Sam got out of the cab and looked up at the old, painstakingly restored Victorian mansion that was the home of the English department chair. Ruth had loved this house so and had worked hard to restore it. The mature trees, cascading over the house and lawn, captured and reflected the light back down, creating a lovely glowing effect around the front of the house. It was both exciting and awful standing there. As always, she noted the uniqueness of the houses’ paint colors – they way they came together always enthralled her.
She never really thought she’d be attending a party here ever again, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to attend this one. She thought of leaving right now, but the cab was already down the street and around the corner. If it weren’t for Kate and Ben, she wouldn’t be dressed so glamorously in a black, spaghetti-strapped cocktail dress with a beaded, black silk jacket. She doubted she would ever be a size 6 again, but her new size 10 body felt good. Of course, this was all hidden under her wool coat. She sighed, squared her shoulders and started up the front walk to the front door. She was so engrossed in her own thoughts she didn’t hear others arrive behind her.
“Sam, is that really you?” The voice broke into her reverie. Her head spun around and she saw William and Mathilda Crowley coming up the walk behind her.
William was tall and thin; his shock of thick silver gray hair made him look very distinguished. Mathilda, William’s third or fourth wife and equally tall and elegant, smiled at Sam and said how wonderful it was to see her again. Sam now felt better that she wouldn’t be entering the party alone.
“So, are you coming to keep Rick in line?” William asked mischievously, raising an eyebrow in her direction. He now had Sam on one arm and Mathilda on the other as they walked up the front stairs.
“Arthur invited me,” she replied, smiling somewhat mischievously herself.
“Well, well, this should add some excitement to an otherwise dull party,” William mused.
“It’s always so sad when a couple gets divorced or separated and we get stuck with the boring half,” Mathilda said. “We’re happy to have the exciting half with us tonight.”
“I don’t really know if Rick is the boring half, but I do appreciate the compliment,” Sam replied, a light laugh in her voice, though maybe it was a little too high-pitched.
The front door opened and Arthur greeted them in a booming voice. The party was in full swing. Arthur told them where the food and drink were before greeting the next group. William, Mathilda and Sam were surprised to find themselves not at a small gathering but at a much larger cocktail party. Besides the caterer, there was an open bar with a bartender and live music.
Sam soon found herself separated from William and Mathilda. She found herself welcomed warmly as well as quizzically by many guests, both those she knew and those she didn’t. Most had seen the news about Ariella’s death, as well as Sam’s brief role as prime suspect. Sam fell into conversation with two female assistant professors that she knew slightly.
“Sam, I just have to ask you. Why did everyone think that you killed Ariella?” asked the first woman.
“Yes, I just can’t believe all the publicity around you!” said the second woman.
“I wasn’t here at the time and everything happened so fast that I’m not really sure how they connected me to the murder,” Sam responded, lying mostly. “I guess it may be because Ariella visited me the night before she, um, died.”
“Really? What did you talk about?” they asked, almost in unison.
“Well, not much. Just this and that,” Sam replied
“Wow, I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next. It’s like our own little family murder mystery,” said the first woman.
“Well, why exactly are you here?” asked the second.
“Arthur invited me,” Sam replied. They looked at her blankly, waiting.
“He’s been wonderfully supportive of my writing and helped me find an agent for my novel,” Sam explained. “Now I have a contract to write three more.”
“You’re getting a novel published?” one of them asked.
“It’s just a romance novel, but I’m very excited about it.”
“How did you find time to write, what with a full-time job and all?”
“I was laid off about six months ago. I used my severance money to pay the bills and write my novel. Well, my severance money and some help from my father.” She figured the story would get around the party in about five minutes so she might as well spin it as much as possible. Before she left, she would probably hear it repeated back to her with embellishments; those embellishments would be fascinating, particularly with these two telling the story.
“Well, I need a refill,” one said, and with that both of them headed off.
Sam was standing in the library talking to a few former grad students she had gotten to know in the past when Rick arrived with Donna on his arm. Rick and Donna looked happy and cozy together. At least, Donna gazed adoringly at Rick. He, on the other hand, was scanning the crowd. Sam was glad they hadn’t seen her yet. The confusing set of emotions going through her made her tongue-tied. The small group of graduate students she was talking to stood by her and watched also.
“I’ve never seen Rick with her before. Boy, it didn’t take him long to find someone new,” she heard one of the students whisper.
“She doesn’t look like a student,” said another. “Not like him to date someone older than 21.”
“Shhh, his ex-wife is here. She doesn’t know about all this,” another said.
“I think it’s a little late to worry about what I do and don’t know,” Sam replied dryly.
The students looked a little startled at this comment. Mathilda came up and put her arm around Sam’s shoulders in a show of comfort and support. Someone must have decided to tell Rick that she was there. He looked directly at Sam and Mathilda. Donna followed his gaze and showed visible surprise when she saw Sam. There was a moment of silence followed by a low buzz of conversation at the encounter.
“How dare you be here?” Donna yelled across the room at Sam. “This is my moment, not yours.”
“Sam, I’d like you to come with me to the kitchen,” Mathilda said quietly. Mathilda led her back through the library, down the hall and into the kitchen. Sam heard lots of buzzing, mostly from her own head. She was having a hard time seeing Donna and Rick together. The caterers were all talking in the kitchen, but their eyes were not on Sam. She felt a moment of relief at that.
“Sam, I had no idea he would be bringing your friend,” Mathilda said.
“”I know, I know. I’m not sure it was a good idea for me to come here this evening,” Sam said, trying hard not to cry. Mathilda patted her shoulder.
“Sam, if you’re ready to go, I’d be more than happy to give you a ride home.” Derek Soper said. He and a few others had followed Mathilda and Sam to the kitchen.
“Thanks, I would really like that. I was just about to call a cab. Didn’t you come with Jimmy?” Sam said.
“Yeah, we came together but he’s going to get a ride from someone else. He’s been hot for one of the new adjunct faculty members and she’s offered to drive him home,” Derek replied.
William brought Sam her coat and she and Derek headed out the kitchen door and up the side of the house. Cars were parked up and down the narrow street, along with the catering van. The rain had stopped and the lights peeping out of other houses’ windows up and down the street made everything seem dark and dreary.
“You know, I’m really glad that you and Rick broke up,” Derek announced as they approached his car. “He’s a lying, plagiarizing son of a bitch.”
“Really,” Sam said. The word plagiarizing certainly got her attention, even through her tears.
Sam didn’t know Derek very well. She’d met him only a few times at English Department functions; now that he’d dropped out, she didn’t run into him when she visited Arthur the same way she did his roommate, Jimmy. Derek had always been fun and entertaining with a glib and humorously sarcastic manner. He and Ariella had always seemed like good friends.
“Yeah, you were too nice to be with him.”
“Wow, that’s a lot to say about one of your advisors, sorry, former advisors. What makes you think I’m too nice for him?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Derek said.
“No, I’d like to know why you think I’m too good for him. We don’t know each other all that well and I suspect you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“Actually, you’re an open book, lady. You’ve held up your head while Rick was having all those affairs with students. And you’ve never complained about all the times he worked late, and all that stuff.”
“Well, it’s easy to hold up your head when you don’t know about something. I knew that Rick would have evening classes as a professor, so nothing seemed that erratic to me. I was working a lot of hours too, so it didn’t surprise me. You know, I never knew anything about this until I came home that time last spring.”
“Yeah, I know. Ariella was so shocked by your surprise. She couldn’t figure out how you didn’t know already.”
“I’ve gathered that over the past few months. I imagine my reaction took her by surprise the day I found them in bed together.”
“I’ll say it did. She had a lot of respect for you after that. It must have been quite a moment. Wish I’d been there to see it.” He chuckled as he said that.
“Do you miss her?” Sam asked.
“Yes,” he replied as the smile and the humor drained from his face. “I had no idea how much I really loved her until she was gone.”
They rode in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.
“You know,” Derek broke the silence first, “I figured she would get over Rick pretty quickly and she did. Did you know that they weren’t living together anymore?”
“I just learned that on Monday. Ariella never told me. And I never knew about Rick and Donna until tonight.”
“Yeah, she’s quite some friend, isn’t she? Did you know that he’s been staying with Donna?”
“Ah, no, I didn’t know that until tonight either,” Sam replied. What a shocking night this had been. Her best friend and her not-quite-ex-husband being together was just too hard to believe.
“Donna was a good friend of mine but I’ve been avoiding her these last few months,” Sam replied. “She’s been so hard to get along with.”
“Yeah, I bet. Well, here we are,” Derek said, pulling his car up to the curb in front of Sam’s building.
“Thanks,” replied Sam. “I didn’t know you knew where I lived?”
“Oh, ah, well. I remembered it from when I visited here before. You know, for the party,” Derek said.
“Oh, right. I forgot about that.”
Derek breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t seem to remember that he had never been there when she was home. “So, do you want to invite me in?” he asked.
“Ah, well, it’s been a long night and all, I think I’d like to take a rain check on that,” Sam said. She wondered if this night could get any weirder.
She put her hand on the door latch to leave the car and found it didn’t work. She was jiggling the handle when she realized that Derek was almost on top of her. He turned her head in his hands and started to kiss her. It took Sam a moment to gather her wits and push him away. She did so without screaming or creating a scene. She wanted him to know that she was in control, no matter how fearful and scared she felt. At first he didn’t move and his dark eyes continued to drill into hers, making her anxious. Then he moved back to his side of the car and slumped behind the driver’s wheel.
“Uh, Derek, I’m really grateful for the ride home but I think we should say good night here,” Sam said. She wanted to be kind and get out of the car as fast as she could without causing alarm.
“You don’t find me attractive, do you? Well, she didn’t find me attractive either. Jimmy’s the one who discovered he was plagiarizing her but you’d think she’d be more appreciative ‘cause I’m the one who told her,” Derek said.
“Ah, do you mean Ariella?” Sam asked.
She wanted to get out of the car as quickly as possible.
“Oh look, it’s getting late and I’ve said way too much. Thanks for the talk, too. Here let me get you out of the car,” Derek said. “I need to get that door fixed.”
He jumped out of the car and walked around the back to the passenger’s side door and opened it for her. Sam stood up and found Derek standing right next to her, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek.
“Thanks for a wonderful evening,” he said. “Maybe we can do this again sometime. Unless, of course, you want to invite me up.”
Derek then bent down to kiss Sam. When she didn’t respond he let her go.
“Well, I guess it’s just not our night.”
“No, I think not. Thank you for the ride home,” Sam said. “And thanks for talking about Ariella. I hope it helped.”
She turned and walked up to her front door. She unlocked it, turned and waved to Derek, who was still standing beside his car. She let herself into the foyer and closed the door behind her. She let herself through the second door into the lobby and elevator area and turned to lean against the door as she breathed out a sigh. What a night.
***
“Jesus, did you see that?” Wu said.
“Uh, do you think they’re dating?” Martinelli replied.
“Be serious. I think he just tried to attack her,” Wu replied.
“You don’t think she wanted to be kissed?”
“Get real. She pushed him away in the car and she didn’t invite him up. Plus it looks like the passenger has no control over that door. I bet there’s an assault complaint about him in the system,” Wu said.
Martinelli made a call to the dispatcher outlining their suspicions about Derek and provided his license plate number while Wu wrote up some notes. Larrabee was on duty and could look up the records and then get in touch with O’Malley. Wu and Martinelli then settled in for the remainder of their shift. The only excitement of the night had been watching a drunk attempt to open his car door. He repeatedly tried to open it with his keys but couldn’t find the lock and kept dropping his keys on the ground. They called the dispatcher to send someone to check on the drunk.
"Man, how the hell can she be a suspect? She has eight alibis or something like that," said Martinelli.
"I don't think she's a suspect. I think O’Malley wants us to make sure she's OK," Wu replied evenly.
"Why? Has he got the hots for her or something?" said Martinelli.
"Maybe. Maybe he thinks she's a target." Now that she was home, their job was to keep the building under surveillance for the rest of the evening. Wu wished he had a more intelligent, interesting partner for this. As far as he could see, Martinelli was sure that Sam was the murderer and had trouble focusing on anything else, except his stomach. Someday Wu would be a detective or even a bureau chief and Martinelli would still be walking a beat—or so Wu fantasized.
“Do you have the camera ready?" Wu said, slowly and evenly as if explaining something to a child for the umpteenth time. His manner was not lost on Martinelli, who sat up a little straighter and pulled the camera out of the back seat.
"Yep, everything's ready," Martinelli replied.
They were about to get out and run a sobriety test on the drunk who still hadn’t opened the car door. Dispatch had let them know that they didn’t have anyone in the area to handle the call. That’s when they got a call to check on Sam Monroe’s place.
***
Sam took the elevator up to the sixth floor, walked down the hall and let herself into the condo. She turned on the lights, looked around, inhaled sharply and didn’t move. Someone had definitely been here while she was gone. Books were knocked off the bookcase, dishes were on the kitchen floor and papers were strewn all around.
She slowly opened the door behind her and stepped back out into the hall. She stood for a moment, listening for sounds through the door but heard nothing. She then headed for the stairs and walked swiftly up to the top floor. It was already one in the morning and she knew Ben was working nights at the hospital but hopefully Kate would be home. Sam knocked on Kate’s door, rang the bell and knocked louder. She continued knocking until she heard Kate open the door.
“Sam, what is the matter?” Kate asked. She was cinching her robe and covering a yawn with her hand as she waved Sam in.
“I just got home and opened my door. My place has been ransacked,” Sam said. “Can I use your phone to call the police?”
“Of course you can. Don’t you have a cell phone?”
“Well, yes I do,” Sam said, pulling it from her bag. “I just didn’t want to stand out in the hallway by myself making the call.
Sam dialed 911 and reported the break-in. She explained that she was calling from a neighbor’s upstairs. Kate could see that Sam’s hands were shaking but her voice was firm and clear.
The 911 operator commended her for her quick thinking and kept her on the line while notifying the police dispatcher. Wu and Martinelli were alerted to the incident. They made a call to O’Malley to let him know what was happening and then headed to the front of the building. They rang Kate’s intercom, identified themselves and were let into the building. They went to Kate’s first to pick up Sam and then headed down the one flight to Sam’s place.
The door was intact and had not been forced. Inside the place looked just as Sam had left it ten minutes before. Wu and Martinelli checked to make sure that no one was there and then called Detective O’Malley, who was already on his way and arrived just a few moments later.
Wu and Martinelli took Sam’s statement. They noted that no doors or windows had been forced; in fact, most of the windows as well as the back door were still locked. Sam looked through each room carefully and noted that nothing seemed to be missing or broken. A few books had their bindings torn and their pages were strewn around the living area. Her computer was on and the screen requesting a password was on the monitor. Papers and flash drives had been moved around, but she wasn’t at all sure if anything was missing.
O’Malley was concerned for Sam’s safety and asked if she could stay with someone for the rest of the night. Kate, who had stayed quietly in the background through the whole thing, offered to put her up for the night. Kate had a second bedroom and wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Officer Wu had just a few last questions to ask before Kate and Sam stepped out.
“How many people have keys to this place?” he asked.
“Oh, not many. I had the locks changed once my husband left,” Sam replied. “My dad and my brother Andrew each have a key.”
“And would any of them have a need to enter your place while you were out?”
“No.”
“Is there anyone who might break in to look for something or just to be malicious?” Wu continued, while Martinelli took pictures.
“I did find out that my friend Donna and my husband, Rick, are sharing a place right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they broke in to harass me. They were suspiciously late to a party tonight. Or maybe they were looking for something, or both. I think that Donna is far more malicious than I ever would have thought.” Sam said.
“But they don’t have keys. Is that correct?”
“They have a key to the outside door of the building but they don’t have one to this condo,” Sam replied.
She winced at the thought that Donna and Rick might have been in her place. Donna and Rick together made her stomach churn. She was still more connected to Rick than she wanted.
“Are you sure that no one else has a key?” Wu asked again.
“No one that I know about.”
Wu was about to ask more about Donna and Rick but O’Malley put his hand up to stop him and asked Sam to meet him for breakfast at 7am at a diner near the police precinct. Kate thought that was fairly early, but O’Malley insisted. Sam agreed to join him for breakfast and then headed off to get some sleep at Kate’s place. O’Malley, Wu and Martinelli left at the same time and Sam locked the door behind them. They let her know it would be OK to clean up the next day. They did not anticipate finding anything of use.