Deceptions (55 page)

'No, lunch is my treat; it was my idea.*

Sabrina leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. 'Next time I'm buying.'

She looked back at them fi-om the door: Dolores talking and Linda looking dreamily at a picture on the wall. She thought of Alexandra and Gabrielle. How strange, the many ways we help each other, she thought. And for a moment she wondered who would help her when she finally left for good. They would all be so busy. Oh, but there was one. She smiled faintly as she opened the door to Collectibles. There was always Mrs Thirkell.

On Friday afternoon Sabrina left the shop early to take Linda a stack of books on the history of furniture and decorative arts.

'You don't need to memorize them,' she said when she saw the dismay on Linda's face. 'But you have to know how to use them to look up a piece. And you ought to have an idea of the way furniture styles have changed and how fads affect the market in collectibles. Bight now it's political posters

and lacquerware; I have a feeling dolls will be next. Anyway, read through these, and we'll talk on Monday.'

Walldng up the front steps of the house, she sighed with anticipation. An hour alone before Penny and Cliff arrived; a little time to herself without the demands of family and friends and work. But the door was unlocked. No time after all, she thought; which one of them had come home early?

The living room was empty. 'Cliff?' she called. 'Penny?* There was no answer. Curioxis, Sabrina went upstairs and found Cliff sitting on his bed, desperately shoving into a plastic bag a jumble of pocket calculators, FM radios, pen-and-pencil sets, wallets, tie clips, cuff links and gloves.

'You look like a pirate with his loot,' she said lightly from the doorway.

Cliff spun round. 'I thought you got home at four.'

'I thought you got home at four-thirty.'

'Well, I came home early—'

'So did I. Did you plan to hide everything before I got here?'

He looked up with such fear and shame that Sabrina wanted to rush to him and tell him not to be afraid, she would help him, everything would be all right. But it was clear that something was very wrong, and she stayed across the room. Pulling out his desk chair, she sat down. 'I think you'd better start at the beginning and tell me about it.'

'But I told Dad. When you were in China. Didn't he tell you?'

No one told me anything, she thought. But Stephanie did talk about problems with Chff.

'It seems he decided to keep it between the two of you. I wonder if you appreciate that. From the evidence, I doubt it.'

Cliff looked at his shoes.

'Well?' Sabrina pressed. 'Did you promise him then that you'd stop whatever you were up to? I suppose you did. What happened next? Cliff, you're going to have to answer me sooner or later; why not save time and do it now? Before Penny gets home.'

His eyes brimming with tears. Cliff looked up. 'I did stop. I told them my dad knew about it and I couldn't hide any

more stuff for them. But last week, when you were in England, they brought over this whole load and told me I had to keep it, and I didn't know what to do.'

'Where was Garth -your dad?'

'At a meeting, and Penny was at school working on her puppet show, and they came over—'

'Cliff, who are "they"?'

'These kids, the/re in eighth grade, and they sort of, you know, run the school. They choose the teams and they're always the captains and they go through the cafeteria first even if the rest of us are ahead of them in line... you know. And they rip off stores. They'll say, "I'm going over to Radio Shack to rip off a calculator." Like that. They used to do it just for themselves, but then they started selling the stuff to kids in Chicago when they were down there dealing drugs. So they need^ a place to keep things before they sold them, and one day they asked me if I'd help out. I thought they hked me ... I mean, I felt... good about it...'

Flattered, Sabrina thought. The little tin dictators ask for your help. Join the elite. 'You thought then you'd be able to go first through the cafeteria,' she said.

Cliff looked stanled. 'How did you know that?'

She smiled at him. 'When I was in high school most of the girls were very rich, looking way down their noses at St - at Sabrina and me. We always felt they were doing us a favor by asking us to help them with their homework. Then, later, when we began to win prizes for classwork and trophies in fencing and sailing, they started looking up to us and suddenly they weren't special or awesome at all. Pretty ordinary, in fact. What did this gang promise you for helping them?'

'I could take something for myself once a month, or they'd pay me fifteen dollars a week. 1 took the money. I was going to buy a stereo for my room.'

'Expensive. It sounds like a lot of fifteen-dollar weeks. Are you sure you were a reluctant partner?'

Cliff studied his shoes again. 'Sometimes I was, and then I guess sometimes I wasn't.' Sabrina's careful mildness had reassured him and he talked with relief and growing confidence. 'It's better to be fiiends with those guys than

against them. You never win if you're against them. And I thought, when they asked me, I'd be part of their group... and I'd get money, too and ... so that's what happened.*

'Did it ever occur to you that you were aiding and abetting criminals?'

'Moml They're not criminals! They just rip off stores. It's not like murder or robbing a bank or something. Anyway, they said the stores make so much money they don't even notice when a few things are missing.'

'Oh. don't they? Cliff, stealing is wrong, wherever it's done, and whether it's noticed or not. But it usually is discovered. Did you ever hear of taking inventory?'

•No.'

'That's when stores count their stock and check it against what they bought and sold. When the figures don't match, they know what's been stolen. It's called shrinkage. And then, to make up their losses, they raise the price of everything else in the store. So the rest of us. who don't believe in stealing, end up paying for your pals' thievery.'

There was a pause. 'I never thought of that.'

'And your friends never told you.'

'They're not really my friends.'

'I thought you said you'd be part of their group.'

'I did. But... they don't really want me. Mom. They don't like me at all. Oh, shit.' The tears had come back and he brushed them away fiercely. 'I'm sorry. I know you don't like me to say that, but nothing's the way I thought it would be. They never talk to me hke friends; they make fun of me.'

'For what?' Sabrina asked gently.

'Liking books and getting good grades.'

'Well, we're proud of you for that. But why did you stay with them if they made fun of you? Was it the money?'

'No, it was ... If you really want to know, I'm scared of them. They said they'd beat me up if I told on them, and last week they said if I didn't hide this stuff they'd tell the principal I'd stolen it. Dad wanted to go to the police, but I asked him not to and I wouldn't tell him their names. I can't tell anybody. And I can't stop helping them, either, because even if they don't beat me up they'd keep me off the teams. They'd keep people from talking to me. even my friends, and

I'd be out of everything and alone. They can do that. Mom, and I'm sony, but I'm scared of them, and whatever I do, things will be bad. I know you can't understand that, because you always know what to do, but I don't. I don't know what to do.'

Sabrina went to sit beside him as he slumped on the bed. I understand exactly how you feel. She put her arms around him, and after a minute he put his head on her shoulder. 'I'm Sony, Mom.'

Torwhatr

'Crying.'

'We all cry when we're sad and afraid; you shouldn't apologize. I'd rather you were sony for not telling us when this mess started again. Are you more afraid of us than these bulHes?'

Cliff ducked his head. 'I wanted to.'

'And?'

'Dad trusted me.'

'And you didn't want him to know you had failed himr

'I didn't want him to know I'd lied. Eveiy once in a while he asks if they ever tried to get me in with them again, and I siiwsLys say no. So I let him down and then 1 lied. Now I guess you'll tell him, but there still isn't anything anybody can do.'

'Oh, I think there is.'

'What? Mom, they'll beat me up or oster... ostra ...'

'Ostracize. They won't do either one. I'm going to ground you for a month.'

'Ground me! Moml' He pulled back and glared at her through reddened eyts, 'That's not fair!'

'Is it fair to work for these bullies? Or to get beat up and ignored? Or to be accused of shoplifting to the principal?'

'But—'

'If your parents say that for one month you have to come straight home from school every day, you can't have friends over and you can't go out at night, what better excuse doyou have for not working with these fellows? You can tell them honestly that you have no choice. And, after a month, you'll say your parents are suspicious and you don't want to get grounded again soyou have to stay away from them. But that

may not be necessary. Because while you're grounded, I think we'll alert the police to put some detectives in Radio Shack and other places you'll tell us about. That way, you won't have to give us any names. It shouldn't take long to spot them and break up their ring; they sound fairly stupid tome.'

ClifPs eyes were round with admiration. *Mom that's not bad! That's pretty clever!'

*Yes, I thought so. Considering I've never done anything like it before.'

*Sure you have. You grounded me—'

* I try to forget past punishments.'

'Mom? I've got an idea. If you help me get rid of this stuff now, we wouldn't have to tell Dad. He'd never have to know.'

*You mean you'd lie to him again.'

'No, I just wouldn't say anything at all.'

'But hiding the truth is just a different kind of lie. If you let him believe something that you know isn't true—* She stopped and stared into space. Who am I to give advice,

'Mom?'

Slowly Sabrina turned back to him. 'Cliff, there are some empty cartons in the storeroom. If you'll get a couple of them, we'll pack everything up and your Dad and I will deliver them to the poUce when we talk to them.*

-'But then they'll know I had it all here.*

•We'll find a way to keep you out of it.* As he stood uncertainly, she lost her patience. 'You'll just have to trust us. Now go get those boxes!*

Mumbling, Cliff went off, and Sabrina stood up, trying to slow the beating of her heart. She started to go to her room - maybe now she could have a few minutes alone -just as the front door slammed and Penny's voice danced ahead of her into the house.

Garth had gone through his records and listed eleven students who had complained in the last year about low or failing grades.

'What about this one?' Sabrina asked. 'The one with a question mark after her name.*

'Rita McMillan/ said Garth. *Only a possibility. Didn't I tell you about her last June?*

*I don't think so.'

*I thought I did. She offered her charms in return for a passing grade, and 1 chased her out with my tennis racket. Something like that. I believe I may have called her a whore. It was the week Vivian had been turned down by the tenure committee, and I was not favorably impressed with young women trading on their anatomy. I didn't flunk her, though; she took an incomplete and I gave her permission to take Vivian's class this quarter so she could graduate. But it was all six months ago; I can't believe she'd be involved now.'

Sabrina repeated the name. 'Young women have long memories. Especially when their crown jewels are rejected.'

He smiled. *Rita might think of it that way. Well, now, what shall we do with this list? I must say it makes me feel ridiculous - as if someone handed me a toy gun and told me to play cops and robbers. I'm better at hunting an elusive bacterium.'

'And I'd rather look for a lost Wedgwood.'

He chuckled. 'Bacteria and Wedgwood. Cops and robbers. What a couple we are.'

They were a couple. Sabrina made sure of that. They were seen eveiywhere. Wednesday night, two days after she returned, they attended a film preview and a reception for the director. On Thursday they went to a cocktail party, where the president of the university was attentive and admiring. 'Rightfully so,' said Garth. 'You've never been so beautiful.'

She was vividly beautifiil, dressing all that week, for the first time, with the brilliance of Sabrina Longworth. In vibrant greens and blues, in wine velvet, in striped silk, her heavy hair falling in waves of shimmering bronze below her shoulders, poised and quick, she was a beacon, drawing others to stand in her orbit. And she was never far fi'om Garth. On Saturday night they appeared at the opening of the new university art museum, where Sabrina talked to artists and sculptors and collectors in their language, drawing on all her years of experience. She was exhilarated by the sur-

roundings and the people, and Lloyd Strauss, finding her for a rare moment alone, was effusive.

'You're magnificent, Stephanie; it's wonderfiil that you can do it, so soon after your loss.'

'I am doing it for Garth,' she said clearly, and met Strauss's gaze, daring him to doubt Garth's innocence or call her naive. He did neither; instead he invited them to dinner the following night.

'You're never home!* Penny wailed as Sabrina brushed her hair at her dressing table on Sunday evening.

'Our social season,' Garth said wryly, adjusting his tie and talking to Penny's reflection in the fuU-length mirror. 'In the line of duty, my sweet.'

A tag end of memory caught Sabrina, and she turned to see Penny's woebegone face. 'We hardly have a family anymore - we never even see you!'

The bedroom faded. Sabrina and Stephanie Hartwell stood before a triple mirror in a bedroom in Athens, watching their parents dress for an embassy ball. 'Everybody gets to be with you but us! The only family we have is Stephanie and me -we're our whole family.'

She remembered it so clearly. But for a v/eek she had forgotten it. For a week, with Garth, she had filled the calendar, going out each night after working each day, just as she had done in London: hours crammed with dinners and conversation and new faces. She hadn't reaUzed how much she missed it. And sometimes, standing in a group beneath bright lights, talking, holding a glass of wine, hearing music and laughter on all sides, she forgot for a brief moment who she was; her worlds merged, and she would touch Garth's arm as he stood beside her, loving him, loving the way others looked at them, as a couple, as husband and wife.