Long Memory (6 page)

“But you always had a good time. You and Elaine Hammersmith and Lily Walker.”

Beth shrugged. “I decided to take this year off to spend with you girls.”

Jean snorted, but didn’t say anything else.

“Frank asked me to marry him at the Summer Festival,” Nonie announced. “On the Ferris wheel.”

Beth nodded, trying to look interested, and took another bite of her sandwich. Nonie told this story every couple of days as if they didn’t know it. James listened like it was new. It might be to him. Beth doubted Donna was the type to tell old family stories. Especially stories she wasn’t in.

Too bad James was Donna’s spy. He had a couple of redeeming qualities. Good looking, nice smile. He was attentive to the girls. He must have sat with them for two hours while she slept and showered. He didn’t get frustrated when Nonie asked him “who are you?” over and over. Donna couldn’t bear to hear that once. James was even asking Nonie questions about his grandfather. Things from long ago that she could remember. His arm brushed hers and she didn’t pull it away. He had sounded jealous when he found her talking to Zack.

If she was getting mushy about Donna’s spy, she’d gotten far too much of Zack’s cologne up her nose. He was flirting with every female under the age of eighty. In town two days and she’d already dragged him away from Becky and Andrea.

Beth shifted her arm away from his. At least she could enjoy a meal at the diner where she didn’t have to carry the conversation.

“Do I hear a siren?” Jean asked.

Beth put down her sandwich and wiped her hands. Jean still had hearing like a bat. If she said there was a siren, everybody would hear it in a few minutes. “Let me out, I’ll go look.”

James stood up so Beth could get out of the booth. She heard the siren now. It was headed toward the circle. There were dozens of people there getting ready for the festival. Outside the diner, she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up the street. A group had gathered in the circle and more were headed that way. Why wasn’t Lily doing crowd control like she always did? Unless Lily—

Chapter 4

James stared out the diner window as Beth sprinted up the road. Her blond ponytail sailed behind her like a flag. She had great legs.

“Where did she go? Is she headed for the circle?” Jean demanded.

“I think so.”

“Something terrible must have happened. Ask Judy what’s going on.”

James scanned the diner. On his second pass, he spotted Judy outside the door looking up the road. He waded through the crowd until he got to the door. “Excuse me, Judy?”

“What do you need, hon?” she asked without taking her eyes off the street.

“My great-aunt wants to know what’s going on.”

“Oh honestly.” Judy turned and pushed back inside the diner.

James stayed out a moment longer. A paramedic truck pulled up alongside the circle, and a long-legged man wearing a police uniform walked from behind the diner toward the disturbance. James thought he picked out Beth’s blond head in the crowd.

“Jimmy Leoni?”

James located the voice. The man standing in front of him was a little on the pudgy and depressed side. No one had called him Jimmy since eighth grade. “Yes?”

“George Kline. My parents live in the same neighborhood as Mrs. Bennetti and Ms. Forrester.”

James stared at the man for a moment longer before recognition hit. “Georgie Porgie! I haven’t seen you in twenty-five years.”

George smiled. “Miss Forrester said you were working for that big real estate crook in Georgia. Some bad business, huh?”

“Very bad.”

“You back here to stay?”

“Just visiting. What about you? What are you doing?”

“I work at the high school.”

“Teaching?”

“Janitor.” George shrugged. “It’s a good, steady job. Sorry to hear about your grandmother. That Alzheimer’s is bad.”

James checked the table. Judy stood next to it, filling Jean and Nonie in. They were safe enough for now. “It’s sad. She was always so with it. She could spot a fib from fifty feet.”

George laughed. “You remember that time you told her you were going to stay at my house because you wanted to camp out and you knew she wouldn’t let you? She handed you a baseball bat to beat off the wolves and bears with.”

“I didn’t know there were no wolves or bears in those woods,” James protested.

“Beth Wilson does take good care of them.” George glanced back at the table.

“Does she?” Just because he wasn’t here to spy for his mother didn’t mean she wasn’t going to ask. It was always better to have something to give her.

“Oh sure. She’s always taking them around town and keeping them busy. Bill Nagy says every time he has to go out there, she’s always real calm no matter what’s going on.”

Calm? That Jekyll and Hyde thing must be part of her regular routine. He’d never seen her be anything but pleasant and calm around Nonie. “Who’s Bill Nagy?”

“Paramedic. He had Ms. Forrester and Mrs. Bennetti in school.”

James nodded as if that added something to the picture. Everyone had either had his great-aunt and grandmother in school or wished they had. As a kid that had been a weight around his neck. The whole town expected him to be a perfect angel and everyone knew who he was. Now it felt comforting. Automatic roots. “Beth seems nice.”

“She’s real nice. A good teacher too. Frank Connor down at the elementary school says she’s a sweetheart to work with. Even when she’s really stressed out, like when she’s fighting with Mrs. Bennetti’s daughter, she’s nice.” George blanched. “Oh sorry. I guess that’s your mom.”

“Don’t worry about it.” His mom, unfortunately, was an automatic root too.

“Good seeing you again.”

“Good to see you too.” James turned to the table. Jean and Nonie were standing up. “Hey, are you two ready?” He flipped over the check and tossed a twenty and a ten on it. One check. His mother would probably have a snit if she knew Beth was letting Nonie buy her lunch once a week, but it was a small fee for getting them out regularly.

“Who are you?” Nonie asked.

“It’s your grandson, James,” Jean reminded her.

“James?” Nonie blinked a few times, but recognition wasn’t coming.

“Let’s see if we can find Beth.” James slipped his arm through Jean’s.

“Who is Beth?” Nonie asked.

Lunch once a week wasn’t enough payment. Dealing with this on a full-time basis would make anyone short-tempered. Unless she was skimming money someplace else. But if she was skimming money, why did she need a general POA? To get her hands on the whole enchilada? This was a lot of effort for a little con. Between them, his grandmother and great-aunt weren’t exactly Trump material.

* * * *

Beth didn’t remember running to the crowd. She pushed through the press looking for Lily’s long dark hair. The siren stopped beside the circle as she broke through the ring. Lily knelt on one side and Elaine on the other. John McMannus, who owned the only garage in town, lay on the grass between them, red faced and sweaty.

“All right, everybody, let us through,” Bill said. “Where’s Lily?”

“I’m right here, Bill,” Lily said. “It looks like John had a heart attack.”

Beth fell to her knees behind Lily.

“I’m sorry.” Elaine glanced around the crowd, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry.”

“Dear God, Elaine, it’s not like you gave him the heart attack,” Beth snapped and immediately felt sorry. Elaine cringed. Another opportunity for her temper to cause trouble. She stood, grabbing Elaine’s arm. “Come on, honey. Let’s get out of the way so they can work.”

“It’s my fault,” Elaine muttered. “I should have kept my mouth shut.”

“Elaine, this is not your fault.” Beth put her arm around Elaine’s shoulders. “You take too much responsibility for everything. John smoked like a chimney, ate all the wrong stuff and never learned to watch his temper.”

Elaine met her eyes. “You don’t understand.”

“Clear!” Bill shouted.

Beth clutched Elaine. She hoped Judy had Nonie and Jean in hand because she had another crisis to deal with. Nonie had probably already forgotten she was there, but Jean would want to know what had happened.

“We’ve got him,” Bill announced. “Let’s take him in.”

Lily backed away as they loaded John onto a stretcher. “What were you guys arguing about?” she asked Elaine.

Staring as they lifted John into the back of the paramedic truck, Elaine shook her head.

“What happened?” Beth asked Lily as she turned to them. The crowd started breaking up into chattering clumps.

Lily shrugged. “I was in the church talking to the minister about the first aid station and I heard yelling. When I stepped out to see who it was, John and Elaine were screaming at each other and then John grabbed his chest and keeled over.”

“That’s terrible,” said a masculine voice behind them.

Beth jerked around. James stood behind her. “Where are Nonie and Jean?” she demanded, grabbing for Elaine who was sliding toward the ground. Lily reached for her too, but Elaine found her own balance and pulled away from both of them.

“In the car.” James gestured over his shoulder. “Everyone was finished eating and Aunt Jean wanted to know what was going on.”

Beth peered into the car. Nonie and Jean sat in the backseat waiting. “Did you pay the bill?”

“Of course I paid the bill. Even yours.”

Beth swallowed, trying to derail her impulse to get angry. “Thank you. Lily, Elaine, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”

“Sounds like we have things to talk about.” Lily raised one eyebrow.

“It was nothing. We just got into an argument,” Elaine whimpered. “It was just an argument.”

Beth hesitated. She didn’t want to walk away from a friend in need, but she couldn’t abandon Nonie and Jean either.

Lily patted her arm. “Go. We’ll call you later.”

Beth followed James to the car. She planned to someday be living next door to Elaine and Lily while someone took care of her. The way things were going, it wasn’t going to be any of their grandchildren, but they might luck into a former student. She climbed into the passenger seat.

“What happened?” Jean demanded.

“John McMannus had a heart attack. They took him to the hospital.”

“Oh my. He smoked a lot. Even when he was a kid. I remember catching him at basketball games outside smoking.” Jean clucked. “A shame. Such an awful temper too. It didn’t help that his son was just as wild as he was. Johnny went to jail for statutory rape.”

“Statutory rape?” Beth asked. She’d spent a lot of her school career trying to stay away from that crowd.

“He was dating the sheriff’s daughter and got caught with her right after his birthday. Everybody knew it was a sham. The sheriff was looking to get him. Don’t you remember that?”

Jean remembered everything. “I remember now. He was just three years older than me.”

“What happened to make him have the heart attack?” Jean asked. The reason Jean remembered everything was because Jean had to know everything.

“Lily said he was fighting with Elaine, but she wouldn’t say about what.”

“Is she gay?”

Beth squeezed her eyes closed. Half the town thought Elaine was a lesbian. Even Beth and Lily had speculated, but Elaine never seemed to be attracted to either sex. She got embarrassed by innuendo. Right now she was hurting and Beth couldn’t be there for her. “No, she’s not.” Beth clasped her hands in her lap. One more day when she’d had to choose between her best friends and Nonie and Jean. Life was not fair.

* * * *

James dialed his mother’s number. She answered in four rings, which meant she had been debating not answering at all. Her cellphone was never more than two rings away. Four rings gave her time to check the Caller ID, decide whether she wanted to talk to the caller and answer. Fine, he knew he wasn’t her favorite person right now.