A Clean Kill

Seventeen

A lison didn't go right into the house after the police car dropped her off. She stopped on the sidewalk and called Derek. His phone was off, and she didn't want to leave a message. Then, still lingering outside the modern renovated brownstone with its circular staircase and entrances on two levels, she called her husband on his private line. "Have you heard about Maddy Wilson?" she asked as soon as he answered.

"Where the hell have you been?" he yelled into the receiver. "I've been calling you all day. Oh, Jesus, Alison. Why didn't you call me?"

"They took me to the police station," she told him meekly.

"Why, are you hurt?" He sounded frantic.

She yanked the cell away from her ear. When he ignored her, she was miserable. But when he spoke to her, he was always yelling, or screaming. He didn't have a soft tone in his entire voice repertoire. She could imagine him pacing around his office with a headset on. Wherever he was, he had that phone pasted to his head, and he yelled at everyone. She had to take a pill whenever he yelled at her.

"No, I'm not hurt. If I were hurt, they wouldn't have taken me to the police station," she replied impatiently. "That's the hospital." He knew nothing about real life.

"Oh, stop. Maddy Wilson was murdered and you're always with her. ... I thought ... I was afraid ... I didn't know what to think. Why didn't you call me?"

"They were asking me questions, honey. I couldn't get to a phone."

"That's a crock. What do you know about it?" he demanded.

"Shh. Don't yell, Andy. I don't know anything about it. I was at the gym, and they came for Derek."

"Who the fuck is Derek?"

"My trainer."

"Oh, yeah, him." Reference to his wife's trainer stopped him, but only for a second. "Don't tell me that guy who steals your money killed Maddy!" he shrieked. "Jesus, Alison. Now you've done it."

"No, he didn't kill anybody. You're not listening. He was Maddy's trainer, too. They had a session together this morning. And he doesn't steal my money." This offended her. She leaned against a tree, which was missing its little iron fence to keep the dogs away, in front of her house. She was still reeling from the news that Derek had been unfaithful to her.

"You two did everything together. I'm freaked out by this, I really am."

"He doesn't steal my money," she protested again.

"Oh, I forgot, you just give it to him. You know what? I don't want you seeing that guy anymore."

Alison flushed angrily. Why were they arguing about Derek again? "I'm not seeing him, Andy. He's my trainer. He's done wonderful things for me. I'm completely straight now."

"Then why did you end up at the police station?" Andrew demanded.

Alison didn't answer the question right away. She was thinking of Maddy. She and Andy lived only two blocks away from the Wilsons. Their houses both had southern exposures and the same address. They'd thought it was such a wonderful coincidence, to be so close in such a safe neighborhood. Very little crime, and the United Nations was not far away. A lovely, lovely neighborhood. They had pretty views of the East River where the sunrises were amazing every morning. And Saks Fifth Avenue was nearby. They could walk there every day if they wanted to. The two women had been in each other's kitchens daily and drunk their afternoon white wines in each other's bedrooms. And they'd shared the same lover. Alison wanted to cry.

In fact, they'd shared everything except the gym where Maddy died. Maddy hadn't allowed Alison in there. That was the reason Alison had helped Derek set up his own studio. Crunch had been too crowded and noisy for her. If Maddy hadn't been so selfish, Alison wouldn't have had to give Derek so much money and gotten Andrew angry. But now she knew that Maddy had betrayed her in a bigger way than that.

"For Christ's sake, Alison, are you there?" Andy screamed into her thoughts.

"I'm upset," she said in a little-girl voice.

"Fuck that. What did the police ask you?"

"They wanted to know about Maddy's life," she whimpered, wishing he'd stop yelling at her.

"Jesus Christ. What did you tell them?" Andy demanded.

"Nothing. Why are you so angry about it? I didn't do anything wrong. I lost my best friend."

"Wayne called me. He's very upset."

"Well, I'm upset, too," she whimpered. "I was so upset I threw up."

"I know, Al, but you can't just blab off to the police."

"I wasn't blabbing," Alison protested. Why was he making this her fault?

"Honey, the police get things all mixed up. You can get seriously embroiled."

"I don't know what you're talking about. My friend was murdered."

"What did you tell them? Wayne wants to know."

"I told you. Nothing. We talked about shopping and the girls who .work for us. That's all. We also talked about Derek. They're interested in Derek."

"Really." Derek's name stopped hUn every time.

"When are you coming home? I'm so scared," she said.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Al, I'm very stressed right now. I have things to do. Are you going to call on Wayne?" he replied impatiently.

Alison hesitated. That sounded like a terrible idea. Why would she want to call on Wayne? He'd be stressed, too. "I think they kicked him out of the house," she said slowly. She didn't feel up to calling on anybody.

"Well, of course, they kicked him out of the house. He couldn't stay there. He's at the Plaza."

She shuddered at the thought of Wayne and the two boys at the Plaza. It wasn't a low-key place at all. She knew she should help Wayne with the boys. Maddy would want her to take care of things. That was a new stress. Bertie and Angus needed a new nanny, and Wayne couldn't hire one himself. And he certainly couldn't look after the boys on his own. She had to call Jo Ellen about a new girl. Better than taking them herself, she thought. She couldn't handle that. "Why did he go to the Plaza?" she asked.

"I don't know. Look, stay home. Don't go out. Don't call all your friends. Be discreet for once. Do you hear me?"

"How could I avoid it with you yelling in my ear?"

"Don't start with me, okay? I'm trying to earn a living here. I'm doing the best I can."

"But you told me to go see Wayne. I can't go see him. I have to get him a new nanny for the boys."

"Keep out of it. Remy's staying on."

"Remy's staying on?" Alison screamed. "Oh, Jesus, Andy. No!"

"She's with them at the Plaza. She's staying. Now, I have to go."

He hung up, and Alison leaned over to gag in the little plot of unprotected earth around her one lonely tree. She didn't like throwing up anymore, but sometimes life made her sick. The horror of the situation washed over her. Remy had killed her friend, and now the woman was ensconced in the

Plaza with Maddy's husband and two children. It was just too much. She tried to throw up, but she was completely empty inside. Nothing came out. She stopped retching and dabbed at her mouth and eyes with an old tissue from her pocket. She was crashing now, and felt the bad that was like no other low.

Remy had tortured poor Maddy for months— Alison knew that for sure. And when Maddy fired her, Remy killed her. The certainty of that sequence of events terrified her. She stumbled across the sidewalk to the curved staircase embedded in a stucco half wall that curled up to the second floor, hiding the service entrance into the kitchen below and creating an alcove for the front door above. Alison had always wanted to remove the solid stairway and replace it with wrought iron steps that would leave both doorways open to full view. But Andy liked the austere look of the heavy facade with its two hidden doorways.

She didn't like going under the stairs into the kitchen, so she climbed up to the second floor where the living room was. As soon as she opened the door, she knew Jill and Jessica, who were the same ages as Angus and Bertie, were downstairs in the family room watching Finding Nemo again. Same DVD over and over. That meant Lynn was doing absolutely nothing to stimulate them. She wasn't reading to them, playing with them, teaching them something on the expensive computer they'd bought. Nothing.

Alison stood inside the front door, listening to the loud movie music that filled her house. She was hurting badly now, and this affront was the last straw. Those nannies were all the same. They moved in and acted as if the house was theirs. After a few months, they didn't want to do the work they were paid in excess of six hundred dollars a week to do! Alison was outraged. She marched down the stairs to confront the girl.

The kitchen was a mess. The family room was none too neat, either. Toys were scattered all over, and the remains of dinner had yet to be cleared from the children's table. Lynn was nowhere to be seen, but Jil and Jessica were curled up on the sofa.

"Mommy!" they cried and jumped up to hug her.

Everything horrible fell away from her. "My babies," she cried, rushing to greet them.