The Couple Next Door

“No!” Marco shouts. “I didn’t know where the cabin was! He never told me!”

It is perfectly silent in the room, except for the tick of a clock on the mantelpiece.

With a sob, Marco buries his face in his hands.

Rasbach waits, lets the damning silence fill the room. Then he says, more gently, “Marco, I don’t think you meant for it to happen this way. I don’t think you killed Derek Honig. I think your father-in-law, Richard Dries, killed Derek Honig.”

Marco lifts his head.

“If you come clean with us, if you tell us everything you know to help us in our case against your father-in-law, we might be able to talk about a deal.”

“What kind of a deal?” Marco asks. His mind is racing.

“If you help us, we might be able to offer you immunity from prosecution on the conspiracy-to-kidnap charge. I can speak to the prosecutor—I think he’ll agree, under the circumstances.”

Marco suddenly sees hope where there was none before. His mouth has gone dry. He can’t speak. He nods instead. It seems to be good enough.

“You’ll have to come down to the station,” Rasbach says, “after we wrap up here.” He stands up and goes back to the kitchen.

Anne remains in the living room, cradling her sleeping baby, but Marco gets up and follows Rasbach into the kitchen. He’s surprised his legs work well enough to carry him there. Richard is sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, stubbornly silent. Their eyes meet; Richard’s slide away. A uniformed officer nudges Richard to stand up and puts handcuffs on him. Alice watches from the background, saying nothing, her face blank.

“Richard Adam Dries,” Detective Rasbach says, “you are under arrest for the murder of Derek Honig and conspiracy to kidnap Cora Conti. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. . . .”

Marco watches, astonished at his luck. His baby is back, safe. Richard has been found out and will get what he deserves. He, Marco, will not be prosecuted. Cynthia has nothing to hold over him now. He can feel himself breathe for the first time since this nightmare began. It’s over. It’s finally over.

Two uniformed officers lead Richard in handcuffs out through the living room and toward the front door, Rasbach and Marco and Alice following behind. Richard says nothing. He won’t look at his wife, his daughter, his grandchild, or his son-in-law.

Marco, Anne, and Alice watch him go.

Marco casts a glance at his wife. They have their adored baby back. Anne knows everything now. There are no more secrets between them.

At the police station, they work out the details of Marco’s deal. Marco has a new lawyer, from a top criminal firm in the city, a firm other than Aubrey West’s.

Marco tells Rasbach everything. He says, “Richard framed me. He set me up. He sent Derek to me. It was all his idea. They knew I needed money.”

Anne speaks up. “We thought my father was behind this. I knew he knew Derek Honig—I recognized him—he used to come to the house, years ago. But how did you know?”

Rasbach answers. “I knew he was lying. He said the kidnappers had called him, but we have taps on his phones. We knew they hadn’t called him. Then, late last night, your mother called me.”

“My mother?”

“Your father has been having an affair.”

“I know,” Anne says. “My mother told me, this morning.”

Marco says, “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Your mother-in-law hired a private detective to find out what he was up to. The detective put a GPS tracking device on Richard’s car a few weeks ago. It’s still there.”

Marco and Anne listen closely to the detective.

“We know that Richard drove out to the cabin around the time of the murder.” Marco and Anne exchange glances. Rasbach adds, addressing Anne, “Your mother recognized Honig, too, as soon as I showed her a photograph of him.”

Marco says, “Richard had the cell phone, Derek’s cell phone. The one we were supposed to use to stay in touch. But Derek never called me, and he never answered his cell. I noticed there were some missed calls, and when I called the number, Richard answered. He said the kidnappers sent him the phone in the mail, with a note. But I wondered if he’d killed Derek and taken it. I never believed him about the note. He said he’d destroyed it to protect me, because it implicated me.”

Rasbach says, “Alice never saw the note or the cell phone. Richard said they arrived when she was out.”

“Why would Richard kill Derek?” Marco asks.

“We think that Derek was supposed to return the baby when you brought the ransom money but didn’t, and Richard realized he’d been double-crossed. We think Richard tracked him down to the cabin that night and killed him. That’s when he saw the opportunity to make a second ransom demand for more money.”

“Where was Cora after she was taken from the cabin? Who was taking care of her?” Anne asks.

“We stopped Richard’s secretary’s daughter in her car leaving the area just after Richard got the baby back earlier this morning. She had the baby. It turns out she’s got a bit of a drug problem and needed money.”

Anne gasps, horrified, her hand to her face.

? ? ?

Exhausted but relieved, Anne and Marco are back home at last with Cora. After going to the police station, Anne and Marco had taken Cora to the hospital, where she was checked out and given a clean bill of health. Now Marco puts together a quick meal for the two of them while Cora has another greedy feed. The press is no longer clamoring at their doorstep; their new lawyer has made it clear that Anne and Marco will not speak to them at all and has threatened legal action if they are harassed. At some point, when things settle down, they will list the house for sale.

Finally they put Cora to bed in her own crib. They have undressed her and given her a bath, studying her as carefully as they had when she was a newborn, to make sure she’s all right. And it is a kind of rebirth, getting her back from the dead. Perhaps it’s a new beginning for them.

Anne tells herself that children are resilient. Cora will be fine.

They stand beside the crib, looking down at their baby as she smiles and gurgles up at them. It is such a relief to see her smile; in the first few hours after they got her back, she had just suckled and cried endlessly. But now Cora is beginning to smile again. She lies on her back in the crib, the stenciled lambs and her two parents hovering over her, and playfully kicks out her legs.

“I never thought this moment would come,” Anne whispers.

“Me either,” Marco says, waving Cora’s rattle at her. She squeals and grabs it and holds on tight.

They are quiet for a while, watching until their daughter falls asleep.

“Do you think you can ever forgive me?” Marco asks finally.

Anne thinks, How can I ever forgive you for how selfish and weak and stupid you were? She says, “I don’t know, Marco. I have to take it one day at a time.”

He nods, stung. After a moment he says, “There were never any other women, Anne, I swear it.”

“I know.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Anne puts Cora back down in her crib, hoping this is the last feed of the night and that now the baby will sleep through till morning. It’s late—very late—but she can still hear Cynthia moving around restlessly in the house next door.

It has been a day of shocking revelations. After her father had been taken away from the family home in handcuffs, her mother had pulled Anne aside while Marco held the sleeping baby in his arms in the living room.

“I think you should know,” she said, “who your father was seeing.”