Daisy Lane (34 page)

“I’m scared,” Grace said.

“Don’t you worry,” Hannah said. “When all else fails, I always zap everybody with my taser and then ask questions later.”

When they reached the Rodefeffer’s, only Sandy’s car was in the driveway. Grace’s heart was pounding so hard in her chest she thought surely it could be heard several yards away. She waited until she heard Sandy open the front door.

“Hey, Sandy,” Hannah said. “I’m looking for a lost dog and I wondered if you had seen it.”

Over the hedge and along the brightly lit area behind the kitchen, Grace retraced her earlier steps. Down by the pool the unexpected sudden glare of the security lights scared her, but she ran down the back steps onto the patio and grasped the handle of the same sliding door by which she’d left. It was locked.

She could see inside the basement that no one was there; no one had cleaned up the beer bottles and pizza boxes strewn across the edge of the pool table where she had set them when she stole the papers. There was a good chance Trick hadn’t come back down, would not know anything was amiss, and she could leave the papers and get right back out the way she went in. Except she couldn’t get in.

Grace tried every window along the back side of the house but they were all locked. On the south side of the house was a steel door that Grace assumed would also be locked. It wasn’t. She realized she was in the mudroom, and by following a sort of panicked, meandering path she finally reached the game room.

She took the roll of plans and documents out of her backpack and placed them on the table, sliding beer bottles and pizza boxes back over the edges how she imagined they had been. Just as she was sliding her backpack back over her shoulder she heard Sandy and Hannah coming down the stairs. She didn’t have time to get out by the sliding glass doors; they would surely see her. It was too late to go past them and somehow meander back to the mud room, even if she could find it.

Desperate, she ducked back under the pool table and tucked her feet up.

“I’ve been meaning to bring these things to you for ages,” Sandy said. “Since you’re here, you might as well take them. Stacey thought she wanted a dog but it was just too much responsibility for her. She’s sensitive, Stacey is, an emotionally delicate girl, and that dog was way too needy. So now we have all this stuff we bought for it, and I’d rather donate it than throw it away.”

“No problem,” Hannah said. “I’ll be glad to take them. I’m sure some needy Chihuahua will love a princess bed and rhinestone collar.”

“There’s some dog food left upstairs in the pantry,” Sandy said. “You may as well take that, too.”

“Where are Stacey and Grace?” Hannah asked.

“I think they went to Aleesha’s house,” Sandy said. “Stacey has taken Grace under her wing in the most generous way. She has a big heart, just like me. We were only too glad to take her in, poor thing.”

As soon as they mounted the steps back up to the kitchen, Grace slid out from under the pool table and let herself out the sliding glass door. She paused before it locked behind her and then went back inside. She folded a paper towel around two slices of pizza and tucked them into her backpack.

Hannah and Grace reconnoitered at the end of the block and took the long, roundabout way back to the Bee Hive. Claire was sitting in one of the hydraulic chairs with her feet up on the counter, talking to Maggie, who was seated in the other. Tommy was sitting in the shampoo chair, and he jumped up when Grace came in.

“How’d it go?” he said.

“I don’t think he’d been back downstairs,” Grace said. “I put everything back the way it was.”

Tommy grabbed her up in a big hug and Grace laughed out loud as he swung her around.

“Would somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Maggie said crossly.

Grace filled Maggie in on what she had witnessed in Trick’s basement game room.

“Those rotten eggs,” Maggie said. “Those lowdown snakes.”

“Motherflippin’ sons-of-witches,” Hannah said. “Thievin’ bass-tarts.”

“Finally,” Maggie said. “After knowing they were doing this kind of stuff for years and years, and getting away with it, finally we have proof.”

“We shouldn’t have sent her back up there,” Claire said. “Those guys are dangerous.”

“Except I’m the goose with the golden trust egg,” Grace said. “They wouldn’t dare hurt me.”

“Unless the Rodefeffers would inherit your trust,” Maggie said. “You might be worth more to them dead than alive.”

You could have heard a pin drop as everyone digested this.

“We need Sean to draw up a new will,” Claire said. “Let’s call him now. We need to take steps to protect Grace.”

Maggie took out her cell phone and seemed surprised when Claire took it out of her hand.

“Land line,” Claire said.

“Oh my goodness,” Maggie said. “I can’t believe I almost did that.”

“What?” Grace asked.

“Scanner Grannies,” Hannah said. “There’s a whole network of geriatric spies in this town who listen in on cell phone conversations with illegal scanners.”

“Really?” Grace said. “Cool!”

“Always remember that,” Claire said. “It’s great if you want to start a rumor but not so great if you don’t.”

“Where are you supposed to be staying tonight?” Maggie asked Grace.

“I’m supposed to be at a slumber party at Stacey Rodefeffer’s, but Stacey and Aleesha went with the Machalvie boys to Morgantown.”

“Sandy must be crazy,” Maggie said. “Those poor girls don’t stand a chance.”

“She doesn’t know where they are,” Hannah said. “She doesn’t have a clue.”

“I’ll call Scott,” Maggie said. “We need to get you back to Kay’s without anyone getting arrested.”

“Welcome back,” Kay said.

Her eyes were full of sympathy and concern. When she reached out to hug her, Grace rushed into her arms. Her embrace felt warm and safe. Grace realized that she had been hugged more in the past week than she had in all the years since her grandmother died. That thought started her crying, and then she found she could not stop.

“Come in here and sit,” Kay said, while keeping one arm around Grace’s shoulder to guide her to the kitchen. “It has been my experience that everything seems better with cookies and milk.”

Scott followed them down the hallway, but Kay did not invite him to join them.

“I explained the situation to Judge Feinman,” Scott said. “He’s going to sign off on a temporary emergency placement order for Grace. Sean will have to file for a hearing this week to extend it.”

“I think, Chief Gordon,” Kay said over her shoulder, “that Grace needs some quiet time. Why don’t you come back in the morning and talk then.”

“Is that okay, Grace?” he asked.

Grace could only nod and snuffle. As soon as she was seated in the homey breakfast nook, she put her head down on her arms and wept some more. When she finally sat back up, Kay handed her a box of tissues.

Because Ed had asked her not to, Grace had not told Scott or Kay about the papers she had stolen and then returned. He said they would be safer not knowing and Grace didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize Scott’s job or Kay’s run for office. As far as Scott and Kay knew, she had merely had a bad experience with the Machalvie boys at Trick’s house and then narrowly escaped being taken bar hopping with Stacey.

Grace gestured to the tissue box.

“When I use to be invited to Charlotte’s house,” Grace said as she wiped her face, “there was a box of these soft tissues in every room. I used to think that when I grew up I’d have a box of these in every room.”

“I feel that way about zippy plastic bags,” Kay said. “My mother wouldn’t have them in the house; she used waxed paper for everything and put plates on top of bowls instead of plastic wrap. If you looked in that drawer right now, you would see zippy plastic bags in every size. It’s almost a sickness; I get a panicky feeling if I’m about to run out. They make me feel like I must be doing all right because I have all these plastic bags. Crazy, isn’t it, the things we think?”

The cookies were wonderful, crunchy peanut butter, and the milk was ice cold. Kay was having some of her fragrant tea in an oversized mug. Her face was pale, she had dark circles under her eyes, and looked older tonight. Grace then realized she didn’t have any makeup on, was wearing a housecoat and slippers. She must have thought she was peacefully in for the night when Grace arrived.

“Sorry to get dropped on you again,” Grace said. “You’re probably sick of this.”

“That’s not true,” Kay said. “You haven’t been off my mind since you went to Trick’s house. I just knew they were going to do something stupid and look what they did. You haven’t been here for very long, Grace, but after you left it was like there was a hole in this house that wasn’t there before. You can stay as long as you like. I not only don’t mind it, I like you being here. I want you to be here.”

Grace was so taken aback by this kindness that the tears again welled up in her eyes.

“We’ve got to get you settled,” Kay said with a deep sigh. “Those awful Rodefeffers shouldn’t be allowed to keep a cat, let alone a child.”

“I guess since I’m one of them they have a right to say what happens to me,” Grace said.

“Mamie forfeited that right yesterday,” Kay said. “I think Sandy and Trick have both proved they can’t be trusted.”

“I probably got Stacey in big trouble tonight,” Grace said. “Scott said the state police are going to look for her and Aleesha. I may get every Rodefeffer arrested before this is over.”

“Do you mind if I ask what the fight with Mamie was about?”

“We didn’t fight,” Grace said. “I talked back to her and she hit me with her cane.”

“I have a hunch about Mamie,” Kay said. “I wonder if she isn’t having money problems.”

“I heard her and Knox talking about it,” Grace said. “He said he was tired of paying her bills.”

“I see,” Kay said. “I’m so glad Sean is helping you. You need someone to represent you who has your best interests at heart. I’m sorry to say the Rodefeffers may be your family but you could hardly have done worse.”

“I wish there was no one at all,” Grace said. “I liked being invisible.”

“Ah, to be invisible,” Kay said, “I know exactly what you mean. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve had a weight problem. It was just how we were in my family, and no matter how many times I dieted I never could seem to keep the weight off. It’s not really a mystery; I just love food, and eating makes me feel better, always has. I like feeding people and I like to cook.

“Anyway, when I was a teenager, and in college, I used to wish I was invisible, because people were always making comments: ‘You have such a pretty face; it’s a shame you can’t lose some weight.’ Some were well-meaning and some were mean-spirited, but everyone seemed to think they had a right to let me know their opinion of what I looked like. I always dressed in dark, multiple layers of clothing and I never went swimming or did anything where much skin was exposed. I rarely looked anyone in the eye, and I always made self-disparaging comments because I assumed other people were already thinking it, and I wanted them to know I knew how revolting my appearance was to them.”

“You aren’t like that now,” Grace said, thinking of the colorful outfits and bright lipstick that Kay always wore.

“I used to be a solitary, lonely person,” Kay said. “I didn’t date much. The men I was attracted to were never attracted to me, and the men who were attracted to me I never liked. I had female friends, but they always seemed to get married and drift away. I was always the third wheel, the odd one out. I had pretty much accepted that as my lot in life until something happened that changed everything.”

Grace stayed quiet, interested to hear this story.

“After my mother died, I got very depressed. I went to see a counselor, and she was this wonderful old lady named Henrietta Gustafson. I spent most of the first appointment telling her about my sad, unhappy life. I was telling her that I knew other people judged me and found me wanting when she interrupted me and said, ‘What other people think of you is none of your business.’ Well, I had to think long and hard about that one, but what she meant was that if I spent all my time worrying about what other people thought of me I would never be happy.

“I only saw Dr. Gustafson three or four times, but let me tell you it was nothing like I thought therapy was going to be. There was none of that nodding and asking me how it all made me feel. Every time I would say why I thought I was unhappy she would challenge the belief that I was allowing to oppress me. It wasn’t all these other people and circumstances making me unhappy, it was what I believed about myself, and about the world.”

“What kinds of things did you believe?”

“That I would never be good enough unless I was perfect in every way; that I couldn’t be happy if I weren’t married with children; that I couldn’t take care of myself; that I shouldn’t wear things like red lipstick or silly shoes; or that I shouldn’t paint my window sills bright green and my porch swing hot pink. I believed all sorts of silly things and they formed a sort of moveable prison all around me. What Henrietta showed me was that all I had to do was identify the beliefs that were hurting me and trade them for beliefs that helped me.”