The May Day Murders (38 page)

Ann stood over to one of the computers
and looked it over. Although she wasn’t very familiar with computer
hardware, she could tell that this was serious, ultra-expensive
equipment.

“
What on earth do you use
all of this for?”

Jerry came over and stood beside her.
“I like to keep in touch with what’s going on in the world. It’s
almost like having the entire world at your fingertips.”

“
That’s pretty apparent. But
why in a country retreat?”

He looked at her peculiarly. “Why
not?”

Ann suddenly felt stupid for asking the
question and smiled nervously. “Well, I’m certainly impressed. I
didn’t realize you had so many hobbies, Jerry. I’m surprised you
find the time to sell real estate!”

He said quickly, “It’s not as though
I’m here that often, but it’s nice to come here whenever I can and
get away from it all. Isn’t that what getting away is all about?
Relax and do the things you most enjoy doing?”

He had a point and she had to agree.
But she also wondered what was left to furnish his home in Dublin.
Jerry Rankin’s “retreat” looked more like permanent residence than
a place to just drop in from time to time.

When they returned to the hall, Jerry
walked over to the staircase and pointed up to where it dead-ended
into a hatch-like door set into the ceiling.

“
My studio loft is up there.
I’m in the process of renovating it— I’m afraid I’ll have to show
it to you some other time.”

“
That’s a shame,” Ann said.
“I’d love to see it.”

“
Perhaps next time,” he said
flatly before descending the stairs.

Ann glanced upward and wondered what
renovations Jerry could possibly be doing to his studio that would
prevent her from at least getting quick peek at it. Perhaps he was
just sensitive of her seeing his paintings in progress? Possibly…

She began descending the stairs and was
half way down when she realized to her horror that Jerry was
standing at the bottom staring straight up her skirt! Her faced
turned red and Jerry quickly turned away and began making his way
to the kitchen. The incident made Ann very nervous and she wondered
if he had been staring at her on purpose or if he’d done it
inadvertently. Something told her that the former was the case but
she hoped that she was wrong. Surely, she decided, Jerry wouldn’t
purposely do something that childish—

When she joined him in the kitchen,
Jerry smiled and said, “How about a little stroll through the
grounds—if you’re not too tired, that is.”

Ann thought about it a moment. “Sure,
why not?”

“
Wonderful! And when we get
back, I’ll prepare us some dinner. Do you by any chance like
lobster?”

“
Love it!” Ann
said.

“
I’m glad to hear that
because I picked up a pair of fresh ones at the market yesterday
along with a bottle of dry white wine. I toss a pretty mean salad,
too.”

“
Sounds
scrumptious.”

Ann followed Jerry out the front door
and zipped up her jacket when the chilly air greeted her. They
began walking down the road toward the pond and by time they had
reached it, Jerry had taken hold of her hand.

For the next half hour or so they
sauntered leisurely around the grounds talking and taking in the
quiet beauty of the autumn foliage. Jerry did most of the talking,
telling Ann how much he loved it in the country and how he could
just pack everything in and stay there forever. Ann could almost
sense by his subtle hints that he was trying to sell her on the
place, as if he wouldn’t mind it if she could someday join him and
live happily ever after here in the middle of nowhere. She remained
politely aloof, flattered by his little innuendoes and wondering at
the same time how he could so easily forget that his wife had only
recently passed away and how he could already be so fervent to
start all over again with someone else.

By the time they headed back to this
house, Ann found herself puzzled and a little taken aback by
Jerry’s gradual change in demeanor. In the span of just thirty
minutes, he had somehow become less a casual acquaintance and more
like a man with a mission—a suitor trying to win her
heart.

She wasn’t sure how to respond to all
of this and she sensed that at some point Jerry Rankin was going to
put her in a compromising position. He seemed to have suddenly
forgotten their prior agreement—that she had no intentions of
establishing a romantic relationship with him and that they were
only seeing each other on a no-strings basis. Admittedly, she had
come to like Jerry Rankin a great deal as a person and no doubt
felt physically attracted to his suave good looks. But she didn’t
love him and knew in the back of her mind that she never would.
Jerry Rankin was simply a pleasant diversion from her otherwise
unsettled life since breaking up with Sam, she now acknowledged,
and she wondered how on earth she had let things go this far. How
had she let herself go against her better judgment and encourage
Jerry as she had?

Karen Whaley. She was one of the
reasons. Karen had been Ms. Encouragement from day one, coercing
her to get on with her life and have some fun. “Don’t let him slip
through your fingers,” she had told her in her typical know-it-all
tone of voice.

And then there was Shelley Hatcher.
Wasn’t that really why she’d started going out with Jerry on a
regular basis? Because Sam had started fooling around with Shelley
again and she wanted to somehow get back at her
ex-husband?

Just as they approached the house,
another thought occurred to Ann: the romance novel that she had
been reading. This was yet another reason why she had gone so far
with this. She had let a silly romance story transform her into
some kind of giddy schoolgirl! She quickly glanced down at her
white mini skirt and funky Reeboks.
Appropriate attire for a
forty-year-old woman?
Come on, Ann!
She wanted to laugh
out loud as she realized that she had not only let her waning youth
get the best of her but she had been in a sense living vicariously
thorough the heroine of that stupid romance novel all this time.
Middle aged woman gets married, gives birth to child, gets
divorced, moves away with child, meets tall, handsome stranger,
has her doubts about “love on the rebound” but nevertheless gives
it a shot, and eventually allows stranger to seduce her to his
country retreat …

Jerry suddenly gave her hand a squeeze
as they approached the porch. “Feeling hungry?” he
asked.

“
Famished,” she heard
herself reply with a forced smile.

Ann felt a pang of guilt as they walked
up to the door. Jerry was probably the most considerate man she had
ever met and the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt him. He
had done more for her in the relatively short period of time she
had know him than she cared to admit to herself. Not only had he
made her feel like a whole person again, but he had been there for
her when she needed a man around the house and a shoulder to cry
on. Plus he had helped to get her mind off of Marsha, if only for a
little while at a time.

As Ann recalled her lifelong friend she
felt a wave of sadness sweep throughout her entire body. She
suddenly realized that Jerry had in a sense helped to fill that
void left after Marsha’s death by merely entering her life and
giving her something optimistic to look forward to. And, as selfish
as it seemed, she’d found herself feeling much better after having
learned that he too had recently lost a loved one—his wife. This
discovery had all of a sudden made her feel less alone in the world
and no doubt had helped establish a sort of common denominator
between herself and Jerry.

Could Jerry Rankin have come along at a
better time? she thought.

And had he not come along when he had,
where would she be now? How could she have dealt with all of this
turmoil without him?

She felt him let go of her hand as he
opened the door and held it open for her. As she stepped inside,
she realized that she owed Jerry a lot. And although she knew that
she was going to have to end it between them soon before either of
them got into this any deeper, she vowed to herself that she would
let him down very gently and very gradually. It was the least she
could do.

“
Have a seat,” Jerry said
when they entered the kitchen. “Would you like something to
drink?”

Ann strode over and sat down on one of
the stools at the mahogany bar that divided the kitchen from the
dining area. “A glass of water, if you don’t mind.”

“
Coming right up!” he
replied jovially. Jerry went over to the one of the cabinets to get
a glass, added ice and filled it with Evian. He handed it to
Ann.

“
Thanks,” she
said.

They made small talk as Ann watched
Jerry prepare a gourmet lobster dinner. An hour and two glasses of
wine later, Ann caught herself staring at Jerry’s paintings on the
wall again. There was something about them, the composition, the
subjects themselves, something, that drew her curiosity. She knew
that Jerry had noticed her staring over at them more than once but
it was fairly evident that he didn’t wish to discuss them, or he
would have said something. Ann wanted to ask him about two of the
paintings in particular—although they were obviously abstract in
nature, it appeared as though the women in both paintings were
being observed by the viewer through an opening—a window in the
first canvas and through a jagged hole of some kind in the second
one. Both of these ‘objects’ constituted the foreground of the
paintings creating the illusion that the women were in the distance
beyond the respective openings. The impassive expression on their
faces and the manner in which they were looking off to the side
suggested that the women were totally unaware that the
Observer
was watching them—as though they were being peeped
at.
Voyeurism?
Ann thought. Was that what Jerry was implying
in the paintings?

“
I have a surprise for you,”
Jerry suddenly announced.

Ann flinched. She peered across the
table at him.

“
A surprise?”

He nodded. “But before I give it to
you, you have to promise me that you’ll use it …
tonight.”

Ann tried to imagine what it could be.
What could he possibly give her that she could use tonight? she
wondered.

“
OK, I promise,” she said,
playing along.

Jerry stood up, smiled at her
peculiarly then went over to the kitchen pantry and opened the
door. A moment later he was back, carrying a gift-wrapped box.
Before he handed it to her, he said, “Remember, you promised me
that you’d use it tonight.”

“
I know,” Ann said. “But you
really shouldn’t have, Jerry.”

He smiled and handed her the box. Ann
felt a little embarrassed and uncomfortable as she removed the
ribbon and tore off the gift-wrap. She cast him a sidelong glance
when she opened the box and saw what was inside: a lavender bikini
swimsuit.

“
Jerry! You tricked me! How
on earth can I possibly use this tonight?”

He cocked his head in the direction of
the Jacuzzi. “Right out there.”

“
But Jerry …” Ann
protested.

“
You promised,
remember?”

“
Yes, but, I never
dreamed—”

He placed a hand on her shoulder as his
expression became serious.

“
Listen, Ann. You don’t have
to if you don’t want to, of course. I’m not really trying to put
you on the spot. I honestly thought that you may want to try out
the tub tonight, so I bought you the swimsuit as sort of an
afterthought.” He snickered. “I knew you wouldn’t do it if you had
nothing to wear! Anyway, it’s up to you. I’d just like to add that
you’re not going to believe how relaxing it is out there with that
soothing hot water loosening up those taut muscles. It’s like
heaven.”

Ann smiled. “You don’t have to give me
the hard sell, Jerry. I’ve been in a hot tub before.”

“
Then you know how
absolutely marvelous it is!”

Ann began fidgeting with the swimsuit,
still in the box. “I’d love to, Jerry, but it’s getting late. I
told Amy that I’d be home by ten o’clock and she may need me to
pick her up at her friend’s house if she doesn’t decide to spend
the night there.”

Jerry glanced at the wall clock and
said, “It’s only seven now. We can hit the tub and have plenty of
time to get you home by ten.”

Ann thought it over a moment. “All
right, you win.”

She took out the swimsuit and looked it
over. “It’s lovely, Jerry. I hope it fits. Where can I
change?”

Jerry smiled broadly. “Up in the
bedroom if you’d like. You won’t regret this—I promise! I’ll just
change down here and get the tub ready in the meantime.”

Ann couldn’t help but smile to herself
at Jerry’s boyish enthusiasm. He was acting like a little kid who
had just gotten that baseball glove he’d wanted so much for his
birthday.

“
Okay, I’ll be back in a few
minutes,” she said, getting up from the table.

Once inside Jerry’s bedroom, Ann took
the swimsuit into the master bath and began removing her clothes.
She didn’t know if it was the two glasses of wine or her not
wanting to disappoint Jerry that prompted her to agree to this
rather odd idea. But the more she though about it, the more she
realized that she was actually looking forward to it. It was all
quite harmless, really, and besides, she had always been crazy
about hot tubs. In fact, she and Sam had owned one and she used to
literally spend hours soaking in it whenever she felt tense or just
plain wanted to relax and read a good book. Ann suddenly realized
just how much she had missed it in all this time since they had
sold the house.