The Accident

He thrust out his jaw and looked up, as though trying to draw some strength first. “There was an accident.”

The word sent an unexpected chill down my spine. “A car accident?” I asked.

“Sort of, but not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’d gone down High Street, by the harbor, and it looks like she got a flat tire on the passenger’s side, pulled over and got out to have a look-the door was open and the engine was still running-and anyway, she was parked up close to the edge there and it looks like she lost her footing, and went into the water. A guy I know, another Milford cop, spotted her just under the water there.”

“Jesus,” I said. “I’m very sorry. I really am.”

“Yeah, well, thanks.”

“I don’t know what else to say.”

“I thought you should know, what with our girls being friends and all.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Does your girl-Kelly-does she know?”

I nodded. “After I spoke to-I guess it was your sister-in-law-on the phone, I was going to tell her, but she found out on her own chatting online with her friends. Maybe even Emily.”

“Okay,” he said softly. “Must be a shock for her, too.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“What I was wondering,” Slocum said, “was whether it would help if I had a couple of words with Kelly, let her know what happened.”

“You want to talk to Kelly?”

“Yeah. Is she here?”

“No, she’s not. But I’ve talked to her. It’s okay.” I couldn’t think of a single good reason for Darren Slocum to tell Kelly how his wife died. I’d be the one to tell her, and comfort her.

He moved his jaw from side to side. “When’s she going to be back? She off playing with another friend or something?”

A small muscle by his right eye was twitching. He was so tightly wound, he looked like he might snap. I wasn’t eager for that to happen, so I kept my voice low and calm.

“Darren, even if she were here, I don’t think you talking to her would help. She’s just lost her mother, and now her best friend has lost hers. I think the best one to get her through this is me.”

A look of frustration crossed his face. “Okay, Glen, let me just cut to it here.”

Mentally, I went into a defensive stance.

“What the hell happened last night?” he asked.

I pushed the inside of my cheek with my tongue. “What are you talking about, Darren?”

“Your kid. Why’d she ask you to come get her?”

“She wasn’t feeling well.”

“No, no, don’t give me that. Something happened.”

“Whatever happened, it happened at your house. I might ask you the same thing.”

“Yeah, well, whatever happened, I don’t know what it was. But I think something happened between my wife and your kid.”

“Darren, where are you going with this?”

“I need to know. I’ve got my reasons.”

“Does this have something to do with your wife’s accident?”

His jaw moved around some more but he didn’t answer right away. Finally, he said gruffly, “I think my wife got a phone call. I think that phone call might have been the reason she went out to the harbor. I need to know who made that call.”

I’d had enough. “Darren, go back home and be with your family. I’m sure they need you.”

Darren kept pushing. “The girls were playing hide-and-seek. I think Kelly was hiding in our bedroom, and maybe she was there when Ann was on the phone. She might be able to tell me who Ann was talking to.”

“I can’t help you,” I said.

“When you showed up, and I went looking for your girl, I found her standing right there in the middle of our bedroom. She said Ann had told her to wait there, like she was being punished.”

I didn’t say anything.

“If Kelly’d busted something, or gotten into something she wasn’t supposed to, Ann would have mentioned it to me. But the fact that she didn’t, that’s curious. She kinda glossed over the incident before she went out. And she lied to me about being on the phone. She said Kelly must have used it to call you, but Emily told me she has her own cell phone. That right?”

“I got her a phone after her mother died,” I said. “Look, Darren, I don’t know what to tell you. How could Kelly know who Ann was talking to? And really, why does it matter? I mean, you just said what happened to Ann was an accident. It’s not like, you know, someone lured her to the harbor. I mean, if that’s what you thought, you’d be talking about it with the police, right?”

I continued, “And if, somehow, that is what you think, then maybe I should be talking to whoever’s investigating your wife’s accident, because I’m guessing it’s not you. That wouldn’t be the way they’d do things, right?”

“I’ve got every right to know the circumstances surrounding my wife’s death,” he said.

That struck a chord.

Wasn’t that exactly how I felt about Sheila? Her death was an accident, but the circumstances made no sense to me. Hadn’t I been doing the same thing Darren Slocum was doing now? When I sought out the other students and teacher from her night class, wasn’t I searching for the truth? When I tore the house apart, trying to determine whether my wife had been hiding booze in places where I wouldn’t find it, wasn’t I looking for answers?