Writing a Wrong

by Betty Hechtman

  At that her business-like demeanor began to melt and she leaned back in her chair. ‘If you think that means your friend is going to get a break in the rent, forget it.’

  She seemed overwrought and I genuinely felt bad for her. I glanced at the cat picture again. ‘What’s your cat’s name?’ I asked.

  Changing the subject to something personal worked and her face lit up. I’d used this technique in the first Derek Streeter book and I was glad to see it worked in real life.

  ‘His name is Harry,’ she said. She reached in her desk and brought out more pictures of him. I commented on his beauty, which was true. The cream-colored cat had big blue eyes and darker markings on his head and ears. I brought up Rocky. As soon as she recognized me as a cat person, she became friendlier. And when I told her how I’d come to adopt Rocky, she warmed even more and shared that Harry was a rescue, too. Now that we had the bond of giving homes to rescues, she relaxed completely.

  ‘I’m sorry for grilling you about your friend,’ she began. ‘It’s just that everyone living in one of our units has to be on the lease and fill out background information.’

  ‘And that’s because of what happened?’ I asked innocently.

  ‘Yes and no,’ she said. ‘It’s always been the policy, but I sort of lapsed it with him.’ She rocked her head with remorse. ‘You would have to have met him to understand. He’d been living here for months, but somehow he kept convincing me it was only going to be for a few weeks longer. He had another place that was being remodeled and each time I brought it up, he said there’d been a glitch.’ She rocked her head again. ‘I tried to get him to give me an absolute date when he’d be leaving, but he got me so twisted around, I kept letting it slide.’

  I gave her an understanding look that was legitimate, too. I’d fallen for his delays in paying me and had done everything his way. It shocked me to realize that I’d let him use my office.

  ‘I think it’s called gaslighting,’ she said. ‘You know, when someone gets you to believe something that you know isn’t so.’ She put her hands over her face for a moment. ‘And it was all a lie. It turned out he had different names and there was no condo being remodeled.’

  She sat upright suddenly. ‘What am I doing? This is so unprofessional,’ she said. ‘Please forget everything I just said. Going forward I’m going to be on top of things. So, if you intend to stay at your friend’s place, you’ll need to be on the lease.’

  I realized I’d gotten all the information I was going to get from her and she had also given me an out to leave. I simply told her I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up with my friend. ‘I’m afraid it would scare him off if I made it sound like I was moving in,’ I said.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, looking troubled, as she probably thought she’d lost out on a possible tenant. I was already standing and thanked her for her time. I looked back at her desk and was going to comment on her cat when I saw a sheet of paper. I couldn’t make out all the words, but enough to know that it was one of the ‘notes’ that Ted’d had me compose.

  Lois was the other woman getting the letters?

  I blinked at the sunlight when I came outside, my mind still reeling. I was off in my thoughts again and was startled when I heard someone call my name. As I brought my focus to the present, Detective Jankowski was standing by his black sedan.

  ‘Just guessing, but were you doing your own investigating?’ he said. Without waiting for me to answer, he continued. ‘You can put it to rest. We’ve settled the case in a manner of speaking. Once Ms Sandusky was honest and admitted that she kept samples of cough syrup with codeine, it was what we thought at first. The victim, Mr Roberts, interrupted someone attempting to steal the drug samples. There was a scuffle over a knife and Mr Roberts was stabbed.’

  ‘Then you’ve arrested a suspect?’ I said.

  ‘We’re working on it,’ he said. ‘My point is that your letters had nothing to do with it. So you can stand down.’

  I was dumbstruck. It all felt very anticlimactic. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘How about “goodbye and I’ll stay out of your business”?’ he offered.

  I didn’t move for a moment and he waved for me to go. My head was spinning as I walked the couple of blocks home. My thoughts were disjointed as I went up the outside stairs and through the vestibule. It was a burglary after all. Just not random. My thoughts flitted to meeting the detective. Not good that he’d figured out what I was doing. Derek Streeter would not be proud.

  I went up the stairs and when I got to my landing had my key pulled out. As I looked to my door I saw a package on the mat. It was about the size of a shoe box and wrapped in brown paper. My address was written on top, but there was no return address and no postage. It made me feel uneasy. The mail carrier, FedEx, Amazon and UPS always left packages outside the glass security door. It was a general rule that when any of the residents found a package out there, they brought it inside the locked door and left it near the foot of the staircase. The only thing that made sense was that this package had been personally delivered. I shook it and nothing rattled, but it felt like something was in there.

  But how had the package ended up in front of my door? I went down to Sara’s and knocked on the door, thinking she might know. I’d barely moved my hand away and the door opened. Sara and Quentin were standing in the entrance hall. They both looked drained and were just taking off their coats.

  ‘We just got home from the hospital,’ Sara said, handing her coat to Quentin. He nodded a greeting and then left to put their outer wraps away.

  Suddenly the box I was holding didn’t seem that important and I asked about Quentin’s father. Sara let out a weary sigh. ‘They did emergency surgery. He is doing OK for now, but the next twenty-four hours are the most critical.’

  Mikey came running down the hall from the back with Ben following behind. The toddler’s diaper was open on one side and appeared ready to fall off. ‘He ran off as soon as he heard you,’ Ben said to his sister. He turned to me and smiled, looking at the package in my arms. ‘You came bearing gifts?’

  I quickly explained finding the box in front of my door. ‘I wondered if you knew how it got there.’

  Sara shook her head as she made a grab for Mikey. ‘Maybe Ben can help you,’ she said, hoisting her son on her hip and going down the hall.

  Ben glanced after them. ‘How about we take this up to your place?’

  TWENTY-TWO

  ‘Why don’t you start from the beginning?’ Ben said when we got upstairs. He went into the living room and took his usual seat on the couch. I sat in the wing chair and put the box on the coffee table. He looked it over as I explained finding it in front of my door.

  ‘No return address, or postage,’ Ben said.

  ‘Right, it had to have been delivered.’

  ‘And you’re afraid to open it.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said feeling embarrassed that I was such a wimp.

  He held the box up to his ear. ‘I don’t hear anything ticking.’ He smiled to show he meant it as a joke, though I doubted anybody used wind-up clocks with bombs anymore. ‘I’ll take care of it.’ He pulled out a pocket knife and cut through the brown paper, revealing a lidded rectangular box with all the labels removed. We both looked at the lid as he prepared to lift it off. ‘Too bad we don’t have a drum roll,’ he said. I knew he was keeping it light because I was so tense.

  ‘Just open it,’ I said, finally. Then before he could act, I flipped the lid off. We both looked inside at a layer of white tissue paper. I’d gotten up my courage by now and pulled off the top layer of paper only to find more tissue paper. And then more and more until the bottom of the box was visible. ‘Nothing?’ I said, incredulous. We went back through all the tissue paper, checking to see if something was wrapped in it, but there wasn’t.

  ‘Why would somebody send me an empty box?’ I said shaking my head. ‘Who would send me an empty box?’

  Ben was already on his feet. ‘I’ll check wit
h the neighbors,’ he said, heading out the door. Thanks to all the time he spent at his sister’s, he was familiar with everybody in the building. He was only gone for a few minutes.

  ‘The Brewsters on the first floor said someone rang their bell and said they had a delivery and they buzzed the person in. The sound quality on the intercom isn’t that good so they couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman.’

  ‘I guess that’s a dead end,’ I said, staring at the box. ‘I don’t mean to keep you. You probably have to be somewhere.’

  He sat back on the couch. ‘I’ve been at my sister’s since this morning, and because they might have to go to the hospital during the night, I’m staying over.’ He glanced around the peaceful living room. The buildings across the street blocked the late afternoon sun and the room was in a soft twilight. ‘I’m glad for the break.’

  We sat in silence for a few moments, staring at the empty box.

  ‘It’s probably somebody’s idea of a prank. The best thing to do is to forget,’ he said.

  ‘Is that your personal or professional opinion?’

  He hesitated. ‘I was trying to make you feel better. It’s kind of weird, but if somebody was trying to give you a message or a warning, they probably would have put something in there.’

  ‘Like a dead something,’ I said.

  ‘Right. What kind of message is there in a box full of tissue paper?’

  We decided to let it go, which seemed like the only alternative anyway. Ben suggested we change the subject. ‘My day was filled with kids’ TV shows, trying to feed Mikey a peanut butter sandwich, trying to get peanut butter off the curtains, and picking up toys. I don’t know how my sister does it.’ He looked over at me. ‘What about your day?’

  In all the fuss about the box, I’d forgotten about the earlier part of my day. ‘Just a regular Saturday,’ I began. ‘Let’s see, I tasted some coffee, found out who Ted’s other woman was and I had a run-in with Detective Jankowski.’ I thought for a moment. ‘Maybe run-in is the wrong word choice, more like a dismissal.’

  ‘Your day beats mine, how about some details?’ By now the living room was in deep shadows and I couldn’t even make out Ben’s expression. I got up and started turning on lights as I described talking to Lois. ‘I’m afraid I used you,’ I said, and told him about the apartment ruse.

  ‘That’s what friends are for,’ he said with a smile. His smile faded when I got to the part where Lois was talking about Ted and then I told him about the note on her desk.

  ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That guy keeps seeming sleazier and sleazier.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It seems like he used the notes to make it appear he was interested in her and so she wouldn’t insist his name was on the lease,’ I said. ‘He’d have to fill out a whole form with background information.’

  ‘He probably didn’t know which name he should use,’ Ben said, trying to make a joke.

  ‘She seemed pretty upset with him. I guess he kept saying he was only staying a short time and then he’d get her confused about how long he’d been there and when he was leaving. She claimed he was gaslighting her.’

  ‘She was with Rita when she found Ted, wasn’t she?’ Ben said. ‘Maybe she already knew he was dead.’

  ‘Hold that thought,’ I said. ‘When I came out of the building, Detective Jankowski had just got there. He figured I was there nosing around. He told me basically to butt out and that I wasn’t a person of interest anymore. He didn’t even care about the love letters. They found out that Rita kept samples of cough syrup with codeine and figured that’s what the burglar was after.’

  ‘It figures the building manager would be one of his ladies. She was convenient and he wanted something from her.’ Ben moved on to what the detective had said about the motive for the crime. ‘I guess I could see that. Someone stealing drugs could have fought him instead of just running off.’ He looked at me. ‘Is it case closed for you now that you don’t have to worry about being a suspect or having the letters you wrote pulled into it?’

  ‘I really haven’t had time to think about it. Finding the box in front of my door took the spotlight away from it.’ I let out a breath and looked at the box again. ‘I guess I will let it go. Unless something happens that makes it so obvious that the detective is wrong.’

  His phone pinged and he glanced at it and winced. ‘Sara said dinner’s ready and you’re invited to join in.’ He let out his breath. ‘I love Mikey and I’m sure whatever my sister put together is delicious, but I’d settle for just good if it came with some peace. I noticed there’s a new barbecue place down the street. Want to try it?’

  I hadn’t even thought about food until he mentioned it and something different sounded appealing. After making sure they had vegetarian options, I agreed. Sara took the news we weren’t coming well. I think she was probably relieved not to have company after the day she’d had.

  It wasn’t a date or anything, but it was still a nice change to be going out on a Saturday night. The food place was crowded with couples and it would have been a good place to pick up on romantic gestures for me and Ben. Even though I didn’t need them to use for the engagement party, the writer in me made note of them anyway. A couple were leaning toward each other across a small table as though they didn’t want to miss one breath of the other. Another couple were squeezed into one side of the booths, sharing a plate of food.

  Ben ate ribs and I had side dishes. We shared a peach cobbler, assuring each other it had less to do with being a romantic gesture than neither of us had room for a whole one.

  When we got back to the building and started up the stairs, Ben looked at his sister’s door. He didn’t say anything, but I had the feeling he wasn’t ready to head back in there. ‘You can come upstairs if you like. We could watch a movie or something.’

  ‘That would be great,’ he said. He made sure to text Sara and let her know he was upstairs in case they got an emergency call. He looked at my DVD collection and laughed. ‘You sure like romantic comedies.’ We finally watched Sleepless in Seattle, though I’m sure he would have preferred something with car chases.

  ‘Well, I’d better go,’ he said when the credits came up on the movie. ‘They set up an air bed in Mikey’s playroom.’ He didn’t sound very enthused and I had an idea.

  ‘You could stay up here,’ I said. ‘There’s plenty of room.’ I walked him back to the spare bedroom to show him. ‘The bed’s all made up and everything. You can shut the door and have your own private space. You won’t even know that I’m just down the hall.’ We both started to walk through the door at the same time and brushed against each other. It was like the slow dance all over again and I backed away quickly. But apparently not fast enough.

  ‘It won’t work. I’m going downstairs,’ he said, rushing up the hall to the front door. He’d let himself out before I had a chance to follow.

  Rocky came out of the office and joined me. ‘It was just an innocent offer. He sure took it wrong.’

  Sunday morning, I went to set up my breakfast and the Sunday paper as I always did, but this time when I thought about sitting down with my food and French press coffee, I realized how much nicer it would be to have someone on the other side of the table asking for the sports section.

  I cancelled my breakfast plans and thought about the crew downstairs. Sara was always making food for me. This time I would make something for them. I whipped up a couple of Dutch babies and – as soon as they came out of the oven – took them downstairs.

  Sara was still in her sleepwear and looked at the giant baked pancakes hungrily. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Too bad Ben’s not here. As soon as we got the call that Quentin’s father was stable, he took off. He wouldn’t even let me give him a piece of toast.’ She shook her head. ‘It was like he was afraid of something.’

  Or afraid of someone – like maybe me.

  I’d just walked in the door when the text came from Ben. All it said was Sorry. Hope we can still be friends. I typed ba
ck Sure. I was thinking of adding a heart emoji, but I was afraid it might freak him out, so I put in a happy face emoji and hit send. He sent back a thumbs-up. I must remember to maintain my distance from him.

  With that I put all thoughts about Ben and the night before to the back of my mind, along with the strange empty box that was still sitting on the coffee table, and went into my office. I spent the rest of the day working. I polished what I’d already written for my clients and wrote new copy.

  I had fun writing about Zooey, explaining that she’d used her interest in coffee drinks as a basis for a business plan for her college class and then used the business plan to make it become real. Under interesting facts, I had a heading that asked if blonds were more fun and then wrote about light roasts, which were also called blonds, offering more buzz for the buck.

  I described Haley as being an alchemist when it came to ice cream and mentioned how she looked at it as a medium to mix things in and come up with something new. I took a chance that she would accept my suggestion and made a point to say she created her own renditions of traditional flavors along with her own unique creations. Her mission was to offer a taste experience. I hadn’t heard back from her on what she thought of my suggestion for the name of the place.

  For Handelman’s I wrote about old things becoming new again. I explained the idea for the design of the shoe store had come from the Handelmans’ experience with their own kids. At that time the only option they’d had was shopping at a traditional store that served all ages. Shopping for shoes was a traumatic experience and they’d wondered if there was a way to change it. What if they made it fun? I had pictures of the elephant stools and the moving cow going over the moon when they were new. One photo had a crowd of kids staring up at the cow climbing in the sky. I’d added one of the pictures I’d taken that had a similar feel from the current day.