Page 6 of Scorched

Brandon and Luke had their bicycles out of the shed. Kendall smiled and laughed with the boys, admiring their new wheels.

Elise pulled the letter out of her purse and held it out for Paul to see. “I don’t know what to make of it, but I’ll tell you... it has me scared.”

Paul pulled a rubber glove from his hip pocket and stretched it over his large, capable hand before he took the note from her. He turned it over, inspecting the outside of the envelope. “Where did you find it?”

“It was in my mailbox cubby at school today.” Elise spun away and paced across the ceramic kitchen tiles. This was her home, a place where she could make new friends and her boys could grow up unencumbered by their father’s crimes.

Fear turned to anger.

She marched back across the tile to face the twoagents. “Tell me, guys. What really happened to Stan? Did he, or did he not die in that fire?”

Paul rememberedthe shock and disbelief in Elise’s face after she’d learned what her husband had done two years ago.

She’d suffered through the stares and whispers of the people she’d sat beside in church for years. They’d shunned her as if she’d been the one to kill those innocent women. They couldn’t understand how her husband could have committed all those crimes with her unaware. Didn’t she live in the same house?

Paul had heard the whispers, the catty remarks and the name-calling. When the reporters descended on her, he’d been there to get her out and relocate her to a private room where she, the boys and her mother remained out of the spotlight. All the while, she’d put up a strong front for Brandon and Luke, shielding them from the ugliness as best she could. They had been too young to understand and hopefully too young to remember.

Now, Elise’s blue eyes blazed, the anger a welcome change from the defeated and frightened young woman of a moment ago.

He stared down at the letter, like so many others he’d seen on the case in Riverton, North Dakota. Had Stan Klaus lived through the fire and flood? They’d neverfound his body. “We’ll have the letter examined by our lab.”

Melissa pulled out an evidence bag from her back pocket and opened it.

Paul dropped the letter inside. “What did it say?”

Elise inhaled through her mouth, her lip quivering ever so slightly. “Dear Alice, for better or for worse, until death do us part. Let death begin.” She said it in a flat, emotionless tone. When she finished, her body trembled from head to toe.

“Alice? He specifically said, ‘Dear Alice’?” Melissa asked.

Elise nodded. She’d put that name behind her, even went so far as to consider her old self as someone who’d died along with Stan. Alice Klaus had been young, naïve and stupid. Elise Johnson was savvy, aware and would never harbor a killer in her home. Ever.

“Have you or the boys told anyone your former names?”

“No. The two years we spent in Minneapolis gave us time to adjust to the new names. When we moved here, we started our new lives. No one knows who we are.”

Melissa snorted. “Someone does.”

“Question is who?” Paul held the evidence bag up. “Who would write a note like that and for what purpose?”

“Could be just a scare tactic.” Melissa shrugged. “Who have you made mad since you moved here?”

Elise shook her head, her brow furrowing. “One of my student’s parents, or maybe a student?”

Paul cocked an eyebrow. “A student?”

“I have a bully and a talker,” Elise said. “I sent the talker to detention for two days straight. Her mother read me the riot act, claiming I was denying her daughter an education, although she gets the same work at the detention center as in the classroom. In fact, she gets more. The only thing she doesn’t get is cheer practice and she’s benched for the next game.”

“Do you think that student could be using your past against you?” Paul asked.

"Ashley?” Elise shook her head. “She’s more interested in her next boyfriend than exacting revenge on a teacher.”

Melissa’s mouth thinned. “You’d be surprised what kids can do.”

Elise pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’d be more afraid of her mother than Ashley. Gerri Finch is a nightmare in heels. Your basic overachieving stage mother.”

Melissa stared across the evidence to Paul. “Wouldn’t hurt to question her.”

Elise looked from Melissa to Paul. “Does that mean you’re taking the case? Or should I have turned this into the police?”

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