Chapter 4 - THE WIDOW AT THE LAUNDROMAT
Martha stopped at a laundromat on South Treadaway Boulevard and ordered Elena to wash two bags of work clothes.
“I’m getting groceries,” she said. “Don’t make me call Derek.”
After Martha left, Elena took the prepaid phone into the restroom and called Naomi.
The social worker answered immediately.
Elena gave her the laundromat address.
“I can’t leave yet. My daughters’ documents are at the house.”
“Documents can be replaced.”
“Derek’s truck will be there by five. He checks their bedroom when he comes home.”
Naomi did not push. She asked whether Elena could safely meet an advocate later.
Before Elena answered, someone knocked softly on the restroom door.
“Elena? My name is Kay Bell.”
Travis’s widow stood outside with a toddler balanced against her hip. She was thirty-two, pale from exhaustion, with a grocery-store uniform beneath her coat.
“I’ve been trying to find you for months,” Kay said.
Elena led her behind a row of dryers.
Kay explained that Derek had visited her two days after Travis died. He offered six thousand dollars if she signed a statement saying Travis ignored safety rules and worked as an independent contractor.
When Kay refused, Derek blamed Elena.
“He said you owned the company and handled insurance,” Kay said. “He said you let the policy lapse because you were spending money on the baby.”
“I didn’t know the company was in my name.”
Kay’s expression hardened.
“My husband is dead.”
“I know.”
“No, you know his name. I watched him die in the hospital.”
Elena accepted the anger.
Then Kay removed a folded photocopy from her purse.
It was an employee roster Travis had kept because workers were often paid incorrectly. Beside each name were dates, hours, and deductions for insurance.
The company had taken money from workers’ checks for coverage that did not exist.
At the bottom was Elena’s printed signature.
The signature resembled hers, but the capital E leaned backward. Derek always formed it that way when he signed school permission slips for her.
Kay also showed her a photograph of Travis’s damaged safety harness. One metal clip had been filed down until it no longer locked.
Elena thought of Martha sharpening the metal roofing tool each morning.
“What happened to the original harness?”
“The state inspector never received it. Derek said you disposed of it.”
Martha returned before Elena could ask more.
Kay walked away without promising help.
But she left the copied roster inside the dryer.
That night, Elena hid it beneath the girls’ mattress.
Derek arrived at seven carrying the same brown document folder.
May you like
“You have one day left,” he said.
Then he opened Callie’s bedroom door and began searching.
