...And Never Let HerGo

the spring of 1996, and they were together in an intimate way several times a week. He had long had a key to her house on Delaware Avenue and the combination to her burglar alarm. Although it always startled her, he would appear in the door to her bedroom late at night, undress in the dark, and crawl into bed with her.
    Debby didn’t have a key to Tom’s house, nor did she ever visit him without calling first. It never occurred to her to ask for a key. She knew that Tom often had his daughters staying there, and beyond that, he had always made the rules in their relationship. “I was very much in love with him,” she recalled. “I trusted him and I believed what he told me.”
    Tom often spent evenings in Philadelphia, explaining to Debby that he had meetings with the main office of Saul, Ewing. Her job also took up a lot of her time. She was in charge of the summer program at Tatnall, along with the before- and after-school programs. Both of her children were on the swim team at Tatnall and her life was very busy. She sometimes fell asleep as she watched the David Letterman show—waiting for Tom—but she never questioned him and she never worried about his fidelity. After all the years she hadloved him, they were now a very close couple planning for marriage in the not too distant future. It was all she had ever hoped for.
    Debby had never even heard the name Anne Marie Fahey.
    Nor had she heard the name Linda Marandola. In April, after six weeks of not hearing from Tom, Linda began to get phone calls again. As she would remember, she finally agreed to have dinner with him on her birthday in April 1996. Tom said he wanted to talk to her about a job as his secretary at Saul, Ewing. She needed a job badly, she was a good legal secretary, and she thought there was no harm in just talking about it.
    It was close to Easter when Tom picked her up and drove her to the Ristorante La Veranda in Philadelphia. They had a superb meal, and Tom was attentive and charming; and by the time he paid the $175 tab for their meal, Linda had agreed to apply for the secretarial job at his firm. It would be a lifesaver financially, and for the third time, she began to trust Tom.
    When the officer manager at Saul, Ewing began to schedule applicants for the position that would become available at the end of May, Tom gave her Linda’s résumé. An interview was set up and Tom and one of the partners talked with Linda. When it was over, Tom advised the office manager that she should hire Linda, who he felt was the best applicant for the job.
    Linda
was
hired, due to report for work on May 29. And Tom was back in her life. He had deduced early on that she was having a difficult time paying her bills, and offered to lend her $3,000 until she had a salary again. Hesitant but in a pinch, she accepted. On May 15, Tom wrote her a personal check for $3,000.
    A NNE M ARIE and Mike were together for all of the bright spring of 1996. They went to weddings, parties, and high school plays, and they spent long evenings with her family. On the first weekend in May, they went to a Kentucky Derby party given by one of Mike’s friends. The next day, MBNA was hosting guests at the Point-to-Point steeplechase races on the grounds of Winterthur. The steeplechase had begun as a very posh event to raise money for Winterthur, but after two decades, the Point-to-Point was no longer strictly for the blue bloods of society. The event attracted the common folk, too, along with horse fanciers from all over the world. “This is the only melting-pot event we have,” a Wilmington woman said. “It’s a great event where everybody can come and just have a good time.”
    Anne Marie bought a flower-sprinkled cotton dress in a size four to wear to the Point-to-Point. The skirt was long and swirledaround her ankles, and she was confident that her “fat legs” were covered. She and Mike watched the races, looked at the vintage cars displayed by collectors, and walked past the entries in the tailgate contest. The Point-to-Point, half reminiscent of Ascot in England, half state fair, was only one of many good times that Anne Marie was having with Mike, days that made her want to pinch herself to see if this was all real, times that did, indeed, have a storybook feel to them.
    She didn’t agonize that Mike wouldn’t call her again. There was a steadiness about him that gave her serenity and trust. They were a couple and their friends expected to see them together.