reading sample of murder, the only way out

8/6/2019 Reading Sample of Murder, The Only Way Out

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READING SAMPLE

Murder, The Only Way Out

By June Stephenson

eBook available on Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble

www.JuneStephensonBooks.com

When June explained their game, Fredrik was not so sure Martha had toldthe truth. He had never known June to lie though he believed children were nottoo reliable. But he also knew that Martha resented June. He had tried atdifferent times to show Martha extra affection to blunt the hard feelings or

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jealousy Martha had. Still as Hanna had said, he and she needed to support eachother when it came to discipline.It would be a major disruption of the goodwill they had all enjoyed recently if there were a confrontation over this incident.

“How about you come to dinner, honey? I won’t ask you to apologize

because . . . well, I just won’t. Wipe your face. We won’t say anything about this.”The dinner table was somber. Hanna did not mention the afternoon’sevent, and Fredrick kept a conversation going with Freddie and Victor, June andMartha occasionally glaring at each other. When the children had left the tableFredrick sternly said to Hanna, “Do not spank my children again, ever.”

When he was in bed for the night he wondered how much longer this off-again-on-again peace could go on. When in God’s name, he asked himself, wouldJack send for his family? In spite of Jack’s affectionate letters, was it possible hereally didn’t want his family to return? Would the day ever come when Hannaand her children would leave?

That day came on a cold March morning in 1926, almost two years afterHanna had arrived, when the mailman delivered a letter from Jack with money for railroad fare to Brownsville, Texas. Hanna couldn’t pack fast enough.

When Fredrik came home from work, Hanna announced her good news with tears of joy. “We’re going home. Jack has one side of a duplex for us, and hehas a job he’ll tell me about when I get there.”

Martha ran up to Fredrick getting to him before June did, and saidtriumphantly, “I’m going home to my daddy.”

Fredrik picked Martha up into his arms and said happily, “Yes, you are.I’m very happy for you, honey. Your Uncle Fred will miss you.” He kissed herand set her down, picking up June and doing the same.

The time went fast. There was a happy flurry in the household. There wasthe packing, the railroad tickets to get, the arrangement with Vivian and Mrs.

Sands to stay with Victor and June while Fredrik took Hanna and her children tothe streetcar that would take them to the railroad.

Then Fredrik returned home, pleased that he helped his sister over aterrible period in her life, but relieved she and her children were no longer livingin his home.

As for care for his children from then on, Vivian Sands and her mother would help with his children. June would be in the first grade and Victor in thesecond which meant they would arrive home after Vivian got out of high school soshe would be in the house from three in the afternoon until six when he got homefrom work. If there were any problems, Fredrik knew Vivian could get hermother, or Mary Williams next door to help.

Though it was evening when the train pulled into Brownsville, Texas, it was still light enough for Hanna to see Jack among the people waiting forarrivals. She saw he looked taller than she remembered but he was still ashandsome, and she was pleased he still had his moustache. Though the weather was very warm she noticed he was wearing a suit with a vest and a starched collarand tie.



“There’s Daddy,” she said bringing the children to the window seat.“Which one?” Freddie asked. Hanna pointed to the tall man who was

waving to them as the train slowed to a stop.Freddie wrinkled his forehead. “Are you sure that’s Daddy?” Martha

climbed over her mother.

“Daddy?” she asked, “Where?” Then she saw the man her mother pointedto who was waving at them.Hanna stood up, straightened her hat, smoothed her skirt, soiled and

wrinkled from three days’ travel. She attempted to improve the children’sappearance, but her efforts were useless as they were in the same clothes they had on when they left Albany, California.

Hanna carried their heavy suitcase down the aisle of the train. Freddie andMartha following. On the platform, with long strides Jack met Hanna, took hersuitcase from her and set it on the ground while he lifted her from the train steps,held her briefly and kissed her. When he took Freddie in his arms, Freddiehugged him, but when he picked up Martha she leaned backwards, pulling away from him. She ran her finger over his moustache, frowned, and wiggled free.

Jack walked his family to a 1925 Buick Seven Passenger Touring Car. “Isthis our car?” Freddie asked, his eyes wide with excitement.

“For today and tomorrow it is.” Jack explained, “ I borrowed it from theshow room. Yes, that’s my surprise, Sweetheart. I told you I’d let you know whatmy job was when you got here. I’m the Sales Manager at Mitchell Buick. You’lllike Joe Mitchell.”

When he stopped the car in front of a house, he explained to the childrenthat it was called a duplex. “That means there are two houses with one roof.”

“We’re going to live in half a house?” Freddie asked. An old couple came off the porch-swing on one side of the duplex, the

woman holding out her hand to Hanna. “We’ve met Jack and him being so nice

we know’d you’d be nice too. I’m Zoey and this here’s Henry. Anytime you needanything, we’re right next door.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Hanna said waiting to get inside out of the heat.“Just bang on the wall,” Henry laughed.Jack unlocked the door, explaining they didn’t have much furniture.

Freddie and Martha burst through the front door and began running through thefour rooms. Jack proudly pointed out the second-hand couch and chair he’d bought. He guided Hanna into the bedrooms and showed her the two beds in oneroom for the children, and one bed in the second bedroom. Then he took her intothe kitchen where he showed off a wooden table and four chairs.

“I got a coffee pot and a few dishes and a frying pan. There’s an ice box

and a stove. I didn’t know what you’d want but we can go shopping tomorrow.Joe told me to take the day off and use the car one more day.”

Hanna took the few steps into the living room and sat down on the couch.She put her head in her hands, her hat askew. “That will be fine,” she mumbled.

“I bought some blankets,” Jack continued, “ Though God knows we won’tneed any for awhile. You can pick out sheets and towels tomorrow. I have ahundred dollars until the first of April. That should do it.”

“Yes,” Hanna said, her head still in her hands. “That’s fine.” Jack sat on the



couch next to her. The children were opening and shutting cupboard doors one by one in the kitchen.

“We’ll be okay, Sweetheart,” Jack said, putting his arm around Hanna, who crumbled into his arms and began to cry.

“We’ll be okay,” he said over and over again.

“I’m sorry, Hon,” Hanna muttered, crying quietly. “I’m just so tired. Wehardly slept. We should,” she pulled away and dried her face, “get some food forthe children and get them to bed. Do you have. . . ”

“Yes,” Jack said proudly, answering her question before she finished it, “Ihave some oatmeal cereal we can cook and I also bought milk.” He walked intothe kitchen and returned to the living room, holding the milk bottle like anoffering.

They assembled around the table, ate the warm oatmeal, left the bowls onthe table and went to their bedrooms where Hanna gave each of her children agoodnight kiss as they settled in to sleep on their bare mattresses, fully clothed.Freddie fell asleep within a minute or two, but Martha kept her mother close toher and whispered, “Why does Daddy have whiskers on his mouth?”

Hanna smiled, kissed Martha again, walked out of the stuffy bedroom andclosed the door quietly.

Jack was waiting for her in their bedroom. He shut their door and helpedher remove her suit. Hanna resisted his help with her undergarments. “I’ll sleepin these,” she said. “I’m too tired to unpack, to find a nightgown.”

“Sure, Sweetheart,” Jack agreed, “but take them off for awhile.” He beganto lower the shoulder strap of her chemise.

“Jack,” Hanna said abruptly, “not tonight. I’m too tired. I haven’t slept inthree nights. I can’t . . . ”

Jack withdrew his arm and stared at the opposite wall.“My God,” he said, more to himself than to Hanna who had curled up on

the mattress, “it’s our honeymoon all over again.”In the morning the sun awakened her, falling full slant on her perspiring

body. Hanna felt something pushing her shoulder. Dazed and hot she looked tothe source of the sun and saw that they had not lowered the window shade thenight before. She then realized the pushing sensation was Martha trying to arouseher.

“Mamma. Where’s Maria? You said when we got here I’d have Maria.”Hanna could not think about Maria. She looked around the strange room,

the bare mattress, Martha standing at her bed in the clothes she’d worn sinceleaving Albany. She turned her head and looked for Jack who would be next toher, but his side of the bed was empty.

Not answering Martha’s persistent question, Hanna forced herself off the bed and into the kitchen where she read Jack’s one-sentence note, “Sweetheart.I’ll be back at ten.”

She looked at the kitchen wall clock, and though covered with dust she saw that it was nine-thirty.

“Where’s Freddie?” Hanna asked, as she walked into the children’s bedroom where she saw him asleep in his rumpled clothes. She backed out of theroom and quietly shut the door.



“Where’s Maria?” Martha persisted“We’ll get a Maria, darling. But first we have to . . . ” her voice trailed off.

What would be first, she wondered.The same piercing sun greeted Hanna everyday. The hot warm air filled

with moisture from The Gulf of Mexico was so different from the air off the San

Francisco Bay. She hated that Bay Area fog when she first arrived in Albany, butonce back in Brownsville she missed it. In Brownsville she was always sticky, andthe children perspired so much that the few clothes they had smelled.

Brownsville, with most people speaking Spanish, and with all the Mexicanarchitecture, reminded her of Mexico, of her enormous hacienda, all theoutbuildings they had for the men who helped with the cattle, the servants’quarters, the multiple garages Jack had built for his automobile collection.

Compared to her life in Mexico, she said her life in Brownsville was justthis side of hell. She saw herself living in the shabby duplex, next to nosey oldneighbors, with very little money until Jack could sell more cars that peopledidn’t seem to want, with children enrolled in a school ten blocks away, and they unhappy with almost everything and wishing they could be back with Uncle Fred.

“But Daddy’s here,” Hanna reminded them.“Yea,” Freddie said, “but he’s never home.”“He has to work, honey,” Hanna told him. “That’s how we get money for

food.”“I like Uncle Fred better,” Martha said, “He loved me.” At that Hanna almost shouted. “Your daddy loves you.”“Then why doesn’t he get my toys? I had lots of toys when Maria played

with me. Now I don’t have any.”“Those toys are gone, Honey. I’ve told you many times. All those toys,

even all our buildings are gone. Burned. You’re old enough now to know we can’tgo back home.”

“If I don’t have my toys, where’s my Maria? You promised.” With a despairing calm, Hanna said, “There will be no Maria. Not for a

long time, if ever. We don’t have money.” And so it seemed to go everyday, starting with the hottest sun Hanna had

ever known.Zoey, the old lady next door, realizing the unhappiness that lived on the

other side of the duplex, frequently invited Hanna to have coffee with her whenshe saw the children had left for school. One day when Zoey had admired thesimple dress Hanna had made for Martha, she wondered if Hanna could make adress for her. Zoey said she would buy the pattern, thread, and material, and pay Hanna three dollars for her work. Except that she had no sewing machine,

Hanna thought this was a good idea. She asked Zoey if she objected if the dress were sewn by hand.

The terms were agreed, supplies purchased by Zoey, and Hanna waslaunched into the business world. After three dresses for Zoey and a couple forZoey’s friends, Hanna had enough money for a small down payment on a SingerSewing Machine.

Martha went to school in the nicest dresses her classmates’ mothers hadever seen. Soon Hanna received orders from those mothers, not only for dresses



for their girls, but also for themselves. Hanna sewed as soon as Martha andFreddie left for school, then after they were in bed, and into the night until hereyes hurt.

Jack often coaxed her to bed with him. He was tired from being on his feetall day, and he was also discouraged that Buicks had not “caught on” in

Brownsville the way that Fords had in Mexico. As the sales manager at Mitchell’sdealership, in fact as the only salesman, Jack was paid a small regular salary andthen would receive a commission on the cars he sold. But in the first two monthshe had sold none.

“Come to bed, Sweetheart,” he urged Hanna. “You can finish that someother day.

“Not if I want to get paid for it tomorrow,” she answered.Enthusiastically Jack told her, “I’m going to make that sale. Come on to

bed.”“Jack, we need the money.”“Don’t make me feel like I’m a ‘no-good,’ can’t support my family.”Hanna put away her sewing equipment and walked into the bedroom,

loosening her belt.“We better be careful,” Jack said as she got into bed. “It’s been so long

since we went to bed at the same time, I could plant a baby tonight, and we don’t want to do that.”

“It’s too late to be careful, Hon,” Hanna said as she put an arm around hisshoulder. “I’m pregnant.”

“Oh my God,” Jack said, rolling over, lying flat on his back and staring atthe ceiling. “Just what we need, another kid.”

When Martha came home from school with a note pinned to her dressfrom her first grade teacher asking Hanna to come for a parent-teacher meeting,Hanna was annoyed because it would mean a day away from her sewing and the

loss of money for that day.Hanna scolded Martha. “What did you do? Are you a problem to your

teacher? Did you talk back like you do to me?”Martha had no idea why her teacher wanted to talk to her mother.“You got a good report card even if your reading is slow,” Hanna said.

“But maybe that’s it.”Hanna noticed when she stepped into the classroom, that she was

dressed better than the teacher. She straightened her shoulders and sat in thechair she was offered.

“Thank you for coming, Mrs. Buckland,” the teacher said. “I need yourhelp with Martha.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll do what I can, but I don’t understand. I know she has ahabit sometimes of talking back.”

“No. That’s not it. It’s more that she doesn’t talk. Doesn’t mix in. Stays back.”

That was news to Hanna who saw her daughter, as she sometimes calledher, “Miss Uppity.”

Martha’s teacher asked Hanna, “Is she happy at home?”“Well, yes, of course. We’ve had a hard time these last few years, but. . . “



“I asked Martha,” her teacher said, “one afternoon when she was sitting by herself, in the schoolyard if she was happy.”

“What did she says?”“She said, ‘I used to be.’”Hanna thought for a moment and then said, “I can understand that. We

all used to be . . ” Surprising to the teacher and even to Hanna, she started tocry. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Then she blurted out, “I’m pregnant.”“Yes. I know,” the teacher said. “Martha told me.”“She knows?”“Yes. She came to school crying last Tuesday. She had heard you and her

father arguing about having another baby. She said you both didn’t want a baby and that meant you didn’t want her or her brother. She said she hated her fatherfor the terrible things he said.”

“Oh how awful,” Hanna said. “We never meant for her to hear. Oh my! It will be so difficult with this baby. Not like it was in Mexico with so much help.”

“She speaks of a Maria?”“Yes. All the time. Oh my! My poor Martha. So she heard that argument.”“Lots of arguments?”“Too many,” Hanna nodded.Then the principal asked what Hanna thought was a personal question.

“Are you and your husband affectionate with her.?”“Of course,” Hanna answered quickly.She asked another question that Hanna thought was odd. “Do your

children have a pet, a hamster? Kitten? Puppy?”“Oh God no! I don’t have time to clean up after . . . ““Mrs. Buckland, Martha is an unhappy little girl.”“I never thought she was,” Hanna said thoughtfully.That evening she made time to be alone with Jack, which was difficult in

their small duplex. When the children went outside to play a game of throwingrocks into a circle they drew on the ground, Hanna told Jack about her school visit and about Martha’s listening to their conversation about the new baby.

Jack listened and then said angrily,” What was she doing listening to us? Anyway we were just being honest. I don’t want another kid and neither do you.”

Hanna explained patiently, “She sees that as we don’t want her or Freddieeither. We have to let her know that’s not true.”

“Well it’s not. She ought to know that.”Hanna sighed. “We need to be more affectionate. I know we’re both busy

and . . . ““So she’s unhappy? Well I’m unhappy too. So are you. We’re trying.”

“I think we should get a puppy.”“What? Are you out of your mind? Must be the pregnancy. A puppy? Do

you realize the crap we’d be cleaning up, and how much it costs to feed a dog?”“Table scraps.”“Table scraps? What table scraps? No Ma’am! No puppy!”“What can we do, Jack? She’s only six years old.”“How come Freddie’s okay? No complaints from his teacher.”“He’s just different, I guess. Martha’s sensitive. Loves it when people



notice her, or are nice to her.”Jack was silent for a few minutes. Then to Hanna’s surprise and pleasure

he said, “I guess you’re right, Sweetheart. Maybe we’re dumping ourunhappiness on her.” He walked outside, watched Martha and Freddie for amoment and then called to them, “Can I play that game with you? Maybe I can hit

that circle.”They both ran to him with smiles he realized he hadn’t noticed before.“You have to stand here,” Freddie said, showing Jack a stick in the dirt that thethrower couldn’t go past when tossing the stone into the circle.

“Here’s something else.” Freddie continued to explain. “There are twocircles. If you get your rock in the center of the circle you get two points, but if you get it in the outside circle you only get one point. I’ve got three points. See,here is where we keep our score. Martha’s got one point.”

“Very good, Freddie. I’ll see if I can beat you. Where’d you learn thisgame?”

“At school. But they won’t let us play it anymore ‘cause the kids startedthrowing the rocks at each other instead of into the circle.”

Martha, impatient for the game to continue because it was her turn,announced, “It’s my turn.”

“Okay, Honey,” Jack said. “Let’s see you make a ringer.” But she didn’t.Nor did she even land her rock in the outside circle. Disappointed she said, “I wanted to show you how good I am.”

Jack consoled her. “That’s all right, Honey. Take another turn.”“No,” Freddie shouted. “That’s unfair. It’s your turn, Dad.”Jack’s rock landed in the center of the circle.“You got longer arms,” Freddie complained.“Maybe I should stand further back,” he offered.“Good idea,” Freddie agreed.

The game continued with Jack and Freddie accumulating points andMartha taking her turn and making no points.

“Maybe,” she said, “it’s ‘cause I’m smaller. I should get extra turns.”Freddie ignored her as he and his father laughed at their competition.

Martha walked into the house, and the game outside continued without any mention of her.

After dinner when the children were in their beds and Jack and Hanna were sitting on the couch, Jack told Hanna he had had a good time playing therock game.

“You mean you and Freddie had a good time.”“That’s right.”

“And Martha?”“She left. I guess she didn’t like it.”“She came in the house crying. She sat down and put her head in my lap

when I was sewing and said, ‘I miss Uncle Fred.’”Jack pulled back, looking perplexed. “Why would she miss him. I was

playing a game with her.”“I was watching you. She could just as well not have been there. That’s

what she figured. That’s why she left.”



Jack was silent and then he said, “It just doesn’t matter what I do, I’m wrong. I pay some attention to her like you suggested and I’m wrong. I go to work everyday, talk my windpipes dry and can’t make a sale. Come home tiredand discouraged and can’t even make love to my wife half the time ‘cause she’snot only pregnant but she has to stay up half the night sewing so my family can

eat, and so we can pay rent on this dilapidated house so small my son and my daughter have to sleep in the same room. Wrong! Wrong! That’s me, no matter what.”

He leaned forward, resting his chin on open hands. Hanna said nothingfor awhile, waiting for his outburst to stop, and then said, quietly, “Hon, I’ve been thinking. Would you consider giving up on Buick and going back to Ford?”

“What are you talking about? You come up with the craziest ideas. Lastnight it was about a puppy, and now this. No way. Buick’s a much better car thanFord.”

“Yes it is and it’s beautiful, but it’s more expensive.”“That’s the good part of my job. When I make a commission selling Buick,

the commission is much better than if I were selling Fords”“But you hardly ever make a sale. They’re too expensive for this area. This

is not a classy town. It’s no different than Mexico.”“You’re sure right about that, except I did very well in Mexico. Here I’m a

nothing.”“That’s not true, Hon.” She put her hand on his knee.

“You’re a good salesman, or at least you were when you were selling Fords.”“Yeah, but Holman Ford here already has a sales manager.”“Just be a salesman, Hon. I’m sure Frank Holman would welcome you

with all your experience with the Model T’s in Monterrey.”“Yeah, well, I’ll think about it.”Not too long after that conversation one night Jack unexpectedly walked in

the door and announced, “We’re moving up to Harlingen, Sweetheart.”“What?” As Hanna was setting plates on the table, Jack came behind her, swung

her around and kissed her. “Yep. We’re going to be okay,” he said laughing.“What are you talking about”“Well Holman Ford couldn’t hire me as a salesman. Not enough business,

but he got hold of his buddy in Harlingen and found they were looking for asalesman. Right then and there they hired me. They’d heard about my salesrecord in Monterrey. I’m reporting on the job there Monday.”

“Monday? This is Thursday. How . . .?”“It’s only about forty miles. I can drive their demonstrator for a couple of

weeks until I can find us a place to live there.”Hanna sat down, a plate still in her hand. “I’m glad for you, Hon. Just

have a hard time thinking of moving, being pregnant and all.”“I’ll help, Sweetheart. It will be so good to get out of this dump, I can’t tell

you. We can get a decent house. We’ll be okay. I’ll have a salary and a bettercommission than Mitchell paid me.”

Hanna got up from her chair, came around the table and hugged Jack.“Always the optimist, that’s my husband. Another move.” She shook her head.



In Harlingen, Jack found what he called “a real house,” with three bedrooms so each of his children could have their own room. Before they movedin, Hanna planned how the new baby would fit into their room situation.

“The baby will be in its crib in our room until it can sleep through thenight. If it’s a girl we’ll move her crib into Martha’s room, and if it’s a boy, it will

go into Freddie’s room.”“I want a little sister,” Martha requested. “I can dress her like my dolls.”“I want a brother I can play baseball with,” Freddie said.“You’ll be eight years older, Honey,” Hanna told Freddie.“Yeah, well, we can still do things together. Can’t see where a sister is any

good to me.”It wasn’t long before Freddie got his little brother, and Martha, looking at

the newborn’s tiny body, couldn’t see herself dressing him in doll clothes.The children made new friends easily in their new Harlingen

neighborhood. It thrilled Martha that Peggy who lived next door invited Marthafor a sleep-over with two other girls. They giggled almost all night.

Then Martha asked Hanna if she could have Peggy sleep over in her bedroom, which pleased Hanna, knowing Martha was making friends

“Peggy’s mama likes my dresses, Mama. I told her you made them. Sheacted like she didn’t believe me. Made me go over to her and show her the seamson the inside. Then she said, ‘your mama is a good seamstress.’”

Jack was not pleased that a neighbor girl was going to sleep in their house.“What is it with these kids? Don’t they have beds in their own houses?” But areal argument did not develop between Jack and Hanna about the sleep-over.

Peggy liked to go to Martha’s house to hold the new baby a few minutes ata time. That’s longer than you let me hold him,” Martha complained to hermother.

“It’s your turn, Martha,” Hanna said, carefully transferring the infant from

one seven-year-old to the other.“Can I dress him today, Mama?” Martha asked. “I want to show Peggy how

I can do it.”“Maybe some other time, Honey. I think Bobby can just wear his diapers.

It’s so hot.” She took Bobby from Martha and walked him back into his crib inher room.

“You girls go play. I’m going to make myself some iced tea.” When she was out of sight, Martha whispered to Peggy, “You want to hold

him again?” Peggy nodded. The two tiptoed into Hanna’s bedroom. Marthaquickly started to pick Bobby up from his crib, but she didn’t have a hand underhis head. He screamed and Martha dropped him into a corner of the crib. Hanna

came running into her room and saw the two startled girls and a crying baby lying at a strange angle in his crib.

“What happened? What are you two doing here?”“Is he okay, Mama?”“Why are you here?” She held Bobby in her arms and his screaming

subsided.“We just came in to see him again,” Martha said. “We didn’t do anything.”Peggy looked quickly at Martha who continued, “Peggy asked if she could



see him again. Is he all right?”“Yes. He’s fine. You girls go play.” When they were outside, Peggy asked Martha why she had lied. Martha

shrugged. As with most newborns in a household, Bobby was the center of interest.

It seemed to Martha that Hanna was always “attending to” him. She was eithernursing him, or giving him a bath, or changing him.Even so, both Freddie and Martha were happy that there were fewer

arguments between their parents. Though Martha had overheard her father say, when her mother was first pregnant, that he didn’t want any more babies, she began to think that he must have changed his mind because he was so nice toBobby. As soon as he walked in the door at night he went right over to Bobby’scrib. When Bobby would see his daddy, he would kick his heels until Jack pickedhim up and walked him around the house talking to him.

“How’s my little man today? Did you get a nice bath? A long nap? Where’s that new rattle I brought home yesterday? Oh, here it is.” Martha wishedhe’d talk to her like that sometime.

Once when Martha was in the third grade, the whole family was surprised when a policeman rang their doorbell. Someone in another neighborhood by theschoolyard had seen a couple of girls go into the gas station restroom, next to theschool, and come out a long time later. The attendant had reported to the policethat the ladies’ restroom had been vandalized and a neighbor lady reported to thepolice what she had seen.

“Not much damage,” the policeman told Jack. “But our department believes the parents should know about this so they can nip this in the bud.”

“Of course, officer,” Jack said. “What did they do?”“Took all the toilet paper there was and shoved it in the toilet so it won’t

flush. All plugged up. The neighbor identified the girls, said one of them is your

daughter.”“How can that be?” Jack asked. “We just hardly moved here?”Hanna added, “Martha wouldn’t do anything like that.”The policeman said, “We think she did.”Jack called Martha from the living room out on to the porch. “Did you hear

what this policeman said?”“Yes.”“Would you do something like that?”“No.”“Of course not”, Jack said. “ There would be no reason why my children

would be destructive. . . “

“The neighbor . . .”“Who is the neighbor? I think I should talk to her,” Jack suggested.“I don’t have her name here but she saw two girls, one of them your

daughter, go into the ladies’ restroom at that 76 gas station. they were there along time and then they came out giggling”

“See,” Jack said. “That no evidence.”“It’s enough,” the policeman said.“What’s the damage?” Hanna asked.



“Just get a plunger.” Jack said.The policeman put his pen in his upper jacket pocket and pulled the cover

down on his clipboard. “The department believes parents should know what theirchildren are up to.” He walked down the porch steps. “I’ll talk with the othergirl’s parents.”

Later, when Hanna went into Martha’s room to kiss her goodnight, Marthaheld on to her. “Mama, is he going to talk to Peggy’s mother and father?”“I guess so.”“Mama. Peggy and I did that. We thought it was fun.”Hanna thought a minute until Martha interrupted her thoughts. “Don’t tell

Daddy. He would hate me.”“He would never hate you, Honey. But, no. . . I won’t tell him.”“What if Peggy tells it was us?”“I guess . . . I guess you just don’t know anything. Your daddy said you

didn’t do it. We can’t make him look foolish to the policeman.”Martha hugged her mother.“You go to sleep now,” Hanna said to her daughter. “See you in the

morning.”

reading sample of murder, the only way out

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