Paper-Thin Walls

by Melanie Jones Brownrigg

  My mother glared at me. “According to Sarah, your neighbor tried to choke you, shoved you to the floor and threatened to kill you. What’s going on, Hailey?”

  I sighed, sucked in a long breath and spilled my guts about everything. About Bill beating Kenna. Me trying to help Kenna. Kenna asking for help. And finally, about our escape plan. “But then Bill came home and that was the last I ever saw of her. The landlady was nice enough to let me inside to check on her. Kenna wasn’t there, so I reported her as having been murdered.” I told them all about the trip to Hillsboro. “Bill’s been taken in for questioning, but Detective Sutton said the police need to find the body, or else Bill will probably walk. He’s going to get a warrant to search the basement storage locker, the boiler, and the furnace. Hopefully, they’ll find something.”

  “Why, Hailey!?” Ryan implored of me. “I can’t believe you’ve been living next to a murderer all this time … and with our son. What could you have possibly been thinking?”

  “Ryan’s right,” my mother sided. “You know you’re welcome here. Why didn’t you just come here?”

  “Look, Bill only first threatened me on Monday evening. Besides, I didn’t think he was a murderer until Kenna disappeared. Today’s Saturday and I’ve already managed to get him arrested. I did okay in handling the situation on my own.”

  They both shook their heads at me.

  My gaze went from one of them to the other. “Adam was here on Wednesday night, and Bill was sound asleep Thursday night and last night. Besides, he thought he had fooled everyone with his lie about Kenna being down in Hillsboro. There wasn’t anything to worry about.”

  They both shook their heads at me again.

  “Well, he’s in jail now. And my clothes and toiletries are in the car since I’ve already decided I’m not going back. And as for the other nights, that’s spilled milk. So, get off my case about it.” I really didn’t need a lecture from them. I was a full-grown woman and could make my own decisions.

  “Well, that’s good. At least you’ve come to your senses,” my mother said in a judgmental tone.

  “Good, then you’re coming home with me,” Ryan insisted. “You should’ve never left in the first place.” He gave me a condescending look. “And you want to know why, Hailey? I’ll tell you why,” he said without giving me a chance to say anything. “Because I was right all along. I told you I wasn’t in any shape to have sex with Shannon Lowry. Now I can prove it. I have recordings of that night. I downloaded them on the computer and put copies on my phone.” He pulled his cell from his pocket and located his video app. “Here, watch this.” He shoved his mobile at me and hit the play button in the process.

  The video simply showed him walking out of the Bottles Up Distillery. He was alone, which didn’t prove anything to me. He’d obviously hooked up with Shannon Lowry at some point. “Is that it?” I asked, thinking he needed to come up with something better.

  “First off, it shows that I walked out without stumbling and within the timeframe I told you’d I’d be leaving. Don’t you see, I wasn’t drunk. Secondly, I’m alone and on my way home.”

  “Well, you didn’t quite make it home, did you? And if you weren’t drunk, then you were certainly able to sexually perform, weren’t you?” I remarked with a bit of an attitude.

  “Fine, whatever. Keep watching.” He accessed the next thumbnail and hit the play button. The video showed the door to some building being held open by Shannon Lowry, while James Patterson hauled Ryan inside. Ryan looked passed out. James was having trouble getting him down the hallway and then they disappeared. But clearly, Ryan was not conscious.

  “That was me … the one who couldn’t possibly sexually perform,” he said with a huge I-told-you-so expression on his face. “They set me up. I have a feeling James Patterson wanted the keys to my office so he could steal my project on the Clark Anders Development Center and present it as his own. As for Shannon, I can’t for the life of me figure out why she was in on it or why in the world she posed us naked and texted me a picture of us. But I’m telling you, Hailey, just like I told you all along … I did not cheat on you.”

  I watched the video again. Then again. “This is crazy,” I remarked after watching if for the third time.

  “I wish I would’ve kept that picture she texted. I couldn’t bear to look at it, so I deleted it. But I’ll bet you anything if I’d examined it closely enough, it would’ve easily shown that I was completely out of it.”

  “I kept it,” I said. “I figured you’d delete it, so I forwarded it to myself, thinking I might need it.” Ryan scowled at me, realizing I had saved the ammunition. Ignoring him, I pulled my phone from my purse and located it. “See here it is.”

  My mother gasped. “Her boobs are everywhere,” she yelped, throwing a hand over her mouth.

  It suddenly hit me. “Shannon meant to pose that way, so we’d barely focus on Ryan and be completely distracted by her large bosom. That way, we wouldn’t realize Ryan was passed out.” Sure enough, once we enlarged the picture, you could tell Ryan’s head was drooped to the side and his eyes were closed. I also knew from years of having sex with Ryan that if he had been focused, his hands would’ve been gripping her hips and his eyes would’ve been on her breasts. Alternatively, if he would’ve been in the moment of ecstasy, his face would have been tight, and his eyes squinted. In this picture, he wasn’t engaged. He was passed out.

  Ryan was telling the truth. He didn’t cheat on me. It all fit together, roofies were good at erasing memories from the night before. It was no wonder he couldn’t remember what happened.

  “What do you think, Hailey? Do you believe me now?” Ryan asked with a smug look on his face.

  My head bobbed up and down. “Yes, I believe you!”

  He bounded out of his chair and threw his arms around me. “Then tell me you’re coming home.”

  “Oh Ryan, I’m sorry I ever doubted you. I love you and I never stopped loving you. And yes, I’m definitely coming home!”

  “Well, there’s another sensible decision you’ve made today,” my mother observed, getting in on a group hug.

  “Oh, thank God,” Ryan cried, his voice breaking with the force of emotion. “I thought I’d lost you forever. Thank goodness. And I love you Hailey, so very much,” Ryan said into my ear. “Can we please go home?”

  “Yes, let’s go home.”

  My dad and Adam came to see what the raucous was all about. “We’re going home with Daddy,” I uttered.

  “Are we really?”

  “Yes, really,” I assured him.

  Adam’s gaze jumped from Ryan to me and then burst in an explosion of happiness. “Yippie, I get my room back.”

  Ryan and my dad planned to meet up tomorrow and move everything back from my apartment. “There’s no need for you to even be there. That maniac could be released from jail at any moment,” my dad warned.

  “I’ll be glad for you guys to do it,” I quickly agreed.

  Within a few minutes we were leaving. Another fifteen minutes later and we were home. An hour later we had Adam in bed. Then it was our turn.

  Ryan leaned against the dresser, giving me a look. I approached him slowly. Easing my arms around his back and gently caressing him with my fingertips, I tenderly planted a kiss on his lips.

  He hauled me into his chest with a dramatic force and his mouth devoured mine.

  One clothing item at a time, I took my time discarding first my blouse, then my dress pants. I made a show of taking off my bra and wriggling out of my underwear.

  Ryan ripped his clothes off in one second flat.

  The bed was already unmade. But I slipped gingerly underneath the covers.

  Ryan pounced in next to me, causing the bed to creak and groan with his exuberant entrance.

  My hands delicately smoothed across his face, his chest, his back and his butt.

  Ryan grabbed hold of my face, my boobs, my back and my butt.

  While my advancements were subdued, his
were harsh. I was saying our relationship was fragile and I never wanted to break it again. He was saying he missed the heck out of me, and abstinence had been killing him. We were two people making love, and even though our techniques were completely different, what we were both saying was that we loved each other very much.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Hailey

  When my eyes first opened on Sunday morning, I found myself pleasantly snuggled next to my husband. Ten minutes later, we unwrapped ourselves and shifted apart so our four-year-old son could climb in between us.

  “I like being in my own room and sleeping in my own bed,” Adam announced as he edged his tiny frame in between us.

  “I like you being in your own room and in your own bed,” Ryan agreed. “Tell Momma she can’t ever go away again.”

  “Momma, don’t ever, ever, ever go away again. I want to live here forever,” Adam said, his big old brown eyes beseeching mine.

  My face broke into a smile. “Well, okay, you two have talked me into it,” I wholeheartedly agreed.

  “Can we have pancakes?” Adam asked.

  “Absolutely. And bacon,” I added.

  For the first time in a long time, Ryan fried the bacon while I flipped pancakes. We let Adam pour the orange juice. He spilled some, but we both looked the other way and thanked him for helping. One trip at a time, our son slowly carried each glass to the dining room table and when he disappeared for the third time, I wet a napkin and quickly wiped up his spillage.

  As soon as breakfast was over and the dishes were done, Ryan gave my dad a call to let him know he was ready to go get my stuff. It wasn’t much. A few clothes remained. There was the loveseat, the bedroom suit, a card table, four folding chairs and a few kitchen items and some food.

  “Oh, I bought Adam a twin bed. I’ll rearrange his room so that we can put the new one on the opposite wall from the other one. He and Jack are getting to the age they can have sleepovers. It’ll give Jack a place to sleep.”

  “That’s a good idea. Anything else?”

  “Yes, a TV. It’s sitting on the floor in the living room.”

  “Sweet, I’ll set it up in our bedroom.”

  “The keys,” Ryan said when he saw my dad pulling up in his truck.

  “Here you go. I’ll have Adam’s room ready by the time you return.”

  He paused a moment at the door. “I love you Hailey, and I’m so glad to have you back home.”

  “I love you too and it’s good to be home.” I strolled over to him and planted a kiss on his lips. “I missed you. I missed us.”

  He nodded his agreement and kissed me. “We’ll be back in no time.”

  After waving a good morning to my dad, I went upstairs to find Adam playing with his building blocks.

  “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to move back a little. Mama’s going to shuffle a few things around.”

  “Can I help?” he sweetly asked.

  “You sure can. If you’ll move these books, it would be a big help.”

  Adam’s twin-size bed was to the far left when you walked in. To the right, against the wall, was a chest of drawers, a toy box and a bookcase.

  Adam delicately stacked five tiny books in his hands. “Where to Mama?”

  “For now, just place them on your bed.”

  One limited handful at a time, he began toting the books across the room and to his bed while I removed the drawers from the chest. Adam didn’t have a nightstand. So, I dragged the chest to where it would separate the two soon-to-be-twin beds and plugged his galaxy projection lamp back in, then replaced the drawers. Next, I dragged his toy box over to the foot of his bed. Then I helped Adam with the remaining books until I could manage the heft of the bookcase. Once the weight was off, I dragged it against the wall to the left of his closet. Finally, we replaced the books. Now we had a nice vacant spot where the twin bed would easily fit.

  Adam stood back and surveyed the results. “There’s a big empty spot. It looks weird.”

  “Daddy and Papa are bringing your other bed over and they’re going to set it up there.”

  “I’ll have two beds!” he exclaimed. “How will I know which one to sleep in?”

  “You’ll keep sleeping in that bed. The new one will be where your friends will sleep.”

  “I can have a friend stay over!” he shouted enthusiastically, his eyes shining with excitement. “Can it be Jack?”

  “You sure can. Maybe next weekend. How does that sound?”

  “All right! I can hardly wait.”

  In the few minutes before Ryan and Dad returned, I drug out the vacuum cleaner and ran it over the upstairs and then I started a load of laundry that Ryan hadn’t bothered with. While I was cleaning the bathroom, I heard the front door open, followed by male voices.

  Between the three of us, we had Dad’s truck unloaded in no time at all. “Thank you, Daddy,” I said giving him a big hug.

  “You’re welcome, sweetheart,” he said, giving me a reciprocating squeeze. Then he frowned. “Oh shoot. You know what … I forgot a box of kitchen items on the countertop.” He sighed. “I’ll go back and get it.”

  “Don’t bother, Dad. I need to go back over and let the manager know I’ve moved out. Hopefully, she’ll refund my deposit and prorate my rent since I was only there for two weeks. I’ll get it then.”

  “Oh, okay. I didn’t even think about giving notice.”

  We visited for a while and then Dad left. That afternoon, Ryan and I sat close together on the couch, each of us reading books on our tablets. It was one of our favorite pastimes … doing nothing together. Adam was on the floor in front of us, looking at picture books. We were a family once again and I couldn’t have been happier.

  Then my cell phone rang. My heart jumped into my throat when I saw Detective Sutton’s name on caller ID.

  “Hello,” I tentatively answered.

  “Hailey, this is Detective Tanner Sutton. First off, we didn’t make the news last night. I guess without a dead body, the media decided the story wasn’t big enough.” He chuckled.

  “Oh, I didn’t even think to watch for it,” I responded, recalling I was in the throes of passion right about then.

  “Anyway, I wanted to update you on what’s been going on. Irena and Belinda returned home early this morning. The Hillsboro police were watching the house and brought them in for questioning. They said they weren’t at home because Irena had a stress attack and had to go to the emergency room. Belinda stayed with her. The Hillsboro police checked with the local hospital, and Irena was admitted for an overnight stay.”

  “I can see that happening … considering what Bill’s putting them through.”

  “True,” he agreed before continuing. “I went back down there to talk to them. I interviewed them one at a time. At first, they stuck to the story that Bill brought Kenna down there because she was having pregnancy sickness. After I pointed out that Irena introduced Belinda as Kenna and Belinda posed as being Kenna and I warned them that they could be charged as accessories to a crime, aiding and abetting, they quickly changed their tune. They admitted Kenna never came to Hillsboro at all, but Bill did. He wanted them to lie for him. At first, they didn’t want any part of it. But after he knocked Belinda around a few times, causing her black eye and busted lip, they became unwilling participants, which is most likely why his mother had a stress attack.”

  “Good grief,” I muttered.

  “They agreed Bill has anger issues but were adamant that he didn’t murder Kenna. According to their new story, Kenna got up in the middle of the night and left Bill. They believe she must’ve bumped into something while she was sneaking out, which would’ve been the noise you heard. Bill told them he was sound asleep and didn’t hear her leave. When Bill woke up the next morning, he discovered she’d up and left him. They said Bill panicked that the police would think he killed her when she couldn’t be located anywhere. He didn’t think anyone would believe that she simply left on her own volition. So, Bi
ll ordered them to lie, saying he’d brought Kenna down there.”

  “That’s a lie. He killed her and then conned them into covering for him.”

  “Yeah, I know it, and you know it. But here’s the problem; we don’t have a body. As it stands right now, all we have is a mother-in-law, a sister-in-law, and a husband, all claiming Kenna left Bill while he was sound asleep. I’ve checked on Kenna’s background. She ran away from home at a young age. She’s been in and out of several foster care homes, as well as a few rehab centers. Some of that time, was spent with her living on the streets. She knows how to survive on her own. You said yourself that she came to you for help and was prepared to leave. According to you, she went home to pack to do just that. If Bill was abusing her and she wanted to protect her unborn baby, it’s not unforeseeable that she might have left Bill when the getting was good … meaning she sneaked out while he was sleeping.”

  “Then why didn’t Bill just say she ran away? Instead, he made up that whole story about taking her to Hillsboro.”

  “Let’s face it, you were the only one concerned about Kenna. If you really think about it, the only person they had to fool was me … which they did. If you hadn’t kept on, everything would’ve been fine. No one would’ve ever known Kenna was missing, or dead.”

  “But they’re lying,” I cried. “Are they going to be charged with something?”

  “With what? Lying? No. What we have here are three family members who have aligned their stories. Without a dead body, there’s no way to prove whether Bill killed her, or whether Kenna left in the middle of the night. I simply must find her remains. Otherwise, Bill’s attorney will undoubtedly file to have the charges dropped.” He paused and took in a deep breath. “Hailey, a judge will grant that motion. Without a corpse, there’s not enough evidence to proceed forward with murder charges. We’ve obtained the search warrant for his storage unit and the boiler and furnace. The storage unit has already been gone through and there wasn’t anything in there. Unless the boiler or furnace produces something, we’re going to be dead in the water, no pun intended.”