Her relationship with Jeffrey quickly grew cold. They hadn’t made love since Samantha disappeared. While going out for errands, Brenda would hear people talking behind her back, whispering to their friends that her husband was seeing another woman. When one of her closest friends called her up about it, Brenda hung up on her and tore the phone line out from the wall socket. Jeff tried to get her to go out to a restaurant or watch a movie, but Brenda rebuffed him. There was an extra bedroom in the upper floor, and Jeff purchased a new bed and moved into it; there were times when he wouldn’t even come home until the next day, or the day after that.
A few months passed. When she got down to the living room one morning, Jeff was standing there fully clothed. His two suitcases were packed, and had been left beside the front door. He pointed to several sheets of paper on the coffee table. “I spoke to Ralph yesterday,” her husband said softly.
Brenda looked down without saying a word. Ralph Cohen was his attorney.
“I’ve filed for divorce,” Jeff said. “Don’t worry about the house, it’s yours. I’ll also be paying you every month so you don’t ever need to work again.”
Brenda made eye contact with him, but still not a single word came out of her mouth. Whatever feelings she had for him just weren’t there. She couldn’t remember feeling anything at all, not since Samantha had left them.
“Goodbye,” Jeff said before turning around and opening the door.
Brenda watched as he took his bags and loaded it into the trunk of his sport utility vehicle. Jeff gave her one final glance before getting into the car and driving away.
The shrill whistling of the kettle brought her mind back to the present. Brenda turned and twisted the knob to deactivate the electric hot plate. Picking up the box of tea on the floor, she opened it and took out a bag. Pouring some hot water into a mug, she realized she had inadvertently used Sam’s pink ceramic cup to make tea with. Her daughter had made it when Brenda enrolled her in at a local pottery studio when she was nine. It took Samantha close to an hour because she wanted everything done right, and in the end, the studio owner had to help her until she was satisfied. She remembered Samantha staring intently at the clay cup while it was being baked in the oven, and the little girl being overjoyed when it was ready so she could paint it.
Brenda wiped the tears away with a paper towel as she retreated from the kitchen and made it back to the living room. She couldn’t keep this up. She had to talk to somebody about it. And there was only one other person she could share this with. It would surely upset him, but he had to know.
Sitting on the couch by the side table, Brenda lifted the receiver of her telephone and punched in the numbers. It was the weekend, so she had dialed his smartphone number instead.
Seven rings later, a husky voice answered. “This is Jeff DeVoe. Can I help you?”
“Jeff,” she said softly. “It’s me.”
Her ex-husband’s voice seemed slightly irritated. “Look Brenda, I sent the check over to you already. I’m sure you’ll be able to deposit it by tomorrow, okay?”
“I-it’s not about that,” Brenda said. She was barely keeping her emotions in check.
“Well, can it wait till tomorrow? I’m at a building site right now with the boys, and we got to finish this by Thursday.”
“Jeff,” Brenda said. “I-it’s about Sam.”
His voice changed from a slight annoyance to deadly seriousness. “What?”
“I-it’s Sam. I-I found her earring,” Brenda said.
“What do you mean you found her earring?”
“I-I was at the shelter,” Brenda said. “We found this cat, and it h-had her earring on its collar. I’m telling you it’s hers, Jeff.”
There was a short pause on the other line. “Are you sure?”
Brenda nearly shouted. “Yes, I’m sure. It’s hers. I… I just know it. She was wearing it when she disappeared.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m back in the house,” Brenda said.
“Okay, I’ll be over there in half an hour.”
After putting the phone back in its cradle, Brenda sat down on her usual place at the corner, beside the window. Half hidden by the drapes and shadows, she could see anyone approaching the driveway without being noticed. This became her world soon after her husband moved out. Anytime she wanted to be alone- which was often nowadays- she would sit silently on the wooden chair. There were times when her mind would go blank, and she wouldn’t think of anything at all; her attention would be drawn to a single fallen leaf, or a tree branch by the driveway, and she would watch it for hours at a time. Brenda couldn’t stand the pain of losing someone again, so she felt it was better to withdraw into her own private, protective shell. With no one to care for, there had nothing to lose, she reasoned. Her house was her armor, and the quiet serenity of the passing seasons calmed her anxieties. Nothing must disturb her state of mind, lest the bad things waiting in its recesses unleashed their pain and chaos once again.
Her friends had gradually faded away. Brenda had been popular in real estate circles, and during her heyday, the phone rang at all hours, seven days a week. Since Jeff handled much of the refurbishing work on the properties, they could even self-finance the mortgage of the houses at reasonable rates compared to what the mortgage lenders charged, and many clients came to do business with them. With Sam gone, there was an outpouring of sympathy, and many people came over, before it eventually died down. Brenda stopped returning calls and kept making excuses every time someone contacted her for a get-together. In the end, they all stopped calling. Brenda would go shopping at odd hours in order to purposely avoid seeing her acquaintances, eventually driving out as far as McLean to buy her groceries. There was a time when she ignored one of her friends who called out to her as she pushed the shopping cart towards her car. She knew they were talking about her soon after that, but she didn’t care anymore. Nothing mattered anymore, her withdrawal from that circle was nearly complete.
The only occasion where she would spend time socially nowadays was at the animal shelter. Cherry was the one who knew how she felt, and Brenda appreciated how the old lady kept her from any unwanted attention. Whenever people came over to the place, Brenda tended to stay at the back, so as not to be recognized. Brenda was happy to toil away anonymously at a place where she could care for the unwanted animals of the area. It was her favorite place, and all her spare funds were donated to support it.
Brenda clenched her fists to stop them from shaking. She had to be strong. The last thing she wanted now was to lose her only friends at the shelter. That was the only place that gave her any lasting comfort. Brenda shuddered at the thought that she might not be allowed back there, and she started thinking of things to say to Cherry once she got through this latest spell.
A dark blue Ford pickup came down the driveway and parked alongside her car. Brenda stood up and a sense of calmness began to permeate over her body. That was always the case whenever her ex-husband was around.
Jeff got out of the driver’s side and walked towards the front door. Over six feet tall, broad shouldered, with dark brown hair and eyes, Brenda had fallen in love with him at first sight all those years ago. Jeff always wore his customary stone washed jeans and steel toed boots, his long-sleeved plaid shirttails dangling from his lower back since he always kept them tucked out. When Brenda first met him, she thought he was a grunge rocker. More than two decades had passed, and she still retained a certain affection for him.
Brenda met him at the door. Jeff gave her a hug, and that was what she needed. Brenda rested her head on his shoulder and began to sob. For a long, Jeff just held her as the two of them stood by the open entrance until she got through it. Wiping the last tears from her cheeks, Brenda pulled her head back, looked into Jeff’s own eyes, and gave him a faint smile.
He led her into the room. “You need to pull the curtains back. It’s way too dark in here.”
Brenda sniffed back the remaining phlegm up her nose.
“I like it like this.”
He had thought about answering her, but instead fell silent. For several long minutes neither of them said a word as they both just stared into the darkened corners of the house.
Brenda was the first to break the quietness. “Do you want some coffee or something? I made cookies.”
Jeff shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I had a big lunch and coffee afterwards. Too wired now for another cup.”
“I’m sorry for calling you,” she said softly. “It’s just that the detective said I should be with somebody for now.”
“Detective Breen?”
“No, he retired,” Brenda said. “Detective Draper. She’s now in charge of our case.”
Jeff nodded. “A woman, huh? Okay, would you mind telling me what happened? From the beginning.”
“Yes. A family who went hiking at Crow’s Nest found a cat and—”
Her voice was interrupted by Jeff’s smartphone. He pulled it out of his front shirt pocket and turned it on, gesturing at her to give him a minute. “Yeah? Look ah, I’m with Brenda right now and I’ll be a bit busy. Just handle things for me, okay? Bye.” He turned the device off and made eye contact with her again. “Sorry, go on.”
Brenda nodded. “This family was at the nature preserve, and they found an injured cat by one of the trails I think. They brought it over to the shelter. Fernando thinks it was a house cat.”
“Who’s Fernando?”
“A veterinary assistant who helps us out,” Brenda said. She was starting to calm down. Talking about it was helping to relieve her anxiety. “The cat had a broken leg and it had scars all over its body.”
Jeff nodded but didn’t reply. The mental health counselor had advised him all those years before that it was best to listen to his wife when she talked about their child.
“Anyway this cat had a green string tied around its neck. When I saw it, it had a cat earring that was attached to it,” Brenda said.
“And you think this earring was Samantha’s?”
Brenda nodded slowly as her eyes widened. “Oh God, yes. The blue rhinestones- those were exactly the ones I bought for her!”
Jeff placed his large, calloused hands on her shoulders. “Okay. Calm down.”
Brenda looked away. Her chin was still trembling. She fought hard to stop the tears from flowing, and she was able to keep more grief at bay. “I’m sorry. I-I just can’t stop thinking about that earring.”
“Where is the earring now?”
“Detective Draper. She took it. She said they were going to check it for fingerprints. She had a fingerprint kit in her car, and she took mine and Fernando’s.”
“Okay, then let’s let the cops do their job,” Jeff said calmly.
Her ex-husband’s soothing words had an effect on her. Brenda stopped shaking. He was right, let the cops do their thing. “Thanks, Jeff. I-I guess I just needed to tell someone about this.”
He used a finger to wipe a small tear away from below her left eyelid. “You know I can’t stay, right?”
Brenda looked away. “Yes. You have your own life to live. I know that.”
“Why don’t you call your sister Laura and see if she can come down here?”
She shook her head. “No, no. There’s no sense in disrupting her life too. Not yet, not till I know for sure that it’s really Sam’s earring.”
“That’s sensible,” Jeff said as he looked around. “But you’re going to be here by yourself again? That’s not good, you know.”
“It’s okay. I think there’s that comedy show on tonight, I’ll just go watch some TV later.”
Jeff bit his lip. “Are you still seeing Dr. Harmon?”
“No,” Brenda said. “I stopped seeing him years ago, didn’t I tell you?”
Jeff sighed as he looked around. The furniture around the house was exactly the same as when he left. “I budget the checks I give you every month to pay for the counseling sessions. What did you do with the extra money? Do you just bank it?”
“I donated the excess funds to the shelter,” Brenda said. “I got a new wing built just for the cats.”
“Why did you stop the counseling?”
“The tranquilizers Dr. Harmon was prescribing,” Brenda said. “I just … I didn’t want to take them anymore. They were making me feel drowsy all the time.”
“The drugs are there to help you.”
“I know, but I just preferred, you know, to be alert,” Brenda said softly. “I need to be of sound mind if Sam ever comes back. And I can’t keep taking those drugs when I’m over at the shelter.”
“Okay, if you don’t want to take the drugs, then fine,” Jeff said. “But you could have just told Dr. Harmon that and still kept up the counseling sessions.”
“Look, Jeff, I am okay,” Brenda said. “I know you think I’ve never gotten over Sam …. But I’m coping with it on my own way.”
“Yeah, by living like a hermit in this darkened house,” Jeff said. “Why don’t we just sell this place? I can get you a smaller house- more manageable, with neighbors so that you can be with other people.”
Brenda grimaced. “No, I am not leaving this house. So when Sam comes back, she'll know where to find me. I’ll be right here, waiting for her.”
Jeff scowled. He didn’t want to get into this with her again. He realized he was losing his temper so he had to take a step back. “Okay, fine. Do whatever you want. I need to get going.”
Brenda’s look instantly changed to a pleading one. “You- you, don’t want to stay … for dinner or something?”
Jeff stared into her blue eyes for a minute before he answered. “I can’t. I’m seeing someone now.”
Brenda understood. Deep in her heart, she wanted to get back together with him, but only after Samantha returned. Now she could feel the whole thing just slipping away. A dawning sense of realization came over her. The life she thought she could go back to was gone, that much was clear. Despite what had just happened, her ex-husband was still skeptical. “I see. We’ll I hope you’re happy with her.”
“I am,” Jeff said as he took a step back. “She’s cooking for me at my house tonight. Why don’t you come over? I’ll introduce you to her. Her name’s Chloe, and she works for a senator up in DC.”
Brenda smiled at him. “It’s okay. I still got some beef stew here, and I don’t want to miss that show.”
He placed a hand on her right cheek. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, I guess I just needed to tell somebody about this new development.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Jeff said. He turned and headed for the door. “I guess I’ll be leaving now. I need to go back to the lot.”
“Okay,” she said. “Take care. I’ll call you again when the detective updates me.”
“Do that. Goodbye for now.”
Four
While his two friends were trying to get the high score on Pagan Apocalypse, Logan Russo sat dejectedly on the couch, his mind hopelessly in the doldrums. Two more months and summer would begin, and he still couldn’t bring himself to say something to that girl he truly wanted. He had a crush on Ava Evans for as long as he could remember, but she seemed to like him as nothing more than a casual acquaintance. He watched a few romantic movies whenever his older sister was in the living room and she had the remote control, but those Hollywood shows just weren’t real helpful when it came to figuring out how to talk to a girl.
Zack Mullins shifted his torso to the left as he twisted the gamepad he was holding at the same direction. “I gotcha, you biatch!”
Sitting right beside him in front of the flat screen TV was Hunter Johnson, and he too would twist and gyrate his body every time he clicked the buttons on his controller. “That wasn’t me, fool! Heads up!”
Logan was sitting behind them, the flashing graphics on the screen barely registering in his mind. They all lived in the same neighborhood, and were used to gaming in Logan’s house after the school bus dropped them off mid-afternoon. His
parents worked long hours as government contractors, and they bought him all the latest videogames, so the three of them naturally chose his place to hang out. While his friends were totally into sports and games, Logan was already thinking about the opposite sex. They were all about to graduate from middle school, and he knew that once high school started, your status would be determined by your reputation. Logan was a competitor, and he wanted to be the first in his group to have a girlfriend. The only problem was he didn’t know how to go about getting one.
The game console was synced to the TV’s stereo sound system, and it filled the room with bass and electronic guitar riffs, indicating that a new high score had been achieved.
Zack held up both hands triumphantly in the air. “Oh yeah, biatches! I got the high score! Suck on it, dude!”
Hunter let the gamepad slide off from his hands and hissed. “You just got lucky, dawg.”
Zack turned his head and grinned. “Lucky my ass. That was skill.”
Hunter started laughing. “Skill? You suck worse than an elephant with a vacuum cleaner for a trunk.”
“But I beat you,” Zack said. “That makes the elephant married to your mama.”
Hunter leapt up and tried to place Zack in a headlock, but the other boy pushed him to the ground and the pair started wrestling with each other. Both were of similar height and build, and neither one got the better of the other. In the end, they were both panting and mutually backed away before chuckling and high fiving each other. Logan just continued to stare blankly at the TV screen.
After straightening his t-shirt, Zack finally noticed his best friend hadn’t said a word for the past hour. He looked at Logan. “What’s up with you, bro?”
The Girl in the Darkness Page 3
