"Ethan Winthrop. Seriously? You've already called Luis? OK. I'll be over right away."
Ethan hung up the phone and grabbed his briefcase, stopping only to give Valerie some instructions about the rest of the morning, then headed for his car. The private investigators he'd hired for Luis's and Miguel's cases had finished going through the evidence reports and had done some investigating of their own. Now they were ready to give a full report, and apparently they had turned up something of significance. Ethan was on his way to the police station to meet with them as well as Luis.
He was glad to get a break from the office. Theresa had gone to her appointment with Eve, so was out until the afternoon. Working on the redevelopment project without her input was serving only to remind him that she hadn't wanted him to go to the appointment with her…
"What time is your appointment tomorrow morning?"
"At 10:00."
"So are we planning to take the whole morning off or what's the plan?"
"I'm planning on taking the whole morning off."
"OK." Ethan had pulled out his day planner to have a look. "So when did Valerie reschedule the meeting with the zoning board?"
"She didn't." Theresa hadn't looked away from the TV.
"Why not? We can't be in two places at once." Ethan tried to tease with a laugh, but it didn't quite come off.
"Because there's no reason for you to be at the appointment with me. I can handle it. You can meet with the board at the scheduled time. This is an important meeting that we really shouldn't put off. You know how hard it is to get a time with them." She still hadn't looked away from the TV, and Ethan knew she was doing her best to avoid him. She didn't even like this show.
"It's not as important as my wife and child. Theresa, I'd really like to go with you. Especially seeing as last time didn't go quite as smoothly as we would've liked."
"Ethan, it's OK. I'll be fine."
"But Honey—"
Theresa did look up then, and her eyes were vacant, no emotion whatsoever. "Ethan. I'll be fine. Don't worry about it..."
It had pretty much been like that for the last two weeks. They weren't fighting per se. She wasn't being rude or giving him the silent treatment really. She accepted his hugs and kisses readily. There just wasn't any warmth in her. Two more invitations for dinner with the family had been turned down. In fact the only time they saw any of her family was if they came to the Winthrop's house. That was the only place that Martin wasn't welcome. The kids were asking for him, but she had been firm. Martin had become the huge elephant in the room that nobody wanted to talk about. He had become the wedge in their marriage. A wedge Ethan wasn't sure how to remove. But something had to give. He wasn't sure how much of this he was supposed to be able to take.
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ThumpthumpThumpthumpThumpthumpThumpthumpThumpthump…
The baby's heart beat out a steady rhythm, and Eve smiled at Theresa. She thought it was a little strange that Ethan wasn't here to witness this, but Theresa had said something about a meeting that couldn't be put off, and didn't look in the least concerned about it as a smile stretched off her face as she listened to her child's hearbeat.
"Sounds good to me. What do you think Theresa?"
Theresa laughed. "Sounds like music to my ears."
Eve laughed as well. "Mine too. Let's get the rest of the exam done."
After a few more questions, Theresa's appointment was over and she left for the Crane.
Well. That's one load off my mind today. Ethan will be relieved.
At the thought of her husband, Theresa had a momentary twinge of guilt. She really wasn't being very nice to him. She thought about how she hadn't wanted him to come to the appointment, and the look of hurt that had come over his face as he realized it. She'd felt bad for hurting him, but not bad enough to change her mind. She wasn't even sure why she hadn't wanted him there. She just didn't.
Theresa had arrived at Crane, and walked into her office the back way. "Ethan?" She looked around but he wasn't in her office. She walked over to the door that joined her office to his from the inside and knocked quietly. "Ethan?" When he didn't answer, she opened the door to find his office empty as well.
"Valerie?" Theresa walked out to their assistant's desk in the entryway. "Have you seen Ethan?"
"Oh. He left for the police station a little while ago. He said he had a meeting with Luis about his case."
Theresa frowned. "I didn't know he was meeting with Luis today. And why did are they meeting at the station?"
Valerie shrugged slightly. "I don't know, Mrs. Wintrhop. He just said something about the investigators wanting to meet with both of them there."
"Well, OK. I'm sure he'll let me know soon." Theresa nodded to Valerie with what she hoped looked like an unconcerned smile, and went back to her office. Once alone though, she began to fume inwardly.
How could he not call me right away about this? Luis is my brother after all. He knows I want to know everything about the case as soon as he finds out, and he always called me right away before! What is this—tit for tat? He's mad at me for not letting him come to the doctor with me, so he's trying to punish me? How childish!
Theresa went on in this vein for the rest of the morning, getting more and more upset, making the moment Ethan came back a very unpleasant one for him, as she exploded in anger.
"What is your problem?"
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Mary Ann sipped her water, and pushed the rest of her small meal away as she sat in her motel room and wondered what to do next. Apparently, Julian Crane's wrath reached all the way to Castleton. She'd been up and down the streets of this town looking for a job, answering every "Help wanted" ad she could find in the paper, and she couldn't get work. Her previous work record as well as the criminal record that accompanied it wasn't helping.
Maybe she should start lying about that.
She reached into her purse and counted the money again. If she continued to be careful, she would be OK for awhile yet. After a little more thought, she decided on a plan. She'd go to the next town and see how she faired. If things were no better there, she'd just head south to New Hampshire. Leave Maine entirely. Certainly the Crane's wouldn't care about one little maid that far away. With a plan in place, Mary Ann felt better and turned in early for the night. She'd need an early start if she wanted to do some job hunting tomorrow.
The next morning, Mary Ann hopped in her car and drove away with her hope from the night before firmly in place. She was so caught up in her plan for the day, she never saw the nondescript, cream colored Ford Focus in the parking lot. Or how the driver cautiously pulled out into traffic behind her.
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Luis sat in the park and tried to gather his thoughts, which kept going over his meeting with Ethan and those PI's. They had confirmed it. There wasn't any doubt now…
"Everything was pretty straight forward. The investigation by the department was very thorough."
Ethan nodded, and Luis even had a moment of pride fill his heart. "Harmony Police Department boasts one of the most conscientious force's around. I'm not surprised."
The head investigator smiled. "That was very obvious. You're very fortunate. Everything seemed to be in perfect order. What we couldn't find an explanation for is Luis's complete memory loss of the events between falling asleep and waking up in woods."
Luis lost track for a moment then. He knew what happened. He was pretty sure anyway. Instead of speaking up, he opted to see where the investigators went with this.
"So we went over all the evidence from Fancy's room again and re-interviewed the staff. And the most telling were the wine glasses."
"OK." Ethan was keeping up so far.
"We sent them for extensive testing, and we found traces of Seroquel, and Ativan on the outside rim of one of the glasses. Which based on fingerprint analysis turned out to be Luis's glass."
"So you're saying Luis was drugged?" Ethan looked only a little surprised. "I guess that makes would explain it."
"Probably." the second investigator agreed.
Luis spoke up then. "It absolutely explains it. I remembered everything."
Ethan looked at him in shock. "Luis! If you remembered why didn't you tell me?"
Luis looked at him steadily. "Because if I admitted that I was drugged, I had to admit that there was a very real possibility that Fancy wasn't the only one raped that night." Luis dropped his eyes to the table then, and finished quietly.
"I had to admit…that…that I…I was raped too."