Vengeance

by George Willson

  She carried on by saying that she was ready to go to bed, but decided to give her husband a call to tell him good night, as she has done on occasion just because she missed him. Again with the tradition and nostalgia. Given what I seen so far of her, I found this completely believable. She had dialed their home number (and not his cell, which would make this part of the story completely confirmable in about thirty seconds when I pull phone records) which was connected to a cordless phone beside their bed and waited while it rang.

  “Hello,” Hank answered in a groggy voice. I asked if she was sure that he actually sounded tired, and she insisted that he did. I had my doubts.

  “Hi honey,”Athena said cheerfully. “Did I wake you?”

  “Yeah, but it’s ok,” he replied. “How’s your mom?”

  “She just went to bed. I’m about to turn in too, but I just wanted to say good night.”

  “Cool.”

  “And I’m sorry I woke you. “I feel bad.”

  “It’s ok, really,” Hank assured her, as naturally as anyone could sound.

  “Well, I don’t know nothing,” Athena continued, “so I don’t want to keep you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “All right. Good night.”

  “Good night, honey. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  With a smile on her face, Athena hung up the phone and trotted down the hall to her childhood bedroom to sleep as she had done on every week prior to this one. She pulled the door shut behind her thinking she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Athena emitted a large, exhausted sigh and dropped her head into her hands. The cares of the world had dramatically changed since her call, and now, the truth of her relationship was in the open, not only for her, but for everyone to see. So far, she struck me as just someone who was a good person stuck in a bad situation, but the trouble with good people is that when they are presented with a bad situation, they tended to react badly. I wasn’t sure whether to believe that Athena was actually miles away from here or not. I knew I had to at least check her mother’s phone records to confirm the call, but all that would show was when the call was placed. I knew better than to assume anything yet, so the questioning continued.

  “So you called around ten last night,” I confirmed, “and he was here.”

  Athena nodded.

  “So it’s likely the girl came after that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Athena said.

  I decided to turn to Kathy who had actually been blank this entire time. She showed little to no reaction to anything I had asked or Athena had said. Either she was an impressive stoic, or she knew something. “Mrs. Bracket, since you’re here, let me ask you: Did you see anyone?”

  Kathy recalled going to her kitchen just before ten following a workout to refill her water and looking across her lawn toward the Michaels house as she took a drink. Apparently, her kitchen sink was right next to a corner window that looked out across the front of her house to the Michaels front yard, giving her a full view of the house anytime she stood there. Very useful vantage point, I thought. Standing there in her workout clothes, holding a glass of water, she saw the yellow Ford pull up and park at the curb. Intrigued, she remained at the window to see Jody Yule get out of her car and walk up the sidewalk to the house. Kathy was surprised to see the girl walk with such confidence to the house and confidently ring the doorbell. Clearly, she was expected.

  The door opened, and Jody had embraced Hank quite fully complete with a full-on, lengthy kiss proving Kathy’s hypothesis of expectation. With Jody lip-locked in one arm, Hank dragged her inside and closed the door behind them. Athena didn’t take the news well, finally reacting with something other than depression.

  “He kissed her?” Athena said incredulously.

  Kathy nodded apologetically.

  “Was it Ms. Yule?” I asked. Seemed an obvious enough question, but it would not be beyond a man who could fool his wife this well to not have more than one girl a night.

  “Why didn’t you say something?” Athena demanded of Kathy, derailing my question.

  “Mrs. Michaels,” I began, trying to keep the conversation on track, but once the proverbial fury of a woman scorned comes out, I have often found great difficulty in getting her back on track.

  “Why didn’t you march over here, and ask him what the hell he was doing?” Athena’s voice raised as her ire increased to the breaking point.

  “Athena,” Kathy began, but Athena wasn’t finished.

  “I thought you were my friend, and you let him get away with this?”

  “Mrs. Michaels, please calm down,” I said gently. She stopped talking but hardly calmed down. She looked like she was biding her time.

  “Now, Mrs. Bracket,” I continued as carefully as I might balance glasses on a bowling ball, “whom did you see?”

  “Well, I don’t know if it was this Yule girl,” Kathy responded, “but a girl who wasn’t Athena got here around ten last night. I assume it was the same one. It’s the same car.”

  “And have you ever seen Mr. Michaels have night visitors before in the absence of Mrs. Michaels?” I asked. Athena also turned her head to Kathy at this question as well, her eyes blazing. I feared I might not get an honest answer out of her, but Kathy kept her cool admirably.

  “No, sir,” she said flatly. Her manner was so cool, and her eyes never wavered, so I had no reason to doubt her.

  “Mrs. Michaels,” I said, turning to Athena carefully, “what did you do after you talked to your husband?”

  “I told you,” she said with that edge still in her voice, “I went to bed.”

  “And you said you were at your mother’s?” I asked. “Why?”

  “Because my father died last year,” she replied with a sigh, “and I go over there once a week to help her out, and I stay the night.”

  “It’s true. She does,” Kathy confirmed. “Every week, just like clockwork. I could set my watch by her.”This elicited a smile from Athena. I was momentarily thankful for Kathy’s presence, since it was helping Athena’s mood and it might also help break the ice for my next question.

  “Are you on any medication?”

  Athena’s expression dropped. I never would have guess such a question would have broken her previous fury in an instant. She nodded, looking almost ashamed. “I haven’t been handling my daddy’s death so well,” she said. “Hank has me a prescription for Zoloft.”

  “I see,” I said. What else could I say? Fortunately, the moment was interrupted by one of the officers I had searching their bedroom for something special.

  “Detective Thompson,” he called out to me, “I found it.”

  “Good,” I said, holding out my hand to take what he had for me.

  He handed me a black address book with an imitation leather cover and Velcro clasp. It appeared to have metal rings holding the pages in place which would allow its owner to keep the book but add and remove pages as needed. I held it up for Athena to see.

  “Ma’am, this is your husband’s address book, right?” I asked her.

  “Yes, I believe so,” Athena responded tiredly, with a gesture somewhere between a nod and a shrug.

  “Have you ever looked through it?” I asked.

  “No,” Athena replied. “He kept it locked in his nightstand. How did you get it?”

  I felt like scoffing again. A man locks an address book away from his wife, and the wife isn’t the least bit suspicious or curious enough to at least have a look one day when he is gone. I was beginning to think this innocence was an act. There were times I had to remember to stick to the facts and assume nothing, and this was one of those times when it was getting very difficult. The trouble was that my instincts told me she was telling the truth and actually that ignorant of his movements.

  “We used his keys,” I told her, thinking she should have done the same. “Mind if we hold on to it for awhile?”

  “Ok,” Athena said without a thought. I could have easily gotten a w
arrant for it, but just asking was much easier. Permission received, I put the book in my pocket.

  “So, Mrs. Brackett, why didn’t you call Mrs. Michaels last night?” I asked, finally addressing the elephant in the room.

  “Nothing she could have done last night,” Kathy said bluntly. “I planned to let her know today.”

  “I see,” I said with a nod. “You two speak often then? You mentioned, Ms. Brackett, that you are well aware of her schedule.”

  “We live next door to each other, Detective,” Kathy said. “Of course, we talk.”

  “Not all neighbors work like that,” I noted, considering these sorts of friendships becoming a rarity. “Did you talk together before Athena left?” They said they had, and I gathered the following conversation from between them.

  Athena had come over as she did many other times to chat. Kathy spent a lot of time in her home gym, and so during this part of her morning, she was running on a treadmill as Athena sat casually on a weight bench while they spoke. The Brackett house had an entire room dedicated to their home gym, which had a variety of isolation machines, weights, treadmill, stationary bike, a pull-up bar on the ceiling along with a bar on the floor to lock your feet for sit-ups, a television and video player for some exercise videos, two varieties of punching bags, and a couple of different scales to measure not only weight but fat as well. The police department had a weight room at the time, but no where near as nice or complete as the Brackett version.

  “I just hate leaving him alone at home every week like this,” Athena had lamented while she held a glass of water for herself.

  “He’s a big boy, Athena,” Kathy assured her, “I think he can take of himself.”

  “But what if he starts hating me for it?” Athena worried, looking to Kathy with an innocence that Kathy described as “sickeningly puppy dog-ish.”

  “Yeah, right,” Kathy said, rolling her eyes. At this point, she had no reason to believe there were any problems between them.

  “Come on, Kathy,” Athena continued, “how can you just say that?”

  “Because I hear all about him every time you come over,” Kathy said. “You remind me of a couple of teenagers or star-crossed lovers. Honestly, I think the man would die before he’d leave you.”

  Athena smiled at her reassurances. She stood and took a sip of her water as she walked to Kathy’s treadmill. She leaned on the side of the machine.

  “Everything is going really well for us,” Athena said. “Hank just got a pay raise, and we’re actually talking about having a baby.” Kathy stopped the treadmill and looked at Athena, surprised. She toweled the sweat off her face and took a couple of breaths before she responded.

  “Really?” Kathy asked.

  “Yeah, can you see me out to here?” Athena asked, holding her hand a nine-month distance from her stomach. She laughed, and Kathy joined in at the very idea and shook her head. “We waited our two years,” Athena continued, her joy almost uncontainable, “and in the next couple months, I’ll come off the pill.”

  “That’s exciting, Athena,” Kathy said, sincerely happy for her friend. Her tone dropped almost immediately, however. “I with Mike was as accommodating as Hank. He never even talks about children. Excuse me.” Kathy walked around Athena to the weight bench where she laid down under the dumbbell bar. She grasped the bar in her hands and lifted it from its cradle. She did her lifts intermittently as the conversation continued with Athena.

  “What’s he doing now?” Athena asked, uncomfortably twiddling her fingers around her glass of water.

  “He’s taking care of some deal out in Tampa,” Kathy said, pumping her iron. “He calls sometimes, but… Oh, nevermind. I’m being stupid.”

  “No, you can tell me,” Athena urged.

  “I worry if he’s having an affair,” Kathy said just coming out with it. Athena gasped with the horror of a woman in whose world such a thing never happens.

  “How can you say that?” she asked. Kathy sighed and placed her weight bar back in its cradle and sat up, leaning her elbows on her knees.

  “You know,” Kathy said, “he leaves for extended periods, won’t call, won’t answer when I call. All the classic psychological indicators.”

  “I’m sorry,” Athena said, kneeling beside her friend, but not hugging her due to the sweat. They indicated neither of them preferred to hug while Kathy was covered in sweat.

  “Yeah, well, be grateful you can’t say the same for Hank,” Kathy assured her.

  “You really should find some time to come over and meet him,” Athena said.

  “I’d like to,” Kathy said, “but our schedules never line up with him working days at the college and my working nights at the mental hospital. That aside, it would be nice to meet Mr. Wonderful. Sometimes, I doubt I ever did. Some girls have all the luck.”

  “I do feel lucky,” Athena smiled as she stood and walked aimlessly in the room as she spoke. “Everything’s really starting to fall into place for us.”

  “I’m happy for you,” Kathy said quite honestly.

  They almost stopped there, but a glance between the two of them told me there was more to the conversation than just that. Something they were uncomfortable with under the present circumstances, but after a little prodding from me, they finally went on.

  Athena had nodded as she got momentarily lost in her thoughts as she walked around in Kathy’s weight room. She finally turned back to Kathy. “What would you do if you were right about Mike?”

  “Let me tell you,” Kathy said quite seriously, “if I ever caught him in bed with another woman, he wouldn’t have to worry about alimony, if you know what I mean.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Athena said, actually shocked.

  “I would,” Kathy said, toweling off her sweat.

  “This has been going on awhile, huh?” Athena asked sadly.

  “Too long, my friend,” Kathy replied. “Way, way too long.”

  “I am sorry,” Athena said.

  “It’s ok,” Kathy said waving off the entire notion as if it were nothing. “Sometimes, when he’s home, I think I’m just being delusional. He is very busy. I know this. I understand this. To an extent, I signed up for this. He was doing this when we got married.”

  Athena nodded, though her expression remained troubled. Kathy glanced at her clock.

  “Hey, it’s about that time,” she reminded Athena. Athena looked up at the clock and nodded in agreement. She placed her glass in the kitchen sink, as they walked to the front door.

  “I promise you can work out with me anytime,” Kathy encouraged her.

  “Maybe next time,” Athena said uncomfortably.

  “That’s what you said last time,” Kathy reminded her. Athena laughed, still uncomfortably, as Kathy opened the front door for her. They exchanged a hug.

  “Take care, you,” Kathy said.

  “I will,” Athena said.

  “Call me when you get there?” Kathy asked.

  “Of course,” Athena said. “Be back at the usual time.”

  “I know,” Kathy said with a smile. Athena waved to her as she walked across the yard away from her, and she shut the door.

  Athena had everything together already in her car, so she made one final check to ensure the door was locked and then walked to her car which she had pulled out of the garage and left in the driveway. She took one final look over her house and her life at the time before she got into her car and made the drive to Monument.

  The women were understandably silent after this story since so much of it flew in the face of what they’d learned in the past couple of hours. It was a remnant of a happier time in Athena’s life that would never return, and recalling even that moment of happiness made the present even worse. I was not sure what else to ask them, so I was grateful that another one of the officers came up to talk to me, which took me away from the conversation with the women completely.

  “Detective,” Kathy said almost as soon as I had walked away, as if she were wai
ting for her own opportunity to escape, “do you mind if I take Athena to my house? We’ll just be next door.”

  I saw no harm in it, so I nodded with a wave, and they left. I knew we’d be in touch again quite a bit over the next few days and possibly weeks while we worked out the solution to this one.

  Based on the testimonies from everyone I would speak to from this point onward along with the timeline for the crime, I was able to work out the most likely situation to have occurred between the victims after Athena spoke with Hank over the phone at 10:10pm to have gone something like this.

  Back in the bedroom, where the call was taken, Hank was reclining on the bed with the cordless phone held lazily in his right hand and Jody Yule resting on his chest in her undergarments stifling laughter to ensure she would not be overheard by Hank’s ignorant wife. He reached over and placed the phone back on its cradle.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” Jody said, still giggling.

  “It’s practice, my dear girl,” Hank boasted. “I should have been an actor.”

  “No kidding,” Jody agreed. “How do you keep her in the dark about everything?”

  “Practical application of psychology,” Hank said, giving what amounted to his mantra. “Knowing what to say to whom and when to make them think whatever you want them to think.”

  “Oh,” Jody replied, a little worried. “Do you do that to me?”

  “Do you care?” he asked as he rolled over on top of her and kissed her. We can assume that they had an active night from here, since the cordless phone had ended up under the bed, explaining why Hank went to the living room for his cell phone.