Page 10 of Death Row
What if itwasn’tNoel who burned to death in that house?
Yes, this all seems incredibly unlikely. If it wasn’t Noel who died that night, who was it? Some random burglar who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? That still wouldn’t explain the DNA match. And it wouldn’t explain why Noel vanished without a trace.
The most likely explanation is the most obvious: I’ve been missing my husband so desperately that I imagined that stranger was him.
Chapter 9
Before
Noel is late getting home again.
I sit at the kitchen table, checking my watch as I drum my fingers against the table. It’s nearly nine o’clock, and he told me that tonight he would definitely be home by seven. Seven came and went, along with several apologetic text messages.I’m so sorry. I’ll be home earlier tomorrow night for sure. I promise.
Why am I even surprised? These days, it’s more surprising when he actually makes it home when dinner is first coming out of the oven. I’m getting sick of his apologies—sick of keeping our dinner warm in the oven until whatever time he decides to come home.
Finally, at ten minutes after nine, the lock turns in our front door. I get to my feet and remove the chicken I made from the oven. It was delicious and juicy at seven, although it has surely dried out over the last two hours. Noel will insist it’s great, though. He always does.
“I’m so sorry, Talia.” Those are his first words as he bursts into the kitchen, wearing his usual work outfit of a wrinkled dress shirt, no tie, and khaki pants. “One of the tests we were doing ran long. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t.”
“Uh-huh.” I toss my ruined chicken on the kitchen table, even though what I really want to do is throw it at his head. “Well, I know your work is very important.”
“You’reimportant,” he insists. “And we’re almost at the finish line. I swear.”
“Uh-huh.”
“After this is done,” he says, “we are going to take a vacation. Maybe the Bahamas or Hawaii. Someplace warm with beaches and no phones at all.”
His words defuse my anger a bit. That does sound like a very nice vacation. Although a vacation where we never left our room for two weeks would also be nice.
And maybe we can get pregnant on the dream vacation. I couldn’t have imagined it five or six years ago, but I’m finally ready to start a family. If Noel would only cut back his hours a little, he’d be a great dad. A baby might be the motivation he needs to spend more time with his family.
He crosses the room to where I’m standing. He gently tugs off my oven mitts and puts his arms around me. He leans in to kiss me, and I almost let him, but then at the last second, I stiffen under his embrace. I turn away so that his lips only brush the top of my forehead.
“Do you want to eat?” I say in a voice that sounds like it isn’t my own.
“Yes,” he says, “but first, let me jump in the shower. I feel like I’m covered in chemicals. It’ll be five minutes. I promise.”
“And maybe tonight,” I add, “you and I can ... you know ...”
He grimaces, which is the last reaction I would expect from a red-blooded male whose wife just told him he was going to get lucky tonight. “Talia, honey, I’m so beat. I ... I’d probably fall asleep in the middle of it. Rain check?”
I nod slowly. “Rain check.”
I stand frozen in the kitchen as I watch my husband climb the stairs to the second floor of our house. His instinct to take a shower is a good one. Noel has lost his sense of smell, but I haven’t, and I am very aware that he reeks of another woman’s perfume.
Chapter 10
Present Day
Iwake up with a jolt, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I’ve been dreaming about Noel every night recently, but this is the first dream I’ve had that took place after I found out that he ... well, you know.
It’s not a time I want to think about. I certainly don’t want to dream about it. It’s bad enough that my days on death row are so miserable—I used to look forward to escaping into my dreams. If those dreams turn into nightmares ...
I sit up on my flimsy mattress, noticing that I am covered in a layer of sweat. It’s very uncomfortable, but I have no change of clothes within my cell. So I just need to deal with the discomfort. That annoying beeping sound is also going off somewhere in the prison, which may have been what wrenched me from sleep. There’s no end to the torment I have to endure in this place.
On the plus side, at least there isn’t a rat in my bed.
