All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (11 page)

Then her face brightened up. "Be on time for
dinner, tonight, Aaron. Remember, we have company!"

He
stopped them
as they got to the door. "Polly? Do you have an extra key?"

"OH!" She said. "There are a few extra
keys in the newel post over here." Polly walked over, gave the newel post
a quick turn and revealed a small pocket. There were four keys in there and
Aaron took one. "I've already checked them. Everything works."

He took a second key. "I'll give this to Boylston
and we'll get
it
back to you
when this is over."

Enjoying Lydia’s commentary,
Polly
followed
her directions as they drove
through the
streets of Bellingwood.

"Now that you've
made the drive
with me, do you
think you can get
to my house
on your own?" Lydia asked.

"I hope so. That's one of those things I haven't
done yet," Polly said. "I haven't taken the time to drive around town
and get familiar with all the streets and what we've got here."

"It's not a very big town," Lydia said.
"If you were able to drive around Boston in this truck, I bet you'll be
able to get around this place."

"Oh, I sold my car in Boston, Lydia. This was
Dad's truck. I don't know why I didn't sell it when he died, but he'd just
gotten it and loved it so much, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it.
”

Polly could no longer contain her questions. “
What in the world were you and Aaron talking about? Do
you know whose bodies those were in my ceiling?"

"I'm afraid so. I
really
am afraid I do. It's so
horrible. No one is going to want to believe they've been here all this t
ime, hidden away in the school,” Lydia said.

"Okay, you have to tell me more than this. You're
killing me!" Polly gasped at her obvious faux pas, "I mean. I'm dying
here." She stopped again. "I'll shut up. It seems like you knew them
and I'm not helping."

"Turn left here at this corner and you'll see the
house," Lydia said. "Once we get inside and get you settled in your
room, I'll tell you the whole story. Then, when Aaron gets home tonight, we'll
see if I'm right."

Polly turned the co
rner
and saw Lydia's home. Now
she knew where
she was. She turned into the driveway and went around back, like they had done
the night of the slumber party. Lydia climbed out of the truck and waited while
Polly grabbed her bag and jumped out to follow her. Rather than using the
entrance through the laundry room, Lydia pushed open a sliding glass door and
they walked right into the family room.

"Come on upstairs," Lydia said.

Polly followed her up the stairs and into the kitchen.
The back windows looked over the garages and out onto a grove of trees. The
kitchen was done in country blues and was quite warm and homey, exactly what
she would expect from Lydia.

"This way, Polly.
I've got a couple of rooms upstairs you can choose
from."

Polly followed her through the dining room, past the
formal living room, to the
steps
. Upstairs there were four bedrooms and
those doors were all standing
open.

"The back bedroom is ours, but any of the others
would be perfect for you," she said. "There's a bathroom here,"
and she opened a door, "or the two bedrooms on this side share a bathroom.
Since no one else is here, you might want one of those rooms."

Polly looked in the first room and it was decorated in
rich burgundy and green. The wooden bedroom
set
was
a beautiful
deep mahogany whic
h complemented the
other colors in the room.

"Oh my, this will be wonderful," she
exclaimed.

"Terrific. Why don't you drop your stuff and I'm
going to go back to the kitchen to make a few calls. Come find me whenever
you're ready."

Polly recognized that Lydia was a little distracted. While
she was welcoming and gracious, all of her extra joy and sass seemed to have
washed away. Whatever she knew about those two bodies had upset her and Polly
didn't know how to help. She sat down on the bed and
dropped
her bag
beside her. She opened her bag and looked inside it, then realized she had no
idea what she might be looking for. She pushed it away and flopped down.

"Wow," she
said out loud. "That's a nice bed!"

Polly turned over on her right side and looked around
the room. There were two abstract floral prints hanging on either side of the
mirror over the dresser. Everything seemed to be unique, yet perfectly
coordinated. She wondered if Lydia had done this or had hired someone to
decorate her home. She
got
back up and walked into the bathroom. Bright yellow
and cream were perfectly accented by the sunshine streaming in the window over
the sink. Mirrors on either side brightened the
space
as the sun glinted off
them, throwing rays all over the room.

Then, she peeked into the adjoining bedroom. This room
was done in deep blue and ivory. The wooden bedroom suite was done in walnut
and white maple. The room was a play of striking contrasts and took Polly's
breath away. She was going to have to either hire Lydia to help her decorate
the school or find out who
she’d found to
do this work
.

Polly walked back into her bedroom. She figured she
had probably spent enough time up here for Lydia to make
her
calls and
walked out in the hall. As she started down the stairs, she heard Lydia saying,
"I understand. We'll see you when you get here. Just don't forget to come
home, okay?" There
was a slight
pause. "I love you too and I'm sorry you have to do this alone.
You know ..." another slight
pause.
"Alright.
Tell the girls if they need me, all they have to do is ask. Good-bye."

The sound of a chair scraping across the kitchen floor
and cupboards opening and closing accompanied Polly as she traversed the rest
of the steps and made her way into the kitchen.

"There you are, Polly," Lydia said, turning
around from the stovetop. "Would you like some tea? I have water brewing.
Or anything else we can find in the refrigerator."

"Tea would be great. Can I help you?"

"No, I think I have everything out."

Polly looked at the kitchen table. Yes, Lydia had
everything out. There was a small plate of
cookies,
a basket with
several different types of tea, fancy napkins and china
all sitting on the table
. Polly couldn't help herself. While Lydia was pouring the water into a
teapot, she flipped a plate over. "Of course it is," she thought,
then said
out loud
, "My mom always served on Wedgwood."

"Oh!" said Lydia. "Th
o
se have been in
the family for years. I think they were my mother's wedding present."

"My mom's too!" Polly agreed. "I have
them somewhere. They've been in storage so
long,
it will be good
to see them again. They were only used when company came, though."

"Well, you're company and family all at the same
time, here," said Lydia, and she set the teapot down on the table. "Here,
sit down and we'll talk. I'm sure you are," and she looked at Polly with a
little bit of a smirk in her lips, "dying to know what's going on."

"I'm so sorry, Lydia. Sometimes my brain and my
tongue don't seem to agree about what should be out in the world," Polly
apologized. "You obviously know who those two people were and I should
have been more sensitive."

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's alright. The day
brought me a little shock, that’s all." Lydia said. "Actually, I
suspect it brought you a shock as well, though, it was probably
different." Her voice trailed off for a moment and Polly saw Lydia's lower
lip tremble. She reached out and put her hand on top of her friend's forearm.

"I'm sorry, Lydia. Who was in the ceiling and how
do you know them?"

"Goodness," Lydia said, "It's been over
forty years ago. You'd think I could manage better than this." She offered
the basket of tea to Polly, who took a bag, opened it and placed it in her cup.
Lydia took another and then poured hot water into both cups. She stirred hers
around a little and looked up again.

"Forty-one years ago. It was the worst thing I'd
ever faced. We didn't know what happened to them. No one did. The police
questioned all of us trying to find out something, but no one knew anything at
all.

"It was the summer after my freshman year in high
school, 1971. We didn't have a large
class,
there were only
sixty-two of us. I'd had a great year and was getting ready to have a great
summer. Mom and Dad had scheduled a big vacation to South Dakota and Wyoming
and I was going to go to a camp in Colorado before school started that fall. I
didn't have a care in the world. Dad had hooked me up with a great job at the
drug store and I was ready.

"We left for vacation and had a glorious time. We
saw everything that year. We were driving back home and Dad decided he needed
to call his partner to make sure everything was alright. I think he wanted to
make sure the building still stood.

"When he got back in the car, he just sat there. Then
he told us what he'd heard.

"Do you remember meeting Linda and Sarah?"
Lydia asked Polly.

"Sure, they are sisters, aren't they?" she
responded.

"Yes, but
they
had twin sisters who were my age
.
Jill and Kellie.
We'd
been together since Kindergarten.

"While we were gone on vacation, those two girls
disappeared. The police were there, the whole town turned out and searched the
fields and the woods; everywhere they might have gone. There were all sorts of
rumors. A poor drifter who was in town at the time was thrown into jail for a
while, but he didn't know anything. When they couldn't find any evidence to
hold him, they had to let him go and he left town.

"People thought they saw
the girls
get
into someone's car, other people thought they saw them in Des Moines. We had
calls come in from Omaha and Minneapolis. Their parents never quit looking. They
were wonderful people, but I think it destroyed them in ways no one can ever
understand. Linda had already graduated from high school and was at the
University of Iowa. Sarah had just graduated. It nearly killed her to go away
to school, but her parents didn't want her to sit around moping and made her
start her life. She didn't go too far, though, just down to AIB in Des Moines. She
came back after a couple of years and started working for Dan Timmons. He had
an insurance business. When he retired, Sarah's husband bought the company and
they got married.

"The girls' dad died about fifteen years after
this all happened and then their mother died maybe ten years ago. When she was
gone, the girls finally settled down and released all of the pain. They relaxed
for the first time since that summer and I know this is going to start all of
their pain up again."

Lydia paused and said, "Aaron has to go tell them
now their sisters were in the old high school all this time. I wish he'd let me
go with him, but he told me I didn't need to go through this tonight. He called
Rev. Boehm and he'll meet Aaron at Linda's house. Oh, this is killing me! I
should be there!"

"Do you want me to take you over there, Lydia?"
Polly asked quietly.

"No, he's right. I'll let them deal with this
tonight and stop by tomorrow. Maybe I'll feel more like my normal self, and I
won't fall completely apart."

Polly held on to Lydia's arm, and then moved her hand
d
own to clasp
Lydia's fingers.