll wait for your call,” he said.
“OK,” she trilled, forcing herself to sound unconcerned as she hung up the phone. “Don’t hold your breath,” she said aloud as silence on the other end told her Dwight was no longer there.