Fear of Frying

me. He was standing in a shadow. He said that when he got through telling me his news, he’d do anything I told him to. I had no idea what he meant. Then he stepped farther into the room and I realized he wasn’t Sam.”
    Shelley couldn’t stand to keep quiet any longer. “Are you saying you agreed to pretend to be married to—in love with—a man you’d never seen before?”
    Marge had forgotten Shelley was there and jumped at the sound of her voice. “I—I wasn’t pretending,“ she said, tears starting to stream down her face again. “He was the Sam I’d always wanted to love. The Sam that the real Sam never had been except the first few months we were married. Henry was warm, considerate, he really talked to me. He didn’t frighten me. I didn’t want him to tell the police anything. I wanted—”
    She stopped and they waited. Finally Shelley asked, “You wanted what, Marge?“
    “I—I wanted life to just go on. I wanted Sam to stay disappeared. I wanted everybody to think Henry was Sam. I thought of the amnesia idea. In time, I could have told him everything about Sam’s life. He could have become Sam. He knew about car dealerships and was good at math like Sam was. He could have stepped right into the business. We could have lived such a wonderful life if nobody ever knew.“
    “Is that what Henry wanted?“ Taylor asked.
    She shook her head miserably. “No, he wanted to see justice done to the person who had taken his brother away before they could even meet. That’s what he’s out there now trying to do. Please, check with your people. See if they’ve found him yet.”
    Sheriff Taylor didn’t move. “My people will tell me.”
    Marge stared at him. “Oh, I think I see. Somebody else is already questioning Henry. You mean to compare what we say. That’s okay. Really it is. Henry will tell the exact truth, just like I’m telling the truth. It is the truth, Sheriff. I swear it.”

Nineteen

    “Do you believe that’s the truth?“ Shelley asked.
    The two of them were back in the dining hall of the lodge and starting to feel that it was a second home that neither of them liked very much. Eileen had come back to Marge’s cabin, insisting that she belonged at her sister-in-law’s side. Marge had agreed that Eileen would be a comfort to her, now that she had become calmer.
    The sheriff had abruptly dismissed Jane and Shelley when Eileen entered the cabin. He asked them, quietly but in a tone that was clearly an order, to go to the lodge to wait for him and not to discuss what they’d heard with anyone else.
    They had no intention of talking to anyone else and had taken a table as far as they could get from both the kitchen—from which marvelous smells were coming—and the lobby, which was nearly deserted now.
    “I can’t imagine if she’s telling the truth,“ Jane replied to Shelley’s question. “If she is, it’s about the saddest story I’ve ever heard. Imagine all those years with a man who didn’t care about you and made no pretense about it. At least my husband sort of loved me—until he met the bimbo. It was one big, horrible shock to find out about her, but Marge has lived with an empty heart for most of her marriage. That has to be worse.“
    “She could have left him, you know,“ Shelley said.
    “Many women would have. But many wouldn’t, too,“ Jane said. “She doesn’t seem to have much self-confidence. She’d let her nursing credentials lapse, I imagine. She might have suspected that he was the kind of man who’d hire a very good lawyer and leave her penniless. She sort of hinted at that when she said she suspected him of having her spied on. Maybe she figured her life would be more awful and more empty and a lot poorer financially on her own. And she did say he wasn’t usually terrible to her.“
    “But is that the truth?“ Shelley asked. “Is any of it true? What if he was an abuser?“
    “And she and his brother conspired to kill him?“ Jane speculated. “Marge is obviously in love with this guy. And he is Sam’s identical twin, with a lot of similar personality traits. Maybe he’s just as much of a jerk as Sam was and has played on her loneliness. He stood to gain considerably. Everything Sam had, including his half of the car dealership, is now hers. She’s probably a fairly wealthy widow.“
    “There’s nothing like money to motivate people,“ Shelley observed.
    “Do you think this is what this is about? Money?“
    “And sex,“