Free The Puzzle by Peggy A. Edelheit

close to something, I’d arrive at a dead end.
    Stephen had told me he had no siblings and no other family, period. I did an online search for relatives and came up empty-handed. I made phone calls and got nowhere. I even looked up variations of his last name, thinking he might have changed it, but I came up empty.
    There were no photo albums from his past, not even mementos. He said that an apartment fire had occurred and he lost everything. He never wanted to talk about his past, saying it was too painful for him. What was a loving wife to do? I dropped it.
    According to my anonymous notes, whatever had been going on was connected to numbers. What kind? Some way, somehow, it all came back to a key. What key? I was making myself crazy with these questions swirling through me day and night, but they needed to be asked.
    I was feeling my way, uncertain, unsafe–making my own mistakes. I was learning how to go about getting what I wanted for a change.
    Yes, I still felt vulnerable, but I was gradually changing, adapting, and growing stronger.
    I decided to trust Jack to tell me some things. He had known Stephen practically all his life.
    There was nothing suspicious in me asking him about my husband, was there?

 
     
    Chapter 17
     
    Just The Facts Please
     
    Coffee at the diner was an ideal location to meet with Jack. I glanced around at the people in the various booths while I waited for him. I recognized a few of the other customers, but they were mere acquaintances. Even after living there for several months, I was still considered an outsider.
    I hoped our meeting wouldn’t engender too much gossip. There was plenty of speculation going on about me as it was and I wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
    Still, everyone knew Jack had built our house for us and although Mike might have been the foreman, Jack was the boss. Jack not only sold us the property, but also owned the construction company. So one more meeting over coffee was not out of the ordinary. There were always kinks to work out in a new house anyway, and besides, everyone knew Jack watched over me protectively. Almost everyone else kept their distance. Why , I wondered? Was it respect or fear? That was anybody’s guess. In any case, I was still questioning the motives of everyone I knew, including Jack’s, but tried to seem busy and reserved.
    My eyes zeroed in on him as soon as he entered. What did I really know about this man, other than some kind of relationship with Stephen in the past? They had known each other from way before I ever came along. I took a lot for granted on my husband’s word alone, never questioning anything. Why would I? I believed Stephen implicitly. Now, here I was, finally asking those questions I should have asked so long ago.
    Stephen had claimed Jack was like a father figure to him, convincingly, too, I might add. Considering the circumstances I was currently involved in, maybe both of us had an agenda. During those months of transition, I had absolutely no one else to turn to. Could it possibly be I was too blinded by emotion and perceived Jack’s motives as nothing more than compassion for a young grieving widow?
    He came over and sat down. “Hi, Samantha. Your call, inviting me for a cup of coffee sure was a welcome break from my busy schedule.”
    “Hi, Jack, glad you could make it. How is Barbara doing?”
    “Just fine. I think she was secretly delighted to get rid of me for the morning though. That’s what’s so hard about working out of my house. We sometimes get sick of seeing each other.”
    I knew the two of them lived together and he was exaggerating. They both wanted companionship and living separately made no sense because their spouses were both deceased. With his office located there, she pretty much saw him all the time.
    We laughed, knowing how famous he was for his temper, and that probably was the real reason she was glad he was gone for a while. Though I had never been witness to it, I