“She’s not crazy,” Heather told her. “If she’d take her medications properly, she’d be as sane as you or me.”
Drew’s blue eyes went from Heather’s face to mine. “Am I missing something here?”
It wasn’t for me to say. Instead I glanced at Heather, who said abruptly, “She’s
She got up and headed for a restroom down the hall.
By the time I finished explaining that Savannah was Heather’s birth mother, Drew looked even more stunned than I had felt a few minutes earlier. But then I knew her father’d had an affair with Savannah years ago and I rather doubted that it was something anyone had ever told her. Although how she could spend five minutes looking at a woman whose nose was slightly broader but otherwise identical to her own and not notice was beyond me.
“Savannah once had a real daughter?” she whispered.
“Evidently.”
“I thought it was part of her craziness. She talks so much rubbish. No one listens to the rantings of a mad person, do they?”
“She talked about having a baby?”
“Indirectly.” Drew twisted the end of one blonde tress and her blue eyes were worried. “She seems to think the reason I won’t admit that Lynnette’s my child is because I’m afraid of scandal. She keeps saying that it was shameful back in her day, not in mine. That she couldn’t keep me back then, but things are different now.”
“She thinks you’re that baby.”
“But she
I shook my head, “I don’t think she knows anything. And neither do you, if it comes right down to it. Look, forget about who her father might be. All Heather wants to do is find Savannah and talk to her. Savannah trusts you. Will you help? It’ll help Savannah, too. Heather seems to feel responsible. If she can establish a relationship, she can probably help Savannah get the mental treatment she so desperately needs.”
But I had overlooked how young Drew still was. As bright and poised as she may have been under normal circumstances, she was not handling this very well. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
We both saw Elizabeth Patterson come to the front of their showroom and scan the passing crowds. She held two purses, one of them probably Drew’s.
Drew stood up abruptly. “I’m sorry. I wish I could, but don’t you see? How could I—? I have to—I promised Mother—”
She seemed to hear herself gibbering and somehow managed to get her tongue under control. “Give me some time to think about all this. I really do have to go. I’ll call you tonight at Dixie’s, okay?”
As Heather returned, I saw Elizabeth hand Drew her purse, then mother and daughter disappeared in the direction of the elevators. From behind they were almost indistinguishable, both tall and blonde, both in white silk slacks and navy blazers.
Golden.
“Did I shock the crap out of her?” asked Heather, who now had her Yankee tough-girl defenses back in place.
“You could say that.”
Her sturdy shoulders drooped for a moment. “Well, then, the hell with her. I’ll find Savannah myself and put her in a hammerlock.”
I had a feeling she probably could.
“Let me buy you another latte,” I said.
As I stood in line to give my order, I tried to decide whether or not it was all right to tell Heather about Savannah’s hiding place. Underwood had asked Dixie and Pell to keep it quiet, but he hadn’t exactly sworn me to secrecy.
“
“
And why didn’t he have an APB out on Savannah? Market was crowded, yes, but surely he could have reached out and touched her if he’d really wanted to. Especially if he thought she was a killer.
Ergo, he didn’t fully suspect her.
Why?
She was there with my tote bag, my penicillin tablets, my—
Well, damn!
After all the time I’ve listened to DEA agents testify as to distinguishing a yellow Dilaudid tablet from a yellow Elavil, the differences between a green-and-white Donnatal capsule from Robins and a green-and-white Librium capsule from Roche? Every capsule or tablet has a stamp or imprint, a color combination, shape or size that’s unique to the company that makes it.
Underwood must have been snickering up his sleeve when I blustered that every medicine cabinet in America
