a moment, filled with trepidation. She can feel her heart pounding. What secrets are contained in it? She takes a deep breath and opens the lid.
The first thing she sees are the insurance papers. She looks them over, but they merely confirm what she already knows. Patrick got a $200,000 payout on the death of his first wife. She lifts the papers aside and reaches in for the next thing. Lindsey’s death certificate, dated January 10, 2009. So far, no surprises. Stephanie swallows and lifts out the next item. It’s a marriage certificate between Patrick Edward Kilgour and Lindsey Paige Windsor, dated August 12, 2008. Something doesn’t feel right. For a moment, Stephanie blinks and can’t put two and two together. She remembers Lindsey was eight months pregnant when she died – the newspaper accounts had confirmed that. Stephanie looks at the marriage certificate again and does the maths. Lindsey must have been three months pregnant when they married in August. Why hadn’t Patrick told her that?
When Patrick arrives home from work, the twins are in the playpen and his wife is lying on the sofa in the living room, her eyes closed.
‘Stephanie?’ he whispers. If she’s asleep he’ll let her rest as long as she wants. But her eyes pop open and she sits up abruptly.
‘When did you get home?’ she asks quickly.
‘Just now,’ he says. ‘Everything all right?’
‘I was asleep. I shouldn’t fall asleep when the babies are awake.’
‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. They’re fine in the playpen – you don’t have to watch them every minute. Our parents didn’t do that, and we survived.’
‘But I didn’t even hear you come in.’ She brushes her hair back from her face.
He notices then that Stephanie seems agitated, even angry. ‘What’s wrong?’
She looks up at him coldly and says, ‘I found a key. Taped to one of the drawers of your filing cabinet.’ She digs into the pocket of her jeans and holds it up.
He feels himself colouring. ‘What were you doing looking in my filing cabinets?’
‘Can you blame me?’ Her voice is sharp.
He realizes that she has a point. ‘No. I guess not.’
‘I found your secret safety deposit box,’ Stephanie says. She’s furious at him and wants to hear his explanation. ‘I went through everything.’
‘Okay,’ Patrick says. ‘I’d forgotten about the safety deposit box. I got it long before I met you.’ He adds, his voice conciliatory, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it, but there’s nothing in there that I don’t want you to see.’
She looks at him in disbelief. ‘Seriously? Then why did you hide the key?’
‘If you remember, I had those filing cabinets before I met you. That key’s been there for years.’
She asks bluntly, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that Lindsey was three months pregnant when you married her?’
He looks at her as if he’s completely surprised. ‘What difference does that make?’
He says it utterly without guile, as if he can’t see it at all. She can’t believe his stupidity. ‘It makes all the difference in the world,’ she exclaims. ‘It looks like you married her because you had to, not because you wanted to. Did you?’
‘Come on, Stephanie, that’s ridiculous. How can you even say that? People don’t get married any more because of an unplanned pregnancy.’
He seems to believe what he’s saying. She’s astonished. ‘Of course they do!’
‘No, they don’t. For Christ’s sake! We were in love, she got pregnant and we waited till August to get married, mostly because we didn’t have the time. We weren’t ashamed of it.’ He adds, clearly annoyed, ‘God, I can’t believe you’re so old-fashioned.’
She raises her eyebrows at him, irritated. ‘I’m not old-fashioned.’
‘It sure sounds like you are.’
She’s livid all of a sudden. Patrick is certainly innocent in the death of his wife. But … surely anyone in their position would be concerned about how it looks? Stephanie says, ‘People will think that you married Lindsey because of the pregnancy, because you felt you had to, not because you loved her.’
‘That’s not true,’ Patrick says stubbornly.
‘It doesn’t matter if it’s true,’ Stephanie says, her voice rising. ‘For Christ’s sake, can you just think about how it looks? Does Erica know?’
‘No, I don’t think so. We didn’t advertise it. When we moved to Creemore at the beginning of September we were already married. Nobody asked us when the wedding was.’ He sounds angry now too.
‘What if Erica looks up the marriage certificate?’
‘For fuck’s sake, Stephanie, she’s telling nothing but lies!’
‘It’s not all lies, is it?’