A Stranger in the House

by Shari Lapena

She’s dangerously close to losing control of the car. And then she does—she has one moment of clarity, of disbelief, as she frantically pumps the brakes and the skidding car leaps the curb and plunges headfirst into a utility pole.

But she’s gone out with her car and forgotten to lock the door. That’s very odd for his wife, who’s a stickler about locking the doors.

she has stopped slicing mid-tomato.

“It’s not unheard of for patients with head trauma to suffer from retrograde amnesia, for a short period.”

“After physical trauma to the head, or even emotional trauma, a patient can temporarily lose memories of what happened right before the trauma occurred. The memory loss can be mild, or more catastrophic. Generally, with a blow to the head, we also see another kind of amnesia—problems with short-term memory after the accident.

“She drove her car into a utility pole.”

“She doesn’t remember last night at all.”

She doesn’t know what happened last night. But she knows that whatever happened, it was terrifying, and it still threatens her.

It was a strange enough accident to begin with, Fleming thinks—the driver a supposedly respectable housewife in the wrong part of town, no obvious drugs or alcohol found to explain her behavior. And now the doctor is telling them that she has amnesia.

Karen Krupp had been disoriented when they brought her in two nights ago, slipping in and out of consciousness. She hadn’t seemed to know who she was, hadn’t been able to give them her own name. She’d been agitated, and kept repeating something, he thinks it was a man’s name. He can’t remember what it was—it had been a crazy night in the ER—but he’s pretty sure it wasn’t Tom.

Their infertility has made her depressed and moody, and it has made Bob withdraw from her.

It’s almost like it used to be. But it’s nothing like it used to be.

A Honda Civic had been speeding—away from the vicinity of the crime scene—and had hit a utility pole at around 8:45 on the evening of August 13.

When she moved in, she brought so little with her.

she seems to have no old ties at all.

she had no family.

He realizes he doesn’t really know that much about his own wife.

The police—that cold-blooded detective—had practically accused her of murder. And Tom—Tom seems to believe she might have done it.

He feels sick when he thinks about the police investigating her, hates himself for the creeping doubt he feels about her. Now he’s watching her all the time, wondering about her, about what she’s done. And he can’t help worrying: What will the police find?

there’s nothing on Karen Fairfield with the date of birth he’s been given. It’s as if she rose, fully formed, at the age of thirty, when she moved to New York State.

Tom Krupp’s wife isn’t who she says she is. So who is she?

saw a show on TV a little while ago about people who are running from their pasts. They disappear and take on a new identity. Maybe—maybe that’s what she’s done.”

“They get a new ID, then drop out of sight, move somewhere else, start over. Change their appearance. They become perfect citizens. They don’t want to be pulled over, they don’t want to be noticed.”

What if Brigid’s right, and his wife is using a fake identity?

A man with dark hair was at their house that morning, a man who said he knew Karen from another life. What if Brigid is right, and Karen isn’t who she says she is? The police will find out. That terrible photograph—the dead man had dark hair.

He was supposed to meet Brigid that night, at 8:30, at their spot by the river,

It’s where they used to sometimes meet, when they were having their short, misguided, and messy affair.

But she stood him up that night. He waited over half an hour, in the dark, but she didn’t show. He still doesn’t know why Brigid wanted to meet him.

He knows he should have told Karen about him and Brigid.

the reason I called you and asked you to meet me—it was to tell you about the man snooping around, hinting about Karen’s past.

He dislikes the close friendship that has developed between Brigid and his wife.

Someone had been in their house, going through their things. Lying on their bed. She never told Tom.

He could still love her, if she could only move on from her grief about their childlessness.

maybe Karen disappeared from another life and that she’s using an alias,”

“After I got away from him, I just wanted to pretend that part of my life had never happened.”

“I faked my death. It was the only way to be sure he wouldn’t come after me.”

He can’t imagine cold-bloodedly faking his own death to escape a maniac, and starting over as someone else. She must have nerves of steel,

If she was a battered wife, trying to escape an unbearable situation, then truth be told, he’s sympathetic to her. He’s sympathetic to any woman who’s ever been driven to take such extreme measures to protect herself. These things shouldn’t happen. But he knows they do, every day. The system does a rather poor job of protecting these women, and he knows it. It’s a damaged, messed-up world.

She can’t help sneaking into their house across the street sometimes, and being there, alone, imagining herself living there with Tom. Lying in their bed. Going through Karen’s things, going through Tom’s things.

She’s really never stopped wanting Tom. It’s just a question of what she’s willing to do to get him back.