The Second Wife Read online

  “Well, if what you say is true, the teeth should also match with Alice’s X-rays in her real file.”

  “I shook my head. Alice Coates’s dental file is missing. I already checked.”

  Cal was sitting forward, his elbows on his knees. I could see him replaying the evidence in his mind. “If this is true—and I’m saying if—where is Marjory now?”

  “I believe she and her real husband are hiding out somewhere. They’re waiting for Jason to collect on the life insurance policy. He’s also supposed to sell off Brian’s business and condo when he’s found guilty. Then Jason plans to join them.”

  Cal closed his eyes. His face had paled. “There’s no way to prove any of this.”

  I reached into my bag. “They made a few mistakes. I visited Marjory’s old dentist, Dr. Bloom. When Marjory left, she took her file with her. She also erased it on the computer in Bloom’s office. She didn’t know that it had been backed up on a disc. She worked weekdays and wasn’t aware that one of the girls made a disc every Saturday. Here’s the disc with Marjory’s real X-rays. They won’t match the ones in your file. I’m sure of it.”

  “You said mistakes, as in more than one?”

  “They didn’t count on a lonely old woman living next door to their first apartment. Rose Gatto remembers Alice Coates and Marjory’s real husband. He used to visit Marjory before they found a mark. Brian to be exact. The other thing that Marjory hadn’t counted on was Jason’s affair with her co-worker Tina Sweet. Marjory got angry with Jason and made him break it off. He could have blown the whole deal.”

  “I’m guessing you have all this documented?”

  I reached in my bag and handed him the file I’d been gathering.

  He looked down, then back at me. “I can see I have some work to do.”

  “Like find out where Marjory and her husband are living.”

  “That’s top of my list. If all this checks out, Brian owes you big-time.”

  “All in the line of duty,” I said.

  I reached the front door and turned. Cal was already talking into his cell phone and slipping one arm into the sleeve of his jacket. His eyes met mine. I could tell he believed me. He had the look of a bloodhound tracking a new scent.

  I smiled and let myself out.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  By late Friday morning, Jason was sitting in the Duluth jail. It didn’t take him long to spill his guts. He’d helped his mother kill Alice Coates. He and his mom had moved to Duluth to get a fresh start after some money went missing at her previous job. Marjory came up with the plan to clean up on her insurance only after a chance meeting with Alice at the mall. She remembered how people used to confuse the two of them in high school. It took her a while to work out the details. She used the time to reel in Brian. He was to be her backup plan.

  Jason gave Cal his father’s address in a little town in Wisconsin. His father was living a few towns over from where Marjory and Alice grew up. Cal called the Wisconsin state police. They picked up Jason’s dad before lunch. They also arrested a woman who turned out to be the very much alive and kicking Marjory.

  I sat at my desk. The excitement of the chase was over. I felt as deflated as a balloon after a nail had been poked into it. The past week had made me realize how empty my life had become since Brian left. I had a boring desk job and nobody waiting at home. My life sucked.

  Jan Hill from hr stopped by for a chat. “Have you heard the big news?” she asked. “Cal broke the Marjory White case wide-open. He figured out that she faked her own death and pinned it on your ex, Brian. Her son Jason killed a woman who looked like Marjory. Marjory and her son even managed to switch dental records. They would have gotten away with it if Cal hadn’t kept digging. He’s like…a hero.”

  My mouth fell open. I could feel anger shoot up from my stomach. I couldn’t breathe. For a few moments I thought that I was having a heart attack. I made myself inhale deeply and pushed the anger back down. There was no use fighting. Of course Cal claimed the victory for himself. He couldn’t let himself be outsmarted by a desk officer. “Cal’s a cracker all right,” I said.

  I was a loser and it was time I accepted it.

  The rest of the day dragged. I couldn’t concentrate on my work. All I wanted to do was go home and sit in front of the tv with the remote and a bottle of wine.

  Midafternoon, the inbox on my computer dinged. An email message had arrived from the chief. I clicked it open and skimmed the words. He wanted everyone to meet in the boardroom at three o’clock. I sighed and deleted the message. O’Malley was always sending emails to the wrong people. He should leave computer tasks to his assistant.

  At ten after three, I received a phone call. It was the chief ’s assistant. She told me that I was late for the meeting and they were waiting for me. Everyone on staff was expected. Even little old me.

  I hurried to the room with a pen and notepad. I tried to slip in without being noticed. The only empty seat was between Cal and Chief O’Malley. Neither of them looked at me when I sat down.

  O’Malley stood up to speak. He was a short bald man but tough as they come. He’d been chief for the past ten years. “I am letting you know today that I’ve promoted Cal Rodgers to assistant chief,” he said. “Cal has done outstanding work on many files. The Marjory White case is the latest example. I’m also letting you know that I’ll be taking a long vacation beginning next week.”

  Everyone laughed. They clapped for Cal. I managed a couple of claps but my heart wasn’t in it. I felt more like using my hands to slap him.

  Cal stood up and raised his arms for silence. “Thank you, Chief O’Malley. As you know, I headed up the White case. We had a surprising but satisfying end to the case. I’m happy to take the credit…but I can’t because I didn’t solve it. Gwen Lake put the clues together and handed me the killers.” He reached down and pulled me to my feet. “Gwen is the true hero on this file.” His eyes were twinkling.

  I staggered against him as he pulled me into a hug. Cheers and clapping broke out. A few officers whistled. I stepped back and held a hand to my mouth.

  “I’ve asked the chief,” Cal continued, “and he’s agreed to promote our Gwen to junior detective. We can use her talent to help solve future cases.”

  O’Malley stood and shook my hand. “Welcome to the detective division, Gwen,” he said. “Cal says you did some very good work.”

  Brian was sitting on my front steps when I made it home. I was later than usual because Jan Hill and I had gone for a drink to celebrate my promotion. I parked the car and walked toward him. He was tired but smiled and stood to hug me.

  “Cal tells me I owe you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “Do you want to come in for a minute?”

  We got a couple of beers and sat in lawn chairs on the back deck. It wasn’t as hot as it had been all July. There was a nice breeze cooling things down.

  After a while, Brian said, “I’d like to come home. I miss you and our life. What do you say, Gwen? Can you give me another chance?”

  I took my time answering. I thought about the twenty-two years we’d lived together. I remembered the pain when he left me. I’d been lonely when he was gone. But I’d made it through Christmas and my birthday and holidays without him. I fixed my eyes on the lilac bushes. They’d grown a good foot over the summer.

  “I say that it’s too soon. I’m not ready to be married again or to have you back in my life. You need to sort out your life too. There was a reason you fell for someone like Marjory White. We owe each other some time.”

  Brian took my hand. “Sometimes, we take for granted what we’ve got,” he said. “The grass isn’t always greener.”

  We drank our beer and sat outside until the sun set and the bugs came out. Then Brian got up to leave. I could hear his footsteps long after he disappeared into the darkness. I sat a while longer listening to the night sounds.

  I stood and stretched my hands to the sky.

  “You’re going to be
a detective,” I said out loud. It was the first time I actually believed it. Laughter started deep in my belly and bubbled out of my mouth. I laughed so hard that tears rolled down my cheeks. I threw back my head and looked at the stars. I yelled at the sky, “Gwen Lake, the forty-five-year-old couch potato is making a career change! Take that world!”

  Then I grabbed the empty beer bottles and stood up. I twirled twice around the deck before I danced my way into the house.

  BRENDA CHAPMAN is the author of the murder mystery In Winter’s Grip (2010), along with the successful Jennifer Bannon mystery series for young adults. She is a former special education teacher and currently works as a senior communications advisor in the federal government in Ottawa, Ontario.

  The following is an excerpt from

  another exciting Rapid Reads novel,

  And Everything Nice by Kim Moritsugu.

  978-1-55469-838-7 $9.95 pb

  When honesty isn’t always the best policy.

  Stephanie manages a clothing store and lives with her mother in the townhouse where she grew up. Her life isn’t in a rut exactly, but it’s not headed where she’d like it to be. Things begin to look up when she joins a community rock choir and meets Anna Rai, a local tv personality. When Anna’s personal journal goes missing and ends up in the hands of a blackmailer, the two women lay a trap to snare the crook.

  PROLOGUE

  One day, a few years ago, I found a wallet in the parking lot of the mall where I worked. It was sitting on the ground, open, right under the driver’s door of a bmw. Like it fell from the driver’s lap when he got out of the car and he didn’t notice.

  The wallet bulged with cash. Four hundred dollars’ worth. And credit cards, a bank card, a driver’s license. Everything.

  I picked it up and looked around. Was anyone running back to the car in a panic? Nope. The parking lot was empty of pedestrians. And the spot where I stood was out of sight of the mall’s outdoor video cameras. No one would see if I slipped the wallet into my bag and kept walking. Or if I removed the cash and dropped the wallet back on the ground.

  I stood there for a minute and considered those options. And others. I could leave the wallet where I found it, money and all. Or I could write a note, stick it under the windshield wiper, and turn the wallet into mall security. But I didn’t trust some of the guards who worked there.

  In the end, I left a note with my name and my cell number. I took the wallet into work. An hour later, I handed it—contents intact—to a relieved man who matched the picture on the driver’s license. As soon as he got it, he pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and gave it to me.

  “Thanks for your honesty,” he said.

  I took the fifty. Who wouldn’t?

  CHAPTER ONE

  My mom, Joanne, heard about the community rock choir from her teacher friend, Wendy. I heard about it from Joanne. So no wonder I wasn’t interested. Not that I didn’t get along with my mom. I did. I mean, I was twenty-four and working full-time as manager of the Gap store in Fairview Mall. But I still lived with her in the townhouse where I grew up.

  Joanne liked my company. I liked not paying rent while I was saving to buy a car. For a fifty-five-year-old mom, she was pretty chill. And I was pretty easygoing. I always have been. Except for when I was nineteen and dropped out of university after one semester. And refused to ever go back.

  We were over that, and things were all good between us. But I didn’t want to join a choir that met on Tuesday nights in a church and sang rock music. I didn’t even like rock music. I was more into pop and urban, top-40-type tunes.

  “There are pop tunes on the play-list,” Joanne said. This was one night in September after the choir’s first practice. She came home, warmed up the Thai food I’d ordered in, sat down to eat it and raved about the fun she’d had. “‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas, for instance. You like that song, don’t you?”

  “I liked it when it was current.”

  “And there’s a Pointer Sisters song. Talk about music from my era.”

  “Who the hell are the Pointer Sisters?”

  “And there’s something by Journey on the list, and ‘Honesty’ by Billy Joel. I love that song.”

  “Billy Joel? Are you kidding me? Next you’ll say the choir’s singing Elton John.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Look, I’m glad you found something to do that you like. A bunch of people your age singing classic rock just doesn’t sound like my scene. At all. No offense.”

  She sagged in her chair. “Oh, Stephanie.”

  I hated when she said my name like that. Like I’d disappointed her. “What?”

  “You were such a good singer when you were little, such a born performer. I think you’d like the choir.”

  She also thought that by working in retail, I was throwing away some bright future I could have had. The kind of future university grads have.

  “I’m not a good singer,” I said. “I never was. You just thought I was good because you’re my mom.”

  “How about if you come to choir practice next week and try it, one time? The choir members aren’t all my age. Some are in their twenties and thirties. And Wendy and I are in the soprano section. You wouldn’t have to hang out with us, or even talk to us. You’d be an alto or a tenor with your raspy voice.”

  I picked up my phone from the coffee table and pretended it had vibrated. “I missed a call from Nathan. I should call him back. I’m working twelve to nine tomorrow, so I’m staying at his place tonight.”

  “Say you’ll at least think about the choir. I’ll pay the fee if you join.”

  She had that right.

  “I’ll think about it. I promise.”

  “Good. Could you pass me my wallet? It’s in my purse, on the floor. I want to give you money for the Thai food.”

  I fished out the wallet and waited while she picked through the receipts, ticket stubs and dollar bills she had stuffed into it.

  She said, “That’s weird. I thought I had more cash than this. Did you take some out of here already?”

  “How could I have done that? I just handed you the wallet two seconds ago.”

  “I meant before I went to choir practice.”

  Was she losing her mind? “I wasn’t here before your practice, remember? I got home from work after you left. And ordered the Thai food. As you instructed.”

  She shook her head. “So you did. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Here.” She handed me a ten and a twenty. “I thought I had more cash on me. I must have spent it somewhere.”

  “I love how your first thought when money is missing is that I took it.”

  “I said I was sorry.” She smiled up at me. “I used to take money from my mother’s wallet all the time when I was a teenager— a five here, a few singles there. She never noticed.”

  “Well, I’m not a teenager. And I guess I’m more trustworthy than you were.”

  So far I was anyway.

  978-1-55469-835-6 $9.95 pb

  If necessity is the mother of invention, fear might be its father.

  Handyman Cedric O’Toole likes his simple life. He lives by himself on a hardscrabble farm, collecting sheds full of junk and dreaming of his next invention. But all that changes when he discovers the lawsuit he’s been slapped with for faulty workmanship might turn into a manslaughter charge.

  978-1-55469-282-8 $9.95 pb

  “My name is Rick Montoya. But you can call me the spider. Other people do.”

  When Rick Montoya returns to the city to try to clear his name, he discovers someone is living in his apartment. Before he can find out who it is, the apartment house goes up in flames. Was the firebombing meant for him? Who exactly was killed in the fire? And why? What was his landlady doing at home in the middle of the afternoon? The questions mount up, along with the suspects.

  978-1-55469-288-0 $9.95 pb

  When everything goes wrong at once, Missy Turner begins to make some unusual choices.

  Miss
y Turner thinks of herself as the most ordinary woman in the world. She has a lot to be thankful for—a great kid, a loving husband, a job she enjoys and the security of living in the small town where she was born. Then one day everything gets turned upside down—she loses her job, catches her husband making out with the neighbor and is briefly taken hostage by a young man who robs the local café. With her world rapidly falling apart, Missy finds herself questioning the certainties she’s lived with her whole life.

  Titles in the Series

  * * *

  And Everything Nice

  Kim Moritsugu

  The Barrio Kings

  William Kowalski

  The Fall Guy

  Barbara Fradkin

  Generation Us The Challenge of Global Warming

  Andrew Weaver

  Love You to Death

  Gail Bowen

  The Middle Ground

  Zoe Whittall

  One Fine Day You’re Gonna Die

  Gail Bowen

  Ortona Street Fight

  Mark Zuehlke

  The Second Wife

  Brenda Chapman

  The Spider Bites

  Medora Sale

  That Dog Won’t Hunt

  Lou Allin

  The Way It Works

  William Kowalski