That Summer (29 page)
“John was really pleased with this morning's workout. Buster was full of run at the end of it—just what John wanted to see.”
“He doesn't seem to have been affected by the colic then?”
“Not at all.”
“That's great.”
“I thought we'd go up to New York on Wednesday. What do you think?”
“It's fine with me. Do you think you'll have a problem with Chief Brown?”
“I think the residents of Midville would lynch Chief Brown if he tried to keep me home.”
I laughed. “You may be right.”
“What do you want to do about dinner tonight?”
“Why don't we drive into the Safeway, buy a nice juicy steak, and cook it here?”
“That sounds great.”
“I'll check the larder and see what else we might need. Mary only does breakfast and cleaning when your father's not here.”
The phone rang. Liam went out into the hall to answer the upstairs extension. He was gone for a while. I had finished putting my clothes away when he came back.
“That was Kevin. He's found me a lawyer. His name is Abraham Kessler and he'll be calling here at nine tonight.”
“I've never heard of him.”
“Neither have I, but that doesn't mean anything. It's not an area in which I have any expertise. Kevin says he's one of the top ten trial lawyers in the country.”
“Well, that's certainly a good recommendation.”
He sighed and lowered himself into a chair.
I went to him and sat on his lap. “I'm so sorry, Liam. This should be such a happy time for you. You should be thinking of nothing except Buster and his chances for the Triple Crown and instead you have this terrible thing hanging over you—like the sword of Damocles. It just stinks.”
He rested his cheek against my hair. “It does.”
I could feel his heart beating against my face. I said in a muffled voice, “Liam, don't you think you should ask your parents to come home? It doesn't look good for you, their staying away like this. It looks as if they think you're guilty.”
I could feel him stiffen. “We've been over this before, Annie. I don't want them around.”
“I wish you would reconsider. Even my mother said she thought it looked funny not having them here.”
He was silent.
“Will they be coming to the Belmont?”
More silence.
“Liam, if they don't it really won't look good.”
“Maybe they'll come for the race.”
“They have to. Talk to your father and tell him that. Please.”
“Okay. I'll talk to him.”
Tension I didn't even know I was feeling drained out of my body.
“Do you know what might be nice?” Liam asked.
“What?”
“It might be nice to invite your mom to share the steak with us.”
Tears stung my eyes. “Oh, Liam.”
“Is that‘Oh, Liam’ yes, or ‘Oh, Liam’ no?”
I sniffled and blinked. It's ‘Oh, Liam,’ yes.”
So we went into town, bought a steak and a few other groceries at the Safeway and stopped by Mom's. At first she refused to come, but when she realized that we really wanted her, she relented. She insisted on driving her own car, however, so that Liam wouldn't have to drive her home.
Liam grilled out on the back patio and Mom and I cooked rice and green beans inside on Mary's immaculate stove. We had a very enjoyable dinner. Mom told some funny stories about school and Liam filled her in on Buster's progress. We all talked about the Triple Crown and what it would mean if Buster won.
“I wish Pete could be here,” Liam said, voicing the thought that was in all of our minds.
“He would be so proud of you, Liam,” Mom said. “You bred that horse and you bred his sire. You did a brilliant job.”
“Thanks, Nancy. I appreciate that.”
The New York lawyer called at nine o'clock and Liam spoke to him for twenty minutes, then Mom went home. Liam told me about the call as we cleaned up the kitchen and at ten o'clock we went upstairs to bed.
O
n Saturday evening, exactly one week before the Belmont, Senator and Mrs. Wellington arrived home. Liam and I were having dinner in the kitchen when they walked in.
“How cozy you look,” Mrs. Wellington said as she came to kiss first Liam and then me.
“Would you like something to eat? There's some more chicken in the pot,” I replied.
“No, thank you.” Her eyes went to the wine bottle. “Perhaps a glass of wine.”
Liam and his father shook hands and the senator smiled at me. “How are you, Anne?”
“Fine,” I returned.
Mrs. Wellington fetched a glass from one of the cabinets, turned and asked her husband if he wanted wine as well. When he said he did, she took down another glass.
When both the elder Wellingtons were seated with their wine, Liam's mother turned to him. “I understand that you have been arrested. I cannot believe it, Liam. They have no evidence! It's just ridiculous. Your father tells me that Kevin has found a top lawyer for you and you should be acquitted easily. But still—to have to go through that charade! I don't understand it at all.”
Both men were silent.
I said, “They don't exactly have no evidence, Mrs. Wellington. They have the medal.”
She had been lifting the glass to her lips, but now she went completely still. She looked at me. “Medal? What medal?”
Liam and his father sat like stones.
I looked into her glittering blue eyes. “They found Liam's miraculous medal near Leslie's grave. That's why they arrested him. Didn't you know?”
She put her glass down. She was paper white and her hand was trembling. “No. I didn't know.”
Liam said, “I identified the medal as mine. It's not that big a deal, Mom. Annie is going to testify that we often rode along that path and that I could have lost it anytime. Or, whoever did kill Leslie could have stolen it from me and planted it. It's too fragile a piece of evidence to convict me.”
Mrs. Wellington looked at her husband.
“Liam is right,” he said to her. “There is very little chance that he will be convicted.”
“You never told me about the medal,” she said.
“He won't be convicted, Alyssa.”
“But suppose he is?” she whispered.
“He won't be.”
I found it strange that Mrs. Wellington had known about the arrest but not about the medal. I asked, “How did you find out about Liam's arrest, Mrs. Wellington?”
“I heard it on the radio yesterday,” she replied.
She heard it on the radio! I stared at the senator. He did not look back.
Liam said, “Mom, there's nothing you can do. Just let events take their course and everything will be all right. Okay?”
She looked at him, her face stricken. For the first time I thought that she looked old.
“Oh my darling. I am so afraid.”
Well, I could sympathize with that.
“Don't be. It will all work out.”
I said encouragingly, “This lawyer is one of the ten best in the country, Mrs. Wellington. Kevin did a good job.”
“Bless him,” she said.
I said, “We were just going to have tea and dessert. Why don't you join us?”
“That would be very nice,” Senator Wellington said heartily.
“I have some good news for you,” Liam said. “Annie and I are going to get married.”
“That's wonderful!” Mrs. Wellington said. “I'm so happy for you both.”
“Congratulations,” Senator Wellington said to his son. There were kisses and hugs all around.
“And Annie has moved into my room until she has to go back to Maryland to her job.”
“We're delighted to have her as our guest,” the senator said with charming courtesy.
“Have you set a date?” Mrs. Wellington asked.
I said, “I promised my practice that I would stay until they got someone to replace me, so I can't think of dates until they do that.”
“And I can't get married while I have this murder charge hanging over my head,” Liam said.
“Sure you can,” I replied. “These things sometimes drag on forever.”
“I'm not marrying you until my name is cleared.”
I pushed out my lower lip, like a little girl who isn't getting her way. “I wish Daddy was here. He'd tell you to make an honest woman of me.”
“You are an honest woman.”
“Not in the eyes of the Church. I can't go to communion when I go to Mass.”
He scowled.
“It's true.”
“You're the best person that I know.”
“But I'm sleeping with you and we're not married.”
“We'll get this business with Liam fixed up in no time, Anne,” the senator said gruffly. “Abraham Kessler is an excellent attorney.”
“You've heard of him?” I asked eagerly.
“I certainly have,” the senator replied. “Kevin came through big time.”
“He certainly did,” Liam said wryly. “Now he'll always be one up on me.”
“Liam!” I protested.
He gave me a crooked grin. Then he turned to his father. “Did you have a good time up in Maine? How was your golf game?”
The two men talked while Mrs. Wellington sipped her wine, looking pale and fragile. I loaded our dinner dishes in the dishwasher and filled the kettle with water for tea.
While I was waiting for the water to boil I uncovered the angel cake that Mary had made that morning. It had some kind of a caramel filling that was truly heavenly.
“Who would like a slice of Mary's angel cake?” I said.
The senator and Liam said yes, but Mrs. Wellington shook her head no. The kettle whistled and I filled the china teapot and put a teacup in front of all four places at the table. Then I gave out the cake, sat down and began to pour the tea.
Right in the middle of the senator's describing a hole-in-one he almost made, Mrs. Wellington said, “If it wasn't for the medal, they wouldn't have arrested you. Is that right, Liam?”
“I don't know about that,” Liam began, but I cut in over him.
“That's right, Mrs. Wellington. And do you know, he identified the medal the minute he saw it? ‘Here's the medal, Mr. Wellington.’ Boom!‘Oh yes, that's mine.’ Surprise! ‘You're arrested.’”
The senator said stiffly, “If it was his, someone was sure to identify it.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But by identifying it, he handed himself over on a silver plate.”
Then we heard the clatter of something falling and we all looked. Mrs Wellington had dropped her fork on the floor. “Oh, how silly of me.” She bent as if she would get it.
“Don't, Mom. I'll get it.”
She looked awful, as if she might faint.
“Can I get you something, Mrs. Wellington?” I asked. “A glass of water?” She looked as if what she really needed was smelling salts.
“No, oh no. I'll be fine.”
“I think you should lie down,” I said firmly. I looked at her husband. “Why don't you take her upstairs and see that she lies down? She's going to faint any minute.”
“I think you're right,” he replied. “Come along, Alyssa. Let's go upstairs.”
She stood up, but she swayed. Liam was by her side in a flash. He bent and picked her up. “It's okay, Mom. I'll carry you. Lead the way, Dad.”
I sat by myself at the table as the three Wellingtons left the room, contemplating the scene I had just witnessed.
Mrs Wellington had known about Liam's arrest when she entered the room. She had not become distraught until she learned of the existence of the medal. What could that mean?
The likeliest explanation was that for the first time she realized there was actually some evidence connecting her beloved son to the murder. She had been resting secure, believing that there was nothing other than speculation to tie Liam to the crime. Then she had found out about the medal.
Liam and his father had probably tried to keep the information away from her because they feared she would fall apart. She was certainly a fragile flower.
I was very glad she wasn't my mother.
Liam came down to rejoin me at the table and poured himself a cup of tea.
“How is your mother?”
“She's okay. Upset. Dad's going to stay with her for a while.”
“I still can't believe she had to learn that you were arrested from the radio.”
“You saw how she fell apart just now. Is it any wonder that we tried to keep the news from her?”
“I would hate to be a person that people felt they had to keep things from.”
“Mom has always been fragile. You know that. It's just the way she is.”
His face looked shadowed and tense. I patted him on the hand. “Well, at least they're here. That looks good for you.”
“I wish they weren't here,” he said savagely. “I wish they were back in Maine playing golf.”
That note of savagery disturbed me profoundly. I didn't know how to account for it. After a moment I said quietly, “I wish I could be alone with you, too.”
He took my hand and held it so tightly it hurt. He didn't speak.
“Is there something you want to tell me, Liam?” I asked softly.
He shook his head. “I can't, Annie. I can't.”
“All right.”
He held my hand to his mouth. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Can we go upstairs?”
“Absolutely.”
“Now?”
“Sure.”
We left the tea and cake on the table and went up the stairs to our bedroom. There was an element of desperation in Liam's lovemaking that night that had not been there before. He held onto me the way a drowning man might hold onto a flotation device. I didn't understand what was happening, but I did know that it had to be connected in some way to the visit of his father and mother.
I drew him as deeply into me as I possibly could, wanting to take all his pain, his need, wanting to give him the closeness, the oneness, the reassurance that we were there for each other, two persons in one body. When it was over we lay pressed against each other, our hearts hammering, our breaths hurrying, and Liam said, “Annie. My other self.”
I turned my head and kissed his cheekbone. “I wish I could help you.”
“You do help me. Just by being here, you help me.”
“That's good.”
“One day I'll tell you. But I can't now.”
“Okay.”
We lay quietly for a little while. Then I said, “I'm going to have to clean up that kitchen. I can't leave the cake and tea dishes out for Mary to find in the morning. The dishes have to be put in the dishwasher and the cake has to be put away.”
