She took a moment to stand over his body. It was finally over, but the hard part had just begun. Bella knew she could not miss one thing. No detail could be overlooked—no clue left behind. There were two innocent lives involved: John's wife and Beverly. Bella did not want an ounce of suspicion to fall on them.
The first thing she needed to do was get her car to the house and his car out of his garage. She ran at vampire speed back to the farm road where she had left it. She jumped in and tore up the gravel peeling out onto the paved road that led back to the house.
She parked her car outside the fence gate, careful to stay on the road and not leave tire tracks in the soft grass. She got out of the car and unlocked the trunk. She grabbed the tarp and rope she had brought and headed into the backyard. She wrapped John and tied him up, then hoisted him over her shoulder and carried him to the gate. She stood still momentarily to ensure no cars were coming down the road. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she dumped him into her trunk and slammed it closed. She leaned against the back of her car and checked her watch. She had to get moving. His wife would be home in half an hour. She might have forty-five minutes if she was fortunate.
She followed the fence line until she saw another gate. This one led to the detached garage. The garage faced an alley of sorts. It was a narrow gravel road that tractors and farm trucks could use to get from pasture to pasture. She was lucky the closest neighbor was at least a mile up the road, but anyone could be coming down this path to check on livestock. She pulled on the garage door handle, and it rolled up easily. She had to be quick, time was ticking. She found John's car unlocked. She opened the driver's side door and positioned herself under the dash. She pulled a few wires, made a few new connections, and voila, the engine roared to life. She had never hotwired a foreign car, so she was nervous about the process. While she was not proud of the things she had learned to do to survive after Chicago, she had to admit sometimes the knowledge came in handy.
She unwound herself under the steering wheel and jumped into the driver's seat. She killed the lights and drove as slow as she dared out onto the alley and back around the house. She parked John's car on the farm road where she had left her car. It looked abandoned, but she knew later tonight she had to come back. If John's wife called the cops, and the vehicle was found, the jig was up. Bella feared Beverly would be the first suspect. Bella threw the car in park, pulled the wires loose that she had previously connected, and ran back to the house.
Bella first checked to make sure John's wife hadn't come home. The coast was clear. She went back inside and ran up the stairs to the second floor, where the bedrooms were. Once she found the master, she ran to the closet and pulled suits, ties, and shirts down. She threw them on the bed. She tore open drawers until she found his socks and underwear. She grabbed an armful and added that to her pile.
Next, she headed to the bathroom for toiletries. She grabbed a toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, and soap from the shower. Now to find a suitcase. She went back to the walk-in closet. Pulling the chain to turn the light on, she knelt to get under the clothes. She found everything but a suitcase. How many pairs of shoes did one man need? She wondered. She grabbed a few pairs and threw them out of the closet to add them to the growing pile.
She rechecked her watch. Damn. She was running out of time, but no one would 'leave town' without packing a suitcase or a duffle bag. Something. She had to find something. She checked under the bed and in the hallway linen closet. She was starting to panic when she noticed the bedroom across the hall—in her haste, she hadn't thought about it, but where were his wife's things? When she flipped on the light to what she thought was a spare room, she saw it. Separate bedrooms. It made sense, though. Bella knew his wife put up with his philandering to keep her lifestyle, but that didn't mean she wanted to sleep in the bed next to him.
She ran for John's wife's closet, careful not to disturb anything. He might have torn his own room apart to pack in a hurry, but she could not bring herself to destroy his wife's things. She had been through enough.
Again, Bella dropped to her knees, and as she moved boxes of shoes and purses, she found what she was looking for. A substantial black suitcase. She dragged it out, leaving a wake of mismatched shoes and scarves in its wake. She turned to clean up her mess, but she needed to think like John leaving town. He would leave it, the asshole.
Back to John's room, she stuffed all the clothes, shoes, and toiletries into the bag. She flipped off the light and headed back downstairs. She was in the backyard when she realized she had forgotten two critical things. One she had planned, and one was a happy accident.
She dropped the suitcase at the backdoor and went back into the house. She pulled a letter from her back pocket. She had written a letter to John's wife.
She didn't know John's wife's name, and she wasn't going to risk her plan to start asking, so she hoped at some point in their sham of a marriage, he had called her Honey.
Honey,
I am writing you this letter because I cannot bear to look you in the eye and say this to your face. I know you know that I have been unfaithful. I have taken our vows of love and dashed them. While I can never apologize for what I have put you through, I can leave you to live the rest of your life in peace. Everything we have is yours: the house, the bank accounts, all of it. I do not want to harm you anymore.
Please do not come looking for me. I do not know where I am going to go, but I promise not to bother you again.
All my love,
John
Bella hoped that the typewriter she used would be similar enough to one he had that no one would question he wrote it. The second thing she needed to do was get into the safe she found while looking for the suitcase. Beverly would need financial help with John gone, and he owed her.
In a flash, Bella was back up the stairs and in his closet. She knelt in front of the safe; she wanted to pull the door off or just take the whole thing with her and work on it when she had more time, but John would not have done either of those things. He would have the combination. She bit her lip and tried to think.
She pulled the door first, maybe she would get lucky, and the dumb fuck would leave the door unlocked.
Nope.
She tried to turn the dial slowly. She noticed it made a slight click noise, but specific numbers made more of a thump. She was grateful for her vampire hearing. After a moment, she had the combination figured out. Beverly's birthday. This guy was such a bastard.
Inside, she found a few more things that would make his disappearance more believable. She grabbed his passport and a spare set of keys. She had no idea what they were for but decided it would not hurt to snag them. There was also a birth certificate, social security card, and essential paperwork.
She glanced through the papers: deed to the house, car note, and life insurance. John's wife will need all of that. She left them behind. She grabbed the massive stack of cash and all the gold and silver coins she could stuff in her pockets.
She kicked the safe shut but left it unlocked. His wife should not have to find out the combination was his girlfriend's date of birth.
She snapped off the light, ran down the stairs, and back out the back door. She grabbed the suitcase as he heard a car come down the driveway. She had to move fast. She ran to the gate and stood in the shadows, waiting to listen for his wife to go into the house.
Bella saw the kitchen light flip on, and she took her cue. She darted through the gate, closing it quickly, careful not to let it slam. If John's wife saw movement, it would have been so fast she would convince herself the shadow and light were playing tricks on her.
Bella opened her driver's side door, heaved the suitcase into the passenger seat, and put the car in neutral. She pushed it several blocks until she was sure no one would hear the engine start. Out of earshot, she jumped in, started the engine, and sped off to the bluffs at La Push.