Chapter 38 - The Woman of the House

One Month Later

My chest rises and falls, thanks to the tube running down my throat and the machine at my side. It rings in my ears.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Every hour of every day.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Darling, come have a seat,” Deborah says from the edge of the bed.

Brian doesn’t respond. I picture him looking down on me, his forehead creased as his eyes search my frozen face, looking for some sort of movement or recognition. I try to give him what he wants, but I can’t get my body to respond to my brain. For the last month, I’ve tried to open my mouth, wiggle my fingers, or open my eyes, but nothing ever happens.

From the conversations Brian has had with his family and the police over the last month, I’ve been able to piece together what happened after Mother forced me into the water. That night, our next-door neighbor Mr. Donahue couldn’t sleep and went for a late-night stroll. As he walked along the lakefront path, he saw a woman walk into the water. He told authorities that he ran as fast as he could, but by the time he got there, I was floating, lifeless, in the shallows of the lake. The paramedics and police were called. CPR was performed. Brian was notified. At the hospital, Brian was told that paramedics were able to get my heart beating again in the ambulance, but since then, I haven’t regained consciousness.

“Brian?” Deborah says. “Did you hear me?”

“What? No, I’m sorry, Mom,” Brian says.

“It’s time to let her go, Brian. She’s not who you thought she was.” Deborah walks along the side of my bed before she sighs, taking a seat in one of the stiff chairs along the wall. “And you remember what the police said.”

The police showed up at the hospital a few days into my coma. They wanted to see if I’d woken up yet.

“We ran into the doctor on the way in,” Officer Shepard had said to Brian and Deborah from the foot of my bed.

“Oh?” Brian said.

“He said if Rose doesn’t wake up in a day or two, chances are she never will,” Officer Shepard continued.

“Nobody really knows,” Brian said. His voice was tired, defeated. “Anything is possible.”

“I’m not so sure things will be easy for Rose if she does wake up.”

“What do you mean?” Brian asked.

“We tracked down Helen’s nurse, Claire Hendrickson.”

“That’s great. So Rose was telling the truth, then? She didn’t have anything to do with Helen’s death?” There was too much optimism in his voice.

For a moment no one said anything, and I imagined Officers Shepard and Ryan exchanging a glance.

“Ms. Hendrickson denies going back to the house the day Helen died,” Officer Shepard said.

“But Rose said she saw her car pull into the driveway as she was leaving,” Brian said.

“We have video footage of Nurse Hendrickson’s vehicle at a toll about twenty miles away from Helen’s house at the time of death,” Officer Shepard continued.

“Well, there must be some explanation—”

“She also told us that in the weeks leading up to Helen’s death, she saw Rose’s car parked outside the Mulroneys’ house.”

“What was she doing?” Brian’s voice was low.

“Nurse Hendrickson said it looked like Rose was staking out the house.”

“Why would she do that?”

“We were hoping you could tell us.”

“I have no idea. She told me she visited Helen once, on the day she died. Other than that, I didn’t think she’d been there before. But that doesn’t prove anything. Does it?”

I heard Officer Shepard flip through his small notebook.

“Mr. Crawley, what did your wife tell you about her mother’s death?” Officer Shepard asked.

There was pulsing somewhere deep inside my brain. I willed myself to sit up in bed, to tell Brian not to listen to him, but all I could do was lie there.

“Mr. Crawley—”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Rose’s mom, Sharon Mazurik, died at the New Hope Mental Health Facility last year. She had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She had a history of mental illness and in 2021 she was found guilty of attempted murder. She tried to burn down the gas station she worked in with a young couple locked inside.”

“Oh my word,” Deborah said.

“The judge ruled her unfit to stand trial. She was sentenced to New Hope, where she was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after. The nurses we spoke to said Rose visited her mother the day she died.”

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand what this has to do with Helen?” Brian’s voice sounded desperate. I pictured his eyes squinting as he tried to make sense of it all.

“It’s our understanding,” Officer Shepard said, lowering his voice, “that Rose and her mom had a contentious relationship. And Rose was the last person to see her mother alive, just like with Helen. It’s possible Helen reminded Rose of her mother. Maybe she said something Rose didn’t like. Unfortunately, there’s no way to be sure. Now, the DNA found under Helen’s fingerprints wasn’t a match for Rose, but we did find Rose’s fingerprints on Helen’s oxygen tank. We believe Rose turned off the tank and Helen suffocated to death.”

“I don’t understand. She—what?”

“We think she did something similar with Ms. Mazurik.”

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

No, that’s not true, I wanted to say. I tried to kick my legs and flail my arms in protest, but nothing moved. Officer Shepard’s got it all wrong, I wanted to scream. I didn’t kill Helen. Frances did. Panic rose past my chest, inching up toward my neck. If only I could explain to Brian how awful Mother was, how thirty years of physical and verbal abuse finally got to me. Then maybe he would understand why I didn’t hand Mother the oxygen mask. Why I watched her die instead.

I heard Officer Shepard put his meaty hand on Brian’s shoulder as deep, guttural sobs filled my ears. All I want to do is talk to Brian, to tell him that all I ever wanted was to be with him. But I can’t talk. I can’t move. All I can do is lie here listening to other people tell my story for me.

—

“What I still don’t understand,” Deborah says from her spot in the corner, “is why Rose was so obsessed with that woman who disappeared?”

“Did I tell you I talked to Jonathan Walsh the other day?” Brian asks, and I hear him sink into the seat next to his mom.

“Who?”

“Angela Walsh’s husband.”

“Right, right.”

“I guess someone else spotted Angela down in Chicago.”

I try to open my mouth to tell them it’s not true. Angela isn’t in Chicago, she’s at the bottom of the lake. I know because I saw her. Because she saved me.

“So I guess she really did run off, then?”

“Yeah, it looks like it.”

Two quick knocks at the door break the silence between them.

“Can I come in?” The voice on the other side of the door sends a shockwave through my body. It’s been so long since I heard that voice, but I would know it anywhere. At first, I think I’m dreaming. This can’t be real. I must be asleep. That voice isn’t here in this room. It’s just in my head. It’s all in my head.

“Yes?” Deborah asks.

Feet shuffle against the floor.

“Can we help you?” Deborah asks.

There’s a pause. “I’m Frances. Rose’s friend.”