The Accident

NINE

Once Glen Garber had left with his daughter, Darren Slocum said to Ann, “What the hell was that all about?”

“I don’t know. She felt sick, she went home. She’s a kid. She probably ate too much junk. Or maybe she misses her mom, I don’t know.” When she turned to walk away from him, he grabbed hold of her elbow.

“Let go of me,” Ann said.

“What was she doing in our bedroom? That’s where I found her, you know. When I asked her what she was doing there, she said you told her to stay there. I don’t want some kid nosing around our bedroom.”

“The girls were playing hide-and-seek,” Ann explained. “I told her it was okay for her to hide in there.”

“The kids should not be playing in our room. That’s off limits as far as-”

“Okay, fine! Jesus, do we have to make a federal case out of this? You don’t think I’ve got enough to worry about?”

“ You? You think you’re the only one with things to worry about? You think they think you’re in this on your own? Let me tell you something. If they take you down, they’re taking me with them.”

“I know, okay, you’re right. All I’m saying is, there’s enough shit going on around here that I don’t have time to have some stupid fight about where the girls are playing in the house.”

“Letting Emily even have a sleepover was a stupid idea,” Darren said accusingly.

Ann gave him a look of exasperation. “What are we supposed to do? Just stop having lives while we try to sort this out? What do you want me to do? Ship Emily off to live with my sister or something until everything is back to normal?”

“And how the hell much did you spend on pizza?” he asked. Waving his arms in the air, he said, “You think we’ve got money to just throw around?”

“Right, Darren. That twenty bucks I spent on pizza, that’d make all the difference right now. We tell them, hey, look, here’s twenty bucks, cut us some slack.”

He turned away angrily, then just as quickly turned back.

“Were you on the phone a while ago?”

“What?”

“The light on the extension in the kitchen. It came on. Was that you?”

Ann rolled her eyes. “What’s going on with you?”

“I’m asking, were you on the phone?”

“The kid called her dad, remember? He just left?”

That shut him up for a moment. The whole time he’d been talking, Ann had been thinking, I have to get out of here. But she needed a reason. Something believable.

The phone rang.

There was a cordless extension in the living room. Ann was closer. She snatched up the receiver. “Hello?”

A voice shrieked, “He came to see me!”

“Jesus, Belinda?”

“He said I was running out of time! I was in the basement, I was getting some prescriptions ready and-”

“Just calm down for a second and stop screaming in my ear. Who came to see you?”

Darren said, “What’s going on?” Ann held up a palm.

“The guy,” Belinda said. “The one you deal with. Honest to God, Ann, I thought, just for a second there… I didn’t know what he was going to do. I have to talk to you. We have to come up with this money. If we can just come up with thirty-seven thousand for him, and whatever you put in, I swear on my mother’s grave, I’ll pay you back.”

Ann closed her eyes, thought about the money they needed. Maybe her earlier caller, the one she was going out to meet, could do more to bail them out. Say something like, This is it, this is the absolute last time, after this, I’ll never ask you for anything again.

Something to think about.

“Okay,” Ann said. “We’ll figure something out.”

“I need to see you. We need to talk about this.”

Perfect. “Okay,” Ann said. “I’ll head out now. I’ll call you on my cell in a minute and we’ll figure out where to meet.”

“Okay,” Belinda said, sniffing. “I never should have got into this. Never. If I’d had any idea that-”

“Belinda,” Ann said sharply. “I’ll see you soon.” She hung up and said to Darren, “He’s leaning on her.”

“That’s just great,” he said.

“I’m going out.”

“Why?”

“Belinda needs to talk about this.”

Darren ran his fingers into his hair and pulled. He looked like he wanted to hit something. “You know we’re totally fucked, right? You never should have brought Belinda into this. She’s an idiot. That was your call. Not mine.”

“I have to go.” Ann brushed past him, grabbed her jacket, car keys, and a purse that was on a bench near the front door, and left.

Darren turned around and saw Emily standing, tentatively, at the far end of the living room.

“Why’s everyone always fighting?” she asked.

“Go to bed,” her father said, his voice like low, rumbling thunder. “Go to bed right this second.”

Emily turned and ran.

Darren pulled back the curtain on the front door window, watched as his wife backed her Beemer out of the drive, took note of which direction she headed.

Ann was grateful to Belinda for calling when she did. It made her exit from the house a lot simpler. But it didn’t mean Ann had to meet up with her right away. She had to get this other meeting out of the way first. Let Belinda sweat it out for a while. After all, she had only herself to blame.

It was dark down by the harbor, and the stars were out. It was cold, in the mid-fifties. Every few seconds there was a wind gust, sending dead leaves fluttering down from the trees.

Ann Slocum parked up close to the edge of the pier and, because of the cold, decided to wait in the car, with the motor running, until she saw headlights approaching. There were still boats moored down here, but the harbor was deserted. Not a bad place to meet if you didn’t want to be seen.

Five minutes later, headlights flared in her rearview mirror. The car came straight up from behind, the lights so bright Ann had to adjust her mirror to keep them out of her eyes.

She opened her door and walked around to the back of her car, her shoes crunching on the gravel underfoot. The driver of the other car opened his door and jumped out hurriedly.

“Hey,” Ann said. “What are you-”

“Who was it?” the man asked, charging toward her.

“Who was who?”

“When you were on the phone, who was it?”

“It’s nothing, it’s nobody, it’s nothing for you to worry-Get your hands off me!”

He’d grabbed her by the shoulders and was shaking her. “I need to know who it was!”

She planted both her palms on his chest and shoved, forcing him back enough that he released her. She turned and started walking back to get into her car.

“Don’t you walk away from me,” he snarled, grabbing her left elbow and spinning her around. She stumbled, braced herself against the back of the car. He closed in on her, grabbing her wrists and pinning them to the trunk lid. He pressed himself up against her, put his mouth to her ear.

“I’m not taking any more of this shit,” he said, softly. “All of this, it’s over.”

She brought up a knee and connected.

“Shit!” he screamed, and again relaxed his grip on her.

Ann twisted under his weight, skittered along the trunk lid, turned up the passenger side of the car. There was little more than a couple of feet between it and the edge of the pier.

“Goddamn it, Ann.” The man reached for her again, grabbing her jacket. But he didn’t have much of a hold on it, and she jerked herself away. She pulled so hard, however, that she stumbled toward the pier’s edge.

Ann attempted to regain her balance, but she’d have needed another couple of feet to do it. She went over, her head striking the edge on the way.

A second later, there was a splash, and then nothing more.

The man peered over the side. The water was black as the night, and it took a moment for him to spot her. She lay facedown in the water, arms extended. Then, with a quiet grace, her arms pulled into her body and she rolled slowly onto her back. She stared up lifelessly for several seconds as an invisible force dragged her legs downward. A moment later, the rest of her followed, her face a pale jellyfish slipping beneath the surface.