12.

~ Norma had awoken early to find Dylan was already up and dressed for the day. Her son pestering her to go and visit his friend Oscar because there wasn't anything to do here.

"What are you talking about?" Norma asked while she slipped on her shoes and the two of them headed down the path to the main house. She was focused on getting her keys back from Alex and creating an escape plan.

She wasn't even sure where her car was parked on this massive estate, and she felt uneasy with Alex knowing the truth about her.

"You've got lots here to keep you busy." she reminded him.

"No video games." Dylan reminded her. "Oscar has a lot of fun things to do at his house."

Norma felt a sense of frustration rise up in her. She never intended for Dylan to make friends here. They needed to move on. Stay transient and unattached; always. Still, she was no better. The way she'd carried on with Alex last night had made her feel very attached to this place.

"You're just going to have to hang out here." she sighed. The two of them walking up to the house where the indoor pool was. Norma looking away and feeling her cheeks blush hot. She wondered if Dylan could guess what they'd been up to last night.

"Why?" her son asked.

"I need to do laundry and…" she shook her head. "You'll just hang out here. Got it?" she barked feeling annoyed.

The pair rounded around the ample mud room where she spotted a good sized washing machine and dryer. She hadn't been paying attention to who was in the kitchen because she let out a yelp of unpleasant surprise at seeing the uniformed sheriff's deputy there.

"I work today." Alex said stoically. His expression grim while he poured a cup of coffee for himself. "Coffee's fresh I just made it."

Norma felt her heart still beating rapidly. She'd almost completely forgotten that he was a cop. It had seemed like forever since she'd seen him in his uniform. So much had happened in such a short time. After all she'd admitted to him in the pool last night, after she'd exposed her soul, her history and her body to him, the last thing she wanted was to see the cop part of him. He looked every bit of it to. He even looked meaner with the uniform on and intimidating.

She preferred him with his dirty jeans, threadbare T-shirt and old baseball cap. He'd looked much younger with those clothes; simple and non threatening.

"Oh." she said feeling annoyed that he wouldn't be here today. If anything this was a good thing; not having Alex under foot. Not having to explain to him that she was leaving and why. She and Dylan would be gone by the time he'd be back.

"Your lawyer is coming to see you. He'll be here in about thirty minutes." Alex told her while Norma got her own coffee mug down from the cabinet.

"What?" Norma asked while Dylan fixed himself a bowl of cereal.
"Your lawyer. Larry White?" Alex asked. "He's coming to see you; to talk about the settlement from the city and how you were discharged too early from the hospital."

He looked angry with her. His eyes no longer dancing and he seemed ready to scowl. She noticed that his features were handsomer when he looked angry.

"I suggest you talk to him about some other things. Things we talked about last night. Before it's too late." he said in a low voice.

Norma glance back at Dylan who had taken his cereal to the kitchen table well away from them.

"I don't need to talk to any lawyer, Alex." she said scathingly and didn't like the fact she was so attracted to him in his police uniform. When had that happened?

Alex was about to argue with her when the doorbell rang.

"I'll give you your car keys back after you talk to him. That way I can at least say I tried." he told her.

"Say you tried?" Norma hissed while Alex turned and left them to answer the door. What did that mean? Was he planning to report her and Dylan? If she didn't go to the authorities, would he?

~ "Larry White." the short, pudgy man with the balding spot on his head said with a good natured smile. He reminded Norma of the character George from Seinfeld, but much more pleasant.

"Nice to meet you." she said uneasily glancing at Alex who was busily securing things to his work belt.

Dylan had finished his cereal and was asking about going to Oscar's house again.

"I'll take you." Alex said absentmindedly. "It's on my way."

"No-" Norma tried to say but her lawyer started talking.

"Now, Miss Deeds." he said seriously. "What happened to you was no small thing."

Norma eyed Alex hatefully as the deputy put a gentle hand on her son's should and guided him out of the kitchen. Neither one of them looked back at her and she was suddenly worried she might never see Dylan again. Was Alex taking him away somewhere? Taking him to state custody so that she could be arrested?

She wanted to stand up and shout at them to come back but found she couldn't move. Her body seemed to be made of stone and all the while, Larry kept talking.

"A client of mine had been discharged too early from the hospital after a surgery involving diverticulitis. The insurance would only pay for so many days. The patient had a ruptured bowel and she died of sepsis shock a few days later. Her family rightfully sued for negligence from the insurance provider to the hospital and won over ten million dollars in a settlement. Now, what happened to you could have been just as bad and you were discharged after just two days from the hospital after drinking contaminated water at the cabins."

Larry White waited for her say something. To nod in affirmation but Norma just looked strait ahead. Not hearing the story about a poor old woman dying horribly of septic shock.

"What I'm saying, Miss Deeds, is that the county is open to throwing money at you to make this problem go away. They've already offered you five thousand dollars and your expenses in the hospital. I say we should try and get much more. Especially since they'll be making a pretty big profit margin off the land that these same cabins were built on."

"We have lawyer client confidentiality, right?" Norma asked. She didn't dislike Larry White, but she made it a habit to distrust people in general.

"Of course." he said. "I can't tell anyone anything unless you're plotting murder or some other kind of crime. Then I'd have tell someone. So don't tell me if you're planning on killing someone."

He'd meant that last part as a joke, Norma was sure of it. But she closed her mouth and felt that cold wanter dread that started in the pit of her stomach and flushed through her entire body.

Arizona had the death penalty. If Sam was indeed arrested and charged with her and Dylan's murder, he would most certainly be executed. Or at the very least, made to serve life in prison. That would be murder on her part. That would be a crime. A crime that would make a greedy small town lawyer like Larry White have to report to the authorities. If only to be featured on the national news.

And if it made it on the news, Alex would be drawn into the fray to. Norma could picture it all now. She could see Larry White with his big balding head and beady, squinting eyes telling the press how she and the missing boy had been living with a sheriff's deputy and how he most likely know about it. Alex would be humiliated around town and fired from his job. Then there were other things from Norma's past the might come up if this made national news. Things that had stayed safely buried for years and years. Things about her parents and her brother. Things she hadn't really thought about since she left home at seventeen and hadn't looked back. Those dark chapters would surely come back and haunt her.

She would be arrested. It might even be Alex who would have to put the handcuffs on her and Dylan really would be thrown into foster care. She'd never see Norman again. Sam would win and she would spend the rest of her life in prison.

All of these images played out in her mind like a horror show. A splashy gossip magazine, made for tv movie, horror show.

"Miss Deeds?" Larry White asked when she had zoned out for a moment.

Norma blinked and she was sitting back in the kitchen again. Perfectly safe and not behind bars.

"Oh… no, I'm fine." she said. "I… was just wanting to know if you knew a good divorce lawyer. I'm sure Alex told you I left my ex and we… we hadn't sorted out custody yet. It's messy."

"I can set you up with my friend who can get you a quickie divorce or if you have grounds, even an annulment." Larry White said happily.

Norma nodded and listened to him drone on and on. She signed whatever papers he gave her knowing she would be leaving tonight with Dylan and not looking back.

~ Alex brought Dylan back around seven that evening along with pizza and a movie he'd rented. He explained there was nothing good on TV anymore and everything was reality shows.

He barely glanced at Norma and the two of them seemed uneasy around each other. She knew he was dying to ask questions about her lawyer's visit, but didn't dare say a word in front of Dylan.

Norma was glad to have them back home. She'd been lonely at the large mansion all day and it reminded her too much of when she had been imprisoned in Sam's gilded cage. She'd done laundry but had plenty of time to wander around the house and grounds. Whoever owned this house liked to entertain, she decided. There was a ballroom and adjacent to that was a very nice bar in the basement that could have fooled anyone into thinking it was a real English pub. The bedrooms were very well decorated by a professional. Nothing amateur about this place. Nothing to suggest that the wife had gone to the local furniture store and picked out a new couch. No, everything looked new and very expensive. The art on the walls, the rugs. Even the heavy bedspreads she wondered how anyone would wash and finally she decided had to be sent out for dry cleaning.

She looked over the servant quarters near the kitchen and mudroom and found what had to be Alex's. His room was small and plain with a nice view of the swimming pool. Norma noticed he wasn't a very neat person. His dirty clothes were on the floor and she quickly made a wash out of them. Old habit would forever die hard.

She had explored the greenhouse which she had wondered about and saw it was fully functional with timed sprinklers. Plants growing liberally and unchecked. She supposed Alex would come and inspect them from time to time, but they were doing fine on their own. Norma had even found a large seven car garage that held a classic Rolls Royce and a very nice SUV.

She wondered who owned such a house. Probably some old couple who was doing the usual tour of the world. All this fancy art work on the walls from around the world was evident of that. She finally spotted a teenage girls room at the very end of one secluded and lonely wing.

It was smaller than even the unoccupied rooms which seemed to be reserved for guests only. Yet, it seemed to be the only room she'd seen so far that looked lived in. It had posters of boy bands and stuffed animals. Its' bedspread wasn't as fancy and Norma smoothed it down and rearranged the stuffed animals better. The mother in her coming out even in this strange girls bedroom.

The girl was a teenager maybe or pre-teen. She had a little painted vanity table with Hollywood lights around it to do her makeup on. Her makeup collection was spartan but high end. Norma, out of curiosity more than anything else, looked through the girls closet and at her clothes.

She was a slim girl and wore name brands as well as the cheap stuff. Norma didn't care for the style now and wouldn't have approved of these clothes, but teenagers were teenagers.

She had felt a little chill run down her spin while looking through this girl's clothes. A whip of cool air. Like a current. She turned and saw it was nothing. Just a boy band poster. She had stepped closer to the poster and looked at the faded wallpaper. Whoever this girl was to the owner of this house, she must have been in this bedroom since babyhood. The wallpaper was old and faded and most defiantly meant for a newborn infant.

Norma could sense an uneasy feeling rush over her and couldn't look away from the wallpaper. A panda bear that had one eye darker than normal. She looked and saw the darkness was hallow. A small hole in the wall that allowed someone on the other side to see into this girl's room.

Horrified, Norma put the girl's dress back into her closet and left the bedroom. She marched down the hall and to the room next door to the girl's room. Fully expecting it be a broom closet where some horrid male staff members enjoyed peeping at young girls. She would tell Alex and he would tell the home owners all about this.

The next door down the hallway was a long way off and Norma was surprised to find it was a large, master suite. The master suite of the home's owners; she was sure of it. It was large and more lived in than the other rooms. It even had fire place in the bedroom.

Norma wandered backwards towards the girl's room, past a large and beautiful bathroom that was built to show off wealth. Past the wife's closet which was full of brightly colored clothes. Finally, she reached the end of the line. The husband's closet. It was the last room and it shared a wall with the girl's room.

Norma pushed aside expensive suites and felt for the peeping hole. It didn't take her long. She felt the larger spy hole and knelt down to look into the girl's room.

She saw, with perfect clarity, the girl's bedroom. She could even see the girl's bathroom when the door was open.

The girl must be the daughter of the home owners, but why was her father peeping at his own daughter like this?

~ After they had eaten dinner and watched the world war 2 movie Alex had rented, Norma showed him the spy hole.

He had looked upset and worried about the direct line of vision into the bedroom into a teenage girl's bedroom.

"You shouldn't have been up here." he said at last.

"Alex, this guy is peeping at his own daughter." Norma spat in irritation. Alex had turned away from her and was exiting the closet, master bathroom and bedroom.

"You shouldn't have been snooping up here. This is the family wing of the house." he said.

"Alex!" she said.

"How do I explain to anyone how I found that?" he said. "That my live in friend who happens to be lying about her who she really is was looking around and discovered it?"

Norma was speechless.

"What did your lawyer say?" he asked instead. "What did he say you should do?"

"I didn't tell him." Norma shook her head.

"Why not?"

"Dylan and I are leaving tonight." she told him quickly.

"Norma." he sighed.

She shrugged.

"There was no point in telling that lawyer anything, Alex. He's a con man." she explained.

"It's not too late. It's not to late to come forward and tell them this was all a misunderstanding. He can help you get Norman back. Legally." Alex sighed.

Norma shook her head. Maybe it was stubbornness that would win out the day, but she wouldn't see Sam Bates go free. Not after all he'd done to her.

"Just, keep all of this to yourself. That's all I ask. So that I have a chance to get Norman back. So that we can have a normal life." she said.

"You think you'll be able to kidnap your own son? That you and your boys can live off of that cash for the rest of your life and hide? Norma, you'll eventually be found. You have to know that." he said calmly.

"I'm sorry." she said finally. "I know what I'm doing and I'm sorry I involved you. You said would give me back my keys."

Alex looked hurt. As if she'd slapped him and he had no defense. But he reached into his pocket and fished out her car keys. They sailed neatly through the air and Norma caught them without trouble.

"You're car is parked next to my SUV on the front drive." he said. "It was nice meeting you, Norma Bates."

Norma focused on her car keys and the cheap, generic key chain while Alex stood up and left.

Sorry it took so long to post an update. Been struggling with a bout of depression lately. It comes and it goes.