Rain part 15.

Rain 15.

Thomas Sutton had never been an outdoor person or a sportman. His reason was simple; he absolutely disdained the notion of displaying one’s sweat drenched body in public.  For the sake of healthy appearance during school and college years he did follow a few sport activities the school offered, but after that, leisure golf was the only sport he played. He kept himself in shape by doing weight lifting and running five miles a day on the treadmill indoor. But that day, when Anne, with the help of their housekeeper, was busy with the finishing touches to close the house in the end of summer, her husband had run into her in the front foyer of their summer home. Her husband’s dark blue jogging suit was drenched wet from the storm, which was still raging outside. 

     “ What happen?” she asked. She didn't know her husband had been outside, she thought Thomas was in his study. 

     “ I got caught in the rain,” her husband said. 

    Anne lifted her eyebrows. How did he got caught in the rain.? 

    “ I was jogging on the trail?” Thomas explained. That was odd, he never jogged the trail or anywhere outdoors. Thomas smiled. “Something was in my mind. I needed to clear it up.” Then he kissed his wife. 

     The sound of  a familiar ringtone to Anne’s ears filled the wide foyer. It rang once, twice, three times…from where their bodies almost touched, Anne could feel the vibration of a cell phone from one of the pockets in the jogging suit Thomas was wearing. 

    “ Tom?” Anne stepped back from her husband’s kiss.” Don't you need to answer that?” 

    Thomas looked a bit confused. What was she talking about? The phone rang again. Thomas still looked confused. 

   “ Tom, your phone. “ Anne reminded her husband. 

    Then, just then, Thomas realized, the phone ring came from  one of his jogging suit pockets. “ Oh, I’ll got it later,” he said with an apologetic smiled then walked away from his wife,” I need to get out from this clothes and shower first.” Thomas hurriedly disappeared into their bedroom leaving trail of rain water dripping from his jogging suit on the foyer floor and on the carpet in their bedroom. 

     Anne sighed. What had gotten into her husband? Thomas had always  been very meticulous about the state of their home. It must be something big to make him forget how his wet clothing going to make a mess of  the floor and the carpet, too. 

     She returned to her chores, placing some of the foyer decorations into a box, before going to the bedroom to collect her husband’s wet clothing. She need to dry them before she could pack them with the rest of dirty laundries. But she found the master bathroom door was locked, which was odd because  they never lock that door, ever. Anne was about to knock on the door when she heard that familiar ring tone again. It rang once, twice, three times…then she heard her husband’s voice talking to someone, yet the ring tone had chirped for the fourth times before  abruptly fell silence, it’s fifth ring  burbled. Through it all, Anne could hear her husband still talking. He hadn’t missed a beat talking to someone else….presumably on the phone. Thomas had two phones? Since when? 

      Anne remembered the remark her husband made about people carrying more than one phone on their person. “ They must not have secretary. “  

    Perhaps, her husband had changed his mind or his secretary had quit?

     Not until Jack’s memorial and the fact the police couldn't locate Jack’s cell phone, had Anne put the pieces together. 

     To solidify her suspicion, when they returned to their home state, she visited Thomas’s office and asked Thomas’s secretary to update and store every phone numbers where she could reach her husband into her cell phone. Then she immediately made calls to each numbers, including the phone Thomas was holding. None of the phone in Thomas’s office produced that particular ringtone she heard when Thomas returned from his jog that stormy afternoon. The ring tone sounded  familiar to her because it was. She heard it often enough when she was spending time with Jack. The ringtone didn't came from any of her husband’s phone, it was Jack’s. 

     Jogging outdoor had never been Thomas style. Doing so during a rain storm definitely doesn't fit Thomas’s character. But Thomas did it that particular afternoon, then returned with Jack’s phone in his pocket the same day Jack failed to catch his flight to California after dropping off Moose at the groomer. It could  only means one thing…..her husband, Thomas Sutton, Anne realized, …..had killed her Jack. 

     Jack’s phone was still missing. Whatever little evidence there  was that could link Thomas to the crime scene had been washed away permanently by the rain storm. It would be a case of she said, he said, a hard case to prosecute. Anne didn't need to be a lawyer to know that. Accusing Thomas as Jack’s murderer would only create a media circus that eventually hurts her children and deeply saddened her newly widowed father. Was that what she really wanted? She asked for divorce instead, which eventually landed her in the hospital,  instead of releasing her  from her husband. 

       After her complete recovery from the injury she suffered in the car accident, she went to Morgan Lake to open the house for the summer. She had taken a slow walk on the trail, stopping at the middle of the bridge, trying  to make sense of the senseless things that had happened few months ago. But couldn't found any. The only thing she found was a loose nail laying by one of the railing post. 

     That summer, she had lived in trance-like state. Thomas’s touch on her skin was like the Devils’s own. Another request for a divorce had landed her in a house that had almost blown up from a natural gas leak in her own kitchen. Anne didn't know what to do. 

     Another spring came and she did what she always had done every year since her marriage to Thomas, she went to Morgan Lake to ready their house for the coming summer. Another walk on the bridge produced another nail found on the ground  by the railing post. It was a different post from last year. 

     She took a better look on the railing.  Whoever had done the repairs on the railing had done a very sloppy job. Regular nails were used  instead of screws. The worse part was the way the wood which served as the three cross bars on  the railing, had been cut. The wood  had been cut in 90 degrees straight angle instead of the 45 degrees angles prohibiting the bars from overlapping each others. During her time spend chasing her Jack, Anne had learned a few tricks of the trade for working with wood, including how to assemble wood to ensure a safe structure.  The railing on the trail bridge wasn't safely assembled. If Jack was still alive, he would fix the darn thing as his first order of business.

     She used her body to push the top bar. It gave.

      The winters had shrunk the wood, then the summer expanded it. Eventually over time, the wood pushed the nails  loose from the wood itself. Jack had died falling  into that ravine two years before. She could pushed Thomas and let him fall into the ravine in the same manner Thomas pushed her Jack. But, Thomas had gotten away with his murder, she need to do the same. That was how Moose and her trick with the clicker came to her mind.

    Jack’s nephew had gotten a new puppy. He used the clicker to let the puppy know there was a treat coming his way whenever he clicked the clicker. Clicked the clicker once, the puppy ran looking for the treat, while Moose watched uninterested. Clicked the clicker twice, the puppy ran to look for the treat, but Moose crouched on her legs, flipped her upper lip to show every single one of her sharp teeth then growled. But that was it. She never bite or attacked anyone. In less than a minute she flopped back onto the floor and watched the crazy pup make his run looking for the treat. Jack told her about it.  He assumed his  new dog’s personality was too tame for her large size, so her previous owner had trained her to growl and crouch to add some pizzazz to the dog’s personality. 

    Anne bought a clicker and then retrained Moose to crouch and growl. The whole summer she did her twice daily walk on the trail, pushing the top bar of the railing looser with her body little bit at the time. Helping the nails find their way out. 

   With the Grahams staying in the city waiting for their first baby and Matt Meyer’s broken ankle, there was almost no possibility of endangering her neighbors.The Graham’s other neighbor, the Shaws, were at the same age as the Morgans. If they walked the trail, they would walked in the other direction.  

      Anne choose the Morgan’s  yearly BBQ as the only opportunity she was going to have to get  Thomas walked the trail. The storm almost ruin her plan. But in the end …..

*****

From behind her extra dark, large sunglasses, Anne watched the sheriff doing his job. Let him do what he must. Sheriff Duncan was a seasoned veteran in his job and a good person. Anne trusted him. If by some miracle they found out about her role in her husband’s death at the bottom of the ravine, so be it. She wouldn’t regret what she had done. 

      Her parents had gone, her Jack had gone. Her children had grown to adulthood and they could make a choice to forgive her or not. The only regret she might have had was not being able to hold her future grandchildren from behind the prison bars. Yet if she didn't do what she did, Thomas might successfully eliminate her. His third attempt to kill her,  could be his charm. How would she then able to hold her grandchildren from six feet under the ground ? 

      “ What I did to Thomas today, didn't changed me, Jack….because he changed me long ago. He didn't give  me any  choice, but to follow through. I hope you see that.”.