Neighborhood Watch (8 page)

Teddy moved alongside Kristin to look at the document. The cover simply read

“Emerald Lakes Directory.” Kristin opened the book and they gazed at the table of

contents. Every current resident was listed. Teddy looked up after Kristin turned to the first page, The Andersens.

“This is a book containing personal information about each and every resident?” he

asked.

“Yes. As personal as we’re allowed to be, that is,” Nikki said. “I’m the editor,” she added proudly. “Jean does some of the writing. So, the purpose of part of this visit is to make an appointment with you to get pertinent information. We’d like to add you to the book as quickly as possible. Needless to say, everyone’s waiting to get to know you.”

“It seems a rather impersonal way to do it,” Kristin said. “Couldn’t we just have a cocktail party or something?”

“Those things never work well,” Nikki said firmly. Teddy noticed that she closed her eyes and held them closed a second whenever someone said or did something that

annoyed or challenged her. “People misunderstand, spread misinformation, develop nasty rumors. We have been able to avoid all that with the book,” Nikki said. “How about this coming weekend, say Sunday at two?” she asked. Kristin didn’t reply. “Are you free?”

“Can we let you know?” Teddy asked quickly.

“Of course. Our telephone numbers are in the book, as well as the time of day we’re usually at home,” Nikki said.

“Eileen McShane is on our welcoming committee and would have been here with us, but she’s a dental hygienist and had to work today. But she wanted me to tell you welcome,”

Jean reported. “She works for Doctor Baxter, who happens to be an excellent dentist.”

“We can help you with all those things,” Nikki said. “Doctors, dentists, lawyers . . .”

“We know a great obstetrician,” Jean said. “And it couldn’t be better for you. He lives in Emerald Lakes, Doctor Hoffman.”

“Thank you,” Kristin said, her voice drier. “We’re so overwhelmed with everything at the moment.”

“Of course you are,” Nikki said jumping on the admission. “That’s why we’re here.

We’ve all been through it and know what it’s like to scurry about looking for all these necessary services.”

“Oh, look at the time,” Jean said eyeing the round wall clock above the sink. “I’d better get home. My two will be arriving home from school any minute. Welcome to Emerald

Lakes.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes, welcome,” Nikki said. “I’d better be going, too.”

“Thanks again for your help,” Teddy called as they started toward the front door.

“You’re welcome. And please, don’t forget to phone as soon as you can about Sunday.”

“We won’t.” He stood beside Kristin, watching them leave. Jennifer came up beside

them. When the door closed, Kristin turned slowly and looked at him and then at the book.

“The Emerald Lakes directory?”

Without warning, they both broke into laughter.

“What’s so funny, Mommy?” Jennifer asked.

“Nothing, honey,” she said, but she started to laugh again, holding her stomach as she did so.

“Stop, Mommy, or you’ll shake the baby out,” Jennifer cried.

“You mean, Kermit?”

Teddy couldn’t contain himself. The two of them flopped on the couch. Then Teddy held out his arms and Jennifer ran to him, the three hugging, all of them overwhelmed with the excitement of a new home.

After dinner and after they had put Jennifer to bed, Kristin began her attempt to

personalize their home. Since so much of what they had inherited with this house was so valuable, it was difficult, if not impossible to discard many things; but as expensive as some of the artwork was, it just wasn’t her or Teddy’s taste. She sauntered through the house and considered what could be moved, what could be replaced. The problem was

that this house, as apparently most of the homes in Emerald Lakes, had been arranged by a professional designer. It was perfect, every room completed. Everything fit where it was because of color or size.

“It’s great, but it’s almost like being forced to wear someone else’s shoes,” Kristin complained. “You’re the same size, but not the same style.”

“Um. Maybe we could get a trade-in value on some of this stuff. It’s worth a try,” Teddy said.

“I know. It’s just that once I start with something in a room, I’ll have to replace or rearrange everything else in that room. I guess this is the downside of finding a

homeowner’s dream bargain,” she realized. “The first time you look at something, you’re overwhelmed with the value, but then, when you have to live with it day after day . . . I mean, I know you have to make some compromises when you buy instead of build to

your own specifications, but I can’t help feeling I’m sleeping in the Feinberg’s bed. Do you know what I mean?” she asked, grimacing. She hated inserting a negative note so soon, but she couldn’t help it.

Teddy nodded.

“After a while it will be our bed, our furniture. You’ll see,” he promised. “Possession is nine-tenths of identity,” he quipped. Kristin laughed.

“I’m glad Jennifer has her own things at least. That makes her feel at home faster. For me,” she said folding her arms under her breasts and gazing around, “it will take a while.”

“Come on,” he said. “You’re just tired after a long day. Let’s go lie down in our—and I stress
our
—kingsize bed and I’ll rub your tummy.”

“Which leads to other things,” Kristin said.

“Every new house . . .”

“Has to be broken in. I know.”

“Besides, this is safe sex. You can’t get pregnant because you already are.”

Kristin laughed.

“I remember when I was about twelve I had this idea that if a pregnant woman made

love, she could have twins as a result.”

“Only one three or four months younger?”

“Who thought out the specifics? It seemed logical at the time,” she said. “I asked my grandmother who told me she had heard a story back in Hungary about a woman who had gotten pregnant when she was already six months pregnant and gave birth to another

baby six months after the first. It was one of those folktales.”

Teddy nodded.

“It sounds like something that belongs in the Emerald Lakes directory.”

Kristin laughed.

“You’re joking but you might be right,” she added.

They started for the bedroom, putting out lights behind them as they went, when they were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

“Oh no, not another welcoming committee,” Kristin moaned. She waited in the living

room as Teddy went to the front door.

“Good evening, Mr. Morris,” she heard a deep-voiced man say. She moved toward the

door because whoever it was kept himself outside.

“Any problems?” Teddy asked. He looked out at the uniformed security guard. The name tag just over his right breast pocket read “Spier.” He looked more like a barroom bouncer with his thick shoulders and wrestler’s neck. He had large facial features, thick lips, and dull gray eyes.

“No problems, sir. I just came on duty and noted in the day book that you and your wife just moved in today. My name’s Harold Spier. I take care of the main gate tonight, along with my assistant Carl Stark. I wanted to introduce myself because at eleven-thirty I make door rounds and I didn’t want to frighten you.”

“Door rounds?”

“Who is it, Teddy?” Kristin asked, even though she had heard most of it. She came up behind him. Spier took off his hat, revealing a closely cropped military-style haircut and nodded.

“Evening, ma’am. I’m Harold Spier. As I was telling your husband, either me or

someone else makes door rounds every night about eleven-thirty.”

“What are door rounds?”

“Just to be sure you’ve locked your doors for the evening. I’ll check every door in your house,” he replied without smiling. He looked like a man without a sense of humor,

especially when it came to his work.

“Really?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“That’s something I thought police do in towns, check stores,” Kristin said.

“We’re not police, ma’am. We’re the development’s security personnel. This is just our regular protocol.”

“What if we don’t come home until after eleven-thirty?” she asked. She wasn’t sure she liked someone rattling her doorknobs.

“We’d know that, ma’am, because you would have come in the gate. In that case we give you ten minutes or so and then we check your house especially.”

“Have there been many burglaries around here?” Teddy asked quickly.

Spier straightened up with pride. “Not a single one in Emerald Lakes, sir, because our security system is well respected by the criminal element. If you need us for anything, just dial two-one-one. Everyone’s phone is programmed so you can call the booth in an emergency.

“Anyway, welcome to Emerald Lakes. I’m glad I met both of you. It makes it a lot easier for me when I recognize faces.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to get shot if I take a walk around here at night,” Kristin quipped with a tone of annoyance that surprised Teddy.

“We’ll get to know your peculiar habits after a while, ma’am. Have no fear about that,”

Spier said, his face tightening. He continued to keep his gaze fixed on Kristin. “I understand you’re in your fourth month, ma’am.”

“What is it, a national news flash?” she asked with a wry smile.

“No, ma’am, but it helps for us to know these sort of things just in case some sort of related emergency should arise. It’s for your own well-being, and I assure you, no one outside of the development knows anyone’s personal business because of us. Just one more question and I’ll leave you two be,” he added, reaching into his back pocket for a notepad. He flicked it open. “Do you have any weapons in the house?”

“Weapons?” Teddy repeated.

“Particularly guns, sir, pistols, rifles. We like to keep that sort of thing on file for obvious reasons.”

“No, we don’t,” Teddy said.

“Do we have to go through this again with the day-time security, too?” Kristin

demanded.

“Oh, no,” Spier said. “We share everything. In a few days, it will be as if you’ve lived here for years.” He put his hat on. “Well, thank you again,” he said, nodded with the firmness of a salute, and turned to go. Teddy closed the door.

“Why were you so sarcastic, honey?” Teddy asked.

“Was I?”

“Were you? ‘I don’t want to get shot taking a walk at night’? You should have heard yourself.”

“I don’t know. All this Big Brother stuff. And since you mentioned it, what about that crack about my peculiar habits? What’s so peculiar about taking a walk at night?”

“I don’t think he meant peculiar in the pejorative sense.”

“Pejorative? Well, well, counselor,” Kristin kidded.

“Besides, we’re paying for all this attention with our homeowner’s dues,” Teddy said. “I listened when Michele explained all that.”

“I know.”

“It’s all for our benefit, isn’t it?” he asked gently.

“And with one five-year-old and another child on the way . . .”

“Right, right. I guess I’m just tired and irritable.”

“Oh, yes, I was going to rub your pregnant tummy.”

He took her hand and continued their retreat toward the master bedroom. The patio door drapes were still open. Just past the pool and the hedges at the rear of their backyard, the surface of Emerald Lake glistened in the moonlight like a brand-new silver coin.

“Isn’t that beautiful?” Teddy said, walking up to the patio doors. Kristin came up beside him and he kissed her on the neck. “What a romantic setting. And it’s ours.”

He turned her to him and they kissed. Then, without speaking, they began to undress. As they lay beside each other and petted and kissed, the moonlight began its nocturnal journey from one side of the lake to the other, eventually reaching their patio with its illumination. The lunar light was so bright, it was as if they had left a light on in the room. Now it was their naked bodies that glistened as they made love softly, tenderly but with a sensuality that brought them both to a satisfying conclusion.

Afterward, they lay beside each other until their heartbeats slowed and their breathing became regular. The moonlight passed over the house. The lake looked inky, but they could see the stars that had been washed out by the moon’s brightness before.

“I think we’re going to be very happy here, Kristin. Don’t you?”

“I hope so,” she said. She stared out at the shadows in their backyard. Suddenly, she thought one took shape and became the silhouette of a man. She sat up in bed and studied the scene.

“Something wrong?”

For a moment she didn’t reply. He sat up, too.

“What is it, Kristin?”

“I thought someone was standing out there watching us, but I guess it was just the

movement of shadows.”

“Where?”

“It’s nothing,” she said and lay down again. He stared a moment and then shrugged and reclined again, too. Then he smiled at her and ran the palm of his hand gingerly over her slightly raised stomach.

“I guess now we’re going to have twins, honey.”

“All right, Teddy Morris. I won’t ever confess my childhood fantasies to you again if you tease me.”

He laughed but her eyes returned to the patio windows.

“Maybe we shouldn’t leave our drapes open so wide.”

“Why not? You can’t be afraid of Peeping Toms here. Our security forces would mow

them down with machine guns,” he said.

“Unless our security forces were the Peeping Toms,” she replied.

He laughed.

“Considering what goes on here, we might be the best show in town.”

“Right,” she said and gazed at the window.

“Relax. We’re in paradise,” he said and snuggled closer. He was the first to fall asleep, his breathing becoming deep and heavy, but she kept her eyes open, her attention fixed on the backyard. Was it only her imagination or had someone been spying on them? It

wasn’t the sort of thing she wanted to bring up on their first night in a new house, she thought, especially a house in which the former owner had taken his own life. She shook off the memory of Elaine Feinberg’s accusatory eyes as quickly as it had returned. I’ve got to stop this, she thought, realizing she was spooking herself.