Marty explained my part of his plan quickly, and I just nodded like a robot. It all sounded crazy to me. All I had to do was distract his ex-wife and he would do the rest. I still had no idea how badly he was going to scare her, but somehow, the idea was enticing. Maybe it was because I wanted to scare Brennan badly that I agreed to go along with everything. This was as close as I could get for now.
We both slipped out of the car, and Marty darted toward a row of bushes that would keep him out of sight. I just started to walk slowly down the street in the direction of Teal’s house. I noticed that of the few houses, one of them was empty, with a For Sale sign in the yard, and another house on the corner had no cars in its gravel driveway. On the other side of the street, where we were parked, there were no houses, just the rear of a church soccer field.
Teal was unloading groceries and had to make a couple of trips from the front door to her open trunk.
When I was on the street in front of her house, I got my first good look at Marty’s ex-wife. She was a beauty: tall, with a creamy complexion and long, wavy hair. I realized I had never seen a picture of her. I’d done a little snooping on Facebook, but she had no profile.
She noticed me, and I felt my stomach jump. My pulse was racing. I wasn’t sure I liked this game.
Teal stared at me for a moment. That pushed me to say, “Hi, I, umm, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just had a stupid flat tire. I was hoping there might be someone who could give me a hand.” Marty had said to distract her, but I really hadn’t put much thought into it. I hoped this was doing the trick. I figured he’d just slip into the house or do something equally juvenile.
Teal said, “I don’t think I’d be much help, but we can call someone. There’s a service station less than a mile away.”
She didn’t sound anything like I’d thought she would. Her voice was warm, and she genuinely seemed interested in helping me. That was a stark contrast to the portrait Marty had painted for me of his ex-wife. She was wearing a simple yellow floral print sundress and looked like a suburban mom who’d brought her kids back home from soccer practice. Suddenly I didn’t like the idea of helping Marty scare her.
Teal took a few steps past her open trunk toward me and was just about to say something else when Marty burst out of the bushes and stepped into the yard next to the driveway.
If this was his prank, it worked. Teal jumped and squealed, turning to face her ex-husband. Then she said, “Martin? What the hell are you doing here?”
Right at that point, I realized the game was already spiraling out of control.