F Paul Wilson - Secret History 02 (16 page)

           
He smiled. "Of course. She
liked me."

           
"She likes anyone who's Irish.
Anyway, Jill and I are supposed to have lunch at her place today."

           
Rob shrugged. "Okay. Maybe next
time. I'll give you a raincheck on lunch, Jill. Some place that doesn't exploit
women."

           
Jill giggled. "Or serve
chickens with cleavage!"

           
Kara didn't have the vaguest idea
what they were talking about, but the instant rapport between the two of them
alarmed her.

           
"Great kid you've got there,
Kara. A real piece of work."

           
"I thought you didn't like
kids."

           
He looked embarrassed. "Yeah,
well, most of them are a pain, but your Jill is something else. You've done a
great job with her. You should be proud."

           
"I am," she said, and she
could barely hear her own voice.

           
Finally the elevator doors opened on
the lobby. She said a quick goodbye and hurried Jill out to the street.

           
"I do wish you'd stay another
day or so," Aunt Ellen said as she sipped her sherry.

           
Kara took a sip of her own. She
didn't usually drink wine in the afternoon, and wasn't at all used to sherry.

           
But once you got past the sweetness
of the first couple of sips, it wasn't half bad.

           
Ellen had greeted them at the door
where there had been a round of embraces and a few new tears shed over Kelly.
She looked great as usual. With her carefully coiffed and tinted hair, her
tasteful make-up, and trim figure, she appeared a good ten years younger than
her fifty-eight years.

           
They'd sat in the living room of her
richly furnished
Turtle
Bay
condo and talked awhile, and then Lucia,
her Filipino cook and housekeeper, had served lunch. Kara thought she could
never get used to a maid, but decided she could probably adjust to having a
cook fairly quickly—especially one as skilled as Lucia. Her aunt seemed to take
the service for granted. Her husband had been a partner in a Wall Street
brokerage house. He was gone now but he had left her extremely well off.

           
After lunch had come the sherry.
Kara had almost refused, then decided she needed it. After her encounter with
Dr. Gates, and then seeing Rob and Jill together, she really needed it.

           
"And see how Jill loves to play
with Bella," Ellen said.

           
Kara glanced over to the sunny
window seat where Ellen's black Persian was allowing Jill to stroke her fur.

           
"I'd love to stay," Kara
said, lying, "but I've really got to get back to the farm."

           
"Oh, pooh. What for? It's not a
real farm. I mean, it's not as if you grow things and keep livestock."

           
Kara smiled at her aunt. Ellen was
the only one she knew who could say "Oh, pooh" and not sound
ridiculous.

           
"Oh, no, you don't," Kara
said. "You're not going to get me into that old argument. You call Mom in
Florida
if you feel like mixing it up."

           
Kara's mother, Martha, was Ellen's
sister. It seemed that Ellen had lived here in
Turtle
Bay
in the shadow of the U.N. complex forever,
while Martha had stayed on the farm. They had argued about which was the better
life ever since Kara could remember. She and Kelly had called them Country
Mouse and City Mouse.

           
Strange how generations follow
similar patterns, she thought. Mom and Ellen had chosen different roads early
in life, just like Kara and Kelly. But Martha and Ellen were both still alive.

           
"Didn't you tell me that Rob
was in charge of the investigation?"

           
"Such as it is, yes."

           
"And yet you brought Jill in?
Do you think that's wise? I mean, considering that he's—"

           
"I didn't have much choice.
There's no one to leave her with back home."

           
"You can leave Jill with me
anytime. You know that. By the way, what about Kelly's things?"

           
Kara took another sip. "I don't
know. I'll have to come back for them."

           
She knew that the smart thing to do
would be to spend the next few days packing up anything of Kelly's she wanted
to keep and shipping it all back to the farm. But she had a blind urge to flee
the city. Not tomorrow. Today. Now.

           
"Suit yourself, dear. I know
you have to do what you think best. We all do."

           
Something in her voice made Kara
look more closely at her aunt. She saw that her eyes were glistening, and her
lips were trembling. Kara got up and went around the coffee table to sit next
to her. She took Ellen's hand.

           
"What's wrong?"

           
"You blame me, don't you,"
she said. A tear slid down her cheek, trailing mascara in its wake.
"That's why you won't stay here."

           
"Blame you for what?"

           
"For Kelly's death!"

           
She was crying now, and trembling
all over. Kara put her arms around her.

           
"Don't be silly! No one blames
you at all."

           
"Martha does! She hasn't said
so, but I know she thinks that if I hadn't encouraged you two to try life here
in the city, Kelly would still be alive!"

           
Yes
,
Kara thought with a pang,
she probably
would be
.

           
But she couldn't say that to Ellen.

           
"She thinks nothing of the
sort. Kelly made her own choices. Someone is to blame for Kelly's death, Aunt
Ellen, but it's not you. It's not you."

           
The older woman clutched her and
stifled her sobs. Then she straightened up and dabbed her eyes with a napkin.

           
"Won't you stay the night? I've
felt so terribly alone here since Kelly died. She only stopped in once in a
while, but just knowing she was in the city made me feel as though I had family
here. Won't you and Jill please stay? Just this once?"

           
"Okay, Aunt Ellen," Kara
said, forcing a smile. "Just for tonight."

           
She hoped she wouldn't regret it.

           
Before dinner, Kara made a quick
trip back to Kelly's apartment to pick up the clothing and personal items they
had left there. She was barely in the door when the phone began to ring.
Thinking it was probably Rob, she let it ring three times, then wondered it if
might be someone else. A friend of Kelly's, perhaps. She picked it up on the
fourth.

           
"Miss Kara Wade?

           
It was Dr. Gates. She recognized the
slightly accented voice immediately.

           
"Speaking."

           
"I'm glad I found you. I spent
most of the afternoon calling this number."

           
"Is something wrong?"

           
"I'm not sure."

           
Kara felt a chill run over her skin.

           
"What do you mean?"

           
"Miss Wade," he said,
"I've changed my mind. Please do not think that your threat of a lawsuit
or the presence of your policeman friend in my office today have anything to do
with this decision. It is simply that upon further reflection I've concluded
that it might be in the best interests of all concerned if I break confidence
and discuss your late sister's medical history with you."

           
"Best interest? What does that
mean?"

           
"I'll discuss everything with
you in detail tomorrow morning at
ten o'clock
in my office. I do not see patients on
Wednesdays so there will be no time pressure. Can you be here then?"

           
"Yes, of course, but—"

           
"
Ten o'clock
. Good night."

           
And then he hung up.

           
Kara stood and stared at the buzzing
phone. What had made him change his mind.

           
The chill hit her again.

           
She almost wished he hadn't.

 
 

           
The
new one is just like the last one, the lost blond. Exactly like her.
Resemblance is truly remarkable.