Teresa sat down in the chair next to Laura. A soap opera was on TV, but neither of them paid any attention to it. "How do I know which man to trust and which not to?"
"Well, I am hardly an expert, but I caught Mathew in a lie before we were married, and I didn't listen to the warning bells. Perhaps that is how you will know."
"Thank you, I will listen for them."
"Good, you are a dear girl and I like you very much."
"I like you too…Laura."
*
As far as Teresa could tell, Mathew had not come home the night before. She found no wet swimsuit or used towels in the swimming pool shower room, and decided he probably was in Florida like Amanda Black said. Nevertheless, she couldn't be certain that he wouldn't show up.
With Laura off to get her hair done, and the house empty except for a cook that liked to watch game shows on TV in the kitchen, Teresa once more moved the picture away from the safe in Mathew's bedroom, and examined the combination lock. Using the information she memorized from the photo album, she tried the obvious first - the day of the Connelly's anniversary, then Laura's birthday, and then Mathew's birthday. None of those worked. For a while, she tried random numbers, turning from right to left and then right again. Frustrated and on a fluke, she tried her birthday.
Suddenly it clicked, and when it did, she took two steps back, and swallowed hard. At length, she pulled the handle down and the safe door opened. There wasn't much inside - just a few documents and some cash. Afraid she would get caught; she closed the safe, spun the dial, and then put the picture back.
Teresa quietly opened Mathew's bedroom door, looked both ways down the hall, and then slipped out. In her bedroom on the floor below, she sat on the edge of the bed, and waited for her wildly beating heart to calm down. At length, she opened her nightstand drawer and checked. Her loaded pistol was right where she left it.