Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

disparity in their ages, Emily was allowed to date Terry. Maybe her parents knew they couldn’t stop the couple from seeing each other and hoped that Terry wouldn’t seem so enticing to their daughter if they didn’t make a big fuss about it. Perhaps they hoped the connection between the two would die of its own weight.
    Then again, Terry appeared to be the kind of young man that any parent might covet as a future son-in-law. He was brilliant, clean-cut, and the scion of a wealthy Texas family. He looked just as young for his age as Emily appeared to be mature for hers. Anyone who didn’t know their ages wouldn’t have given them a second glance.
    The Borden family originally moved to Hawaii from Alaska. When her parents closed down their Hawaiian business interests, Terry and Emily had been dating exclusively for six months and showed no signs of slowing down. Emily was adamant that she wasn’t going to move away from the islands with her family and leave Terry behind. Only then did her parents realize that their gamble that she would grow tired of Terry hadn’t worked. Emily insisted on remaining in Hawaii.
    Her family wasn’t at all happy with this idea, but it was extremely difficult—if not impossible—to argue with a sixteen-year-old girl in love. If they forced her to leave the islands, she would probably just run away and return to Ruckelhaus.
    And Terry promised to take good care of Emily, assuring her family that she would be safe with him.
    At first, things were fine, but soon their financial picture grew desperate. Although Terry had five years of college with majors in biology and chemistry, he found it difficult to find a new job. The young couple lived on unemployment for six or seven months. This didn’t bother Emily; she was adept at making money stretch, and she enjoyed keeping their apartment immaculate.
    There were a few obstacles that kept her from being truly secure, however, little warning flags that troubled her. First, there was Terry’s temper. The slightest things could send him into towering rages. One day his car broke down and he threw a screaming tantrum about it. Emily was shocked at how angry he was, but then the storm clouds passed as quickly as they’d come. After all, she figured, he was worried about money and they needed their car so he could look for work. Terry was probably just reacting to the frustration of one problem piled on top of another.
    When he couldn’t find a job by mid-July that first year, they decided to return to the mainland and try their luck there. Terry’s family in Texas welcomed them into their home and the young couple lived there for three months. Finally, Terry found a job performing lab tests on the effects of acid and weather corrosion on different structures. With his salary as a chemist, they soon had enough money to move into their own apartment.
    They never had a formal marriage ceremony, but Emily considered herself to be married, at least under common law. She had all her identification documents changed to read “Emily Ruckelhaus.”
    Their lives should have been running smoothly now—but something was wrong. Emily knew she was a good housekeeper, but she was never able to please Terry. No matter how much she scrubbed and waxed, he continually complained that she kept the apartment like a pigsty. She sighed to her friends, “If he even finds two dishes sitting in the sink, he freaks out.”
    It wasn’t just her housekeeping. She recognized that she often made him angry. Worse, she didn’t even know why. He continually changed the rules about how they should live, and what he expected her to do. She never quite measured up.
    When he was mad at her, Terry was like an enraged bull. She found it hard to keep any kind of a wardrobe together. During his temper tantrums, he tore at her clothing, literally ripping her blouses from her body. Time after time she stood there humiliated, her clothes in shreds.
    Their quarrels took on a perverted pattern. Something Emily had said or done would set him off. Sometimes it was something as minuscule as her paying seven cents too much for a half gallon of milk. Terry would get an odd smile on his face and say, “Come on, sweetheart. We’re going to have a little talk.”
    Emily dreaded what was going to come next.
    Terry pulled the drapes and locked all the doors. Even their pet dog, Amber, recognized that something bad was about to happen and ran to hide under the bed.
    And then Terry