Red Clover (22 page)

Two weeks after his conversation with Bennett, he stopped at the inn for dinner and was happy to find CJ behind the bar.

“Hey, Soc, what’s happenin’?”

“Just picked out some interesting prairie stone for my fireplace.”

“Cool. Gonna invite us over to toast some marshmallows when it’s done?”

“You know, that’s a great idea. I’ll have to throw a housewarming party.”

“Most definitely. Your family included. Wouldn’t be any frickin’ fun without them.”

“Very funny.”

“We’ve got sloppy joes today. Can we fix you one?”

Lee gave her a blank stare.

“Get real. You’ve never had one, right?” Lee remained silent. “I don’t believe this. I’m going to order one for you.” She turned away from him. “Dag, you were born into
some
family.”

Lee chuckled under his breath, wondering how long it would take him to tell her his real family story.

* * *

Ten weeks went by without any communication from anyone in his family, not even his mother, and Lee struggled with whether or not to call her. In spite of his pact with Shaneta, he wondered if maybe they knew he knew and that was why no one had called him. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. While he felt remorseful about the family disconnect, especially with his mother, he was afraid of how their relationship would change once everything was out in the open.

When Lee’s builder gave him an August 18 completion date for the house, he panicked. Three weeks wasn’t much time to get ready to move in. During his next visit to the inn, he asked CJ if she would help him shop for furniture and appliances.

“Soc, I am so lame when it comes to that sort of thing. I don’t think you would want my help. But Francine, now she’s another story. I think she must have been an interior decorator in a past life. I’ll bet she’d help you with it. I’ll ask her.”

Francine insisted on visiting the house before going on their expedition. She came armed with a clipboard and sketched each room—showing its exact dimensions and indicating the location of every window and door—something Lee never would have thought of doing. She suggested they shop at Porters of Racine, Wisconsin’s oldest and finest furniture store. Lee took advantage of the opportunity on the sixty-mile drive to get to know her better.

“So you’re a nurse. Where did you go to school?”

“Truman College.”

“In Chicago?”

“Mm-hm. I have an RN degree but would love to get my master’s someday.”

“What’s holding you back?”

“Money mostly, but also time. I work part-time at Rockford Memorial, do volunteer work for the Cancer Research Institute, occasionally take on home nursing jobs, and of course, watch over Travis and Wayne while CJ is working. It keeps me hopping.”

“How long would it take you to get your master’s?”

“Two years if I could go full-time. Three or four if part-time, depending on how much time I could put into it.”

“Tell me more about the Cancer Research Institute.”

“Wonderful organization. They’ve been around since 1891. Their main focus is immunology and immunotherapy. Last year, Dr. Tonegawa won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the genetic principle for the generation of antibody diversity.”

“I’m not going to pretend I understand what that means.”

“I know. I don’t fully understand it either. That’s why I want to go back for my master’s.”

“Do they ever conduct cancer research on plants?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Right now they’re working on a huge project involving the cloning of CTLA-4.”

“And that is?”

“Cytotoxic T lymphocyte.”

“Okay.”

“It’s a protein receptor, and understanding it means better understanding cancer and the immune system.”

“Very interesting. What do you do for them?”

“Fundraising, mostly. Whatever I can do from home.”

“So have you ever been married?”

“No, not me. I have too many other things I want to accomplish first. Marriage would just get in the way.”

“May I ask how old you are, Francine?”

“Twenty-seven, a year and a half older than CJ.”

“I still can’t believe CJ is twenty-five with a nine-year-old son.”

“She’ll be twenty-six in November. That louse.”

“Who?”

“DeRam. CJ told me she told you everything.”

“Yes, she did. He’s dangerous.”

“The kidnapping was the worst.”

“The what?”

“Oops. She told me she told you everything.”

“She never told me about a kidnapping.”

“I have a big mouth.”

“Are you going to tell me about it?”

“I suppose I have to now. As soon as Bern heard CJ was pregnant, the first time, he skedaddled out of town, but when Wayne was five months old, he returned. I think at that point, CJ may have thought there could still be a chance they could be together. She rationalized his behavior by saying he left town because he just got scared.”

“I get the feeling it took a while for her to see what trouble he was.”

“Lee, there are times now I don’t think she totally gets it, but that’s another story. Anyway, one day he comes over to our house while I’m at work. CJ is hanging clothes out on the line with little Wayne in his buggy. The phone rings, and she asks him if he’d keep an eye on the baby for a minute. When she comes out, he’s gone and so is Wayne.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“I wish I was.”

“So what happened?”

“She panicked. Said she was afraid to call the police because of who he was. She didn’t have a car to go look for them. She was on her way to the neighbor’s house to get help when he pulled in the driveway.”

“Unbelievable.”

“He opens the car door, and there’s Wayne lying on the front seat, his little head right next to the butt of Bern’s rifle. And that bastard has the nerve to say, ‘We went for a little ride. Did you miss us?'“

“I’m speechless. What a jerk. How did CJ react?”

“She told him if he ever pulled a stunt like that again, she would have him arrested for kidnapping. He just laughed.”

“That is beyond outrageous. I’ve had a few run-ins with him myself. What is his problem, anyway?”

“I think the whole problem is that he has an obsession with her, and he uses scare tactics in an effort to get her back. I don’t think he loves her. I don’t think he even really wants her back, and I’m sure he doesn’t want a relationship with those two boys. I think he just can’t accept rejection.”

“That’s troubling on so many levels.”

“We all know he’s dangerous, a loose cannon, and he carries a gun. I am scared for her every day, mace or no mace. Thank you, by the way, for arranging for that security system in her house. At least she has that now. And I can’t believe your incredible timing, finding him at her house that day. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t burst through that door.”

“I know.”

“So where did you learn karate?”

Lee explained his passion for it despite his family members’ view of it as sheer foolishness. “The dynamics of my family are fairly inexplicable.”

“Well, I got a good glimpse of them on Memorial Day. They’re...different. But I have to say I think your brother Bennett started to come around.” She laughed. “A little time away from the rest of them, and he could be close to being like one of us.”

Us? Holy shit, does she think I’m normal?

21 | “You’re Under Arrest”

Lee did a final walk-through of the house with Earl to create a punch list of items that needed attention. Afterwards, Lee plopped himself down in the middle of the living room floor to take it all in. He felt happy and excited, but at the same time scared. But most of all he felt satisfied—a feeling he wanted to bottle up and put on his new mantle.

Later that day, he felt compelled to let his parents, or whoever they were, know he was moving out of their lake house. After long internal deliberations with himself about what he was going to say, he called his mother.

“As soon as I’m settled, I would love for everyone to come for a visit,” he told her through gritted teeth. While extending an invitation to someone who had betrayed him his whole life was agonizingly painful, he knew it was the right thing to do.

“We’ll see, Lee. Henry is still, shall we say, disturbed by your behavior Memorial Day weekend. He needs time to—”

Her words sucked any politeness he had right out of him. “I understand. Well, I must be going. I’ll call you with my new phone number as soon as it’s installed. Goodbye...” He stopped short of calling her Mother. “Well, goodbye then.”

As soon as he hung up, he regretted ending the phone conversation so abruptly, but when she practically defended his father’s contempt for him, all he could think of was getting away from them as soon as possible.

He went to the kitchen to say goodbye to Shaneta. First, he gave her a big hug, and when he let go, she had tears in her eyes. “I’m going to miss you,” he told her.

“I’m goin’ to miss you, too, Lee.”

“When are you going back to Evanston?”

“I’m not,” she said as she clutched a dishtowel close to her chest.

“You’re not?”

“Mrs. Winekoop said they don’t need a second cook there, and when they come here, they plan to eat at the club.”

He was fairly sure he hadn’t heard her correctly. Her thick accent made it hard to understand her at times, and the added emotion in her voice now made it even harder. “What did you say?”

Shaneta didn’t respond.

“Does this have to do with Memorial Day weekend?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. When you moved in and they sent me up here, I thought maybe I was on my way out. Mrs. Winekoop was findin’ things wrong with mi work lately.”

“I have a good mind to tell her—”

“Don’t, Lee. It will only make matters worse.”

“Where will you go?”

“She told me I can stay workin’ here until I find somethin’ else. As long as I’m gone by Labor Day when they have their big fall soiree. They’re bein’ very generous, Lee. A good severance check and everythin’.”

The current job market wouldn’t be kind to someone Shaneta’s age, and being a black woman with a thick accent made her even less marketable.

“Shaneta, when I said back in May I’d have your back, I meant it. If you can’t find something in the next...Labor Day? That’s in less than three weeks.”

“I know.”

“Look, you won’t be able to—”

“I can go to Detroit and live with mi sister.”

“Your sister?”

“It will be fine.”

“Your sister, the one you said has one boyfriend after another coming to live with her?”

“She’ll calm down...one of these days.”

“Is that what you want?”

“Until I find somethin’ else.”

“No, I won’t hear of it. Look, they’re starting to build the greenhouses for Dr. Rad, and—”

“Dr. Rad?”

Oh, shit. Can I say that? Too late now. I already did.

“Yes, I am partnering with him on his research. He’s going to manage fifty acres of my land, live here, do his research here.”

He tried to recall the exact language of the terms of his inheritance. All he remembered was he couldn’t divulge them to anyone.

“What I was about to say, is you can stay with me. I have two extra bedrooms on the first floor, and then...”

“Then what? All I would be doin’ is postponin’ the inevitable.”

“You can stay with me until we figure something out. In fact, I insist on it. And let’s face it, we’re kind of kindred souls at this point. Don’t you think?”

“Oh, no. What will your family think?”

“Do we care?”

Shaneta’s smile revealed her response.

“I guess the fair thing for me to do would be to let you see it first, before you move in. Why don’t you come with me now. I just have to load all my things in the car, and that won’t take but a few minutes.”

“I can’t just leave like that. I have...”

“You have what?”

Shaneta shrugged. “Well, nothin’ I guess. I’ll meet you in the car. One more thing, Lee.”

“Yes?”

“Dr. Rad.”

“What about him?”

She hesitated. “Nothin’.”

* * *

It took Lee little time to settle into his new house, which quickly came to feel more like a home than any place he had ever lived. The furniture Francine had helped him pick out suited him—it was masculine, but not too masculine, and cozy and fit well with the A-frame style of the house.

Shaneta settled into her new room with surprising ease. He took her shopping to pick out sheets, towels, curtains, and a bedspread—a gesture Shaneta considered magnanimous. She chose the room in the northeast corner of the house, the one with a sliding door that opened onto a private rear deck and offered a clear view of the rest of the property.

Of course, she insisted on doing all the cooking and cleaning and told him if he said no, she was going to do it anyway.

“Just give me some notice when you’re not goin’ to be here for dinner,” she told him. “So I don’t cook for nothin’.”

“I wasn’t very good about that before, was I?”

She pursed her lips. “But I was bein’ paid, so I couldn’t say anythin’.”

“We’ll start over. Deal?”

“So can I throw in some good down-home Jamaican food for you from time to time?”

“You bet. Say, let’s invite CJ and her clan over for a housewarming party. Some other people too. All Jamaican food. Will you help me with it?” He paused. “And then join us?”

“When?”

“How about Labor Day weekend?”

“Be careful, my friend, I could get used to this.”

* * *

“Toss me a cold one, will ya, CJ?” There were more people than usual at the inn. “So what’s going on? It’s a madhouse in here,” he said to her.

“There’s a going-away party for some McHenry County sheriff going on.”

“McHenry County?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Is DeRam here?”

“Yeah, he’s here.”

“Has he said anything to you?”

“Nope.”

“Good. Let’s hope it stays that way.”

“I gotta go. They’re running me ragged.”

“Stop back when you have a minute, okay?”