Tell Me Lies (27 page)

Em was sitting on the couch, clutching Phoebe. She had the dazed look of a child who had cried too much and needed to cry again but couldn’t find the energy. Mel looked at her wide-eyed and then sat down and put her arm around her. “I love you, Emily,” she whispered, and Em put her head on Mel’s shoulder for a moment.

Three knelt down before her. “Hi, kid,” he said. “You okay?”

Em shook her head. “No,” she said softly. “My daddy’s dead.”

“I know, honey,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”

She nodded and clutched Phoebe closer, and the puppy yipped.

“Phoebe looks like she needs to go out,” he said. “Let’s take her out in the backyard.”

Em nodded and Three led her and Mel out into the hall with Phoebe padding anxiously along behind, and Maddie almost said,
“No,
”until she remembered she didn’t have to worry about Em being kidnapped anymore. Brent was dead.

“So how are you?” Treva said, pulling her down onto the couch. “You okay?”

“No.” Maddie leaned back. It seemed too great a chore to do anything else. There was too much here for her to handle. “This is awful.”

“Let me get you a drink.” Howie backed out into the hall.

“You have his sympathies,” Treva told her. “He just hates stuff like this.”

“Who doesn’t?” Maddie said. “I wish Brent wasn’t dead. A divorce would have been better.”

“Shhhh!” Treva grabbed her arm. “Are you crazy? Your husband has just been murdered. Do
not
talk about divorce.”

Maddie nodded. “I know. You’d think I’d be all caught up in how awful this is. But actually, it’s the details of the situation that—well, there’s just so much to take care of.” Maddie looked at her friend. “You have no idea how complicated my life is.”

Howie came back in the room with a tray and three glasses. “All I could find was Scotch.”

“Good,” Treva said. “Give it all to Maddie.”

The doorbell rang, and Howie put down the Scotch and went to answer it, his relief at getting away obvious and great. It was Gloria from next door with a casserole. She came into the living room and stood there, red-eyed and defeated in her best blue Laura Ashley, clutching her Pyrex before her.

“Maddie, I just heard,” she said. “If there’s anything I can do—” She broke off in obvious distress.

“Thank you, Gloria,” Maddie said. “It’s sweet of you to come. And a casserole, too. Really . . .” She led Gloria and the casserole into the kitchen and dumped them both on her mother.

“I’m going to say that a thousand times in the next couple of days,” she told Treva when she came back. “I should have cards printed.”

“What was wrong with that woman?” Treva said.

“I think she had plans for Brent,” Maddie told her. Could it have been Gloria? Gloria in crotchless panties? Gloria shooting Brent in the head?

The doorbell rang and Treva said, “Casseroles freeze well.”

“Good idea,” Maddie said. “Can you take some of them home with you?”

Three casseroles and two cakes later, Helena and Norman Faraday showed up and the day really went to hell.

Norman looked shattered, his pop eyes even more startling than usual because of the red rims. Maddie had never thought him a handsome man, but he’d radiated power and that had camouflaged his physical shortcomings. Now she watched him as he tottered into the living room, all that power gone now that all his dreams of living through his son were gone.

He was just a little potbellied guy in his sixties, slumping in his Sansabelt slacks, looking lost and ineffectual. For the first time since she met him, Maddie felt sorry for him.

“I’m sorry, Norman,” she said, and he said, “You didn’t do right by my boy,” but there was no venom in his voice.

Helena had enough venom for both of them. There was no slump to Helena; her hard straight body was even harder and straighter now that she was rigid with rage and loss. She looked straight into Maddie’s eyes with such loathing that Maddie took a step back and then remembered that morning. By now, thanks to Esther at the police station, they’d have heard about C.L. being in bed with her when Henry called. For a moment, Maddie felt sympathy for both of them. If somebody had betrayed Em, she’d be just as merciless.

Of course, Brent had betrayed her first, but now that he was dead, the point seemed moot. She’d cheated on her dead husband and now her mother-in-law hated her and was going to punish her forever.

“Hello, Helena,” Maddie said.

“I have
nothing to
say to you,” Helena said, and went to sit with Em.

“I’ll take that Scotch now,” Maddie said to Howie, and Helena sucked in her breath through her teeth and glared at her as she bent closer to Em.

Then her grandmother Helena came from where she’d been talking to Em’s mother and sat beside her, and Em wished she’d gone to the backyard anyway.

“You must never forget your father, Emily,” Grandma Helena said, and Em wondered what she was talking about. How could she ever forget her daddy?

“You must remember him for the very important and very good man he was,” Grandma Helena went on, taking her hand. Grandma Helena always smelled like perfume, but like chemicals, not flowers, and Em felt sicker as Grandma Helena leaned closer. “He was a very important man in this town. Always remember that you are his daughter, and don’t let him down.”

Em nodded. It was easier than explaining that she didn’t care if her dad was important or not. She just wanted him back. She tried to scoot away a little, but Grandma Helena held her hand tighter.

“Always remember that you are Brent Faraday’s daughter,” Grandma Helena went on. “Never forget.”

Em looked up at her. “How could I forget my daddy?”

“Not just your daddy,” Grandma Helena said, leaning forward more, and Em pulled away a little again. “He was a Faraday. And so are you.”

“And so is my mom,” Em said, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“No.”
Grandma’s voice was quiet, but it felt like she’d yelled. “Your mother is a Martindale, which is quite a different thing altogether.” Em watched as her grandmother looked at her mom across the room.
She doesn’t like my mom,
Em thought, and she jerked her hand away and stood up.

“I won’t forget my daddy,” she said. “Excuse me.”

Grandma Helena started to say something else, but Em walked away from her grandmother, something she’d never done before because it was rude to walk away from adults when they were talking to you, but she had to get away.

She went down the hall, ignoring her grandmother when she called after her, and then her mother when she called, too. Phoebe was sitting by the back door, and she wagged her tail when she saw Em.

“Come on,” Em said to her, and held the door open for her. Phoebe bounded out, and Em followed her to sit on the porch steps and think.

How could Grandma Helena think she’d forget her dad? Grandma Helena wasn’t the nicest person Em knew, but she’d never seemed dumb before. Em would never forget her daddy, ever.

Except even now it was harder to remember
exactly
how he’d looked and sounded,
exactly
as if he were going to come walking through the door any minute. Em squeezed her eyes tight shut. He was tall and he had dark brown hair and he always smiled at her because he loved her. She tried to capture memories of him teaching her to ride her bike, but he’d had to go away before she got the hang of it, so her mom had come out and shown her and stayed with her until she got it. He hadn’t been there for Brownies either, or for the school play when she was a bell ringer because he’d had to be at work, but he’d come to some of her softball games, he’d seen her hit one out of the park.

That was it. Em focused on the way he’d looked when he’d come out on the field to hug her. He shouldn’t have, the game wasn’t over yet, but it was so good to have him there, and he was smiling and he was so proud. That was the moment she was going to keep, her dad smiling at her. She struggled to think of the other things that made him special, the way he hugged her and the way he loved butter pecan ice cream, and the way he said “Emily”—all of it, not just “Em”—and the way he put his head back when he laughed, and she put it all in the memory picture, her dad, with her Little League cap on his head so she’d remember the exact moment, and he’d be hugging her with one arm and holding ice cream with the other hand, and he’d be laughing with his head thrown back, and she put it all in the picture and closed her eyes hard, memorizing it, just the way C.L. had taught her.

And when her mom came out and said, “Em?” she had it, and she opened her eyes and said, “I’m fine,” and followed her mother back into the house, calling Phoebe to come with them. She went in and sat down next to her grandma Helena, and took her hand, and said, “I won’t ever forget him,” and her grandmother squeezed her hand, and said, “You’re a good girl. You’re a good Faraday.”

Then her grandmother gave her mother another dirty look.

“Excuse us,” he said, and dragged her through the hall and into the family room, closing the door behind him.

“What are you doing?” Maddie asked, outraged. “Do you know who’s out there?”

“Henry got a warrant and opened your safe-deposit box,” C.L. said. “The money’s gone. Know anything about that?”

She gaped at him. “Brent must have taken it out,” she said, and then stopped. She’d seen it Saturday afternoon. Brent had been dead by then. It wasn’t Brent.

“You and Brent are the only ones who opened that box in the past two weeks,” C.L. said. “And you were the last one in there. They keep records of that. And I have to tell you, I’m not real happy with you right now since I just stood in front of Henry and swore you’d told him the truth about everything. What did you do with it?”

Could it be the money from the car? It wasn’t the right amount, but
— Then the impact of what he said hit her. “I’m not a liar,” she said hotly. “I didn’t take the money. I left the money and the tickets and Brent’s passport all there. The only thing I took was Em’s passport. I swear.”

C.L. looked confused, as if he wanted to believe her but didn’t. “Jesus, Maddie, this is scaring me. If you know anything about this, come clean. I don’t want to lose you to some dumb mistake Henry’s going to make because he thinks you’re out to get me.”

“
What
?” Maddie said, and then Treva came through the door.

“Whatever you’re doing,” Treva whispered, “stop it and get out here. This looks very funny, and the Faradays aren’t laughing.”

Maddie pushed past C.L. and went back to the living room to join her mother and Em on the couch. Gloria was sitting next to Helena, and they both glared as she went by. Just what she needed, Helena and Gloria bonding.

She picked up Em’s hand and held it tightly. Forget Helena and Gloria. Somebody had stolen her safe-deposit key and taken the money. She wasn’t even sure that was possible to do, but somebody had done it. And nobody was going to believe her, especially if she suddenly handed over two hundred thirty thousand dollars. People would think she’d stolen the other fifty thousand. Henry would arrest her.

She had to turn that money over to Henry.

Em curled up beside her and put her head into Maddie’s lap.

She couldn’t turn that money over to Henry.

“We need that other lock on,” she heard her mother tell C.L. when he followed her into the living room, oblivious to the Faraday glares, and he nodded and said, “Come help, Em,” and held out his hand. Em straightened and sniffed and went to help him.

“They’ve had the prowler here,” Maddie’s mother explained, and everyone tried to look more sympathetic than they had before with the exception of the Faradays, especially Helena, who seethed with uncontained malevolence.

It was a long afternoon, longer after C.L. left and Vince from the police department showed up asking for her running shoes. She’d left them in the back of her mother’s car, and he asked if he could take them and went to find them. Even if she’d cared, she couldn’t have said no, and she didn’t care. She just wanted away from everybody but Em, and Em safe and not crying. At nine her mother shooed everyone out the door and helped her get Em into bed with Phoebe close beside her, and then her mother left and Maddie got ready for bed, too. Tomorrow would be another day full of casseroles and kindness, and the day after would be the funeral. It was too much to contemplate and Maddie shrugged herself into a pink Care Bears sleep shirt that was so old it was softer than her skin and crawled into bed.

Comfort clothes, she thought, as the ragged hem brushed against her thighs. Almost as good as comfort food. Now, if she only had a teddy bear. C.L. sprang to mind and she tried to shove him away. Em had to come first.

But it would have felt so good to just tell him everything and then let him make love to her until she was mindless. She let herself think about it once and then pushed the thought away. It wasn’t going to happen. There was no point in even thinking about it. She fell asleep carefully not thinking about C.L., tall beside her, hard inside her.

It was much later when Maddie heard something and woke up. She went to check on Em and Phoebe, the one asleep after a last crying fit, the other drowsing and making rabbit-chasing noises, and when she saw they were fine, she relaxed and realized she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten all day, and there were a thousand casseroles in her refrigerator and at least two cakes she knew of. The clock said two A.M., but her stomach said now.

She tiptoed down the stairs and was in the living room before something moved in the dark and she realized she wasn’t alone. She gasped, and a hand clamped over her mouth while an arm pulled her back against a hard body.

“Shut up,” C.L. whispered. “You’ll wake up Em.”

Maddie bit down hard.

He swore under his breath and let go. “What the hell?” His voice rasped at her in the dark. “Jesus, that hurt. Have you had your shots?”

Maddie turned on him, whispering, too. “What are you doing here? You broke into my house!”

“I did not. I have a key.” He held it up in front of her in the gloom. “I installed the locks, remember?”

She grabbed the key. “You’re looking for the money, aren’t you? I don’t believe this. I told you,
I left the money in the box.”

C.L. exhaled in exasperation. He grabbed her hand and whispered, “Come here,” and pulled her into the kitchen, and she went, partly because she didn’t want to wake up Em and partly because even if he was a louse, his hand felt good in hers. “Maddie,” he said in a low but normal voice when they were in the dim kitchen, outlined by the glow of the night-light by the sink, “if Henry finds you with that money, you’re dead. I’m trying to save you, damn it. Tell me where it is, and I’ll find a way to get it to Henry without you in the middle.”

“Listen,” she told him as quietly as she could. “I left the money in the box. I swear to you on my mother’s life, I left the money there.”

C.L. looked relieved but still suspicious. He dropped her hand and put his hands on her waist, pulling her a little closer, which he had no business doing, but his hands felt so good, hot and sure even through her soft shirt, that she couldn’t pull away. He ducked his head down to look into her eyes while he held her close. “So if Henry searches here, we have nothing to worry about, right?”

As long as he doesn‘t look in your car.
Maddie tried to step back, but C.L. held her in place.

“I ask because your shoes match the only footprints coming down from the Point,” he said. “You didn’t tell me you’d walked up there.”

“That was Thursday night.” Maddie tried again to step away without making a production of it, but C.L.‘s grip on her waist was firm. “I walked up, and I saw Brent up there with a blonde, and then I walked down and came home and met you. I left my muddy shoes in the car. I was in my bare feet, remember?”

“Right.” C.L. relaxed his grip a little. “You were in your bare feet. I can tell Henry that. Can I also tell him he won’t find anything else if he searches here?”

“He won’t find the two hundred and eighty thousand,” she told him. “I left it in the box.”

C.L.‘s hands tightened on her waist. “So what
will
Henry find if he searches?”

“A lot of dust,” Maddie stalled. “I haven’t had much time to clean, what with murderers and blackmailers and all. Which reminds me, did you talk to Bailey? Because if he talks, we can both kiss what little we have left of our reputations good-bye. Did you—”

“No,” C.L. said. “I told Henry to handle him. Tomorrow—”

“Will be too late.” Maddie put her hand on his shoulder to turn him toward the door. “Go. Find him.”

“It’s the middle of the night.” C.L. moved closer again, making her hand slip up to his neck, and his arms went around her to pull her close. “Maddie, we have to talk about the money.” He kissed the top of her head, and she thought,
Move away now.

“I don’t know about any money.” She tried to take a step back. “All I know is my kid is upstairs, so you can let go now. She’s not walking in and catching us. You can’t stay here,”

“We’ll hear Phoebe barking before Em hits the stairs,” C.L. said in her ear. “Tell me everything you know about the money so I can figure out what to do.” He moved his hands over her back, and she shivered, and then he moved them down farther and she forgot why he was a bad idea. “God, you feel good,” he said as he pressed her hips to his. “Tell me about the damn money so we can make love.”

“We can’t do that anymore,” she said, and he slipped his hands under her shirt and moved them up her bare back. “No.” She pushed him away. “Em is upstairs. There is no way in hell. I don’t even want to have to explain why you’re in the kitchen, let alone in me.
Out.”

“Good idea,” he said, and opened the back door. While she was trying to feel relieved, he grabbed her hand and yanked her out the door onto the dark back porch with him.

“Hey,” she said, and he said, “Not even Frog Point can see us in this dark.” He caught her to him as she tripped barefoot down the steps, “Come here.”

“No,” she said, and then his mouth was on hers and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him just one more time because he tasted like heat and safety. She stood on the bottom step, which made her mouth level with his when he stood on the ground, and it brought a new angle to their kiss that had advantages, but they were outside, and that was stupid, so that was going to be it. “Thank you,” she said breathlessly when he finally broke the kiss. “I enjoyed that. Good-bye.”

He pulled her down with him to the sidewalk and wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t let you go. I have to save you. Even if you don’t want me to, I have to. I thought I could just ride into town and nail Brent and ride out again, but I can’t leave you. I love you.”

Maddie drew back. “What do you mean, nail Brent? Is that what Stan was talking about?”

C.L. pulled her close again. “That’s why I came to the house Friday night. Brent sold Stan his quarter of the company . . .” C.L. went on explaining the deal he’d made with Sheila while he held on to her, and Maddie stared out into the dark.

He hadn’t come back to see her. She’d forced an unwilling man to the Point while he’d been trying to pump her for information about her embezzling husband. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “You’re telling me I raped you at the Point?”

C.L. stopped in midsentence and squinted down at her. “Are you nuts? Did you hear me screaming for mercy in that backseat? Didn’t you notice the way I just dragged you out of your house because I can’t stand not touching you? Get a grip, woman.”

“You didn’t come for me at all.” Maddie felt stupid. “This whole thing started because of money. And you never told me. You slept with me, and you never told me.”

“What difference does it make why I showed up to begin with?” C.L. said. “All that matters is now. Once we’re married—”

“What?” Maddie jerked her head up. “Once we’re what?”

“Married.” C.L. kissed her forehead. “I talked to Anna and she said you should wait a year, so this time next year should be good. That’ll give me time to get the house done—”

“What house?” Maddie asked, numb. “What are you talking about?”

“Howie’s building us a house next to Henry and Anna, on that piece or land close to the river.” C.L. held her tighter. “I was going to surprise you, but—”

“I’m surprised.” Maddie pulled away from him. “I don’t want to get married. I’ve been married. I didn’t like it.”

“You weren’t married to me,” C.L. said. “We’ll be different. We—”

“C.L., there isn’t any we.” Maddie made her voice as firm as she could so he’d listen. “Everything I do right now has to be for Em. I can’t be with you. I can’t even be near you. You have to go.”

“No.” He kissed her cheek, and then the corner of her mouth, and then her mouth, and she fell into him the way she always did, for just one last time, she promised herself, into the rich darkness of his kiss that took her no matter what she was feeling at the time. Then she pulled away, and this time he let her go. “No. No more. You have to go. I can’t believe you made all these plans—”

“What did you think?” C.L. said, losing his temper. “That I was sleeping with you just for the sex?”

“Yes,” Maddie said, and then remembered the tenderness in the way he held her and kissed her and worried about her. “No. I don’t know. I sure didn’t think you’d build a damn house after two nights with me. What were you thinking of?”

“Us,” C.L. said, his voice tight. “I was thinking of us. The same damn thing I’ve been thinking of since high school. This is the same thing all over again, isn’t it? I’m looking at the future and you’re turning away.”

Maddie turned to him, amazed. “I haven’t seen you in twenty years, and you come to town for one weekend, and you think that’s it? That’s all you know of me, high school and two nights of sex, and you’re ready to make a life commitment?”

He was quiet for so long that she looked closer to see if he was all right. “I have loved you all my life,” he said, and she closed her eyes at the pain in his voice. “I never stopped. Sheila told me once that I’d married her because I thought she was like you. She said one of the reasons she left was because she couldn’t be you for me. I thought she was just making excuses, but now I think she was right.”