No Perfect Secret (18 page)

“It’s not coming from out here. It’s coming from inside the house. Anna might be having
a bad dream. I’m going to check on her.”

“I’ll come with you,” Helen said, allowing the door to slam behind her. She was hard on Caburn’s heels when they emerged into the living room. Both froze. The
y stared speechless at a tableau of Anna, clinging to the back of a chair; at the young woman standing near another chair, and bouncing a fussy baby.

The young
woman turned a hesitant smile towards Helen. “Are you Kevin’s mom?”

“No,” Helen said, catching her breath. “I’m Helen Callaway. I believe we spoke on the phone earlier in the week.”

“Oh. Yes, we did, about Kevin being delayed.”

“What are you doing here, Janie?”

“It’s like I was telling Anna. Kevin told me he was estranged from his mother and sister over their dad’s estate.” She shrugged. “I think families should stick together. I thought I could mediate, you know, while Kevin is out of town. I mean, I want our son to know his grandmother and his aunt.” The baby let out a wail. Janie tried to comfort her baby, but he was having none of it. “I’m sorry, he’s so cranky. He’s teething, and he needs his diaper changed.”

“Come with me,” Helen directed. “We’ll use his grandmother’s room.”

“Clara isn’t here?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Oh, I was so hoping...”

Even as Helen and Janie’s voices faded, Caburn’s entire attention was on Anna. Her hands were squeezing the life out of the back of the chair. He thought she was either sleep-drugged, or catatonic. He couldn’t figure out which. He had never been faced with a situation such as this. His concern was that he not make it worse. His first inclination was to envelop her in his arms and whisper soothing words in her ear, and have that solve all her problems. He wanted desperately to make her suffering go away, yet he realized she owned it
—it was hers to keep or forsake. The best he could do was to not precipitate more of a meltdown. He moved to face her in front of the chair. “Anna, will you look at me?” Nothing. “Just nod your head if you’re hearing me.”

Her chin dropped. Okay. That was good. “You’ve faced the worst of it. There isn’t any more. There are no more secrets. I mean, if there are, we don’t know it. Everything is out in the open now. If you’ll let me, I’m going to help you get through this. There won’t be any
more secrets between us. There won’t be any more lies. Are you okay with that?”

Her hands loosened on the back of the chair. Caburn thought: Progress.

But then, in the blink of an eye, Anna sank out of sight. He heard her head thump on the wooden floor. He raced around the chair and scooped her up in his arms. He felt an instant of searing pain in his back, and knew he’d torn loose all of the stitches—inside the wound and out. Can’t worry about that now, he told himself.

Anna was dead weight and as limp as wet rope. He laid
her on the sofa. First aid...first aid... What the hell had the Red Cross taught them? First he put a pillow under her feet. He switched on the lamp on the side table near her head. He knelt down to check her more easily. Her arms were okay. Nothing broken. He checked her nose, her teeth and ran his fingers lightly over her head. Oh. There was a huge bump forming at the top of her ear.

“What happened?” Helen asked as she returned to the living room, concern in her voice.

“I was talking to her, soft-like and she just...just disappeared behind that chair. Feel this lump on her head. Tell me what you think.”

“Oh, mercy. I think that’s a big headache, is what I’m thinking. I’ll find something in the kitchen to make
an ice bag. Sooner you get it on the lump, the better it’ll be.”

Caburn stayed on his knees at the sofa edge. Anna’s chest was rising and falling. He watched her shift her shoulders, take a deeper breath, and open her eyes. She slowly put her arms around his neck and began pulling him closer. He thought she was going to kiss him. His heart fluttered. But, no, she turned his head so that his ear was near her lips.

“She doesn’t know anything, Frank,” she whispered. “Oh, dear God. She is so young. Don’t tell her in my house. Don’t! I couldn’t bear it.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t. You bumped your head. Helen’s making you an ice bag. Can you sit up?”

“In a minute.” Her arms fell away from his neck.

“Keep your eyes open, okay.”

“Okay.” She took in his lived-in face, his dark eyes. “Your hat’s on cockeyed, and you need a shave bad, Frank. Or are you growing a beard?”

“Both. I’m growing a beard and I need a shave.”

Helen returned with ice in a plastic bag and wrapped in a dishtowel. Anna applied it to the side of her head. “I don’t really feel anything.”

“You will,” said Helen. She plopped herself in the armchair. “This is such a screw up, I don’t know who to call first.”

“Where is...?” Anna began.

“In Clara’s room, nursing the baby.”

Anna inhaled deeply. “I wonder what she was thinking to be out in this weather. With a baby...”

“That’s the same thought I had,” Helen said. “She said it was nice when she left Ellicott City, started snowing when she got on the Beltway, then
she was held up because of a wreck, and by that time it was sleeting.
Then
she had a flat tire and had to wait over an hour for road service.”

“Not a good day for either one of us,” Anna said.

Helen garbled a laugh. “That’s a whopper of an understatement. We have to get her out of here.”

“Helen...
” Anna began, lowering her voice. “She thinks I’m Kevin’s sister. She told me she bought Kevin a new wallet, and to surprise him she exchanged everything in it, and found my picture behind an old driver’s license. That’s how she knew my address. I don’t want her to know any differently while she’s in my house. She’s the
other woman
, and she doesn’t know it... And she has a baby.”

Helen’s expression revealed a new respect for Anna. “Girl, you have far more compassion than I would, were I in your situation.”

“It’s not compassion, I don’t think. I just know what I’m going through. It’s going to be worse for her—I mean—with the baby, and I don’t want to see it, or hear it.” Anna’s eyes began to tear. She exhaled slowly to regain control. “This is just...just...beyond comprehension. I can’t believe Kevin did this. I want to scream.”

“Her parents are on a wedding anniversary cruise in the Mediterranean,” put in Caburn. “Albert was holding off telling her until her parents get back on Wednesday.”

Anna stood up, surprised to find her legs only a bit wobbly. “I’m going to have a soak in the tub while you guys figure this out. Tell me when it’s safe to come out.” She stopped and turned before she entered the hall. “You know who is going to be happy about this? Clara-Alice.”

Once he heard the bathroom door close, Caburn, too, stood. His legs were not as steady as Anna’s. “Helen
—I hate to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure I pulled all the stitches in my back. I’m gonna make a run over to the ER and let that doc torture me again. Next I’m going home to shower and shave and pack a bag; then I’ll come back here and stay with Anna. Help her as much as I can.”

“You can’t leave me to clear this mess up by myself.”

“I damn sure can and I damn sure will.”

~~~~

An hour and ten minutes later, Helen tapped on the bathroom door. Anna peeked out. “She’s gone,” Helen said. “Albert sent a car and driver to take her back to Ellicott City, and a tow truck to haul her car.”

Anna tightened the sash on her robe. “What did you tell her about me?”

“Not the truth. Gads! I feel so bad for her. And for you. I told her you just needed some time. She apologized for barging in here like that.”

“I am so glad that
Clara-Alice wasn’t here. Talk about hitting the fan. That would’ve been it. You look done in, Helen. I’m going to brew some tea. Would you like a cup?”

Helen chuffed. “I might as well stay until Frank gets back.”

“Back from where?”

“He went home to shower and shave by way of the ER. He tore out the stitches in his back when he picked you up off the floor.”

“Oh, dang, he should’ve just let me lay there.”

“Not an option for Frank. He’s got a hero complex. On top of that, he’s stubborn. I think it comes from being raised on the prairies where the buffalo roam and all that corny stuff.”

“I was raised in Kansas, too. In the cities, though. I don’t mind corny.”

Helen winced. “I’ll cut my tongue out first chance I get.”

Anna laughed. “I keep telling myself to stop laughing, stop smiling. But then I keep hearing my mom in my head: you got to keep laughter in your soul.”

“Your mom has a point.”

“Had,” Anna said. She exhaled. “I wish she were here with me now. I feel like I’ve made a complete mess of things.”

“I hate it when women do that,” Helen said, plopping down in a kitchen chair. “I just hate it. I mean, the world is ruled by men and when something goes wrong
—women jump in and holler: My fault! My fault!”

“Oh. I’m doing that.”

“Yep. Next, I’ll be hearing you forced Kevin to get that girl pregnant.”

“If you don’t mind, Helen, you can cut your tongue out right now. I actually have some very good knives from my cooking school days in Paris. They’re in the cabinet behind you.” Anna turned
away to brew the tea.

Helen smiled at Anna’s back. “Frank is right. You are one sharp lady. Knife sharp.” Helen laughed at her own joke.

The kettle whistled. Anna made the tea and put the cups on the table. She got the bottle of Haig & Haig off the sideboard and poured a dollop of scotch into her tea. “This is a Frank Caburn special. You want a shot in yours? Makes it kind of plummy tasting.”

“Sometimes that man does have good sense. Pour away.”

They sat across from one another in a comfortable silence. After a few sips of spiked tea, Anna quizzed Helen about her life.

“You know something? No one has asked about my life in a thousand years.”

“You never married?”

“Nope. I was in love once. It ended badly and that was enough for me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was, too, for a while. He went off to be a late blooming hippie, I went to Egypt, saw the pyramids, climbed the Great Wall in China, went on a cruise through the Panama Canal, and visited the Inca ruins in Peru. I ended up really satisfied with my life. And I love my job.”

“I love my job, too. Uh...Helen, do you think there are any more women out there?”

“Let’s hope not,” Helen said, recalling the condoms found in Nesmith’s wallet. “But, I wouldn’t
be surprised.”

“How did Kevin meet her, do you know?”

“Same way he met you.” Helen frowned. “He was waiting for a flight at Gatwick. She was ending a tour with some fellow teachers. They struck up a conversation.”

“That bastard! He used his work as a pick up line. Practice makes perfect. It damned sure worked on me.”

“Anna, please. I thought we just put that kind of thinking out to pasture. Kevin was slick. And think about this—if he hadn’t dropped dead of a heart attack, you wouldn’t know a thing. No telling how long he could’ve kept up his dual lives. And, you’d still be stuck with Clara. Let me assure you that the State Department didn’t have a clue. Kevin was a well trusted courier with fourteen years’ experience. He was charming and well-like by his superiors.”

“Until he dropped dead in a foreign airport,” Anna added, being careful to keep the self-pity from her voice. This is the lowest point in my life, she thought. Things could only get better. But, better was relative and not necessarily reassuring.

“Yep. Look at it this way. God took his eye off the sparrow and put it on Kevin, said, uh, oh, got a bad boy down there. Zap!”

Anna laughed. In truth, every inch of her was bone-numb with misery, her heart beat only because of nature. The other woman, the child-wife who was at least ten years her junior had the baby Anna had longed for, prayed for; begged both Kevin and God for.

Helen was still laughing. She sounded like a strangled turkey. “Let’s have some more tea,” she said, her honking subsiding.

Outside the storm continued. Winter howled under the eaves, thrummed nosily against windows, whipped icy waves on the Potomac and sleet piled ice an inch deep on the roads. The outside world wasn’t even on the radar in Anna’s kitchen. It was warm and cozy and steamy. After the second pot of scotch-laced tea had been consumed, Anna pushed her cup aside. “I think I’m done.”

“I don’t like waste,” Helen said. “Pass it over.”

“Uh, Helen, maybe we ought have some coffee and a snack.”

“Nope and nope. I got a buzz on. It feels good.” She was also getting a bit maudlin. “You hurt Frank’s feeling today, you know.”

Anna’s jaw dropped. “Because I tore down the mistletoe?”

“Because you sent that cake home with Clarence.”

“But, I baked it for Clarence
—as a thank you for helping out over here.”