No Perfect Secret (12 page)

She took a s
hower, shampooed her hair, blow-drying it until fine strands framed her face like thick, silken thread. She applied soothing astringent to her face and eyelids, a touch of blush to her cheeks. She stepped into tan gabardine slacks, topping them with a brown knit sweater that fit loosely so that there was only a bare suggestion of the fullness of her softly rounded breasts. She tucked her feet into warm socks and flat-soled, ankle-high boots.

She sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and wrote out a to
-do list. The house was quiet. Either Clara-Alice was not up yet, or she had already gone over to Lila’s. Usually Anna called to check on her. Not today. After a second cup of coffee, Anna looked down at her list. All she had written was:
WHY?

That was not exactly coping. She started again
—going with the easy stuff.

Laundry. Pick up her dry cleaning. Kevin’s, too? Nope.
That was good. That was coping.
Vacuum. No—that was carrying coping just a bit far. Safeway/Lila. Done.

An hour later Lila came through the sun room door and followed the trail of wadded and discarded tissues into the living room. Anna was lying on the camel back sofa, astr
ingent pads on her eyes. “Uh...Anna? Are you okay?”

“I’m getting there.”

Lila sat on the coffee table, a one-hundred-year-old oak dining table that Anna had bought at a garage sale. She had sawed the legs off to sixteen inches, sanded, stained and waxed the wood until it gleamed, and topped it with a free-form glass sculpture. Perched on the edge with her legs crossed, Lila looked like a gray-haired leprechaun. “I figured something happened. Clara-Alice is sitting in my living room in a blue funk, and getting funkier. She’s mumbling to herself, and she’s got that mean look. You know, with her eyes all narrow and her mouth pinched.”

“I know it well.” Anna exhaled and sat up. “How do my eyes look?”

“Blood shot.”

“Oh, God.”

“Your nose is way red, too.”

“Thank you, Lila; I really needed to hear that.”

“Clara-Alice really hurt your feeling this time, huh?”

“It’s more than that. Kevin has been borrowing money from her but telling her that it’s because I’m squandering his money, and not paying my share of the bills.”

“That’s nothing new.”

“What?”

“Anna, I listen to that rant from Clara-Alice at least once a week. I guess love really is blind. Kevin is a mama’s boy. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

Anna took a big sniff. “She said Kevin told her I wanted a divorce.”

“That jerk! You know what that’s about. He wants to make you look like the bad guy.” Lila put her hand on Anna’s. “Anna, it’s your marriage, and I’ve never been one to interfere, you know what I mean?”

Anna groaned. “You know something.”

“Well, you know when you’re at work and Kevin is home... Sometimes he takes me and Clara-Alice to lunch, or to the mall, but often enough for me to notice, he takes off right after you leave for work and comes home just before you do.”

Anna’s heart sank even lower. “He’s having an affair. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Lila shrugged. “I think it, but he could just want to get away from his mother. Clara-Alice isn’t the easiest person to get along with.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to work it out when he gets home.”
Work out a divorce settlement
. Anna hugged herself. Oh, it hurt, it hurt,
it hurt.

“Just don’t let him walk all over you.”

“Don’t worry about that! I’m so angry at him I could bust his knee caps.”

“Hey, I’ve got your back
—and a bat.”

“Lila! You are so bad. Give me twenty minutes. I’ll freshen up and we can go to Safeway. I’ll make the chicken for your party tomorrow
—but I don’t think I’d be good company.”

“You won’t have to be good company. You can be miserable company
—but I’m not going to let you sit over here all alone sulking. I mean—that is so Clara-Alice.”

“I don’t feel like laughing, Lila, so don’t go all funny on me. And speaking of
The One
—is she going to the store with us?”

“No, she’s watching the cooking channel in my living room and sipping on a glass of port. I put the bottle next to her elbow.”

“Ooh, you
are
bad.”

“We need to think about a side dish to go with the chicken.”

“I can do something fancy with fresh yams.”

“Think of something else. Yams give me methane gas. Put a match to those fire logs and my whole house might go up.”

~
~~~

Caburn had two things on his mind: Anna Nesmith and Anna Nesmith. He wasn’t getting any of his usual Saturday tasks done because he kept finding himself in another world envisioning himself with Anna. Not to put too fine a point on it, what he was envisioning was a naked Anna doing some exceptionally wonderfully things to him. Then he turned the vision around and he was performing incredible sexual feats that had her gasping and begging for more.

Well, maybe not begging, but making a
lot of appreciative sounds. He didn’t tear himself away from the daydream until he thought he might be suffering cardiac arrhythmia.

He was sitting at the kitchen counter trying to make sense of Nesmith’s diary when his cell phone chirped.

“Hello, Frank.”

“I’m busy, Helen.”

“Well, you just got busier. You need to get over to Nesmith’s house.”

Caburn’s heart fell into his stomach. “What’s happened?
”

“The old lady, Nesmith’s mother, has locked Anna in the basement. The neighbor, Lila Hammond called me. I slipped her my card yesterday while we were at the tea shop. The mother was giving Anna these funny looks
. Kind of gave me the creeps. I’ll meet you there, but I gotta call Albert, first. And, Frank, be careful. Lila told me the old lady has been hospitalized a couple of times for psychotic breaks.”

Caburn shot a half-
dozen red lights and knew traffic cameras were catching every infraction. As long as he didn’t get stopped. Now that he was in the 21st century, he could pay the damned things online. He made the trip in twenty-two minutes flat, and parked three houses down from Anna’s. Lila saw him moving across her yard at a fast clip and came out her front door to intercept him.

“Was Anna hurt, pushed down the steps?”

“No, nothing like that. She went into the basement for something. Clara-Alice told me Anna was messing in her things. She just shot the lock. I left to call Miss Callaway. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to call in front of Clara-Alice. When I went back over, Clara-Alice had locked me out. I have a key,” she said, giving it to him. “But I didn’t think I ought to go in...I mean, I’m not afraid or anything, but Clara-Alice is twice my size, and with her in this funky mood—”

“No, you did right, Miss Lila, you did real good.” It looked as if every light in Anna’s house was on. A light in the front bedroom went off.

Caburn exhaled. He was having an adrenaline rush and knew he needed to slow down and think this through. They went instead into Anna’s backyard. He was looking through the glass panes of the sunroom. He could see the old woman moving around in the kitchen. “Let’s wait a minute here. I’d rather not confront her, if we can avoid it. If she leaves the kitchen, we’ll slip in.” He was trying to watch Clara-Alice’s hands. Please
God, don’t let her pick up a knife.

“Where’s the basement door?”

Lila pointed. “It’s off to our right. You can’t see it from here. It’s on the other side of the pantry. Geez, it’s getting cold out here.” She tucked her hands in her armpits.

“Here, you can have my coat,” Caburn offered. He was so stuffed with worry, he wouldn’t feel an ice cube down his back.

“No. no, that’s okay. It’s just my hands.”

“What set the old lady off
—do you know?”

“Apparently, Kevin has been filling her mind with a bunch of BS
—he told her Anna had asked for a divorce. Not true. He told her Anna was wasting his money or some such. Anna found out that Kevin has been borrowing money from his mom. Plus, he’s had Anna taken off their household account. Anna is kind of in limbo and Clara-Alice is cruising the ozone. And, then—there’s all the trouble Kevin is in at work—but you know that part.”

Yes, he sure did know that part.
Clara-Alice was making a move. “Oh, where’s she headed?”

“Dining room... Okay, she’s turning into the hall. That leads to the bathrooms, and bedrooms.”

“In we go,” said Caburn, putting the key in the door and turning it as quietly as he could.

“I’ll just put a pot of coffee to perking,” whispered Lila. “That what I often do, so it’ll just seem normal.”

Caburn went straight for the basement door. He pulled back the sliding latch, allowing light to filter down the dark space. “Anna?”

“Down here,” she answered, her voice raspy.

“Why are you in the dark?”

“The bulb burned out. I came down to look for Kevin’s monthly diaries.”

Caburn went down the steps and sat down beside Anna on the lower step. He debated putting his arm around her or not. She sniffled and that decided him. He patted her shoulder, then slowly slid his hand up and down her back. She felt like cold silk beneath his palm. He closed his eyes, but only for a moment. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Come on; let’s get you upstairs where it’s warm. Miss Lila is making coffee.”

She didn’t move. “What about
Clara-Alice?”

“She’s in the other side of the house. Helen is making arrangements to put her in the hospital. It’s a safety issue
—for both of you.”

“I think she’s bi-polar, I really do. She’s up and happy one day and in the pits the next.” She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, God, my life is such a mess. I hate it that everything is crashing down at Christmas.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I love Christmas.”

Caburn moved his hand to her shoulder, and when he felt no resistance, he pulled her a bit closer. Oh, lord, his johnson was acting like an erector set. The kitchen light trailed faintly down the steps. He could not see Anna’s expression in the shadows, but he felt her sadness. “Your life is not a mess. You’ve just hit a bump in the road. And the bump is not your doing.” He stood up and pulled Anna to her feet. “C’mon. Let’s have that coffee, and see what we can work out.”

Lila poured coffee for them. Anna sat at the table in her usual seat. Caburn had her move so that her back was not at the entrance to the kitchen. She had cobwebs in her hair and tear streaks down cheeks smudged with dirt and dust. Caburn stood, leaning against the sink. “Any sound out of Mrs Nesmith?” he whispered. Lila said, no.

He kicked off his loafers and moved silently throughout the house, listening at closed doors. Back in the kitchen, he slipped his feet back into his shoes. “No sign of her. Maybe she’s gone to bed.” He took off his leather jacket and hung it on the back of a chair, picked up his coffee, and kept vigil at the kitchen entrance.

A soft knock at the back door. Lila went to check and led Helen into the kitchen. Helen gave Anna a once over, taking in the distress that emanated from her, the tear-stained cheeks. “Are you all right, my dear?”

“Everyone keeps asking me that—the answer is no.”

Lila poured another coffee, handed it to Helen and pointed out the cream and sugar. “Black is good, thank you.” She took a sip. “Anna, we understand that your mother-in-law has had episodes before. Umm, we’ve gotten a judge’s order to have her committed for three days. After that, she can check herself out. The thing is, until we get this situation sorted out with Kevin, we want you safe. We want your-mother-in-law safe. So, do you have any suggestions?”

“I offered to put her up in a nice hotel until Kevin comes home. She didn’t want that. But now...Clara-Alice has good insurance and a decent pension. I’ve just discovered Kevin has been borrowing money from her—but I don’t know for how long or how much. She won’t say.” She looked from Caburn to Helen. “I know something has gone wrong with Kevin. I suspect he’s having an affair.”

Helen nodded. “I think that’s a fair assumption. I’m sorry.”

Anna bit her lower lip.
Confirmed
. Lila put a hand on her shoulder.

Helen’s phone vibrated. “Yes. Okay. Hold on.” She pressed the phone against her hip
, “It’s the EMTs with the ambulance. They were told not to use the siren. They’re parked in Mrs Hammond’s drive. Should they come in front or back?”

“Back, if they don’t bring in one of those carts.” Anna took a deep breath. She felt as if she were in a very bad one-act play. “
Clara-Alice is mobile. But—suppose she doesn’t want to go?”

Caburn watched Anna’s lips quiver. Albert was going to have to put a stop to this charade. They needed to figure something out and quit beating around the bush with this woman. She deserved better. He felt a slap on his back. Startled he spilled his coffee. “What the
—”