Page 17 of Justice for Samara

Carter had carried in the last box when he asked, “Hey, since you’re not really moved in yet, why don’t you come over for dinner tonight? Sharla’s off today, and she asked me to extend the invitation.”

She looked around at the chaos on the floor, the countertop, the table, the sofa, every surface?they were all covered with boxes. “Oh, wow, that would be great. I can’t cook anything. This place is too much of a mess.”

“Yeah, that was her thinking. Oh, and Michael, since you’ve been helping, she wanted you to come too.”

“Count me in! Your wife’s a great cook,” the deputy said with a smile that was bound to hurt his face.

“Good! I’ll call her and let her know you’ll both be there. So, what else do you need me to do?” he asked, hands on his hips.

“Nothing. This is great. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate both of you helping me.”

“Guess I’ll go home and take Angel off her hands for a little while. I know she’ll appreciate it. She’s been there all day alone with the baby and?”

“Oh, god, I’m so sorry!” Samara chirped. “I never thought about?”

“No, no! Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. She’s just at a really difficult age right now and she’s a handful. You’ll see when you get there. Six?”

Samara nodded. “Yeah, six is good.”

“Works for me too,” Michael answered.

Carter waved as he opened the front door. “Good. See y’all then.”

Samara moved just enough boxes for both of them to sit down and plopped down on the sofa. “Whew. I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

Michael sat down heavily beside her and sighed. “Me too. I mean, nothing was heavy. It’s just the loading and unloading and all that. At least you won’t have to do it again for a while.”

“Yeah. I certainly hope not.” It was right there on the tip of her tongue, and she was fighting to keep from asking, but she was losing the battle. After two minutes of warring with her own thoughts, she finally worked up the courage. “Hey, the other day, you said everybody thought you’d marry… And then you stopped. Who did everybody think you’d marry?” Michael sat there, staring at his hands, and Samara realized she’d made a terrible mistake. Whatever it was, it was still painful for him, and she was prying. “That’s okay. Don’t answer. It’s none of my business, and I’m sorry for being so nosy.”

“No, no. It’s okay. Her name is Glenna, and we’d been together since high school. I worked at the big home improvement store in Hopkinsville, and I was a volunteer firefighter too. We had a game every year, cops against firefighters, and we went.” For reasons she couldn’t understand, the woman’s name rang a bell for her. “We were playing and all the spouses and boyfriends or girlfriends were watching. There was an officer who’d been hurt on the job, and he was sitting out. I noticed that he said something to her as she walked by on her way back from the concession stand and in a few minutes, she was back over there, talking to him. I didn’t like the way it looked, but I didn’t say anything.”

Samara groaned. “Uh-oh. I don’t like where this is going.”

“Yeah, well, neither did I. A couple of weeks later, we were supposed to go have engagement pictures made, but she cancelled the photo shoot. Said the dress she’d ordered hadn’t come in yet, so she needed to wait. Then it got to the point that I’d call her like I did every night, and she didn’t answer. That’s when I started to wonder. A couple of weeks later, one of the guys I worked with said, ‘Hey, I saw Glenna last night. Some state trooper pulled her over.’ That was the moment I knew she was seeing the guy.”

“A state trooper? Somebody I know?”

“I doubt it. That was when we were both twenty-two, so he’s probably long gone by now, especially if he kept hitting on other people’s wives.”

“So what happened to her?”

“Oh, she married him. But that didn’t make him faithful. He’s fucked around on her all over the area and she just keeps letting him come back.”

A knot was growing in her stomach, and with that last sentence, it grew spikes. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. “What’s his name?”

A sensation like the floor liquefying under her feet made her heart drop into her gut when he answered, “AlexStadler.”

For a split second, it was hard to breathe. She could feel her body trembling, and she didn’t know how to make it stop. AlexStadler. The man she wished dead every night before she finally managed to go to sleep. The asshole she wanted to put a bullet through. The guy that even being burned at the stake wouldn’t be good enough to suit her. A voice cut through the shrieking in her head. “Samara? Hey, Samara, you okay?” She shook her head. “You don’t look right. Look, let’s…” There was movement all around her, and she felt herself falling backward, but her head landed on a toss pillow, and she felt her feet rising until they were on the sofa. “There ya go. Lie down for a minute. Let me find a glass and get you some water. Probably just pushed a little too hard today.”

“I’m fine. Really. I’m fine. It’s okay,” she called out blindly, but it wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t.

“No. You’re not. Looks like your blood pressure bottomed out or something. Here, sit up just a little and take a sip.” She felt him lift her head slightly, so she did her best to rise, propped on her elbows, and took a sip of water. All that accomplished was making her feel nauseous. “Just take a deep breath and calm down. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I think you’re right. I think I just pushed myself a little too hard today. I think I’ll lie here for a bit and catch a nap before I go to Carter’s house. You should go on home and get a little down time too.” He opened his mouth to argue, but Samara stopped him. “No, go on. I’ll be fine. If you get there and I’m ten minutes late, come looking for me. Otherwise, I’ll see you then.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m positive. I’m fine. Just go on. And thanks again.”

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