Last Light (32 page)

“Whatever works.”

“We’ll see if it does.” As Judith reached high to hang a pair of drawstring pants, her shirt rose slightly. Kay noticed what was hanging on her hip.

A pistol in a belt holster.

“Where’d you get that?”

Judith wiped her face on a towel. “Get what?”

“The gun.”

Judith patted it. “It’s Brad’s .22. He wants me to carry it wherever I go.”

Kay’s mouth went dry. Hadn’t Doug said it was a .22 that had killed the two couples? And that it was probably a pistol with a silencer? “Oh. I thought you guys just had the rifle.”

“No, Brad bought this about six months ago. Being a lawyer, you never know when your disenchanted clients are going to turn on you.”

“I can imagine.” She suddenly found it hard to breathe. But that was crazy. Brad wasn’t the killer, and he had every right to own a pistol. Didn’t he?

“I’d better go in and get some water,” Kay said. “I’m starting to feel light-headed.”

“Don’t have a heatstroke, now.”

“Yeah, that’s all I need.”

Kay hurried back home, her heart racing. The family had gotten the vehicle into their driveway, and everyone was heading in. She followed them in quietly, thankful to get out of the sun, even though the house was almost as hot. As she drank a glass of water, she told herself she was jumping to conclusions. Just because Brad’s family had a .22 caliber revolver didn’t mean that he was the killer. Of course he wasn’t. Lots of people had pistols, and the .22 was a common caliber.

But Brad
had
been seen out at night so many times, by so many people.

She tried to put the thought out of her mind, and lay down on her bed to rest from the morning’s grueling task.

Doug came in and collapsed on the bed next to her. “We can’t just lie here,” he said. “We have too much to do. I have to figure out something to do with all our garbage. We have ten bags in the garage. We’re going to start attracting rodents.”

“And I have to wash clothes. I’ve put it off long enough.”

They both lay there, unable to move.

“Doug, did you know the Caldwells had a .22 caliber pistol?”

He rose up on an elbow. “No, not a pistol. They have a rifle.”

“Judith is carrying a pistol in a holster on her belt.”

Doug frowned and dropped back down. His eyes settled on the ceiling. “Well, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know it doesn’t. It just surprised me, that’s all.”

Silence followed, ticking off the minutes. Finally, Doug spoke again. “Brad is innocent, Kay.”

“I know.”

More silence. After a while, she decided to change the subject. “Any ideas how I could go about washing the clothes? The lake water seems so dirty.”

“What about the washing machine? Maybe you could filter the lake water like we have to do with the drinking water, and fill the washing machine up. Even though it doesn’t work, it’s better than washing them at the lake.”

She sat up, envisioning it. “Maybe. I have plenty of detergent for now. Maybe I could put the clothes in there to soak, then scrub them one by one. How would I rinse?”

“You could filter some more water and fill up one of the garbage cans with it.”

She thought that through. “I guess that could work.”

“I don’t see why not.”

She sat up. “Guess I’d better go get the girls working on it.”

Doug blew out a long breath and got up, too. “Yeah, and I’ll get Logan and Jeff digging holes to bury the garbage.”

“They’ll love that.”

Doug’s plan for washing clothes had seemed sound as Kay and the girls soaked the garments in the washing machine, then scrubbed the dirt out of them with a scrub brush. The problem came with rinsing. They filled the garbage can with lake water they’d filtered through towels, but after they rinsed the first few things, it was full of soap.

“This is hopeless,” Deni said. “We’re never gonna get the soap out, and even if we do, the lake water is still not clean enough. It’s just making the clothes dirtier.”

“Mom, I told you we needed a swimming pool,” Beth whined. “If we had a pool, we’d have cleaner water to use for all sorts of things.”

“Well, I wish we had one, too.” Kay wiped her sweating forehead on her sleeve. “But we don’t.”

“We could at least do it outside, where there’s a breeze,” Deni said. “It’s sweltering in here.”

“Stop complaining, would you? You’re making it worse.” Kay looked at the washing machine. “Let’s just drain it and put some cleaner water in. We can rinse with that.”

Deni went to the machine and peered in. “So how do we drain it?”

Kay froze. “I don’t know, but . . . there must be a way.” She turned the dial, but nothing happened. She went behind the machine and looked at the tubing going through the wall. “It could go out that hose there. If we could just . . . make the drain open. Beth, go get your father.”

Beth seemed thankful for a brief reprieve as she hurried out, and a few minutes later she came back with Doug.

“How do you drain this thing?” Kay asked him.

He moved the washing machine out and studied the hose. Then he looked inside the tub, and shook his head. “Got me.”

She grunted. “Then what are we gonna do? It was your idea to fill it up with water.”

“I didn’t think about draining it.”

“Great.” She slapped her hand on the machine. “So we either have to leave the water in there or bail it out?”

Doug shrugged. “I guess so.”

Deni ground her teeth together. “Unbelievable! Like we don’t already have enough to do.”

Doug glanced out the window at the guys who were digging in the yard. “They’ve got that under control, so I’ll help you bail. Deni, go find some buckets.”

Groaning, Deni left the laundry room and came back with a bucket and three small plastic waste baskets.

Doug emptied the garbage can into the nearest bathtub, so they could use the dirty water for flushing. Then they bailed water out of the washing machine until the garbage can was full again.

He emptied it a final time, then brought the empty garbage can back. “Okay, now I’m going back out.”

Kay didn’t want to see him go. “Doug, can’t you help us rinse these clothes?”

“Okay, if you want me to stop working on the garbage.”

She wanted to kick something. “No, that has to be done. Just go back to work. We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t think of this happening, but I can’t think of everything.”

“Neither can I.” She racked her brain for another solution. “Come on, girls. Let’s load up the soapy clothes and take them down to the lake.”

“No!” Deni cried. “Mom, I have underwear in here. I don’t want people seeing it! And what about our whites? They’ll all turn brown!”

“Come up with a better idea and I’ll consider it. Otherwise, do what I said.”

“This stinks!” Beth cried.

“Not as bad as your laundry,” Kay returned.

Deni hit the washer. “I
hate
my life!”

The girl’s declaration almost sent her over the edge. “Just do what I said.”

As the girls rolled the sloshing garbage can out of the house, Doug had another bright idea. “What if you asked Eloise for advice? She probably remembers how they washed clothes before washing machines. I’ll bet she has some good tips.”

Great, Kay thought. So now she got to look like a fool to her neighbor. Still, she supposed she had no choice. She really did need advice.

She left the girls grumbling and scrubbing the rest of the clothes before taking them down to the lake to rinse, and rushed across the street to consult with Eloise.

Her neighbor looked pale and weak as she answered the door.

“Eloise? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, hon. Just the usual fatigue after the treatment.”

Dr. Morton had managed to bring home an IV bag of her chemo treatment a few days ago. Kay supposed he was a decent doctor even if he was a lousy husband.

He hadn’t promised he’d be able to do it again when her next treatment was due in three weeks. The hospital was running short, he said, and with no transportation it was unlikely they’d be getting any more supplies soon. Kay only hoped something would change before then.

“Eloise, are you eating? You look like you’ve lost weight.”

“Oh, honey, I’m fine.”

Kay breathed a laugh. “You can’t be fine. None of us is fine. We’re all desperate, hungry, scared . . . and tired.” As she spoke, she followed Eloise into her living room. The back patio door was open, and she saw Jeremy and Drew Caldwell in the backyard.

She stopped. In a low voice, she asked, “What are they doing here?”

“They’re sweet boys. They’re helping me get a composting pile started.”

“Good,” Kay said. “That’s nice.”

“Here, let me offer you some water. I was getting some myself.”

Kay followed her into the kitchen, and saw Brad there, standing at the open pantry. “Hey, Kay,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” she said. Eloise had a little more in her pantry than they did, probably because she didn’t have so many mouths to feed. What was Brad doing?

He closed the door. “I was just looking to see what Eloise needed. But she’s better set than we are.”

Kay just stood there, staring at him. Was he thinking of taking from Eloise? She thought of that pistol on Judith’s hip, and swallowed hard.

Eloise seemed undisturbed. “So what brings you over here, Kay?”

She shook her thoughts back to the matter at hand. “I needed to talk to you about washing clothes. I don’t even know how to begin.” She glanced back at Brad, saw him looking through each of the cabinets.

She tried to focus. “I mean, first of all, if we’re getting water out of the lake, won’t it make the clothes dirtier? Isn’t there something I need to agitate them? I have to save what little bleach I have left for sterilizing our drinking water.”

Brad finished going through the cabinets and headed back outside.

“Have you tried washing them at the lake?” Eloise asked.

Distracted, Kay went to the window and looked out at them.

“Kay?”

Swallowing, she turned back. “What? Oh, the lake. No, I haven’t tried that. Doug had the bright idea to fill up the washing machine with water, but I can’t drain it out. We had to bail the stupid stuff. And we can’t keep the water clean enough for rinsing. I don’t know what to do.”

Eloise laughed softly. “Come on, honey, let’s go over to your house, and I’ll see what I can do. You’ve got that beautiful home and all sorts of stuff you can use. You just have to be creative.”

“But that’s just it. I’m
not
creative. I look at everything and just see what we don’t have, what doesn’t work!”

“Then you need to change your thinking.”

If only she could.

“Just let me tell the boys where we’re going.”

Kay stopped her. “Eloise, I don’t think you should leave your house with Brad and his boys here.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. They’ll be fine. I won’t be gone that long.”

Kay wished that tension in the pit of her stomach would melt away. As they started to the door, she looked back over her shoulder. The Caldwells were working hard to help Eloise.

What was wrong with her? She had no reason to suspect Brad in any way. All he was doing was helping a neighbor in need. She and Doug should have been doing it, too.

She almost wished she hadn’t seen that gun. It was coloring her thoughts, and making her suspect a decent man.

She decided to push it out of her mind.

She followed Eloise as she slowly made her way to the front door. As her neighbor closed the door behind her, Kay looked across the street at the beautiful home she’d been so proud of. The flowers still bloomed in the front yard as if they’d been nurtured and cared for, as if nothing had changed. But other than providing shelter, the house with all its bells and whistles was now a huge white elephant. And so were all the hi-tech appliances they had had built into it. How much money had they spent on those useless items?