Worse Than Being Alone (4 page)

After that I hoped to pick up the trail of Mary
Spencer aka Mary Poppins. Anticipating her diagnostic tests would
come back normal, her adjuster asked me to close her case
management file and follow her instead. My thoughts were
interrupted when Ho returned to the waiting room, checking everyone
out as she waited impatiently for her discharge papers. After she
retrieved them, she headed for the exit, walking briskly.

I jumped up and trailed as closely behind Ho as I
dared. A cluster of people waited for the elevator; I tried to
blend in as I joined the group. Ho eyed all of the passengers
carefully as the car arrived and we filed in. Big red flags floated
through my mind on the ride down.

When the doors opened in the lobby, Ho darted in
front of everyone to get out of the elevator, pushing an older
woman aside to take the lead. Almost in a dead run, she paused only
because the automatic exit doors were slow to open. Ho raced to the
curb and stood there for no more than 20 seconds when a black
Mustang convertible pulled up, barely allowing her time to jump in
before the driver sped away. I was left standing at the curb,
trying to identify a license plate number, realizing my plan to
tail Ho Chi Minh had been scuttled.

I ended up having better luck with Mary Poppins. I
arrived at her West County condo and only had to wait 15 minutes
before I spotted Mary leaving the condo and jumping into her baby
blue Honda CRV. I ducked down when she came out and fell back at
first, but it soon became obvious that Mary Poppins, unlike Ho, was
paying no attention. She never checked her mirrors or seemed to
notice my rather loose tail.

Mary’s destination proved to be Plaza Frontenac, a
large shopping mall only 10 minutes from her condo. She exited the
Honda with a spring in her step, wearing a long black raincoat,
carrying a huge purse and a shopping bag. I wasn’t sure I should I
follow her into the mall, but she looked like she was a woman on a
mission so I figured, why not?

Moving from one department to another with
precision, Mary was careful in her movements. I watched from a
discreet distance until eventually I began to understand what Mary
was doing. Vigilant, Mary moved quickly from one department to the
next, never even close to approaching a check out.

Fascinated by Mary’s skillful shoplifting abilities,
I watched in horror as she successfully shoplifted her way through
some of the most chi-chi stores in the area. The loose fitting
raincoat and a huge purse concealed Mary’s calculated thefts.

Unsure what to do about Mary’s criminal activities,
I avoided my first impulse and decided to wait until I had a chance
to talk to Roni before I made a final decision. After the shopping
spree, I followed Mary Poppins to a gym near her home and was able
to get a video of her participating in a strenuous hour-long
Pilates class. Even if her diagnostics were abnormal, my DVD would
probably end her comp claim.

After that, I headed to Roni’s house, where Harley
was supposed to be fixing dinner. Harley prided himself on his
gourmet cooking; I was frequently invited to sample his latest
creation. During the drive, I thought about my life before I fled
to Alaska. My parents were strict Catholics; I followed their plan
for the first 38 years of my life without any protest.

I married James Talty and we had a son we named
Ethan. My dream had been to have several children; mostly I think
it’s better the way it turned out. Behind the church deacon façade,
James secretly drank himself into oblivion. At first, he hid his
secret from everyone, but eventually his burning need to drink
overwhelmed any sense of propriety.

It was during this time that my relationship with
Harley changed. In high school, he dated Roni off and on, lurking
in the shadows. I dated James and I was always aware there seemed
to be an underlying animus between Harley and me. At the time, I
never gave it much thought. After I married James, our relationship
deteriorated even further until we had a blowout.

On the surface, Harley doesn’t fit
the profile of a prescient observer, but he certainly had James
pegged. The night of our blowout, he railed at me about why I
tolerated James and his behavior. Harley encouraged me to quit
accepting what my life had become and challenged me to understand
that James would never quit drinking. That night, all the negative
feelings evaporated, replaced by Harley’s support and good-natured
teasing.

Ethan and I were frequent visitors
to the Edelin farm. When Ethan was little and I worked evenings or
nights and James was too drunk to notice, Ethan could be spotted at
their dinner table. Since Roni and Harley have five children, Ethan
felt comfortable there. I can’t count the number of times after my
shift I slung a sleeping Ethan over my shoulder for the short ride
home.

I had to face some hard truths while I was in
Alaska. I wanted to believe that it was only James and his drinking
that made me want to work so much and leave Ethan with James or
Roni and Harley. The real truth is much more complicated than that,
and I’m still trying to sort it all out. One thing I’m sure of is
that I wasn’t a very good mother back then. Some people aren’t
meant to be parents. Too bad there isn’t a test to weed out the bad
candidates.

I know Roni thinks I came back because I missed her
and wanted to go into business with her. That certainly factored
into my decision, but the real reason is the guilt I feel that I
abandoned Ethan. I am desperately trying to reestablish some kind
of relationship with him. He attends college two hours away; I
visit him every other weekend.

Current reality ended my reverie
as I turned onto the access road that led to the farm. Harley waved
as I parked close to the house but as far away from the Bradford
pear tree and the bluebirds as I could get.

As I exited the car Harley asked. “Don’t want to
park under the tree again, huh?”

“
What’s that saying?” I asked.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on
me.”

“
Whatever,” Harley said. “Roni’s
on the phone.”

“
How did lunch go?”

“
Ok, I think,” Harley said. “Roni
is having a hard time with this.”

“
I know, I talked to her this
morning.”

“
I think she just needs to get to
know this woman better,” Harley said.

“
I guess. That box by the barn is
gone. Did you catch that cat?”

“
Yeah, he’s a brand new resident
of Perry County,” Harley said as he handed me a cold
Corona.

“
Seriously, that’s how you’re
going to play this?”

“
I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” he said.

“
OK, we’ll do it your
way.”

Harley pretended to look wounded and was about to
respond when Roni joined us and said. “How was your day,
Kitty?”

“
I spent my day following Mary
Poppins and Ho Chi Minh.”

Harley stared at me, grabbed my beer, and said. “No
more beer for you.”

“
It’s OK, Harley,” Roni said. “She
gives everyone we investigate a nickname. Mary Poppins is the one
who peed on the doctor’s floor, right?”

“
Too much information,” Harley
said as he handed me back my beer. “I’m going in. I’ll call you
when dinner’s ready.”

I waited until Harley was out of sight before I
said. “I followed Mary Poppins to the mall. She spent most of the
afternoon shoplifting. What do we do about that?”

“
Is that all she did?” Roni
asked.

“
No, I got a nice video of her
doing Pilates at the gym.”

“
Well, that should be enough to
send to Dr. Mirren,” Roni said. “With normal diagnostics and that
video, they can end her comp claim and we’re out of it.”

“
I hate the idea she gets away
with shoplifting and comp fraud. They’ll just close her file. They
won’t be able to prove fraud. She’ll just move on to the next
scam.”

“
Well, you could follow her one
more time,” Roni offered. “Pro bono, of course. When she’s in the
mall doing her thing, call security and let them know.”

“
I like it.”

“
Who is Ho Chi Minh?” Roni
asked.

“
She’s that Vietnamese woman whose
real name is Nguyan Thj Dung. I got the referral a couple of days
ago. She doesn’t live at the address where they send her checks.
She had a doctor’s appointment this morning, so I decided to catch
up with her there. She left his office and jumped in a car that
sped away before I could follow. She was checking everyone out as
she left. This wasn’t the first time she’s been followed. It’s
going to take both of us to nail her.”

“
OK, let me know when you want to
do it,” Roni said.

“
When are you going to see your
new para?”

“
His name is Brad Henry,” Roni
said. “He’s having some tests for the next couple of days so I’ll
go early next week.”

“
You do a great job with paras and
quads. I’ve always thought I could handle being a paraplegic. I
mean you’d still have a functioning upper body. That whole below
the neck being gone thing; I’m not convinced I could do that. I
think I’d rather be dead.”

“
I always think of David Weller,”
Roni said. “He’s a quad I worked with a couple of years ago. He’s
amazing. I helped him get 24/7 nursing care and got him through
rehab. He still runs his construction company. He’s a
multi-millionaire and his injury hasn’t slowed him down one
bit.”

“
Dinner’s ready,” Harley said as
he appeared in the doorway. “Hey, Kitty, how’s that cyber-dating
going?”

“
I’m taking it slow,” I said as we
walked in the house. “I’ve been exchanging e-mails with this one
guy. We’re going to have dinner Saturday night.”

“
You be careful, Kitty,” Harley
said. “The world is full of freaks and perverts and a lot of them
are on the Net.”

“
I’m touched, Harley,” I
said.

“
I don’t think I could go on
without you, Kitty,” Harley said. “You complete me.”

“
Wow, Harley,
are we having bullshit for dinner, too?”

Chapter Six

Against my better judgment, I was
on my way to Roni and Harley’s for Saturday night dinner. A
cloudless sky and temperatures in the eighties allowed shimmers of
heat to glint off the hood of my red convertible. I pulled over
halfway there to put the top up, feeling a nasty sunburn coming
with any further exposure to the sun.

In order to attend, I had to
cancel my first date with Jack Kyle, a man I met on eLove.com. We
had been exchanging e-mails for the last several weeks and had
planned to take it to the next level, an actual meeting. In all
candor, I wasn’t looking forward to dating again. All I could
remember from my first round years ago was a general feeling that
the process was awkward and usually ended in rejection for someone.
I have never been much of an optimist, and time has only added to
my cynicism.

Roni begged me to come and finally played the friend
card because her father and his girlfriend were also supposed to be
there. My job was to scope Marian out, looking for any kind of flaw
that Roni missed. I almost felt sorry for Marian. I wondered if she
realized she was about to run the Edelin gauntlet. Roni’s role was
to glare at me in mock horror while I asked Marian all those
horribly intrusive questions Roni would certainly proffer without
her father’s presence.

Once again, I avoided the Bradford pear trees and
parked closer to the house. Harley was smoking ribs and I realized
I was going to have to eat salads for the next week to make up for
this binge. Harley smiled and waved his huge barbecue fork as I
approached.

“
Hey, Kitty, how’s it going?” he
asked.

“
Good. Are you ready to check out
Billy’s new squeeze?”

“
Yeah, I’m ready,” he
said.

“
I was a little nervous about
leaving my new friend.”

“
What new friend?” he
asked.

“
I think you know. I named the cat
Harley. She’s preggers, did you realize that?”

“
I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” he said.

“
OK, we can play it like that. So,
are you one of those people who hates cats? Do you tie them on the
back of your truck?”

“
You know,” he said. “You city
people drive down here with pets you don’t want and just let them
loose as if we’re going to find them on the porch and I’m gonna
say, ‘Look, Roni, it’s another cat. Isn’t that great. Let’s take it
in. We always have room for one more’.”

“
I guess I never thought about it.
What do you do?”

“
Everybody down here has a bone
yard,” he said. “We shoot them and bury them in the bone
yard.”

“
That’s horrible.”

“
It’s more humane than letting
them starve to death,” he said as Billy Diamond pulled up to the
house. “Showtime. Remember, careful scrutiny but don’t piss them
off.”

“
Did you tell Billy to park under
the Bradford?” I asked.

“
No, I reserve all my harmless
pranks for you, Kitty,” he said as he laughed.

“
Payback is a bitch, Harley,” I
said.

Roni must have heard the car because she joined us
on the porch. I sensed her tension, which seemed so out of
character for her. Billy seemed to be moving in slow motion as if
he might be imparting his final words of warning or encouragement
to his companion. Billy climbed out nimbly and walked around the
car, opened the passenger door, and extended a hand to help Marian
exit the vehicle.