We both slipped out of the car, and Marty darted toward a row of bushes that would keep him out of sight. I just started to walk slowly down the street in the direction of Teal’s house. I noticed that of the few houses, one of them was empty, with a For Sale sign in the yard, and another house on the corner had no cars in its gravel driveway. On the other side of the street, where we were parked, there were no houses, just the rear of a church soccer field.
Teal was unloading groceries and had to make a couple of trips from the front door to her open trunk.
When I was on the street in front of her house, I got my first good look at Marty’s ex-wife. She was a beauty: tall, with a creamy complexion and long, wavy hair. I realized I had never seen a picture of her. I’d done a little snooping on Facebook, but she had no profile.
She noticed me, and I felt my stomach jump. My pulse was racing. I wasn’t sure I liked this game.
Teal stared at me for a moment. That pushed me to say, “Hi, I, umm, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just had a stupid flat tire. I was hoping there might be someone who could give me a hand.” Marty had said to distract her, but I really hadn’t put much thought into it. I hoped this was doing the trick. I figured he’d just slip into the house or do something equally juvenile.
Teal said, “I don’t think I’d be much help, but we can call someone. There’s a service station less than a mile away.”
She didn’t sound anything like I’d thought she would. Her voice was warm, and she genuinely seemed interested in helping me. That was a stark contrast to the portrait Marty had painted for me of his ex-wife. She was wearing a simple yellow floral print sundress and looked like a suburban mom who’d brought her kids back home from soccer practice. Suddenly I didn’t like the idea of helping Marty scare her.
Teal took a few steps past her open trunk toward me and was just about to say something else when Marty burst out of the bushes and stepped into the yard next to the driveway.
If this was his prank, it worked. Teal jumped and squealed, turning to face her ex-husband. Then she said, “Martin? What the hell are you doing here?”
Right at that point, I realized the game was already spiraling out of control.
Chapter 24
Now that Marty was out of the bushes and ready to confront his ex-wife, I didn’t see where the real scare was. He didn’t have the gun in his hand, and they immediately started to bicker. It was really more awkward than scary, and I have to say I was disappointed by the outcome.
Marty even looked a little confused as Teal started to make her points.
She said, “All you do is complain to me about not being able to pay alimony. How you’re so busy you don’t have a free minute in the day. But somehow you have time to drive all the way up here from West Palm Beach with your bimbo? That doesn’t make any sense, Martin.”
Marty just stared at her for a moment, and in all honesty, I felt embarrassed for him. Then he said, “Do you have any idea how you sound? How you are more like a shrieking bird than an actual woman? You’ve never even met Christy. How dare you call her a bimbo.”
“Really, Martin? Really? You’re at my house, where I moved to get away from your crazy jealousy and stalking, and now you’re lecturing me on jumping to conclusions about a woman I’ve never met?”
Then Teal looked at me. She did not have the scared, confused expression I had been expecting. Instead she said, “Are you part of his plan? You seem bright enough. How did he trick you? Did you just get sucked in slowly to his crazy schemes? It’s easy, I know. Everything seems normal until all of a sudden you realize he has no boundaries. His concept of reality is very different than it is for the rest of us. My advice to you would be to run. Just like I did. But apparently I didn’t run far enough.”
Teal turned back to Marty and said, “Congratulations, Martin, way to impress your new girlfriend. Now, I’ve got a lot to do, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish bringing in these groceries.”
That felt like a pretty definitive end to our little escapade. I knew Marty wanted the experience to last. He wanted to see fear on her face and maybe expected her to be jealous of me. I’d never really been clear on the goal, but now I could see that coming here had been a mistake. His plan to scare her just hadn’t worked out.
Marty reached behind his back, and when his right hand came in front of him he was holding the pistol. I have no idea how badly it scared Teal, but at that moment, I was in absolute shock. I could feel the acid in my stomach back up into my throat. I had never seen a gun pointed at a person before except on TV. I could feel my knees starting to get shaky.
Marty wasn’t wearing his normal good-natured smile. He shouted, “You know why I came all the way up here?”
Teal was mesmerized by the gun as she took a step away from Marty. The pretty yellow sundress fluttered in the breeze, but I could see Teal’s legs start to shake. Was this the moment Marty had been looking for? Was the terror he was causing his ex-wife enough for him? It
