Penelope used her hip to close the heavy Escalade door, waved to her neighbor, Joan, and headed up the front walk to their home in Glenn Heights. She dug around for her keys, but her purse was so deep, and it was full of makeup and other random accessories. She plopped down on her front porch swing, and angrily began dumping its contents at her feet all over the concrete patio. Joan gave her a funny glance and then turned back to her gardening.
“Nosy bitch,” Penelope muttered under her breath. “Ah ha!” She eagerly grabbed a ring of keys. She scooped up her mess, tossed it back in the bag, and let herself inside. Penelope had left work at noon. She loved her job as a nurse, and there were few people in life more important to her than her clients. Furthermore, she really could not afford to take the time off today, but she had to; there was work to do. Detective work, that is…
Penelope dropped her heavy bag on the tiled entrance floor and did a quick walk-through just to make sure Michael wasn’t home. He had “gone to work” again this morning. She had been tempted to just jump in the car to follow him this morning, but she had to get the kids ready for school, and she’d had to go into the hospital for a few hours to finish up some overdue paperwork—not to mention the fact that, unlike Michael, she could not run around all day because she had to be home to take care of the kids after work. She felt angry as hell as she thought about the fact that she was pretty much taking care of Angie and Elijah all on her own while he was out running around doing God knows what.
After chugging some caffeine, Penelope made her way into the bedroom. She started opening drawers and looking through everything. She didn’t know what she was looking for…some sort of clue…maybe some definitive sign he was having an affair or living some secret life that required him to take mysterious days off from work?
Her first instinct was to forage through the contents of Michael’s desktop computer. With the way of the world these days, and its many technologies, a man can easily have an affair via the Internet. Penelope was not naïve, and she even, in fact, knew the password he used for his email. She loaded the computer and accessed his inbox, scrolling down desperately through its contents, looking for anything that seemed personal in nature or otherwise suspicious. There were a few short messages between Michael and his secretary, but nothing that gave Penelope cause for concern. There was, however, a recent message sent to a woman named Violet Cromwell, and her name was unfamiliar to Penelope. However, B & J Shipping was an enormous enterprise, and there was no way she could know everybody he associated with at work. The content of the message to this Violet person was regarding a luncheon at the Filmont Inn, and it was also not uncommon for Michael to meet potential clients at hotels or local convention centers. Penelope sighed, shutting down the computer, and began searching her and Michael’s bedroom erratically.
The bedroom produced no results. Other than the living room, kitchen, the kids’ bedrooms, and the three bathrooms, she was left with only one other idea of where something might be hidden, although she wasn’t sure what that something she was looking for might even be.
Penelope had never been out to Michael’s storage shed, but she knew where he kept a spare key. She dug around in his dresser drawer until she finally felt the small, metal key with her fingertips. She tucked it in her pocket, and after checking again to make sure no one had pulled in the driveway, she headed out back to the shed.
She undid the padlock, yanked open the shed door, and quickly slid inside, closing the door behind her. She felt around in the dark for the pull chain light and was relieved when she finally found it. Penelope hated the dark.
Her eyes adjusted to the light, and she was disappointed to see that it was only a quarter of the way full, mostly with Michael’s tools and lawn care equipment. There did not appear to be anything suspicious, but just as she was turning to leave, she spotted a cardboard shoebox on a top, wooden shelf. Climbing was not her strong suit, so she went back inside the house to retrieve a step stool. She climbed up on the stool and slowly edged the box down from the shelf with her fingertips. Michael must have put it there, because God knows she and the kids weren’t tall enough to store something that high.
The box was small and light enough to tuck under her arm as she hurriedly darted back inside the house. For some reason, she didn’t want Michael to come home and find her snooping through his stuff. She couldn’t imagine him getting angry about it, especially since she had every right to be pissed off and suspicious after the stunt he pulled, lying to her about being at work. But the thought of being so desperate embarrassed her. She tried to picture her mother rummaging through her father’s things, but the thought only made her laugh. Her mother would not think twice about snooping around; she would have wacked her dad with a frying pan and confronted him about his lie directly instead.
Penelope pried the top off the box and pulled out what appeared to be a stack of tattered letters and pictures. The pictures were of Michael, Elijah, and Lexi. Penelope had seen a picture of Lexi before, but she had thought most of them were gone. Michael told her that he couldn’t stand having them around anymore after she left, so he finally put them all away and eventually tossed them out with the garbage. Just one more lie to add to the growing list, she thought warily.
Penelope flipped through the pictures and could not help but feel jealous. Lexi was exquisitely beautiful. Even though Michael and Elijah rarely spoke of her, Penelope just knew what women always know: that Lexi had been the one, at least at some point in time for Michael.
Penelope opened one of the letters and was appalled to see that it too, was from Lexi. After opening the other letters she realized that they were all from Lexi—love letters, apparently. She tossed the box across the room with an angry grunt just as she heard a knock on the door. “Crap!” she cried, tossing the contents back into the box and hiding it under the sink.
Penelope straightened her hair and smoothed out the wrinkles in her work uniform as she made her way to the front door. It was the UPS man. Hmmm, she thought, maybe Michael has been busy ordering me some sort of gift. She opened the door and gave the UPS man a welcome smile.
“Package for Elijah Sinclair,” he announced as he handed her the board to sign with her electronic signature.
“What is it?” she asked, signing her name as Penelope Sinclair instead of using her maiden name.
“You know how many times a day I hear that question, lady?” he asked with a smile. “I have no idea. I just deliver the packages.”
He handed her a medium-sized, brown box addressed to Elijah with his and Michael’s previous address on the package. Apparently, whoever had sent it was unaware of their new address, but UPS had been kind enough to look up their forwarding address.
She carried the box inside and set it on the table. Without a second thought, she started pulling off the heavy tape. She knew it was wrong not to wait for Elijah, but after the recent discoveries she had made with Michael, she couldn’t help herself. Who would be sending sixteen-year-old Elijah a package? According to Michael, they had no close relatives that they kept in touch with. She got her answer as she opened the box to find a white piece of paper taped to the outside of a model airplane kit. The paper simply read:
“Happy Birthday. Love, Mom.”
Penelope was taken aback. After ten years, she suddenly decides to send Elijah a gift? Penelope wondered incredulously. Suddenly, she had a thought. Was Michael seeing Lexi again? Was she back in town? Is this why he was skipping work and running around behind her back? Why the hell would she just send something out of the blue if she hadn’t talked to Michael or Elijah in nearly a decade!
Penelope sat down on the living room couch and decided to send Michael a text. She had to get to the bottom of this and quickly. Both her and Angie’s happiness depended on it, and she was not about to let Michael make a fool out of her! What would her mother think when she found out?
Her worried thoughts were spinning out of control as she texted Michael and clicked the send button. She texted him that she was getting off work early and asked if he wanted to meet for lunch.
Penelope groaned loudly as she received his response.
Michael: I’m too busy today, Sweetheart…sorry…I probably won’t be in until supper late 2nite so plz don’t wait up.
Penelope knew what she had to do now, and it was not going to be pretty. It was time for a good, old-fashioned stakeout. Nancy Drew would be so proud!