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“Oh, look,” I say. “We got ourselves another one.”
I want my wife to know that I know what she’s been up to. Gina leans down and pats Mary Baker’s hand. This isn’t her first time seeing a dead person. She was curious, so I gave her grand tours of several of the funeral homes I work with.
I squat down beside Mary Baker. “My wife is good at a lot of things,” I say, gazing into Mary’s glassy eyes. “Sad to say, cooking is not one of them.”
“They weren’t meant for her,” Gina replies bitterly. “Seeing as she’s the police chief’swife.”
“Oh well. I never really cared for her. You?”
“Of course not. But that’s not the point.”
She stares at me for a long time, trying to goad a response, but I won’t let her win. I know Gina wouldn’t be this careless, not unless she was up to something. Maybe she’s finally ready to tell me the truth? Maybe I’m about to die too? It could go either way, but one thing is for sure, I’m stronger and I’m faster than her.
I lean forward and wipe the sweat from her brow. “You look beautiful when you’re angry.”
She flinches when I touch her, which bothers me. I love Gina. She infuriates me, but I don’t want to hurt her. Not really.
“Now, go strip yourself down,” I say. “I’ll leave what you need outside the door.”
“I’m not putting on a dead woman’s clothes.”
I hand her a silk scarf from the rack by the door. The one that I’ve always loved on her. It makes her look like she belongs in Hollywood, which maybe she does. “You are,” I say. “And then you’re going to drive her car out to that spot I showed you. The one where we stopped to pick lemons on our honeymoon.”
“That was a day trip, hardly what I’d call ahoneymoon.”
“Strange,” I tell her. “I recall you being rather pleased.”
She starts to protest, but I cut her off. “That’s the thing about women. You can never make them happy.”
The phone rings. Gina takes it in the living room. I can’t hear what she’s saying, but I sense it’s about me. When she returns, I tell her we need to minimize the distractions. We have a lot of heavy lifting ahead of us.
I glance at the front door, thinking I heard something, but it’s just Annie. Blue trails not far behind.
Gina looks at the dogs and then at me and sighs heavily. “While I’m playing dress up, what areyougoing to do?”
“I’m going to take care of the body.”
The way I say it, I think this marriage might actually work. It’s so nonchalant, like we’re having a discussion about where to go on vacation, or whether the dogs have been fed. It might have gone on like that for a long time, but then I realize I did hear something. Tires on gravel. I look at Gina. “Expecting someone?”
She swallows hard, and then she shakes her head.
My stomach sinks. My vision blurs a little. I think I might be sick, and it’s not my wife’s poisonous cookies. She’s done me one better. I look at her and I think she knows it. “What have you done?”
I wish she’d say something. I wish she’d tell me my worst fears are wrong, but she doesn’t. She just follows my gaze out the window. Together, we watch as the police cruiser comes barreling toward the house, and I wonder what I’m going to have to do to get us out of this mess.
