The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,12

frantic, then angry and insistent before hitting heartbroken. The last one she’d sent: Please, babe! I can’t live without you.

But she was living without him. She had no choice.

She sighed. It didn’t matter which kind of text she sent, they’d all gone unanswered. So had hundreds of others over the months since then.

You bastard, she wrote to his FBI handler. She hoped having his phone suddenly light up or ding in the middle of the night might at least wake Richard Jenkins. He deserved it. He knew more than he was saying; she felt it in her bones. Whatever the FBI had asked her husband to accomplish had gone terribly wrong, and now those who were involved in sending him to Ukraine were worried about the liability. She didn’t think they knew where he was exactly, but she believed they could’ve provided information—in the beginning, anyway—that would’ve given her some direction in her search. And that might’ve made all the difference.

Because she saw no evidence that her text had been received, she assumed Richard was sleeping soundly, as unconcerned as ever. “Psychopath,” she muttered and tossed her phone onto the cushion beside her. Even after he got her message in the morning she wouldn’t receive a response from him. He’d quit communicating with her months ago.

In order to get her mind off Nick, so that she might be able to sleep at some point, she crossed to the bed and opened her laptop. She was curious enough about Quinn and Sarah Vanderbilt to want to learn more. No one could have predicted this wrinkle in his life; she was completely blown away by it. And thinking about his problems made her own a little easier to bear. She felt guilty acknowledging that, but “misery loves company” was a cliché for a reason. She felt less alone in her own suffering.

Quinn and Sarah had lived in upstate New York, where she’d heard on one of her many trips to Sable Beach over the years that he worked as a structural engineer. Because some areas of upstate New York were quite rural, maybe the stabbing incident had been remarkable enough to be reported in the local paper.

Sure enough, after about ten minutes of searching, she found a short article in The Villager, which touted itself as “Ellicottville’s Official Newspaper,” dated nearly two years ago.

Wife Stabs Husband Over Purported Affair

Last night police were summoned to the home of Quinn and Sarah Vanderbilt on Longwood Drive where they found Quinn Vanderbilt, a male in his thirties, suffering from multiple stab wounds. He was taken by ambulance to Olean General Hospital, where he was admitted and treated.

A spokeswoman for the hospital has reported that he is now in stable condition and is expected to recover. Mrs. Vanderbilt was no longer at the scene when police arrived, but one officer found her at a neighbor’s house. When asked why she stabbed her husband, Mrs. Vanderbilt claimed he was sleeping with another woman.

Mrs. Vanderbilt will be arraigned on Friday. Her lawyer was not available for comment at the time of this printing.

Autumn scrolled through several other links, hoping to find more information, and located an even shorter article in the same paper, three days later.

Woman Who Stabbed Husband to be Arraigned

Sarah Vanderbilt is being charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of her husband, Quinn Vanderbilt, who was taken to Olean Hospital three days ago. Mr. Vanderbilt has since been released from the hospital but has yet to make a statement.

Katherine Wilson, a neighbor, claims Mrs. Vanderbilt showed up with a kitchen knife covered in blood, screaming that her husband didn’t love her anymore. “She said she’d rather have him dead than lose him to another woman,” Mrs. Wilson reported.

Mrs. Vanderbilt is expected to plead not guilty. If convicted, she could serve twenty years to life.

Twenty years? “Wow,” Autumn said on a long exhale as she continued her search and found one final article, written a year later.

Vanderbilt Gets Ten Years

Sarah Vanderbilt was sentenced today for the attempted murder of former husband Quinn Vanderbilt. Her defense lawyer argued that she was not guilty by reason of insanity, but the prosecution had several witnesses to testify that she was aware of her actions, including a neighbor who claimed she said she’d rather see him dead than let him leave her.

It took the jury only three hours to return a guilty verdict.

Quinn Vanderbilt attended the trial but refused to testify against his ex-wife. In a surprising move, he asked