The two detectives looked unimpressed. Helen guessed they didn’t understand clothes that required maids.
“Maybe you can explain something else about that dress,” Detective Janet Smith said. “We found blood on the skirt. We have a warrant for your DNA.”
“My blood?” Helen’s voice was a squeak. “You want my blood? You think I killed her?”
“How else did your blood get on that dress?”
“I scratched my arm,” Helen said.
“So you don’t deny it’s your blood?”
“I’m not saying it’s my blood. It could be someone else’s. But I might have dripped a drop or two on the dress. I didn’t think Kiki would notice.”
“We think she did,” Detective Smith said. “You fought with her Friday night and she threatened to have you fired. You were fighting over that damaged dress, weren’t you?”
“No. That’s not what it was about. Kiki thought I was eavesdropping on an argument she had with her ex.”
“Now you’ve decided to tell us about the fight. You didn’t mention it before,” Detective Smith said. “But we heard about it from other people.”
Helen remembered the four frightened bridesmaids staring over the wedding planner’s shoulder. Did they tell? Or was it Jeff, the wedding planner?
“It wasn’t a big deal. Kiki said something nasty, and I refused to take her rudeness. She said she’d buy the bridal shop and have me fired. But she wouldn’t spend major money to nail a minimum-wage clerk. It would be bad publicity for Ms. Florida Philanthropist to go after a poor workingwoman.”
“Maybe. But if you ruined that dress, she’d make you pay for it,” Detective Smith said.
“I didn’t ruin it,” Helen said.
Smith kept talking. “That dress cost three thousand dollars. You make what? Six dollars an hour?”
“Six-seventy, plus commission.” Helen’s pay sounded pitiful when she said it out loud. “But—”
“You’d have to sell a lot of wedding gowns to pay for that rose dress,” Detective Smith said. “It would take you three months to make that kind of money, if you kept your job. The victim said she’d make sure you never worked again.”
Helen was beyond fear now. She was furious. “It’s a lot easier to arrest a shop clerk than someone with thirty million dollars,” Helen said. “I’m not the only one Kiki threatened. You’d better talk to Luke. Kiki also told the groom he couldn’t take a big part in a Michael Mann movie.”
“We heard that, too,” Detective Smith said. “But not from you. Now let’s get that DNA sample.”
“Are you going to stick me with a needle?” Helen said.
“I’m going to run a Q-tip on the inside of your cheek. It won’t hurt.”
But it did. Helen felt shame, like a fiery brand, where the Q-tip touched her.
Detective Smith dropped it in a plastic evidence bag. “We’ll be seeing you again,” she said.
It was a promise and a threat.
My sister, Helen thought. I have to warn Kathy. What if she gets a call from the police? Those two detectives could find out what happened in St. Louis. She doesn’t deserve this. Helen felt bad that Kathy was mixed up in her troubles. She deserved a better sister.
Kathy was almost perfect. She lived in a white house with a picket fence in suburban Webster Groves. The house needed new plumbing and a coat of paint, but it was an oasis of domesticity. Kathy was different from Helen, but she understood her sister better than anyone.
Kathy was the only person from her old life Helen really missed—and the only one who knew where Helen was. Helen called her once a month. Her next call wasn’t due for two weeks. But she had to talk to Kathy now.
On her lunch hour, Helen ran home like an animal to her burrow. She locked the door, pulled the blinds down, and opened the storage closet. She lugged out the red Samsonite suitcase and dug out the cell phone buried in the pile of old-lady underwear.
Please, please be home, Helen prayed as she dialed. The phone rang four times before Kathy picked up, breathless. “Sorry, I was in the basement. Helen, is that you? Are you OK?”
“I’m fine, Kathy. But if the police start asking questions about me, you don’t know where I am.”
“Of course. That’s what I’d tell them, anyway. No one’s been around. Are you sure you’re not in trouble?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.” It was their childhood pledge that they were telling the truth. Helen used it when she lied to reassure her sister.
“Something’s wrong,” Kathy said. “You aren’t due to call yet. Did Rob track you down? He’s been trying to charm your location out of Mom. He’s desperate for money again. Another rich girlfriend dropped him.”
“How long did this one take to wise up?” Helen said.
“She saw through him in six months.”
“It took me seventeen years,” Helen said. “If I hadn’t caught him in the act, I would have never figured it out.”
“You had a disadvantage,” Kathy said. “You were blinded by love.”
“I was blinded by stupidity. I let that man live off me for five years while he supposedly looked for work.”
“Helen, don’t be mean to yourself. When you finally caught that lowlife, you made him skip.”
“Skip naked,” Helen said. “I wish you could have seen him.”
Rob had been buck-naked with their neighbor, Sandy. First, Helen saw a lot of pink skin. Then she saw red. Helen picked up a crowbar and started swinging. Rob abandoned his lady love and ran for the protection of his Land Cruiser. Helen bought that for him, too.
She hit Rob where it hurt the most—right in the radiator. She reduced the Land Cruiser to rubble while Rob cowered inside. By the time the police arrived, the SUV was totaled. Rob and Sandy refused to press assault charges.
“It’s the court, right?” Kathy said. “They’ve tracked you down.”
“Ah, yes, the judge,” Helen said. “The man who was dropped on his head at birth.”
Helen filed for divorce. But a slick lawyer convinced the judge that Rob was the victim, a house husband who put up with a crazy career woman.
His lovers testified that Rob provided invaluable services. He did, too. He serviced them all. Helen wanted her lawyer to ask the women if they’d had sex with Helen’s husband. The lawyer refused. He was too much of a gentleman.
The judge said Helen made six figures because of Rob’s love and support. He gave Rob half the house, even though Helen made all the payments. She had steeled herself for that. Then the judge awarded Rob half of Helen’s future income, because her worthless husband made her career possible “at the expense of his own livelihood.”
Rage flowed through her like molten lava, wiping out her old life forever. Helen grabbed the familiar black book with the gold lettering and said, “I swear on this Bible that my husband, Rob, will not get another nickel of my salary.”
The Bible turned out to be the Missouri Revised Statutes. But Helen considered the oath binding.
She left the next day, zigzagging across the country before winding up in South Florida. Now she worked dead-end jobs to stay untraceable.
“It’s your new job, isn’t it?” Kathy said. “You’re in trouble again.”
“I wouldn’t call it trouble exactly,” Helen said. “One of our customers died. The police have been asking questions. I don’t want them asking anything about me, that’s all. How’s Mom?”
“That was a subtle change of subject,” Kathy said. But she suddenly sounded too cheerful. “Listen, Helen, I’m glad you called. I have some news. Mom’s getting married again.”
“Oh, no. Mom’s not going to marry Lawn Boy Larry,” Helen said.
“They’ve been dating for almost a year, Helen. The wedding is next week.”
“I can’t believe she’s marrying that old buzzard. All he wants to do is get his hands on her grass.”
“Helen! She’s been a widow for ten years. And she’s lonely. She’s having a wonderful time planning the
