Page 106 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“I remember.”

“Let me talk to the officers,” my mom said.

“Sure.” I turned to the officer. “I have to run upstairs to the safe to get the title. I have my mother on the line. She’s on her honeymoon right now, but she wants to talk with you.” I handed over my phone. The second officer escorted me upstairs and he waited in the bedroom while I opened the safe in the closet and I dug through all the papers to a yellow manila envelope sitting on the bottom of the safe. Typed on a white label: House Title.

I pulled out the envelope and shut the safe door. “Here it is,” I said to the officer, waving it like a flag because I was that awkward. The officer escorted me back down into the living room, where the first officer was just getting off a call on his shoulder walkie.

“Precinct called. We’re good,” the officer said.

“Good?” I asked.

“Good?” the second officer asked.

“They were contacted by Stanton McCain of the McCain Group.”

The second officer looked to me, “You know Stanton McCain?”

I nodded. “He and his wife, Penelope Von Dutton-McCain, are some of my closest friends.” I hated to name drop but as I was still under orders to lay low, I couldn’t exactly tell them I was the Gloria Parker married to the brother of the man running for president.

“What did you say your name was?” the first officer asked.

“Gloria Parker. Gloria Kowalski Parker.”

“And you live in Vermont?”

Again, I nodded.

“Hey,” the second officer said and I knew from the look on his face that he recognized mine.Curses. Foiled again. “Didn’t I see you on the news campaigning for that Brockton Parker character?”

“You did. He’s my brother-in-law.”

“So, you’re, like, a millionaire or something?” the second officer asked.

“Something like that,” I answered watching his eyes fill with wonder.

“I’ve been watching the polls. Michigan’s a battleground state.”

“We usually are.”

“Think he’ll win?” the second officer asked. I didn’t want him to lose hope. When people lost hope, they didn’t vote. That was how we lost elections.

Sigh. I had no freaking clue if Brock would win, but he wouldn’t win with my vote. “Everyone has to vote their heart,” I said, “but between you and me, I’m not voting for him.”

The officer’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline, he was so surprised. “But you were campaigning for him?”

“Family obligation—if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.Pleasedon’t tell anyone.”

“Are you kidding me? You got the Von Duttons, the McCains,andthe Parkers behind you. There’s not enough money in the world to make me talk. I got a wife and kids, and I don’t plan to end my days wearing cement shoes.”

The man made a good point. Now, the idea of the Von Duttons or McCains stooping low enough to commit murder was laughable. Robert Parker on the other hand—I hated thinking that about my father-in-law even if I couldn’t stand the man. But not wanting to lie to the officer, I did the whole,bite my bottom lip, trying to look innocent but not looking him in the eyething and he filled in the rest off of his assumptions.

“Sorry to bother you, Mrs. Parker,” the first officer said. “We’ll be leaving now.” Each man dipped his hat as they passed me without another word. I shut the door just as my phone, which Officer One had apparently set on the coffee table when he’d finished speaking with my mother, lit up with Pen’s name.

Picking it up, I swiped to answer. “Pen?”

“Open your door,” she said. Strange, but okay. I walked back over to the front door and saw Pen walking up to my front porch. “That was quite the adventure for seven o’clock on a Monday morning.”

I flipped my hand in the air. “A day in the life of Gloria Parker.”

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