The Mill River Recluse Read online

  ~~~

  “I don’ know what to say, Mary.” Samuel Hayes stepped back to get a better look at his daughter in her wedding gown. “You look beautiful. I wish your mother were here to see you.”

  “I’m sure she would be happy for us,” Mary replied. “You look good, too.” She smiled, prompting the stocky horse farmer to fidget with his bow tie.

  “I don’ reckon I’ve worn a suit like this since I married your mother,” he said. “Feels sorta strange. An’ these shoes are a little tight.” He looked over at Mary, but she was staring into the mirror, smoothing the veil that drifted down over her shoulders. Her gown was silk crepe, with a sweetheart neckline, lace sleeves, and a matching lace train that extended at least three yards behind her. Her dark hair was pulled back into a low elegant twist and held in place by an arched tiara. The veil attached to the jeweled headpiece and flowed down her back.

  “I think this might be a bit much, but Patrick insisted on it,” Mary said as she lightly touched one of the larger crystals on the tiara.

  “Well, I like it,” Mr. Hayes said. “Besides, this is your wedding day. I don’ see any reason why you shouldn’ look like a queen.”

  “I suppose.” She continued to stare at herself in the mirror, but her blue eyes were glazed, locked in place as her mind traveled. Organ music began to play in the sanctuary outside the door of the dressing room in which they stood, and every once in a while, the voices of people being escorted to their seats also filtered through. Mr. Hayes glanced nervously at the door, then back at his daughter.

  “Fifteen minutes to go,” he said. “Mary, are you...do you think you will be all right during the ceremony?”

  “I think so, Papa. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt really panicky. I thought I’d be anxious right now, but I’m not.” That wasn’t quite true. Deep down, she could still feel a simmering core of unease, but she was determined that nothing would ruin her wedding day.

  Mr. Hayes shook his head and took his daughter’s hands. “I never would’ve imagined that you’d be able to walk into a roomful of people, much less that you’d be gettin’ married.” He stopped speaking for a moment and sniffed. “I was so worried that you’d never be right again after…well, I won’t bring up the past. What matters is the here and now. That Patrick has sure worked a miracle with you.”

  “I know,” Mary said, her eyes clear and bright again. “Sometimes, I can’t quite believe it myself. I love him so much. He is...he’s everything to me.”

  “Mary, I want you to know that, well, I know you know that I don’ have a lot of money. An’ you don’ know how much I wanted you to have a nice wedding.”

  “But Papa, look at all of this,” Mary said, gesturing toward the door that led to the sanctuary. “In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined anything more than this.”

  “I know, I know. But it’s just that, well, I wish I could’ve been the one to give you all of this, today.”

  “Oh, Papa, you’ve always given me so much,” Mary said, embracing her father.

  The organ music outside the door grew louder, marking the beginning of the processional. Mary stepped back and wiped her eyes. Mr. Hayes straightened his tie, tucked Mary’s arm around his own, and smiled. It was time.

  As the trumpeter played a magnificent fanfare, the congregation rose in a great wave and turned expectantly toward the entrance to the sanctuary. The church was filled to capacity. Patrick stood with his brother and Father O’Brien at the altar, waiting.

  The deep chords of the church organ joined the clear notes of the trumpet as Mary and her father began making their way down the aisle. Most of the people in the church had never met Mary, but her exquisite beauty caused even those who had already seen her to gasp as she glided past.

  If Mary was anxious, she gave no indication of her feelings. She was smiling, her beautiful face relaxed and serene. Tears slowly trickled from her blue eyes. Patrick watched her, her hand tucked around her father’s arm as they came to a halt before him. When the music stopped, Father O’Brien’s voice rang through the church.

  “I greet you, family and friends who have gathered here today to witness the marriage of Mary Elizabeth Hayes and Patrick Miles McAllister. Please, join me in prayer.” He bowed his head. “Father, we ask your blessing for Mary and Patrick, who today will be united in marriage before your altar….”

  Mary kept her head bowed, but opened her eyes slightly. She looked down at her father’s feet. The stiff dress shoes were moving ever so slightly. His toes were wriggling inside them, she knew, and she had to smile.

  Patrick stepped forward and took Mary’s hand as her father released it. Mr. Hayes smiled at his daughter and sat down in the front pew on the left side of the church. The only other occupants of the pew were an older man and woman who wore their Sunday best but who still appeared uncomfortably underdressed. They were Mr. and Mrs. Pearson, neighbors of two decades and the only guests invited by Mary and her father. In fact, they were the only people they could think to invite.

  Mary looked up at Patrick, her face more radiant than the crown she wore. Patrick smiled down at her and squeezed her hand as they faced the young priest. Behind him, he felt two hundred pairs of eyes taking in the beauty of this stunning woman who would soon be his wife. He had waited and worked for this moment--their coronation. During the week ahead, they would visit Niagara Falls and New York City. He savored the thought of escorting his glorious bride on their honeymoon. As he felt the softness of her hand in his, his heartbeat quickened and a sudden urgency made itself known. Patrick looked down at Mary again. His green eyes were hungry, almost ravenous. Their marble mansion in Mill River was finished. They would spend their first night in it tonight. After waiting for so long, he would finally get from Mary what he wanted most.

  Chapter 9

  Having conquered the treadmill, shoveled her driveway, and treated herself to a hot bath, Claudia Simon drove her old station wagon through Mill River to the grocery store. She smiled with satisfaction at having eaten a healthy brunch to make sure that she would not be tempted by the Doritos in the snack aisle. She was in control of her appetite and proud of it.

  She remained firmly in control in the produce section, although that was easy. She didn’t feel guilty about eating anything here--fruits and vegetables were her friends, and she piled them into her shopping cart. The dairy aisle was fine, too. Skim milk, lowfat cottage cheese, and yogurt--all acceptable. She picked up a package of boneless, skinless chicken in the meat section and a half-pound of salmon at the seafood counter.

  Still in control, Claudia ignored the package of Italian sausage that whispered to her and completely bypassed the snack aisle and its crinkly, shiny bags of deep-fried bliss. A good marinara would be nice, she thought as she swung through the aisle of dried goods for some spaghetti and pasta sauce. Now the only things that she still needed were lowfat salad dressing and bread. The salad dressing was in the next aisle over. The bread, though, was in the far corner of the store...in the bakery section.

  Claudia took a deep breath and steeled herself as she pushed her cart toward the bakery. She looked at her watch. It was about noon, which meant that the smells of the morning baking wouldn’t be so noticeable anymore. For this, Claudia was thankful.

  She would buy a nice loaf of whole wheat bread, the kind that was rich in fiber. She imagined the scent of that whole wheat bread as she passed the bakery area, where behind a glass counter there were the birthday cakes, cookies, and rows of doughnuts. Glazed, Bavarian creme, Boston creme, twist, her eyes read before she could tear her gaze away, and Claudia felt a little ping inside her. Doughnuts were her greatest weakness, and her control was fading.

  She walked faster, swung her cart around the end of the aisle, where the shelves of bread began, and stopped. Before her stood an enormous Entenmann’s display. Boxes of coffee cakes, pastries, and doughnuts were stacked neatly beneath a sign that read, “2 for $5.00.” She stared at a box of powdered sugar do
ughnuts and felt herself begin to salivate. Stop it, Claudia told herself, you’re not hungry. You made sure of that before you left the house. But a little voice in her head asked how long had it been since she had allowed herself a powdered sugar doughnut. A month? Two months? Surely, the voice begged, couldn’t you make an exception today?

  Well, Claudia thought as she reached for the box, she had exercised this morning and continued to be very careful about her diet. The little voice encouraged this line of thinking. You deserve it, it said. And besides, a doughnut or two won’t cause you to regain ninety pounds. That was true, Claudia told herself as she set the box in her cart. But it could be a dangerous beginning. She sighed and resolved to try to talk herself out of the purchase, all the while knowing that it wouldn’t work.

  As she rounded the end of the aisle intent on quickly finding her bread and leaving the store, Claudia heard a male voice that was vaguely familiar and a child’s voice that she recognized immediately.

  “Here you go, kiddo, be careful not to smash it.”

  “I won’t, Dad. I’ll put it on top, by the eggs.”

  Kyle Hansen was standing in the bread aisle beside a cart and his nine-year-old daughter, Rowen.

  Claudia had met Kyle a few weeks before. A police officer, Kyle and his partner, Leroy Underwood, had visited her class as part of the “explore a career” project she had started. No wonder his voice was familiar, Claudia thought. Her knees had gone weak the moment he had entered her classroom, and, since then, she had replayed his voice speaking to her fourth graders hundreds of times in her mind.

  “We should swing by the deli and get some stuff for sandwiches. And we still have to get a bag of cat food.”

  “We can put it on the bottom, see Dad?” Rowen said, pointing down to the wire rack above the wheels of the cart. “That’s what it’s for, you know. Hey, can I get a doughnut?” Claudia felt herself cringe.

  “No, I think Ruth gives you enough treats from the bakery--”

  “Miss Simon! Hi, Miss Simon!” Rowen called, spotting Claudia at the end of the aisle. Kyle turned and smiled. Claudia froze. Now, after having succumbed to her sweet tooth, was not the time she wanted to be seen by anyone, much less by this good-looking man who had denied his own daughter a doughnut and would surely think her a pig if he saw the whole box of them in her cart. But it was too late--they were coming toward her. She grabbed a loaf of bread from the nearest shelf, placed it on top of the doughnut box, and forced herself to smile.

  “Hi, Rowen,” she said, but before she could say anything to Kyle, Rowen interrupted her.

  “Miss Simon, guess what? I got a cat! Dad got it from a lady who died and now he’s mine!”

  “You did?” Claudia said, looking at Kyle, who grinned back at her. “What’s her name?”

  “His name,” Rowen said, placing extra emphasis on his, “is Sham. He’s a Siamese and has blue eyes. We have to get him cat food.” Rowen was looking curiously into Claudia’s cart. Spying the half-hidden Entenmann’s box, she pursed her mouth and squinted up at her father. “Hey, Dad, Miss Simon is getting doughnuts, so why can’t I get one?”

  Claudia thought she would shrivel into a prune. If Kyle noticed her reddening face, though, he didn’t show it. In fact, he seemed a little embarrassed by Rowen’s antics.

  “Oh, all right,” he said awkwardly. He looked at Claudia sheepishly as Rowen took off toward the bakery counter. “But only one,” he called in the direction of the doughnut case.

  “She’s got a major sweet tooth,” Kyle said as he put another loaf of bread into the cart. “You’d think that getting treats from the bakery all week, and pancakes for breakfast this morning, would be enough for her.”

  “Well, I guess when it comes to doughnuts, I can relate,” Claudia said with a wry smile. “And you’re only a kid once.”

  “That’s true,” Kyle said. “So, Miss Simon, how have those fourth-graders been treating you?” He looked at her with genuine interest, and Claudia hoped that whatever she managed to say wouldn’t sound idiotic.

  “Oh, please call me Claudia. And things are pretty good. I’m getting to know the kids, which is hard when you come in halfway through the school year and they’re used to someone else. Their teacher resigned rather than come back after her maternity leave, and the kids were disappointed when they started school after Christmas and found me there instead. I really appreciated you and Officer Underwood coming in to talk to them. The kids enjoyed seeing you.”

  “That’s good. Visiting your class was way more fun than patrolling or checking drivers’ licenses. And you should call me Kyle, by the way. None of this officer stuff. Same goes for Leroy, if you happen to run into him.”

  Claudia hoped that she wouldn’t see Leroy again. She remembered how Kyle’s partner had leered at her throughout their visit to the classroom. But Kyle was standing in front of her, looking at her expectantly, and she refocused her attention on him.

  “Fair enough,” Claudia said, smiling, as Rowen returned with what appeared to be a Bavarian creme doughnut in a little waxpaper bag.

  “Look, Dad, I got one with custard inside. Can I eat it now?” she asked. “Pleeaase?”

  Kyle rolled his eyes at Claudia as she couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, I’ve got a stack of papers to grade at home, and it looks like you’ve got more decisions to make,” she told him. “And I’ll see you in class tomorrow,” Claudia said to Rowen as she turned her cart away.

  “Take care,” Kyle said, as Rowen waved goodbye with her mouth already full.

  Claudia headed toward the checkout lines with her heart singing. She hadn’t made a fool of herself in front of Kyle, even after the doughnut fiasco. In fact, she thought, as she removed the box of doughnuts from her cart and shoved it onto a shelf at the end of an aisle, she was truly happy, and she didn’t need doughnuts to stay that way. At least, not today.

  ~~~

  With the end of their shopping trip finally in sight, Kyle and Rowen made their way to the pet food aisle. As they turned around the end of an aisle, Kyle caught a glimpse of Claudia standing at the checkout, rummaging in her purse and chatting with the cashier. It was strange that he hadn’t noticed how attractive she was the first time he’d seen her. Then again, he’d been in her classroom, in front of his daughter and twenty-two other fourth graders.

  “Here’s the cat food aisle. Dad, come on,” Rowen said, tugging at the cart. Her doughnut long gone, she wanted only to return home and play with Sham.

  Somewhat reluctantly, Kyle tore his gaze away from Claudia and followed his daughter. He was surprised to realize that he was actually interested in someone. He hadn’t felt that way about any woman since Allison had died. Even better, Kyle thought as he watched Rowen pull a bag of cat food from the shelf, was that finding a way to see Claudia again would be no problem at all.

  ~~~

  Leroy Underwood was doing some rummaging of his own.

  Parked two blocks from Claudia’s house, he watched her shovel the snow from around her car and drive away. She had cleared the walk around back too, which was just as well, since he had no desire to leave footprints in the snow leading up to the door. Once she drove out of sight, he crept to the rear of the house and let himself in through the back door. Like most other back doors in Mill River, Claudia’s was rarely locked. He had watched her for almost a month now. He knew her routine. She worked out every Sunday morning and always went out for groceries afterward. She would be gone for at least an hour.

  Until today, he had never been so bold as to enter her house. Oh, he had looked into her windows plenty of times, watched as she sat and graded papers at night, ran on her treadmill, lounged on the sofa in front of the television. He had taken some pretty good pictures of her. But he craved her, needed to know more of her. He had worn his police uniform, so that if he were seen, he could simply explain that he was checking out a report of a peeping Tom. He figured such a situation would be unlikely, though, and fortunately for him, it appeared
that he was right. Even in broad daylight, no one was around.

  Now he stood in front of her bedroom dresser, running his coarse fingers through her underthings, breathing in the lavender scent of her lingerie sachet. He pulled out silky panties and camisoles and nightgowns that slid like liquid over his hands. He looked down at her bed, imagined himself beneath her covers. Some day, he would lie here with her.

  Carefully, he selected a lacy thong panty from her drawer and put it in his pocket. It was silky black with thin embroidered sides. He would use the thong at night when he looked at his pictures of her.

  He began to grow nervous. She might be on her way home by now, and he needed to leave.

  He passed the bathroom where the warm, moist smell of shampoo still hung in the air. In Claudia’s orderly kitchen, he opened her refrigerator. Nothing in it appealed to him.

  He closed the door and examined the many notes and photos under her assorted refrigerator magnets. There was a picture of her, wearing tight jeans and a low-cut sweater and smiling demurely over her shoulder. Next to it was a picture of the back of an enormous woman, taken so that her face didn’t show. He didn’t know who this woman was and didn’t care--he was much more interested in the picture of Claudia. His eyes were drawn again to the tight jeans. Her ass was firm and round--a perfect cushion for the pushin’. Leroy thought of the black panties in his pocket, and the front of his jeans, already uncomfortably tight, felt like it would burst.

  Leroy flinched as a loud knock sounded on the front door. He froze for a moment, listening.

  “Yoo-hoo, Miss Claudia, are you home?” a voice called through the door. Whoever it was knocked again.