The Silent Widow

And it struck her then, for the first time.

I hate him even more than I used to.

I hate him for saving my life.

In the visitors’ room at Valley State Prison, Jerry Kovak scratched his red neck anxiously. It was well over a hundred in Chowchilla and Jerry had gotten sunburnt simply walking from the prison yard back to his cell.

‘Did she reply?’

Mick Johnson stared down at his phone. ‘Not yet.’

The scratching intensified.

‘But you think she will? I mean, you will see her?’

It pained Mick to see Jerry like this. So scared. So desperate.

‘Oh, I’ll see her all right,’ he told his friend. ‘You can count on that. I’m not done with Dr Roberts yet.’

‘He looks mad,’ whispered the waitress, refilling the coffee pot.

‘Real mad,’ her friend whispered back. ‘How much longer d’you think he’ll wait?’

The girls at Denny’s knew Detective Mick Johnson well. He’d been a regular for years, and although he didn’t say much, he was a generous tipper. Occasionally he came in with other cops, but usually he ate alone, giant stacks of pancakes and bacon, no matter what time of day he came in. Today, however, he’d specifically mentioned he was expecting ‘a friend’ and asked for a booth at the back, ‘somewhere private’.

It was obviously a woman he was expecting, and the waitress felt bad for him, getting stood up in front of everybody. She was about to go over and refill his coffee cup for the third time when a petite brunette walked in and headed straight for Johnson’s table.

‘Wow,’ whispered her friend. ‘She’s so pretty. She can’t be his date, can she?’

The first girl shrugged. ‘Who knows? Maybe he has money stashed away somewhere.’

Her friend laughed. ‘Yeah, right. That’s why he eats here four times a week. Maybe he’s hung like a donkey,’ she winked.

‘Carla! Don’t be gross. I’m going to take their order.’

Grabbing two laminated menus she slid over to Johnson’s booth.

‘Hi there!’ She smiled at the brunette, who looked awfully familiar. ‘What can I get you?’

‘We’re fine,’ Johnson snapped. ‘We need some privacy, OK?’

The waitress retreated, stung. Jerk. There was no pleasing some people. And here she’d been, feeling sorry for him …

Johnson looked across the table at Nikki with narrowed, angry eyes.

‘You took your time,’ he grumbled.

‘You’re lucky I came at all,’ Nikki shot back frostily. ‘I wasn’t going to.’

Johnson’s face turned so red he looked as if he were being boiled from the inside. ‘You’re a piece of work, Dr Roberts, you know that?’

‘Oh, I’m a piece of work?’

‘I saved your life!’ Johnson raised his voice.

‘I never asked you to,’ Nikki hissed back at him. ‘I didn’t want you to!’

‘Oh really? You’re telling me you wanted to die in that warehouse? You wanted lover-boy Goodman to put a bullet in your head? Because it sure didn’t look that way when you were lying there whimpering like a stuck piglet, begging for your life.’