Madison parked in her space and locked the car. She walked down the path, turned the corner of her building, and saw a woman sitting on her stairs. The woman was older than Madison: short dark hair, a little extra weight around the middle, wearing stretchy jeans, an off-label polo shirt, and Keds. The woman was reading a paperback novel and didn’t see Madison approaching.
“Hi,” Madison said.
The woman’s head shot up and her body quickly followed. She dropped her book on the ground with the abrupt movement and left it there. She was shaking.
“I have something to say!” she shouted. She seemed to realize she was yelling and lowered her voice for the next part. “I need to talk to you.”
“Okay. Who are you?”
“My name is Elaine Clark.”
Oh shit, Madison thought.
“I’m Tom’s wife.”
“Yes, I know. Do you want to come inside?” Madison looked to her left to see if Ryan or his roommates were home. She didn’t need to have a scene in the garden for the neighbors.
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Okay,” Madison said. “We can talk here. But can you relax with the adversarial stance? We’re not adversaries.”
“We are when you’re sleeping with my husband!”
Madison sighed and sunk into a lawn chair. She was suddenly so tired. “I’m not sleeping with your husband, and I have never slept with your husband.”
“I know how often he used to come over here,” Elaine said. “I used to follow him. And now it’s happening again.”
Madison looked at her, trying to translate what Elaine was saying into what Madison knew to be reality. Also, with all of this following going on, it was a wonder they didn’t all run into each other.
“Nothing is happening again, because nothing happened before. Truly.”
Elaine was still staring at Madison. “But I know he loves you.”
Madison leaned back in the lawn chair and closed her eyes. This was ridiculous. She hated drama. She didn’t have many friends that were women; well, to be fair, she didn’t have many friends at all. But usually her friends were guys. She couldn’t tolerate crying over guys, fighting over guys; frankly, she hated acting like guys were all that important to a happy life. She’d fallen for Dave and she regretted it on a daily basis; she did everything she could to avoid the drama he inherently brought with him. But what she didn’t need was drama brought to her door from a guy that was just a friend, and barely that.
She opened her eyes. “He doesn’t love me. He was obsessed with me because he couldn’t have me. It happens. The only cure is to let them have you, at which point they realize it was all smoke and mirrors; but I didn’t want to do that. However, he got over it. Right now he’s just helping me with a case I have. I’m a private investigator.”
“I know that,” Elaine said accusatively.
“Anyway, I can’t prove a negative, which is all I seem to be trying to do these days.” Madison stood up. “I’m not sleeping with your husband. I barely like him.”
“You’d be lucky to have him!” Elaine said.
“And with that piece of logic and reason, I’m going upstairs to my apartment.” Madison walked the ten feet to her stairs, but Elaine didn’t move to let her pass. There was sweat along her upper lip. Madison actually felt bad for her; she had kids. This was no kind of life.
Elaine was continuing. “He sees other women too, you know, not just you. I’ve followed him and seen him.”
“No, I don’t know,” Madison said. “And dear God I don’t care. Please, this is embarrassing for everyone. Just go home.”
Elaine sat down on the stairs and started to sob.
Oh, great, Madison thought. Now she’s crying. This was exhausting. She sat down next to her and handed her a Kleenex from her purse. They sat in silence for a few minutes; Elaine sobbing, Madison silent. All she wanted was to go upstairs and watch a Friends episode and eat popcorn. She’d had quite enough of today.
“I’m sorry,” Elaine said. “I know I’m being irrational. But he’s the love of my life. I’ve been with him since I was sixteen. He’s everything to me. I get crazy when I think I’m losing him.”
“It happens.” That was a good phrase that applied to many things: falling in love, falling in love with the wrong person, acting crazy.
“I need to pick up my kids from school,” Elaine said. She stood up. “Thank you for not laughing at me.”
Madison looked at the sky and recited:
This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched.
Elaine just stared at her.
“John Watson, 1903,” Madison said. “It’s one of my favorites. I have my own doubts and fears and wounds of the past, they’re just different than yours. So why would I laugh at you?”
“Right, well, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Tom I’ve been here.”
Oh, good. Another thing I get to keep from a cop today. “I can’t promise that, Elaine. But if it doesn’t seem relevant, I can avoid the topic.”
Elaine nodded and turned to walk down the path to the street in front of Ryan’s house. She stopped a few feet along the path and turned back. “He’s a good guy, you know.”
“That may be. But he doesn’t deserve you, Elaine.”
Elaine paused. Then she turned to walk the rest of the way to her car.
Madison stood up and stretched. It was only the middle of the day, but she felt like she’d been up for a week. She walked with a heavy tread up the stairs to her apartment. She pulled out her keys and froze. Speared to her front door with a nail, typed on 8 ½" by 11" paper, was another note:
WHAT DID I TELL YOU?
Chapter Nine
Madison had called Tom three times in a row and ultimately he had put her straight to voicemail. She hadn’t touched the note; she had walked past it into her apartment and tried to get Tom on the phone. She went to the windows and looked down into the alleys on both sides of her apartment. Her apartment was situated at the intersection of two alleys that made a T. She could look out her living room window at the alley between Nautilus and Bonair, and out her bedroom window at the other alley leading to La Jolla Boulevard. There were no unusual cars driving by or parked in the alleys. Nevertheless, the hair on the back of her neck was standing up. She dialed Tom’s number again.
“I’m in court, Madison,” Tom whispered when he finally answered. “You can’t just keep calling me over and over.”
“Sorry, I was a little frazzled after the visit from your wife,” Madison said.
“Visit from my wife? You visited my wife? What the fuck are you doing?”
“No, dipshit. Your wife visited me. She was sitting on my steps when I got home.”
“Oh Jesus. Look I can’t deal with this right now—I’m in the middle of testifying in a murder trial.” Madison could hear the echoing sounds of marble-hallway voices and footsteps.
“And then I came upstairs and there was another note from Anonymous on my front door,” Madison continued. “Coincidence? Or your wife is my stalker? Keep it all in the family, right?”