A Cheating Husband's Wife

A Cheating Husband’s Wife

By Heather Ann Martinez

It was all over on a breezy May evening. Shell called me. I knew she would have to do something to stop her husband from losing everything they worked so hard for, but I never expected this. I never expected that he would still be alive. I never expected that she had a plan from the day they met at the casino in Reno. She asked me to come over to talk about her dilemma. I was prepared for that to be to bury his body, but it was not what she had in mind at all. No, that was not what Shell had in mind for her unfaithful husband who thought he could lie his way out of any confrontation. Her husband, Dan, always thought he was more clever than she was. He had no idea what he was in for when he decided to step out on their marriage. He thought she would leave him or ask him to go. In fact, he was expecting to have that fight. He was expecting to be dismissed and simply walk away. He always thought he bumped into Shell at that casino in Reno. He had no idea he was her mark. Shell was an assassin. She had been in the military. She had trained to be invisible. Everything she did was on purpose.

When Shell met Dan, she knew what his blood alcohol level was, that he carried one unread lottery ticket in his wallet next to the picture of the grandmother that had raised him and had four loan sharks looking for him. In her mind, he was pathetic. He was a low-level criminal that no one was going to miss. She told the gentleman that wanted Daniel Bower dead that she would have him lying face down on his hotel room floor by midnight, but something unexpected happened after she started talking with him about his messed up childhood, the promise he made to his grandmother on his 21^st birthday and his hopes for the future. He was no longer a mark. He became human.

Shell saved Dan that night. They changed their names. Moved as far away from Nevada as possible and settled in a small Vermont suburb. They blended in to their new environment. They found a nitche in real estate and bought multiple properties all over New England. Shell was a genius at accounting and bookkeeping. Dan was not a numbers guy but he had a knack for buying and selling property. He charmed many widows out of fortunes for properties that were far below the market. He was fined a few times, arrested once, but there was no evidence to convict him of fraud or was there?

Was there a part of their story Shell forgot to tell me? When Shell and I met, I had no idea she had planned on meeting me. She intentionally bought the ticket for the seat next to mine at my niece’s high school play. She knew I loved reading old western novels and rode horses every chance I got. She knew what I ate for breakfast and exactly how many loans I had. She knew I was always looking for opportunities to make extra cash. Shell kept tabs on Dan and I for years. I lived a few houses away. I saw them every Fourth of July, every Halloween and every Thanksgiving. I lived with my aging uncle. I was a widow when I met Shell and Dan. I’m seeing someone now. Shell doesn’t care for him much which is why I’m certain she wants me to come over alone. Shell has always intrigued me. She has probably manipulated me out of more time, more feelings, and money than anyone else on earth. I can see that now, but I could not for many years. She said everything I needed to hear. If she wanted fifty grand for a new investment that was going to come back double, I signed the check without blinking.  I don’t know if we were as close of friends as sisters as I always thought of us as or if that was a lie. I wanted to believe her. Dan wanted to believe her too but we were pawns in her plan. I don’t think Shell was capable of loving anyone and Dan just kept looking for love in the arms of every woman he met. His affairs were the thing you don’t talk about. The thing you smoke a cigarette on the balcony and try to hold your whiskey glass while not making any eye contact. Dan thought he was getting away with having so many women in his life. He felt guilty periodically. He had brief moments of regret, but the moments would pass like so many nights away from Shell.

After pulling myself together, I started walking to Dan and Shell’s house. I started rehearsing what I would say to her. What could I say? I didn’t even know what was going on. Did she have a change of heart?

Shell saw me walking through the backyard gate and met me in the patio. She embraced me, tears in her eyes.

“Thank you for coming!” She sounded so desperate. “I knew you would come in my hour of need. You are the only one I could trust.”

“Of course, Shell. Anything for you. Now, tell me, what exactly happened to Dan?”

“Well, Dan got exactly what was coming to him. He just never...” Her voice began to quiver.

“Where is Dan?” I asked more directly.

“He is sinking. It won’t be long now.”

“And where are they?” I asked.

“The photographs are pinned to his shirt. There’s a bucket next to the tank full of all of his fraudulent bank transactions. There are copies of bad checks. Every scam. Everything.”

“So what’s the problem? Why did you need me to come over?”

“Do you really think I should go through with it? I know he deserves to be caught but to die with suspicion for the others?” She couldn’t hold back. She began crying. I hugged her.

“Well, you didn’t want the police to suspect you or anyone in your family of all of those missing people. You know as well as I do your dad couldn’t help himself. Poor soul. You know someone always had to take the fall.”

“Is that what you are doing with the new guy?” Shell asked me smiling.

“Yes, of course. That is why you are going to go back into the house and finish off Dan so he can take the fall for all of your frauds and your dad’s killing spree. It’s a win win. Then you will disappear and start over somewhere no one will care to look.”

“Like Fiji or Argentina!”

I nodded and Shell went inside. She finished what she started so many years ago. Shell disappeared after Dan’s body was found. I told her she stayed with Dan too long, and she would have to leave the country. Shell got sloppy. She became a hopeless romantic always thinking Dan would come back to her. So, as the good friend I am, I helped Shell disappear. There were rumors in Morocco and Venezuela of a woman who kills her cheating husband and always gets away with it. That was how Shell found me. She knew I was known as the black widow.