Helen Stunderson.
She wore a thick black sweater and a crème colored corduroy skirt over black tights. Big silver earrings jangled from her ears as she rushed the boy back to the pack, her face contorted in anger as she chastised him.
I stared at her. Olaf hadn’t mentioned that they had a child. Why was she there? Was she stalking me again? That didn’t seem plausible, given that she was with the group from the school.
She took a deep breath, adjusted one of her earrings and did a double take when she saw me. She froze for a moment and her cheeks bloomed pink. Then she blinked, lifted her chin and looked back at the employee who was leading their group.
Seeing her completely unnerved me. I was already confused about her lying to me at the library and because Olga had given me a completely different story than what Helen had. Now she was showing up on the same field trip as me?
Jake had said it himself. Too many coincidences.
Helen glanced my way again, then quickly looked back to their guide. She did that two more times before Jake ushered our group up the stairs and into one of the picker booths.
The kids packed themselves next to one of windows and watched the conveyor belt as the guy at the booth controls used the long metal arms to sort, move and pick through the trash riding up the belt. They giggled and pointed. I glanced out the window.
Helen’s group was no longer in sight.
I tried to focus on why we were there to begin with.
Grace stuck her finger on the window. “I see a doll! Can we get the doll, Mommy?”
“Probably not.”
“Awwww.” Grace’s face fell. “I don’t want her to die in the trash.”
“There’s another one!” Sophie yelled. “They are probably sister dolls!”
Jake made his way around the crowd of kids to me. “Are you alright?”
I looked at him. “Of course.”
“You look…I don’t know. Kind of weirded out.”
“Just all these dead dolls,” I said, motioning to the conveyor belt.
He eyed me dubiously.
“I’m fine,” I said, touching his elbow. “Really.”
He raised an eyebrow like he wasn’t buying the explanation. He never bought my fake explanations, which was really annoying. He knew me too well and could see right through me when I was trying to avoid telling him something. There was something really wonderful about being that connected to another human being but sometimes I hated not being able to hide anything from him.
He moved away from me and announced to the kids that we were going to go back downstairs and take a closer look in the bins that the picking machine was dropping things into. Our small group of kids cheered and moved for the door to the stairs. I held the door, making sure they all got out and that we didn’t leave Derek behind to drive the controls of the picking robot. Because, at two years old, it was absolutely something he would do. The guy at the controls waved at me as I said goodbye.
Jake and Brenda and the kids were already down the stairs by the time I stepped out of the booth, their excitement hurrying their steps so they could see what kind of treasures were in the bins. I held onto the metal railing next to the steep stairs and reached the bottom.
Just as Helen Stunderson came out from behind the stairs and blocked my path.
TWENTY TWO
Helen folded her arms across her expensive-looking sweater and glared at me. “Well, well, well. Fancy meeting you here.”
I was surprised by her aggressive tone. It was the exact opposite of how she’d come across in the library.
“I was a little surprised to see you here, too,” I said.
“Oh. Were you?” she said, tilting her head to the side, studying me. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
“Excuse me?”
“I think it’s become pretty clear that you are stalking me,” Helen declared.
“What are you talking about?”
“Running into me at the library the other day?” she said, raising an eyebrow at me. “Now here? At the recycling plant of all places. Did you think I wouldn’t see you?” She shook her head. “Please.”
I started to say something, stopped, took a deep breath, then started again. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “You came up to me at the library. And today I’m here with my kids. And my husband works here.”
She smirked. “Sure he does.”
“He does,” I insisted, preparing to launch his full CV at her. But then I stopped myself. I didn’t need to defend anything to the woman standing in front of me. “Besides, if anyone around here is lying, it’s you. You lied about working at the library.”
Her mouth twitched and she averted her gaze, examining her nails instead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh really?” I asked. I moved closer to her. “I went to the desk after you disappeared. I asked them to find you. And they told me you didn’t work there.”
She was still focused on her nails. “You must be mistaken.”
“I’m not,” I said. “So you must be lying.”
She moved her gaze from the lacquered nails to my eyes. “Takes one to know one.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Nor does you following me to a trash plant.”
I bristled. “It’s a recycling plant.”
“Whatever,” she said. Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Why are you here bothering me?”
I pressed my lips together and clenched my hands into tight fists to keep myself from strangling this nutjob. “I’m here with my kids and their friends because my husband—who works here—invited us to come tour the plant. I’ve now explained that to you twice. Why exactly are you here?”
She considered my words, then shrugged. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I work part-time at the elementary school, They needed a chaperone for today.”
That was the first thing that had come out of her mouth that made any sense at all.
“Hey, Mom!” Grace yelled, popping her head around the corner. “Come here!”
“Hang on,” I said to her. I turned back to Helen. “What do you do at the school?”
“I help in the attendance office,” she said, lifting her chin as if she was royalty. “Again, not that it’s any of your business.”
“I wasn’t aware you worked,” I said.
“You probably aren’t aware of a lot of things,” she said, glaring at me.
It was like she had become her evil twin from our library meeting. She’d been overly kind and friendly there. Now, she was looking at me like she wanted to push me into one of the bins. Emily was reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for her lit class and I wished she were there so she could see a real-life reenactment of someone with dual personalities. Because I was pretty sure that was what I was witnessing.
“Mom!” Grace yelled again. “Come here!”
“Hang on!” I called. I stared at Helen. “I know that you didn’t really want a divorce from Olaf.”
Her eyes morphed into daggers. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that not only did you lie to me about working in the library, you also lied to me about Olaf not wanting the divorce,” I said, returning her glare. “You were the one who didn’t want the divorce.”
“Daisy!” Sophie yelled.
“You better take that back,” Helen growled.
“I don’t think I will,” I said.
“Olaf loved me,” she said, her voice low and thick. “Loved me. He was devastated when I told him I wanted a divorce. He begged me to take him back. Begged me.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Well, that’s not what I heard.”
“Oh, I’m sure that fat cow Olga had a lot of great things to say,” she spat. “I’ll bet everything she told you was a big fat lie because she’s a big, fat, lying cow.”