The Happy Housewife (Samantha Sherman Book 1) (22 page)

Helen laughed now. It came out like a bark. “You’re saying I killed Dan and burned those houses in Loudoun County. Ha, that’s rich. Who is going to believe that I did that, Sam? Because I was once involved with the Weather Underground years and years ago? C’mon. And I’m faking hip surgery? This is crazy.”

“I’m not saying that you personally burned those places. I think you stay more behind the scenes; you’re smarter than that. This way if one of your proxies gets caught you can slip away. I thought when I heard your friends speaking that they were hard on you, but the other way to look at it is that they don’t see you as a weak person. On Sunday I overheard Clint and Marjorie complaining about your summoning them to your house, and at my house Clint and Marjorie were sarcastic when you expressed uncertainty. You probably thought I might be listening so you were acting for me. Later when I spoke with Marjorie, she made it clear that you guys are not great friends. Why would that be if you work together, meet regularly, and have all this history?”

“Well, this has just gone beyond absurd. I don’t have to stand here and listen to this, Sam. I want you to leave.”

Sam continued on, ignoring Helen’s request, “The only thing that messed up your planning and control of the situation was Dwayne and Evelyn, right? I mean, if Evelyn wasn’t killed and Dwayne wasn’t hurt you could have sailed away from all this with no problem. But William wouldn’t leave his brother to die, would he? And you knew that he would eventually lead the police to Pete and possibly the rest of you. Dan was a problem because he already left the group and/or because he wanted to go to the police once the Loudoun action went so badly. You yourself said he was never one for violence. You had to go through with your plan to get rid of him, even though it would occur on the same weekend as the deaths of two kids. After that you used me to stall the police until you could leave.”

“Well, Sam, I’m glad that the tragedy of this week has provided you with an interesting soap opera to play with, but this is my life, not entertainment for you. You’ve admitted that you wanted a little excitement. Now you’ve just created some for yourself. Well fine, if you want to look foolish, go to the police and tell them this. All you have is hair dye and a conspiracy theory.” With that, Helen turned her back on Sam and started gathering her things.

Where was Nathan? He must have really gotten caught in good old Northern Virginia traffic
, Sam decided. She would just have to keep going. “I’ve got one more thing, actually. As I said before, I don’t believe you had hip replacement surgery. I think it was a ruse to get me to deliver you Communion and set me up as your protector so you could get rid of Dan safely. I looked online, Helen. It does not take two and a half months to recover from hip replacement surgery. It takes a couple of weeks. Even if you actually had surgery, you should have been back on your feet a long time ago. You can prove me wrong, of course. Just show me your medical records or, for that matter, open your cabinets and show me your appliances. Prove to me that you’re not about to run.”

“Look, Sam, we’ve reached a stalemate on this. Go to the police. I’ll be here whenever they want to talk. Now leave, please.”

“Sorry, Helen, I can’t leave because I think you’ll bolt. I’ll just call the police right now, and we can wait here together for them. I’m not afraid of looking foolish.”

Sam walked over to the phone, turning her back on Helen. As she reached for the phone, she heard a low growl. She whipped back around in time to see Helen rush over to her purse, definitely
not
moving slowly anymore, and pull out a gun.

Sam had never had a gun pointed at her, and it was a much scarier experience than she thought it would be. Her heart pounded and she felt shaky. She became mesmerized by the barrel; she couldn’t take her eyes off of it. She finally tore her eyes away and flinched as she saw the fierce look etched into Helen’s face. Sam debated saying something, but she wasn’t too sure that whatever she said wouldn’t just set Helen off. She waited and then after a couple of beats, a pause that seemed like forever, Helen spoke.

“You are an intruder in my home and I want you to get out of it. You know I would be justified in shooting you if it came to that.”

“
Whoa
, Helen. If you want me to leave I will leave, but let’s be clear. This would
not
be a justified shooting. I am unarmed and have made no move to hurt you. The police would unquestionably come after you on this one. I will leave, though. Okay, I’m going to move towards the door now so don’t shoot.” Sam tried to ignore the barrel of the gun and instead looked at Helen in the eyes. Helen was doing nothing to disguise her seething rage. Sam didn’t think she would really shoot her but who knew what could happen?
I already miscalculated once.
Sam edged slowly toward the kitchen door.

In retrospect, she wasn’t sure why she said what she did next; she didn’t think she had a death wish. Was it to prove her point or had she had enough of her own self doubt or was she just so stubborn and desirous of being right? She never quite figured it out. As Sam got within three feet of the kitchen door, she said calmly and slowly, “You know, you moved awfully fast towards that gun. Kind of proves my point, at least between us, doesn’t it?”

Helen’s face began shaking. Sam was fascinated by it, looking at the swirl of color on Helen’s face. Sam realized with a start that she wasn’t really scared anymore. She felt her pulse slow down. She also realized that she hadn’t fully believed all her sneaking suspicions until right this second. She was right about Helen. She hadn’t given up the fight, the revolution. She was the leader of the pack. She brought Pete down from New York and got him a job and then used him to do her dirty work. Over the years since her family died she had recruited young kids to help with her efforts and then moved on when she felt she might get caught. And she killed Dan or had Pete kill Dan because he was leaving the group or she thought he might reveal what she was doing.
Wow, someone really should stop her.

“You stupid bitch. I will not let you play mind games with me so that you can feel important again. Now, I want you to go into the basement, not out the kitchen door. I am going to lock you in and call the police. I was going to give you a break but not anymore. I’m filing charges against you for trespassing.”

“Helen, let’s not kid ourselves. You’re going to lock me in the basement and then you’re going to take off. You’ll never call the police. Just so you know though, the police are on their way. I called them before coming over here. In fact, they should be here any minute.”

The look on Helen’s face made clear, without her saying anything, that she did not believe Sam. “Well, if that’s true than you won’t have long to wait down there, will you? Now move back around the table and go downstairs.”

Sam started moving again, slowly. If she could just stall for a little longer, Nathan surely would get here. Helen was matching Sam’s movements, ensuring that the table stayed between them. Helen had moved around so that her back was towards the kitchen door.

“You don’t really respect what I do or who I am, do you?” Sam spoke quietly, now eager to engage Helen in conversation.

“What? Your pathetic little house frau existence? Oh, I have a ton of respect for ‘housewifing.’ It sure has kept you sharp. It only took you two and a half months to figure out that the album was messy and my house was clean. I practically had to throw the thing at you to get you to look at it in the first place.” Helen took a couple of deep breaths and then said, “You think you can get me to say something incriminating? Good luck. I’m a survivor, and I didn’t get that way by not being able to match wits with a cookie baker. Now put your purse on the table and get moving towards the basement.”

Sam did as she was told and moved slightly faster towards the basement door. She looked at the door and realized that there wasn’t a lock on it. How did Helen plan on keeping her locked in, or did she? Sam felt her stomach clench. If Helen was really this revolutionary, it would make more sense to shoot Sam to ensure her getaway, particularly if she didn’t think the police were on the way. Her heart beat picked back up.
Was this really happening?
Sam slowed her pace down. No need to make this easy on Helen. “All right, Helen, I’m moving. Just take it easy. Remember I’ve got a kid.”

“
Eh
, she should be in a commune anyway,” Helen actually chuckled a bit at this.

“How can you say that, Helen, don’t you remember your daughter? Would you want Lindsey to go through life without a mother just like you went through life without your daughter?”

“If my daughter had been in a commune, like I wanted, she would be alive today. John was such a weakling. He just wanted his little girl with him. Now open that basement door.”

Sam couldn’t stall any longer. Maybe honesty would work. “Helen, there isn’t a lock on the door. Look, you’re right. So far you’ve done nothing to implicate yourself criminally so there is no reason to act rashly. Besides, I wasn’t lying when I said that the police are on the way. If you lock me in, or worse, you will make a situation where you are under suspicion turn into one where you are presumed guilty. Don’t do this. You can still walk away from this mess.”

Helen cut her off, erupting, “Oh please spare me your sermons. It’s not like I don’t get enough of that in church. God, I’m so sick of listening to you talk. What have you ever done in your life? What changes have you ever aspired to make? Where have you left your mark? I’m admitting nothing here, but I will say that I’ve lived my life consistently with courage, putting everything on the line for what I believe. People who just snuggle up in their warm safe world make me sick.”

Sam suddenly remembered something from earlier. She quickly forgot self preservation and blurted out, “Well, maybe you have been consistent in your life’s work of revolution but weren’t the majority of you Weathermen rich, privileged kids? Were you really putting everything on the line? You could always go back to your parents and their money, or at least a nice middle class existence.”

Helen was shouting now, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. That wasn’t us. That was Bernadine and Bill Ayers and that group that were rich kids. A lot of us were true believers and still are. Do you think it’s been easy all these years moving around when things got hot, recruiting anew at each different town and taking actions. I’ve got no inheritance and no family. I have lived for revolution.”

Sam could see the fierceness take over Helen. Her eyes glistened and her skin reddened further. She looked quite crazy, actually. Sam realized that she had definitely pushed Helen too far.
She really believes all this crud, doesn’t she?
Sam knew at once that Helen would do anything to protect herself and keep her ‘revolution’ going. Sam was standing in the basement door now. She was in real trouble. She held up her hands and said, “Please don’t kill me, Helen.”

“You should have minded your own business. You wanted to be special and different, well here you go.” With that Helen clicked the safety off and then … Sam heard glass breaking as Helen sharply sucked in a bunch of air and puckered her lips. Blood sprayed the room. Sam dropped to her knees as Nathan burst through the kitchen door.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. Sam watched in slow motion as Helen staggered. Sam tilted her head to the side in horrified enthrallment as Helen dropped the gun. It looked as if she had been hit in the arm. Soon after that she saw Nathan putting handcuffs on Helen. He called for back up, and asked Sam if she was all right. Then it seemed like just moments later there were a dozen police cars at the house, and Sam was suddenly outside and a bunch of officers were talking to her. It all passed in a kind of haze. She did remember Nathan asking if she was okay again. When she said yes, he smiled and said softly, “So what does wait in the car mean to you?”

Sam was grateful he wasn’t yelling. She choked out, “Sorry.”

“No big deal. I guess I’m looking at this in a glass half empty kind of way.” Sam looked up and saw that Nathan was grinning at her. She couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her face.

Nathan laughed quietly and grasped her elbow. Sam felt warmth where he was touching her. He expertly steered her over to one of the police cars and opened the door so she could sit down with her feet outside the car. He bent down on one knee in the grass opposite her and asked Sam to explain what had happened. He didn’t even try to lecture her after that initial comment. He listened to her without interruption and then he confirmed that he did get caught in traffic. “When I got here I saw your car and assumed that you had gone in. I heard the last bit of the conversation, which is good, because no matter what happens we at least have Helen on attempted murder.”

“I’m glad you got here when you did.”

“Yeah, well, we are going to need you to go over everything at the office, and then I’ll give you a hard time about going into that house alone. Do you need to call anyone or arrange things so you can come with us for a couple of hours?”

Sam nodded, “My daughter’s camp performance is this afternoon. I’ll call my mother and ask her to go.
Um,
was Helen’s car packed?”

“Yes. It was completely packed up and not with school supplies. She was definitely getting ready to run.”

Sam nodded and then directed her attention to finding her cell phone. Once she found it, with slightly shaking fingers, she dialed her parents’ number. Fortunately, Sam’s mom was home and happy to fill in at the last minute. She did seem concerned when Sam mentioned where she was going, but Sam assured her that everything was fine and that she would explain later. Lindsey was close to her grandmother and would consider it a treat that she showed up for her performance. Hopefully, that would mask any disappointment that Sam was not there.

S
am shifted in the cool plastic bucket chair yet again. It was almost 4:00 p.m. and she figured she must be almost finished. She had driven herself to the police station, with Nathan following her. The predicted afternoon thundershowers had started as they arrived at the station. Sam and Nathan had run inside where she had been whisked away from Nathan by an officer whose name she couldn’t remember now. After that she had spoken with Don, the FBI, and a district attorney. Everyone had been very complimentary of her detective skills. Sam actually believed them, too. There were still some holes that she wanted explained, but at this point she was talked out, tired, and ready to go home. It felt so good to have helped out. But, while she felt renewed personally, her priority was her family, and she wanted to get home. Doug’s plane landed at Dulles at 7:00 p.m., and she was hopeful that she could still get over to her parents’ house, get Lindsey, fix some dinner, and be ready when Doug arrived.