It was after midnight by the time I returned home. I considered waiting until morning before speaking to my wife but I knew I wouldn't sleep anyway. How much should I tell her; just the censored version I'd agreed to convey to Howie? Should I at least remain mute that Julie had actually contacted the damn paper seeking the reward money? An hour ago I saw what chaos resulted from lies, half-truths and withheld secrets. No, I decided, Betsy was my wife and I loved her dearly. If I couldn't be honest with her, there was no one I could trust.
I gently woke her, but in doing so frightened her.
"Ben, what's wrong?" she said, pulling close to me.
I turned on the light, calmed her down and slowly explained step by step what Julie had told me. "That bitch!" she growled when I'd finished. "I never like her from the start. And now she wants you to bail her out? I'm sorry, but you're a damn fool if you do anything to help the slut."
I wasn't surprised by my wife's quick reaction. "Anything I do isn't for her."
She turned to me, her face only inches from mine. "Do you seriously think you're doing Howie a favor by lying to him and letting him marry her after what she's done? She's a whoring little gold digger!"
"I'm not doing it for Howie either. I'm doing it because of what you said; think of all the children he could be saving. We may be slipping and sliding but we're still operational."
My wife began to cry and snuggled close to me. "God, Ben. How did we get into this mess? What's it mean? This Julie-Howie business can't work, at least not in the long term. Molly will find out, someone, this monster that's killing all these people; he'll find someone and force them tell. Can we even trust Julie to keep her mouth shut the first time Howie leaves the cap off the tooth paste or pisses her off some other way? Sure, the million dollar offer was withdrawn but I'll bet there are thousands of people out there who would still pay a fortune to own Howie. A million might look like a pittance."
I repeated the promise I'd made Merrill Cooms when he funded us so generously; "Do as much good for as many people for as long as you can." That was all he'd asked of us.
Betsy sighed. "And then, what? What do we all do, take those fake papers and run off someplace and start over, or go into hiding?"
"We'll jump that tiger when he comes calling. Whatever happens, it's us together and we'll make it."