Eleven

This woman had apparently met with her husband secretly, and had wanted to tell her something once, but had lost courage. If she was the woman in the Toyota, then Andrea wanted to look in the woman's eyes. A face to face meeting would tell her everything she wanted to know. If Estelle had something to hide, it would be apparent when Andrea introduced herself. There would finally be too much evidence to ignore. Nothing could be gained by an emotional display, but Andrea would know she wasn't an innocent friend; she had been Jack's lover. After the introduction she would have to play it by ear.

The rain continued as she dropped the kids off at her parents' house and drove to a Texaco station. She filled the van's tank and bought a street map. After locating Sycamore Andrea nervously headed east toward a seedy neighborhood through which she'd had few occasions to drive.

Andrea found Sycamore and turned onto a street lined with small houses in disrepair. If there had once been sycamore trees along the road, they had long since died and less graceful trees had taken their place. Junk was piled at the side of the houses and on some front porches. As she neared the address, on a block where she would have been fearful to walk at night, Andrea spotted a blue Toyota Corolla parked in one of the drives. She slowed almost to a stop as she read the house numbers through the light rain. Yes, that was the house; and the car had the same dented fender she remembered. She marveled that it had been so easy to verify: Estelle had been the woman with the light brown hair that Andrea had seen parked by her curb after Jack's death.