Page 62 of Justice for Samara

“No. We don’t talk much anymore,” she huffed.

Boy, there’s gonna be a whole lot of regret in this house very soon, he thought. “Their house burned Sunday night.”

“What? Are you serious? And she didn’t call me? I can’t believe it! I mean, I know she’s mad that we don’t like Alex, but that’s no excuse for not at least calling us and telling us that! Where are they staying?”

“I have no idea. When was the last time you talked to her?”

“Ummm, let me think… Maybe last month? She called to tell me that she got a promotion at work to the surgical team.”

Michael made a mental note of that.So she hadn’t worked in that position very long. Good information to have. “So you haven’t heard from her lately?”

“No. Is something wrong?” She stopped for a few seconds, then asked, “Has that asshole done something?” He knew she wasn’t talking about Glenna; it was Alex she was referring to.

“We don’t know for sure, Norma. I talked to Alex and he said she was on an Alaskan cruise.”

“An Alaskan cruise? Seriously?”

“Yes. With her sister.” And he waited for the response he knew he was going to get.

Norma’s face clouded over immediately. “That lying son of a bitch.”

“Yeah. That’s what we thought too. I called her work. She hasn’t been there since Saturday night.”

The look of anger on Norma’s face instantly turned to fear. “Oh, no. What has he done?”

Michael stopped before he spoke. Maybe he should wait for Glen to get back. “I have some information for you, but I’d really like to wait until Glen gets here.”

Somewhere outside, he heard a car door close. “Oh, I bet that’s him now.” Michael checked out the back window and sure enough, Glen was coming up the back porch stairs.

“Whose cruiser is that… Michael!” Hand outstretched, the man made a beeline for Michael, so the younger man stood and shook his hand. “It’s so good to see you, son!” Glen’s free hand grasped their clasped ones, and Michael thought about how good it was to see them both, even if it was for a shitty reason. “What brings you here?”

Before Michael could answer, Norma blurted out, “Oh, Glen, I think that asshole son-in-law of ours has done something horrible. Michael said their house burned down Sunday night, and Glenna hasn’t been at work since Saturday.”

Glen sat down heavily next to his wife and rested a hand on her knee. “I was afraid something like this would happen. Do you know where she is?”

Before he could answer, Norma piped up again. “Alex told Michael she’s on an Alaskan cruise.” When Glen stared at her, she added, “With hersister.”

“What the hell? What’s wrong with him?”

Michael looked straight at the two of them. “Far more than you could ever imagine. Have you talked to Glenna lately?” Glen said nothing, but his eyes gave him away. “Glen, if you know something, I really need to know.”

“She called me a couple of weeks ago. Said he’d roughed her up and bruised her wrists.” That was information Michael had been given by the nursing supervisor, so it was confirmed by Glen. “I told her she needed to leave that sumbitch, but she loved him. Why I’ll never know. I wish she’d stayed with you. We’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you guys too. So there’s something I need to tell you, and I don’t want to, but I feel I have to.”

Glen’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “We already know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say he’s killed Glenna, aren’t you?”

“We don’t know that for sure. But what we do know is that there was a body found in the burned portion of the house. The medical examiner’s report says it was female. Dental records were of no use. The fire burned really hot because there was some kind of accelerant used.”

“So somebody set the fire,” Norma whispered.

“Yes, ma’am. But the person in the fire was already dead. The coroner’s report said it was due to a gunshot wound.” Norma gasped, and he felt sorry for both of them. “They did get enough DNA from the bone marrow to know a couple of things.” He steeled himself for what he knew was about to happen. “The first is that there were no drugs in the person’s system, so they were probably shot outright, and if the medical examiner is correct, it was instantaneous. There was no suffering.”

“Oh, thank god. Was there anything else?” Glen asked.

“Yes, one other thing. Based on hormone levels, the person was most likely pregnant.”

Norma dissolved into tears and Michael felt horrible. There was nothing he could say or do that would make things better for them. Their only daughter was dead. They’d already sensed it, from what he could tell, and yet they’d hoped against hope that she was fine. Glen was doing a good job of being strong for her, but Michael could tell he was crumbling too. “Is there anything we can do?” Glenna’s father asked.

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