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He didn’t say anything as he struggled to get out of the car. He had an old pair of crutches retrieved from his basement that he was using to get around. Eric told him it would be better if he kept weight off his ankle for a few days. The problem was, their mother’s apartment was on the second floor, and there wasn’t an elevator. He groaned when he realized what faced him and turned around to sit on the bottom step.
“I better not hear one word from you on this,” he warned.
She smirked as he started backing up the steps one at a time on his butt, using his good foot to push him up the next one.
“Should I stay below you in case you fall or can I go ahead of you?”
“What don’t you get about ‘not one word’?”
Laughing, she passed him on the stairs and waited at the top. His face was pinched in a scowl when he finally reached the landing. They walked down the hall to their mom’s apartment. Adam opened the door, and they were greeted with the pungent odor of smoke. She’d always hated that smell.
She scrunched her face as they walked through the apartment looking for anything salvageable or of any worth. The furniture was old and of no value; the stench alone would turn off anyone remotely interested. Her clothing was nothing more than sweatshirts and sweat pants. Sam didn’t want to sound like a snob, but it looked like she shopped thrift stores for her clothes. When you spent all your money on booze, there wasn’t anything left for luxuries.
Locating a storage closet, she began rummaging around in it, finding a box, about the size of two shoeboxes put together, containing pictures and papers. She took it out of the closet and told Adam she would look through it later. They walked around a little more, and Adam found a couple of rings and a bracelet in the top drawer of her dresser.
“Do you want these?” he asked.
She shook her head no. “I don’t want anything of hers—just a few pictures,” she replied, nodding toward the box she held.
They checked the refrigerator and found it mostly empty except for a twelve pack of beer. Adam opened a pantry door to find alcohol—a couple cases of beer and two bottles of vodka. There were a couple bags of noodles and some dust-covered canned goods. Nothing else.
The office had opened, so they went in and asked to speak with the manager. She walked them to her office where they chatted for a bit. She told them that their mom’s neighbor kind of looked out for her, and she was the one who found their mother lying on the living room floor. She called the ambulance, but their mom had died before the ambulance arrived. They thanked her for her time and information, wrote out the required Notice to Vacate, and left the office.
Once in the car, they talked about what they needed to do next. Sam called Jane at the law office to speak with her and to get a plan of action to focus on.
Next, they headed for the hospital to see what, if anything, needed to be done. A member of the hospital staff told them their mother had been taken to the funeral home that Adam had directed them to call when he spoke to them the night before. That was the next stop.
Leaving the funeral home at about two-fifteen in the afternoon, Sam was exhausted, and her arm throbbed. She drove Adam home and then went to get her prescription filled. Now all she wanted to do was go home and take a nap.
She walked into her peaceful, quiet house, took her pill with a glass of water and lay on the sofa. She turned on the television and flipped through the channels, finally stopping on a show she’d seen before, but she was tired and didn’t care. She covered herself with a blanket and closed her eyes.
20
Gray knew he shouldn’t walk away with Suzanne, but he could tell by her mood that she was going to dig at Sam and him all night. He thought if he appeased her by meeting a couple of people with her she would behave. He tried walking away a couple times, and she always found a reason why he should stay there. When Sam turned her back to them, he knew she was pissed. This was supposed to be a fun night for them. When he looked her way and saw Sam walking out the door at the Downtown Harmony Lake event, he jerked away from Suzanne and strode through the building to catch up with her. When he got to the front door, he saw her riding away in the back of a cab. By the time he got a cab, she was too far ahead of him. He’d screwed up again. Fucking Suzanne!
He slid in the back of a cab and told the driver to take him to his house. He hoped he could catch her. When he got there, her car was there, but she wasn’t. Thinking she’d probably gone to her house, he jumped in his car and drove over there, but when he got there he saw her dress hanging in the closet; he must have just missed her. She wasn’t anywhere to be found. The sinking feeling that hit his stomach when he realized she’d probably gone to his place to get her car almost brought him to his knees.
Jerking his phone from his pocket, he continued calling and texting her, but she wasn’t answering. He had a friend who ran a security company, so Gray called David.
“Is there a way to track a cell phone?”
“Gray, are you sure you want to do this?” David sighed, then releasing a long breath, he continued. “There’s a way to trace a cell phone, provided it’s turned on.”
“Check. Please. Will you check and see if hers is turned on?” His stomach lurched and threatened to empty itself.
“Sorry Gray, it isn’t. No signal right now, but I can keep checking. Do you think she’s in trouble?”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat with his elbows on his knees, perched on the edge of his sofa.
“I don’t know, David. I just need to make sure she’s not in trouble.”
They ended their call, and he scraped his hands through his hair, bent his head, and locked his fingers behind his neck. The throbbing in his head rivaled the roiling of his stomach, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to throw up or have an aneurysm. What he did know was sitting here was getting him nowhere, and yet, he didn’t know where to go.
He called Sam’s friends, Pam and Jessie and a couple others he could remember her mentioning. No one had seen or heard from her. He didn’t want to call her kids and get them worked up—yet. After a few hours, he called his parents and told them what happened. They asked him to come over and talk to them. Dani had already called—she was worried.
Gray arrived at his parents’ house, and Dani and Nick had been there for about an hour. They, too, were trying to figure out where Sam would have gone. Dani lit into Gray, reciting all of his transgressions and reminding him how stupid he was to let that bitch, Suzanne, once again ruin his life. When would he learn? How many times would he let her do this to him? What would it finally take for his to tell her to fuck off? On and on Dani went, until finally, Mary asked her to stop.
After Dani had calmed, she told Gray what Sam had said about him allowing Suzanne to manipulate him. Then she asserted, “If you get her to talk to you again—which is doubtful because if it were me, I wouldn’tevertalk to you again—you better know what you’re dealing with. You’re theonlyperson who can stop Suzanne from manipulating you, and being afraid she might make a scene is chump change compared to what you’ll lose.”
