The May Day Murders (44 page)

“
I know.”

“
I have a confession to
make,” Sam announced. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I’ve
just decided to tell you after all. It might make you feel a little
better.”

“
What is it?” Ann asked
suspiciously.

“
You weren’t the only one
suckered by Stanley Jenkins. I was, too.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
The night that Shelley
Hatcher came to see me was the first time I’d seen her since our
divorce. It was really late at night—about 2:00 A.M.—and I wondered
at the time why in the hell she’d come out of the clear blue like
that after all of this time. When I asked her about it, she told me
that she wanted me to see her photo portfolio so I could give her
my assessment of it. It had been pouring rain to beat the band that
night and she had traveled all the way from Kentucky just to show
me her fucking portfolio? Well, I was skeptical, to say the
least.

“
Anyway, I looked it over—it
was okay but not that great—and I started thinking that she had
really come over to get some romantic thing going. Well, one thing
led to another and we ended up sleeping together that night. Of
course, I figured that my hunch was right—“

“
Why are you telling me
this, Sam?” Ann interrupted, angry and hurt.

“
Hold on, sweetie—there’s
more.”

“
I don’t want to hear
it!”

“
Yes, you do. Hear me out,
okay? I promise you that you’ll want to hear this.”

“
Okay, if you insist,” Ann
replied irritably.

“
It turns out that Shelley
had truly come to show me her portfolio. Earlier that day, Shelley
had been at a McDonald’s having lunch—she works at a jewelry store
in Ashland—and she just so happened to have taken her portfolio
with her. A man sitting at her table saw her looking through her
pictures and asked if he could take a look at them. Shelley said
sure, so the guy checked out her photos. When he was through, he
told her that they were excellent, adding that he of course wasn’t
a photo critic by any stretch of the imagination.

“
He then asked Shelley if
she had shown her portfolio to someone in the business recently—to
get an honest professional opinion. She mentioned that the only pro
she could think of offhand was her old mentor at the newspaper she
had used to work at, which of course happens to be yours truly. The
stranger insisted that she should by all means look me up and show
me her work as soon as possible; that, for all she knew I could
line her up with some work. This got her wheels turning and the
seed was planted for her to pay me a visit. Now, would you like to
take a stab at who this stranger was?”

“
Stanley?” Ann replied,
incredulous.

“
Right, it was our
boy.”

“
But why?”

“
Don’t you get it? Stanley
wanted to assure his success with you so he was determined to do
anything he could to achieve that goal. He knew that if he could
somehow get Shelley and me back together, even if it was only for a
chat, there was the slim chance that it would somehow get back to
you. That would of course caused more dissension between us, which
we know it did, and as a result would sort of help clear the way
for him to get you to fall for him that much easier.”

“
Jesus!” Ann cried. “He was
certainly methodical! How did you find all of this out?”

“
Shelley called me last week
and told me the whole story after she’d seen Stanley’s photo in the
paper. She feels horrible about it because she realizes now what
she had done. But there’s no way that she, or any of us, could have
even guessed that Jerry Rankin was in fact actually Stanley
Jenkins. In fact, Roger and everybody else involved in this case
have all but agreed that Stanley might never have been caught if it
hadn’t been for that Polaroid Amy sent me. As a matter of fact, we
can thank our daughter for solving this case!”

“
Our daughter and her
father,” Ann corrected.

“
Well, yeah, I guess you
could say that,” Sam said humbly.

A short pause, then Ann said,
“Sam?”

“
Yeah, babe.”

“
Do you really think it’s
over between you and Shelley Hatcher? I mean, totally
over?”

“
Definitely,” Sam replied
flatly.

“
You sure?”

“
Sure I’m sure. Beyond a
shadow of doubt,” Sam emphasized, wondering what this line of
questioning was leading up to.

“
Are your parents still
flying up for Thanksgiving?”

“
Yup. They’ll be here on the
22nd. Why?”

“
I was just thinking, why
don’t we all have Thanksgiving together—like a family.Just like we
did last year.”

“
Are you serious?” Sam
asked, not believing his ears.

“
Yes, I’m serious. I don’t
want to be alone anymore, Sam. I miss you and I miss the three of
us being a family. Amy does, too. And the mere thought of going
through the Holidays without you is unbearable. In fact, I don’t
think I could do it.”

“
Does this mean…?’

“
Yes, Sam. I’m ready to come
home. God, am I ready!”

Sam nearly leaped out of his chair,
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that, honey! It’s been a
living hell not having you and Amy around. I miss you two so much,
I—”

“
Let me say it first,” Ann
interjected. “I love you, Sam Middleton. Always have, always will.
For better, or for worse, I love you!”

“
I love you too, honey!” Sam
said, as a thought suddenly came to mind. “But what about Amy and
school?”

“
I’ve already spoken to Amy
and the school’s principal about it. She’ll have to finish this
semester and then she can transfer her credits to Smithtown High.
Amy’s all for it and can’t wait to see her old friends
again.”

“
That’s great! When does the
semester end?”

Christmas break, December 20, I
believe.”

“
Think we can wait until
then?”

“
We’ll have to,
unfortunately, but we’ve always got the weekends in the
meantime.”

“
I guess that will have to
do.”

“
Do you have a stove in that
bungalow of yours, Sam? For a turkey?”

“
Uh, yeah. It’s not too big
but it should be able to accommodate a fair sized bird.”

“
That’s good,” Ann said, a
trace of disappointment in her voice.

Sam knew what was eating her: the
reality of the three of them living in this tiny house in the
boondocks. He already had an answer for that.

“
By the way, I forgot to
tell you,” he said. “I was at the bank a few days ago and ran into
Paul Malone. It seems that he’s getting transferred to Columbus at
the beginning of the year.”

“
You’re kidding!” Ann cried.
“So he’s moving his family up here?”

“
Yup.”

“
And the house?”

“
Putting it up for sale next
week.”

“
Oh God, Sam. I don’t
believe it! Is there any way—”

“
That we could get our old
house back?” Sam finished the sentence for her. “That shouldn’t be
a problem, if that’s what you want to do.”

“
Oh Sam, yes! Let’s do
it!”

“
Consider it
done.”

“
Wait until Amy hears this!
She’s almost missed that house as much as I have. She bitches about
this place all the time. God Sam, you’re wonderful! I love you so
much!”

“
That goes for me, too. And
tell that kid of mine the same, okay?”

“
I will. I’d better go now.
I think I’ll take a walk and try to come back down to earth, I’m so
excited now, I’m almost sick!”

“
I know what you mean. I’ll
call you tomorrow, honey. We’ve got a lot of planning to
do.”

“
Okay. Love you,
dear!”

“
Love you, too.”

Sam was grinning ear to ear as he hung
up the phone. He breathed a deep sigh, slid a fresh sheet of paper
into the carrier and hit the keys with a flourish:

CHAPTER 1

The little town of Foxburg,
Ohio was in shock the day that…