The Red Hat Society's Acting Their Age (4 page)
“Can I borrow your Blazer, Aggie?” Mia asked her.
Aggie was the only one of the three women who drove into work each day since she and her husband, Roy, lived on a farm outside the city limits. Leanne and her husband, Eddie, owner of the town’s newspaper,
The
Muddy Creek Chronicle
, had a small house just a couple of blocks from the shop.
“I’ll take Rachel to my place so she can shower and get some sleep in a real bed,” Mia explained.
Leanne studied her. “Then you’ll talk to Cade, right?”
“We’ll see.”
Frowning, Leanne nodded Mia aside.
Mia met her in the corner.
“What are you planning to do? Go on hiding her?” Leanne asked with quiet intensity. “Cade should be the one to handle this, not you.”
“We’ll talk about it after she gets some sleep.”
Leanne crossed her arms. “I only kept my mouth shut for your sake. This is a mistake, Mia. She’s trouble.”
“You don’t know that.” Mia touched her friend’s arm. “Don’t worry so much. Nothing’s decided yet.” She returned to the island and said, “Grab your things, Rachel.”
Aggie’s brows puckered above her big, wire-framed bifocals. “What if somebody sees her?”
“I’ll make sure they don’t.”
“Cade suspects something. Couldn’t you tell?” Leanne tapped the counter with a long, French-manicured fingernail. “He might be watching the shop. If he sees you leaving, you can bet he’ll follow.”
“If he does, I’ll think of something.” Mia nodded at Rachel. “Wait by the storage room door. Aggie parks out back.”
“Packrat?” Leanne called after them as Aggie pulled a set of keys from her coat pocket by the door. “For such a little thing, you sure have caused a big stir.”
R
achel waited inside the Brewed Awakening while Mia drove Aggie’s car down the alley. When Mia stopped at the back door, Leanne led the girl out and motioned her toward the rear seat. Tossing her backpack onto the floorboard, Rachel climbed in.
“You’d better lie down.” Leanne glanced up the alley and added, “I feel like a criminal, sneaking around like this.”
Mia didn’t want to admit that she felt the same. “Once Rachel’s sleeping, I’ll be back.”
Frowning, Leanne shut the back door and hurried around to the driver-side window. When Mia rolled it down, she said, “Can we have a word alone?”
“Sure.” After rolling up the window again, Mia stepped from the SUV and closed the door. “Make it quick. I don’t want Cade driving by and seeing us out here.” She shivered. “Besides, I’m freezing.”
“Are you crazy?” Leanne hissed. “You can’t leave that girl by herself at your house. She’s a thief!”
“I won’t leave unless I’m sure she’s asleep. And I won’t stay away long, just to help you and Aggie through the early morning rush. Anyway, I’m not really worried about her taking anything. All she needs is for someone to have a little faith in her.”
“How can you say that? You never laid eyes on the kid until this morning.”
“There’s just something about her.” Mia sighed. “Let me see how I feel after we get home and we have some one-on-one time. Then I’ll call you.”
“Aggie and I can handle things here.”
“You saw how Aggie is today. It’ll be like you’re working alone. Or worse, with a nervous new employee.”
Crossing her arms, Leanne shivered. “I can take care of things.”
“We’ll see.” Mia opened the door, climbed in and started off.
She adjusted the rearview mirror so she could see Rachel, who was stretched out across the back seat, nibbling the cuticle of her index finger.
“Why are you helping me?” Rachel asked, studying her hand. “I mean, it’s not like you know me or anything.”
“Maybe because I have a daughter and if she were in trouble, I’d hope someone would be kind to her. Don’t think this means you’re off the hook, though, Rachel. I want you to rest up and then we’ll talk and figure out what to do next.”
Rachel frowned, shifting her position on the seat. “I already know what
I’m
going to do.”
“What?”
“
Duh
.” She pronounced the word
duh-uh
, in two syllables. “I’m getting as far away from Amarillo as I can. Someplace where they don’t grow cows. I hate cows. They stink and they’re stupid.”
“Like I said, we’ll talk. But you need a shower and some sleep first.”
Mia didn’t like the expression on the girl’s face. She wore the same one when they first turned on the storage room light: that of a cornered animal looking for an escape.
As she slowed for a red light, Mia glanced in the mirror again. When the Blazer stopped completely, Rachel reached for the door handle. Mia hit the automatic locks. “Don’t even think about it.”
Aubrey Ricketts pulled up alongside the Blazer in his rattletrap pickup. The retired bank security guard combed the streets at all hours of the day and night, keeping an eye on other people’s business. Everyone in town speculated whether or not he ever slept. Though still dark out, the streetlight shined down on them, and she saw him wave an arthritic hand. Waving back, Mia whispered to Rachel, “Scoot down.”
Rachel did, muttering, “Why should I? You’re just gonna turn me in, anyway. Why didn’t you just do it when that sheriff came by?”
The light changed to green. Mia pulled away slowly, allowing Aubrey to move ahead of her. “Nothing’s decided yet,” she told Rachel. “You want me to give you a chance? Then you have to give me one, too. Trust me, okay?”
Rachel’s sigh sounded dramatic, and Mia imagined the girl rolling her eyes. She heard a sound like knuckles popping, then, “
Whatever
.”
Nearing her house, Mia reached into her purse for the garage door opener, and the door lifted as she turned into the drive. She eased into the garage, parking next to her Tahoe in the spot where Dan’s Ford pickup used to sit until six months ago, when she had finally sold her husband’s flame red pride and joy.
“Nice house,” Rachel said when they entered the kitchen. She dropped her backpack on the tile floor. “I used to live in a house like this with my real mom and dad.”
The skin at the nape of Mia’s neck prickled as she recalled Cade’s words about the girl not knowing her father and losing her mother at the age of four. Setting her purse on the counter, Mia unbuttoned her coat. “Really?”
“Yeah.” While she talked, Rachel’s gaze scanned the cabinets, the refrigerator, the row of canisters on the counter. “It was white, though, not red. And not brick. We had this awesome front porch with a swing. And a flowerbed. My mom loved flowers.” She sneezed, then added, “She and my dad? They died in a car wreck two years ago.”
Swimming in the man’s down ski coat she wore, Rachel hugged herself as she walked into the living room.
After draping her own coat over a chair, Mia followed.
“Wow. It’s really clean in here,” Rachel said, running her hand along a couch cushion. “Do you have a maid?”
Mia laughed. “Don’t I wish. I’m the only one living here, so there’s really no need.”
“What about your daughter?”
“Christy? She’s grown up and gone. My sons, too.”
“You aren’t married?”
Mia explained that her husband had passed away, and Rachel said, “Oh,” then wandered over to the television. She picked up the remote and turned the TV on then off again. “We had a maid. And a bigscreen TV, too. Bigger than yours, even.” She made her way to a photo-covered wall, where images of Mia’s kids and grandkids stared back from dozens of frames. Trailing her finger along the edge of a picture of Brent in his high school football uniform, she said, “My dad? He liked football. He played for Texas Tech. He was a quarterback.”
“Both of my sons went to Tech,” Mia said, watching the girl’s movements and feeling strangely apprehensive.
“We used to see all the college and pro games on our big screen. Mom always popped popcorn.” She slid Mia a sidelong glance as she passed the fireplace, her fingers touching each item on the mantel: candlesticks, a vase of dried flowers, great-grandmother MacAfee’s antique clock. “Sometimes we’d even make a fire and roast marshmallows.”
Though the house was warm, Mia felt a bone-deep chill, an ache inside. She understood Rachel’s need to pretend. She did it herself. Her mental conversations with Dan, the king-sized pillow she spooned at night while she slept. But she couldn’t help wondering if what Rachel had said earlier was also fabrication. About the foster family locking her out. The mother hitting her. Her bad experiences with her previous foster families. What if she really did take off in the night? What if those people were sitting at home, crazy with worry, like she and Dan had been when Christy disappeared?
She left Rachel alone a moment and went to her bedroom closet where she found an old flannel gown, one she’d worn before Dan died and she lost so much weight. Then she called the girl into the guest bathroom and showed her the washcloths and towels.
While Rachel showered, Mia tossed the girl’s dirty clothes into the wash: a pair of jeans, ripped at the knees and beneath the back pockets, frayed at the hem and embedded with grime; a purple pullover sweater nappy from too many washings; a black t-shirt; cotton socks with holes in the toes. The elastic in her panties had lost its stretch. She had no bra and didn’t appear to need one. Her green Converse tennis shoes were soaked wet from the snow. Mia threw them into the machine, too.
After Rachel showered and took a nap, Mia would follow Leanne’s advice. She’d find Cade and tell him the truth. Trust him to handle the situation in a way that would be in Rachel’s best interest. She told herself she had been crazy to ever consider doing anything else.
Mia put linens on Christy’s bed then waited on the couch in the living room. She studied the photos on the wall like Rachel had, trying to see her family through the girl’s eyes. Her sons dressed for football, track, in prom finery and graduation caps and gowns. Her grandson in Little League and soccer garb. Her granddaughter in tutus and tights.
Christy had no extracurricular activities. Her pictures were all the standard school ones taken at the beginning of each year. First grade, second grade, third, all the way through the senior year she never finished.
Mia zeroed in on eighth grade.
Eighth grade
.
Her daughter would’ve been fourteen. Rachel’s age. Was that the year her friends stopped coming over? When Christy started spending so much time in her room alone? When she stopped talking to the family in anything more than one or two word sentences?
“So, you’re going back to the coffee shop now?”
The sound of Rachel’s voice brought Mia’s head around. The girl stood in the doorway to the living room, damp hair slicked down around her face, her body so tiny, so thin, Mia’s gown swallowed her.
“I thought I might while you take a nap.” Standing, Mia started toward her. “You can sleep in Christy’s bedroom.”
“Your daughter?”
“Yes.”
The girl’s gaze darted around the room, left, right, up, down, reminding Mia of the jerky movements of a hummingbird. Her behavior set off a warning alarm in Mia’s head.
“Where are my clothes?”
“In the washer. I’ll toss them into the dryer before I leave.”
Once in Christy’s room, Rachel waited at the foot of the bed while Mia fluffed a pillow. The girl’s toes peeked out from beneath the gown. Sparkly blue, chipped polish coated her toenails. “I had a canopy bed,” she said. “The spread was pink with ruffles. Mom made it for me. And matching curtains. She loved to sew.”
Mia pulled the comforter down further, patted the mattress. “Here you go.” Rachel climbed in. “You need anything else before I leave?”
“No.” She propped up against the whitewashed headboard, looking tense instead of relaxed, like a Jack-in-the-box, ready to spring when the door closed instead of when it opened.
“Okay, then.” Mia started from the room, pausing at the door. “I’ll check on you in a couple of hours.”
Pulling the comforter to her chin, Rachel yawned, her eyes shifting to Mia, then down, then over to the wall. “Sure. Whatever.” She yawned again. “I’ll probably sleep a really long time.”
Mia closed the door and headed for the kitchen phone.
“Brewed Awakening,” Leanne answered on the second ring.
“Hi, it’s me. You were right. I don’t think I should leave her here alone.”
“Just a sec.” Mia heard the cash register ding, then Leanne say, “Thanks. Sure you don’t need a sweet roll with that?”
“I do, but my hips don’t,” came the customer’s reply.
“I’m looking forward to next week’s Red Hat meeting, Betty,” Aggie called from in the distance, and it crossed Mia’s mind that the women would soon be encouraging her to start attending again, too, like they had every month since Dan’s death.
Get the widow out of the house. Keep her busy
. The shop bell jingled, and Mia heard Betty Rigdon say goodbye, followed by laughter from The Coots, as Leanne had named the weekday morning regulars.
“Okay.” Leanne blew out a breath and said quietly into the phone, “I opened early. Seems nobody can sleep this morning. What’s up?”
“Can you talk?”
“For a minute.”
“I’m afraid she’s going to bolt if I leave.”
“Or rob you blind.”
“Maybe. She sure is interested in all my things.” A door hinge squeaked. Mia glanced up and saw Rachel peek down the hallway then duck out of sight. “In fact, she’s already up and checking to see if I’m gone.”
Leanne sighed noisily. “Like I said before, this is a mistake. You know that, don’t you?”
“You’re probably right. I’m having second thoughts. Why’d you go along with it?”
Another sigh. “She reminds me of me at fourteen. I can’t imagine what might’ve become of me if I hadn’t had Aggie to see me through those days.”
Leanne’s mom had died of cancer when she was in third grade. Aggie, Marion Wells’ best friend, stepped in as a second mother to Leanne. Her father never got over his grief and had spent the last decade of his life lost in a bottle.
“Ask Aggie to make an excuse to Roy so she can come over here after she leaves the shop. Then I’ll come up there and help you close early.”
