Suspicions by Christine Kersey Page A

car. I had to practically
threaten him to even get him to agree we didn't need it anymore.
And I don't recall ever seeing any money from the sale of that old
car.
    The shrill ring of the phone startled her.
Reversing direction, she went to the kitchen and picked up the
phone, answering tentatively. “Hello?”
    “Stacey? Is that you?”
    “Yes, who is this?”
    The caller laughed. “It's me, silly.
Patricia.”
    Stacey didn't want to deal with her director
right now. “What do you need? I'm kind of busy.”
    “You're always busy, Stacey,” she said with a
tone Stacey couldn't quite put her finger on. “The happy little
homemaker, always taking care of her husband and children.”
    Jealousy, Stacey thought, and almost laughed
out loud. She's jealous of me. Patricia Summers, with her perfect
hair and make-up and her cocky attitude. The irony was too much for
her and the tears started to fall.
    “Stacey, are you there?” Patricia asked.
    Stacey didn't want her to know she was
crying. She faked a cough and took a deep breath. “Just a minute,
Patricia.” And after a moment, “Sorry about that, a frog in my
throat or something. Now, what was it you wanted?”
    “I have some products for you. Can I come by
this evening and drop them off?”
    With an incredible amount of self-will,
Stacey forced her brain to think about business. “I have an early
party tonight, but I should be home by nine o'clock. Why don't you
come by then?”
    “I'll be there,” Patricia sang out. “Oh, and
Stacey? I want to take you out to lunch today. Does that work for
you?”
    “Actually, Patricia, today's not good for me.
Let's do it some other time, okay?”
    Silence on the other end. Then, “I really
need to talk to you.”
    With reluctance, Stacey agreed to meet
Patricia at a nearby restaurant at one o'clock. She knew it was
probably best to keep up a normal front.
    Stacey hung up the phone and forced herself
to think about the Beautiful You cosmetics party she had booked for
that night.
    I am definitely not in the mood to have a
party tonight. Maybe I can get out of it, she thought as she picked
up the phone and called the woman who was scheduled to host the
party.
    “Hi, Annette. This is Stacey Hunter.”
    “Oh, Stacey. Hi. I'm sure looking forward to
the party tonight. Eight people are definitely going to be there
and they're all big on makeup so it should be a good one.”
    Knowing she was committed, Stacey tried to be
enthusiastic. “Great! I'll see you then.”
    She hung up the phone, resigned to going. She
consoled herself with the thought that it would probably be a big
moneymaker and they could certainly use the money. Unless, she
thought, a grim laugh bubbling out of her throat, Jason just
arranged for us to receive one million dollars.
    She needed to talk this over with someone she
could trust and immediately thought of her sister, Megan, who lived
up in Washington State. She was three years younger than Stacey but
they had been close growing up; having a father in jail gave them a
shameful bond.
    After all the years of their mother
pressuring him to provide more and more material possessions for
their family, her father had finally gone too far, stealing from
others until he had been caught. He had ended up in jail and
Stacey’s mother had left him, taking Stacey and Megan with her.
    As Stacey thought about her father, she
remembered how shocked she had been when she had learned he’d
committed a crime - a crime that put him in jail. She’d had no idea
he’d been doing anything wrong. He had seemed perfectly normal. She
wondered if her mother had had a clue about what he was doing.
    I guess sometimes even those we’re close to
can be doing things we don’t know about, Stacey thought. Is that
what’s happening here? Could Jason be involved and I’m just
clueless?
    The thought made her sick. Wondering how she
could find out for sure, she considered simply calling Jason and
asking him. Then she thought about his