Chapter 5 Sara Batcher
Sara Batcher
“We went to dinner with them once, and I got to say, I didn’t know why David was with her.
She spent the entire time typing away on her phone, and stepped away from the table twice to take calls.
I mean, yeah, I get that she had her stationery company, but what could be that important on a Friday night?
When David disappeared, we knew what happened: He left her.
And I don’t blame him. I would have done the same. ”
Sara was standing in the middle of her bathroom, a heated towel wrapped around her body, her hair pinned up away from her face, when the bathroom door banged open, letting in a gust of air-conditioning and her flustered dark-haired house manager.
“I spoke to Flavia,” Maggie said with high importance. “They found a bone.”
Sara turned, her fingers wet with a pale-blue moisturizer, the application forgotten as she stared at the woman, who looked especially pretty under the bathroom chandelier. “Who found a bone?”
“Flavia’s dog. You know, that big hairy one that ate through the handle of Melissa’s Birkin?
It got out through the fence last night and went exploring and came back all wet and dirty and had a human bone in its mouth.
She had to wrestle it away from him!” Maggie used both hands to pull out the stool that was tucked under the makeup table, then plopped down on it.
Her feet were bare, and she hefted her generous frame to one side and bent her leg, tucking her right foot under her thigh.
“Give me a minute. I had to sprint up the stairs.” She inhaled deeply, patting her chest.
“Here.” Sara quickly smeared the moisturizer on her cheekbones and then opened the lower cabinet door, exposing the hidden fridge, and withdrew a bottle of spring water. “Is that why the cops are all over the place?”
“Flavia said she called 9-1-1 right away but it was dark, so they came last night and looked at the bone but said—” She paused to take a sip of the water.
“They said they’d have to start the search in the morning, and they did—they started in at six a.m. Flavia said they closed the entire Stone Hollow course.
Canceled everyone’s tee times, even the pros’. ”
That couldn’t have gone over well. If there was one thing this wealthy neighborhood cared about, it was the ability to hit a tiny white ball with a stick. Damn any dead bodies that were in the way.
A human bone. Sara’s stomach twisted and she felt a moment of genuine nausea as the room tilted to one side, then righted itself. She carefully moved toward Maggie, pulling out the second stool and gingerly taking the seat. “What kind of bone was it?”
“Human,” Maggie repeated.
“Yes, I know that.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples, massaging the delicate cluster of nerves and trying to clear the knot that was beginning to form. A migraine was the last thing she needed right now. “But what bone was it?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Flavia said it was a big one.”
“Does she have a picture of it?”
“A picture of the bone?” Maggie stared at her in bewilderment. “I doubt it. I think the police took it away when they came last night.”
“Did it seem old?” Dots were beginning to form in Sara’s vision, and she forced herself to breathe in short, shallow huffs of air. She should lie down and put up her feet before she fainted. “Help me to the bed.”
Maggie stood and used both hands to raise Sara’s small frame, supporting her as they took the long journey through the decadent bathroom, past the sitting area and morning nook, and up the three steps to the bed.
The California King was already made, the sheets changed while she was on her walk.
David had always thought it wasteful that she had the sheets changed daily, but what was the point of having money if you couldn’t spend it the way you wanted to?
Sara donated large sums to a clean-water charity as penance, and who was to say that wasn’t ample compensation for what might amount to a thousand gallons or so of excess?
Maggie positioned her on the bed. “You want pillows under your feet?”
“Yes, please.” Sara tried to help, raising her feet when Maggie brought the body pillows, the action lifting her towel almost to her waist. “Please cover me up with the blanket if you can.”
“You’re white as these sheets,” Maggie remarked, and gave her a mischievous look. “I know what happened. I was about to collapse from sprinting up those stairs, and your body got all concerned that I was going to get all of the attention. It couldn’t have that.”
Sara laughed despite herself. “That’s exactly what happened. You know me so well.”
The divorced mother of three, who lived in the guesthouse at the back of the property and was the primary recipient of Sara’s will, pulled a thick blanket over Sara’s body. “It’s not David. You know that, right?”
“It might be. We don’t know.” She met the woman’s eyes; there were no innocents in this room.
“Flavia said the bone was very clean. No hair or fat or anything on it.”
“Right, probably because it’s old. Five years old.” Sara stared up at the vaulted ceiling, which was a mosaic of glass tiles. It’d taken the workers two weeks to lay all the tiny tiles in the intricate pattern.
“Maybe it’s Willow Morrow. Or Roxanne what’s-her-face. Her husband could have moved her body from Treveley Park to the neighborhood.”
It was true. It could be either one of those women, but Sara knew that it wasn’t. Any moment, the police would ring the security call button at her gate and come to arrest her.