Heart of the Storm

by Nicole Stiling

  Juliet sat in the driveway for a minute. Will wasn’t back from Boston yet, so she wondered if she should be spontaneous and knock on Sienna’s door. Ask her if she wanted to make some popcorn and watch The Hills Have Eyes, or something like that. Will had said that Sienna could use a friend, but if they were splitting up, didn’t that mean she had to take Will’s side? Juliet knew there were three sides to every breakup. But there wouldn’t be anything wrong with hanging out with her, changing Sienna’s mind for a little bit, would there? They weren’t separated yet, after all. She idled in the driveway for a few more seconds and decided there was nothing wrong with it. She could go up to the door and surprise her and they could have a nice afternoon.

  Instead, she just drove home. She didn’t need the drama.

  Chapter Two

  Sienna sat on the sofa in the living room, the vaulted ceilings echoing the empty space inside her. She could see into the pool house through the French doors, where Will was busy hanging his clothes in the small closet off of the kitchenette. She wasn’t exactly sad, not in the regular sense of the word, but she did feel an emptiness she hadn’t anticipated. She didn’t think, at forty-four years old, she’d be in this position. She’d purposely held off on marriage or anything particularly serious for the bulk of her adult life to make certain that she’d found the “one” before settling down into anything that would end in unhappiness. The only certainty she’d been able to find was that she could always rely on a profound sense of uncertainty.

  She thought back to when she and Will had begun dating. She’d been in a relationship with a woman named Lila for about six months when they’d decided to go their separate ways. Lila had wanted more than Sienna was willing to offer, and rather than stay in a relationship that had nowhere good to go, they said their good-byes and promised to keep in touch. Which they did, for about two weeks.

  Not long after, Will had come blazing into the picture with his good looks and charming smile at the same time Sienna was celebrating her thirty-fifth birthday. Looking back, she understood that she’d done exactly what she had railed against for so long: listened to some imaginary tick of a made-up biological clock. Not that she’d necessarily wanted any children; that wasn’t something she’d ever felt strongly about either way. But she did feel a pull toward settling into something that would last. Will seemed to be exactly what she’d needed at the time, so she’d ridden the wave along with him and held on for dear life.

  Things had been good in the beginning. They were easy and simple, and everyone in her life loved him. Declan, just six at the time, had stolen her heart from the jump. She’d heard horror stories of stepchildren hating their stepparents, their jealousy wreaking havoc on an otherwise stable relationship. Thankfully, Declan had never been like that. He’d accepted her from the get-go, and they became fast friends. It was one of the reasons she’d said yes to Will’s proposal even though they’d been together for less than a year.

  As time went on, Sienna and Will fell into a monotonous sort of routine that had initially worked for both of them. Declan was happy, Will was happy, and Sienna was content. Until she wasn’t.

  Most nights, Will worked late at his office in the city. A few nights during the week, he didn’t even come home, since morning traffic was a nightmare no matter what time of year. Sienna didn’t feel neglected or deserted, and she wondered if that was part of the problem. Their lives were interconnected but separate. And for Will, that didn’t seem to be an issue. It wasn’t really a problem for Sienna either, but in the end, that was the problem. She’d grown away from him, and when she’d brought it to his attention, he’d dismissed it as their hectic schedules. Sienna had accepted that for a short time, for herself, for Declan, and for the life that she and Will had created. But the fog of denial had to clear, eventually.

  “So, he’s really moving out into the pool house? Really?”

  Declan broke the silence with his accusatory tone. Sienna focused and looked at him quizzically. Juliet must have just dropped him off. His week at camp had been uneventful, based on his texts, but Sienna hadn’t expected him home for at least another few hours.

  “Hi, Declan. I wasn’t expecting you yet, I’m sorry.”

  “Well, I just got home and saw Dad making up the bed in the pool house. He told me he was going to be staying out there for a while? While you guys ‘figure things out’?” he said, air quotes and all.

  “Yes. That’s true.” Sienna didn’t really know what to say to him. She wished Will had come into the house with him, instead of letting her take the lead. Declan was obviously upset and that wasn’t fair.

  “I love how you guys planned all this while I was away. Cowards,” he said, angrily throwing his duffel bag to the ground. “I assume you’re getting divorced now?”

  Yes. “We haven’t set anything in stone yet, Dec. We’re going through some things, and we need time and space to decide what we want. What we need.”

  “What’s the problem? Is it because he’s never home? Did he cheat on you? Did you cheat on him?” Declan’s anger was palpable.

  Sienna tried to understand his annoyance without getting agitated herself. But he was straddling the line between appropriate anger and disrespect. “What’s going on is between your father and me. He did not cheat on me, and I did not cheat on him. You can put that thought to rest. But this has been brewing for a while. I’m sorry it was sprung on you like this. We’d wanted to sit down and talk about it as a family.”

  “We obviously aren’t a family, Sienna. Dad’s out in the guest house and you’re in here. I’m pretty sure that’s not what families do.” He crossed his arms and glared at her.

  “Families go through things, Declan. And even if we do end up splitting up, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be family anymore. I love you very much, and I hope you know that.” Sienna felt a lump begin to form in her throat. Was she sure this was what she wanted? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just keep going the way things were? No. That wasn’t an option.

  “I know that. But if you two split up, there would be no reason for you and me to see each other anymore. Unless we run into each other at the mall, I don’t see how it would happen.” Declan looked at the floor. He looked like a little boy, not a near-man on the cusp of his sixteenth birthday.

  Sienna wanted to go over and hug him, tell him everything would be fine, but she knew that wasn’t true. “We’d figure it out. I wouldn’t leave you, Declan.”

  He cleared his throat. “Whatever. You two do what you want, it’s none of my business anyway, right?”

  Will walked in as Declan finished. “Hey, don’t be all doom and gloom, bud. We’re just taking a break. Adults need to do that sometimes. It’s not as bad as you think, trust me.”

  Sienna looked at him incredulously. Why would he deliberately mislead Declan like that? Maybe to ease him into it? Maybe to buy them some time? Either way, Sienna was uncomfortable. She shifted in her seat.

  Will walked over to the back of the couch and squeezed her shoulders. “Just because we’re going through a rough patch right now doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. This kind of thing happens all the time.”

  Her voice had gone missing. Sienna moved away from Will’s touch and grabbed her glass of water from the coffee table. The hope on Declan’s face nauseated her.

  “Okay, thanks, Dad. When I saw you out there in the pool house…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

  Sienna stood abruptly. “I’ll be upstairs,” she said, practically jogging away from them. She went into her bedroom and closed the door, leaning her forehead against the cool wood. Within a minute, she heard a knock.

  “Hey, can I talk to you?” Will asked softly.

  “I don’t really have much to say to you right now.” She walked away from the door and started folding the laundry in the basket beside her nightstand.

  Will walked in anyway. “Why are you so upset? I didn’t want him to think we’re splitting up right this second. You never k
now what’ll happen,” he said, rubbing an imperfection on the paint above the light switch.

  “Will. Why are you acting like this is no big deal? It is a big deal. We’ve taken the first steps toward the dissolution of our marriage. How is that not a big deal?” Sienna willed herself not to cry.

  “What do you mean, the first steps? It’s not like we’ve done anything legally at this point,” he said, scoffing.

  Sienna didn’t say anything.

  “I mean, we haven’t, right?”

  “I told you I was going to meet with an attorney, and I suggested you do the same.” Sienna swallowed hard, watching the man she’d once loved crumble.

  “But you said that during the heat of the moment, when we were arguing about this whole thing. You really went and met with a lawyer?” Will’s eyes were wide and his grip on the doorframe white-knuckled.

  “I did. Yes.”

  “I don’t fucking believe this.” Will rubbed furiously at the back of his neck. “When did this go from taking some space to an all-out divorce? I didn’t agree to that. We’re better than this, Sienna. Please. Please.”

  “Will, please don’t. I told you that I’ve been unhappy for a long time. I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt Declan, but I can’t keep doing this. You’re a good man, and I will always love you. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what could have been.” Sienna breathed in deeply, surprised, but not really, that he didn’t grasp how serious she’d been when they’d had the conversation a few months earlier.

  “We can go to marriage counseling again. It was pretty good the first time we went, right? I know I cancelled the last few appointments, because I was busy with work and softball, but I won’t do that this time. Promise.” Will held up his three fingers in the Boy Scout’s honor salute. At one time she would have found it endearing, but those days had passed.

  “No. We tried counseling. It didn’t help. We’ve talked about changing and how things would be different, and they’re not, Will. They’re just not.”

  “Sienna, I can change. I guess I just didn’t see how serious all of this was. I can change.” Will’s voice seemed to have dropped an octave.

  Sienna closed her eyes. “Maybe you can. But I can’t. And I just don’t want to do this anymore.”

  The look on Will’s face cut her to the bone, but Sienna knew if she didn’t make it perfectly clear where she stood that Will would brush it off and they’d end up in the same routine they’d been mired in for the last nine years. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them, and she didn’t want to look back and be full of regrets. She wanted more.

  * * *

  Sienna and Juliet planned to meet for coffee at the Java Room, but Sienna came very close to canceling. After their ride up north, Juliet had asked if she’d like to grab a coffee before work some morning. Sienna had agreed, and they’d set it up for the following week.

  With everything going on at home, she didn’t know if meeting up with Juliet, who was so heavily involved in both Will’s and Declan’s lives, was the best idea. But she’d had a nice time with her, and they really did click, so there was no harm in having a quick breakfast together.

  The Java Room was bustling, but she caught sight of Juliet in a window seat booth reading a newspaper. Smiling, she joined her.

  “Hey.” Juliet put the paper on the table. “How are you?”

  “Good, how are things with you?” Sienna pushed her laptop bag against the wall and settled into the cracked leather seat.

  “Better now.” Juliet’s eyes lit up as the server brought over a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. She adjusted the volume on her police radio.

  “How long have you been a police officer?” Sienna asked. She picked apart the Danish she’d purchased when she’d first walked in. They always stuffed it with a little too much cherry filling.

  “A long time. This is my…eleventh year. I worked over in Byfield for the first year, learning the ropes, and that kind of thing. Then a position opened up here and I jumped on it. Haven’t looked back since.”

  “Did you always want to do this kind of work?” Sienna asked. She sipped her latte slowly but still burned the roof of her mouth.

  “Actually, no. I had my heart set on being an EMT. I took the classes, studied my ass off, and at the age of twenty-one, I went for my first ride along. A kid fell off his bike and had a compound fracture. I took one look at that bone sticking out of his shin and passed out cold. And thus, my career as an EMT ended.” Juliet laughed sheepishly. “I wanted to help people, but I didn’t have the stomach for it. It’s a lot different seeing a picture of it in a book, or even a life-like mannequin. It’s a whole different thing in real life.” She smiled brightly and took a big bite of her sandwich. “I sort of kicked around for a while after, not sure what I wanted to do. Will suggested that I take the police officer exam, if you can believe it. He knew my ultimate goal was to work with people, in whatever way I could. By day three of the academy, I was hooked. And here I am.”

  “I love that story.” Sienna played with the cardboard sleeve that hugged her coffee cup. “That’s the same reason I majored in psychology and social work in college. I wanted to do what I could for people who were in trouble. Did you—”

  Juliet’s radio squelched and startled both of them. She answered the call and told whoever was on the other end that she’d be there soon.

  “I’m so sorry. There was a water main break at the town line. Apparently, we have a geyser situation happening. Can we do this again sometime?” Juliet asked. She leaned over and shoved the last of her bagel into her mouth.

  “No problem at all, I totally understand. Definitely. Just let me know when.”

  Sienna stayed seated in the booth and watched Juliet walk out of the Java Room while texting something on her phone. She hoped she’d see her again soon. It had been a long time since she’d had a friend to hang out with, and someone who knew Will and Declan made it easier to talk about things without explaining everything. At least, it did for now.

  Chapter Three

  The late August sun was barely cresting the horizon when Juliet pulled up to the Shell Creek Library. The call had woken her out of a dead sleep, but she managed to throw herself together and get to the library within minutes of the call from dispatch. A second cruiser pulled up behind her, lights flashing but the siren off. Juliet nodded a greeting to the chief as he exited his vehicle.

  “Chief, that must be the person who called this in,” Juliet said, pointing to a woman who appeared to be shivering even though it was close to sixty degrees. “I’ll go talk to her.”

  Chief Quinlan nodded and took out his flashlight. “Looks like Kowalski from here,” he said softly. She watched as he walked over to the facedown figure lying in the grass and placed his gloved finger to his pulse points. Quinlan shook his head.

  Juliet swallowed hard. She’d had a feeling it was the librarian that the 9-1-1 caller had seen. She’d known Richard Kowalski since her teenage years, when she’d often sit at one of the long tables cramming for an exam. He’d always be the first to volunteer his time and energy to anything the police department or any other community organization had requested. He’d also helped Declan select the right research material for countless projects when he was in elementary school. Juliet’s heart was heavy.

  “I’m Lieutenant Mitchell.” Juliet offered her hand to the woman. She took it weakly. “Thank you for calling us as soon as you saw him. Are you okay?”

  The woman shivered again but nodded. “I’m okay. It’s Rich, isn’t it?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Juliet said, although she had a pretty good idea. Juliet took the memo pad from her pocket and clicked her pen. “But we’ll get to the bottom of this. I just need a few details from you, if you don’t mind. Can I have your full name?”

  “Sandra Bonner.”

  Juliet scribbled in her notebook. “Thank you, Sandra. What were you doing out here so early?”

  “I go
for my run around five every morning,” she said, pointing to her weathered sneakers. “I thought I saw something. As I got closer and realized what it was, well, I screamed and called nine-one-one.”

  “You did the right thing. Did you see anything while you were running? Anyone in the vicinity or maybe a car nearby?”

  Sandra looked alarmed. “Do you think he was killed?”

  “No, not at all. We don’t know anything yet. Just wanted to ask you the questions while the answers were still fresh in your mind. Did you get close to him?” Juliet looked over at Quinlan, who was taking photographs.

  “No. I got about fifty feet from him and then ran in the opposite direction. I didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. It’s usually pretty deserted at this time of day.”

  Juliet nodded. “Okay, thank you.”

  Another police officer had arrived on the scene. Juliet made eye contact with her. “Officer Leland is going to take over from here. She can take down your official statement and get you home.”

  “I live just down the road.” Sandra thumbed in the direction behind her.

  “Great. Thank you again for all of your help.”

  Leland was the best at dealing with the human side of tragedies, so Juliet silently thanked her and walked over to where Quinlan was taping off the area surrounding the body.

  “Here,” he said, handing Juliet a pair of gloves. “Let’s see what we can find. The ME will be here any minute.”

  “What do you think happened?” She balked at the smell of the latex.

  “Could have been a fall when he was leaving last night.” Quinlan nodded to the library stairs. “More likely a heart attack or a stroke. He doesn’t seem too beat up, and those concrete stairs would do a number on anyone. His wallet was in his back pocket, cash and credit cards still inside.”

  Juliet leaned down, getting a better view of the victim’s face, which was turned slightly to the side. It was definitely Richard Kowalski. Juliet’s stomach lurched. “Poor Gretchen. I wonder if she’s even awake yet.” The librarian’s wife had been a town staple just as much as he had been.