Troy watched his home from the inside a neighboring home
where the inhabitants were on an extended vacation. They had asked him to keep
an eye on the place and he could feed their exotic fish, so he knew where the
key was hidden. He decided he would just stay there and not get a hotel room so
if she filed a missing persons report they wouldn’t find him, at least not yet.
Gerald took Troy to the house and he had waited for Polly to
leave before entering. He went into the house to his study where he opened the
safe and withdrew several hundred dollars in cash and then raided the pantry
and refrigerator. He laughed knowing she would be perplexed by the raid. He
took several changes of his casual clothes in a duffel bag and went back across
the street and waited.
As Troy watched clandestinely from behind the curtains of
the window facing his home he saw Polly pull up and into the garage. She lugged
heavy shopping bags into the house just as if nothing had happened. About an
hour later Archie pulled into the drive and got out. He took her hand as if
consoling her and patted her arm. Troy wished he had a directional microphone
to hear them. They went into the house and a few minutes later the police
showed up. He smiled to himself. “She must have found the missing items.” He
wondered out loud if she would report everything missing or if she had even
checked the safe. Would she tell them he was missing?
A half hour later the officers came outside still writing in
their notebooks. One of them pointed to the house where he was and Troy ducked
back just enough that he could still see what was going on without being seen
himself. She was shaking her head and he thought it looked like she said the
word ‘vacation’. Safe, he thought, at least for now. They walked door to door
to the neighboring houses questioning the inhabitants and scribbling in their
notebooks. At last they left and Troy breathed a sigh of relief. She had said
‘vacation.’
As darkness fell Troy wondered why Archie was still there.
Around ten he left but he looked a bit disheveled. Troy narrowed his eyes as he
recalled what Gerald had told him about the phone call Polly made after she
buried him. Could it be that she was talking to Archie? Hmmm. Suspicion gnawed
at him for hours. His friend Archie and Polly? No way; Archie didn’t even like
Polly.
Troy watched the news and knew there was mention of a
break-in at his house but no mention of his being missing or his belongings or
the money; just some food, which they thought odd. He snickered, either she didn’t notice or she
wouldn’t report it. He started watching carefully when she left and when she
came home. She was gone all night twice and he paced the floor. He knew if he
took his neighbor’s vehicle, word would get around so he couldn’t follow her
and he couldn’t take his own because if she came home and it was gone she would
report it stolen.
Two days later Archie pulled into the drive. Several hours
later he saw the lights go off in the house and Archie didn’t leave. Troy knew
he had been right. Archie’s dislike of his wife was all for show. He sat down
hard on the sofa and cried. It was bad enough what Polly had done, but now it
looked as if his best friend was also involved and more than just with a murder
plot. He thought for a while longer and then made a decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment