7
'Why are we rushing off?' Jane asked.
“Because she's not a real person. She's a recording. She's not going to say anything interesting or useful. Not unless you're willing to be patronized for days on end while you wait.'
“But did you see the looks she was giving Tony Belton?”
Shelley nodded. 'That's a woman who is either having an affair or wanting to have an affair.'
“I agree. There was something hungry and greedy in the looks, the little touches, the sad but provocative smiles. I wonder if Mel has seen them together. Do you think a man would pick up on that?'
“Even if he did, it wouldn't be evidence—' 'But it's sure a nice motive, isn't it?' Jane said, getting into the car. 'The wife and part? ner could get all the benefits of his business, his investments, everything — and without the bother of having him around. Which has to be a relief to both of them on general principle. A person like that can't be easy to live with or do business with.'
“Do you really think we ought to go to visit Sarah in the hospital?' Shelley asked.
“Why not?”
Shelley shrugged. 'I'd feel perfectly all right about it if she were in for surgery, but a mental breakdown? What do you say to somebody who's gone off the deep end?'
“The same things you say to anyone. Hope you're feeling better. Chat about neighborhood news — well, maybe not. Let's deliver the flowers and ask at the nurses' station if they think she'd like company. She probably doesn't. And if she does, we'll just be cheerful.”
They stopped at a florist shop and got a couple sprays of fragrant pink lilies in an especially pretty clear vase. 'We're bringing these for Mrs. Baker,' Jane said at the nurses' station when they finally found the right floor. 'Should we leave them with you, or—'
“Yes, dear. Leave them here. Mrs. Baker is only authorized to have family visitors. You aren't family, are you? Oh, here comes her sister. She might want to take them in for you.”
Grace Axton, looking very tired, had just come out of a room down the hallway. 'Oh, how lovely of you,' she said, when she saw them standing there with their flowers. 'I'll just take them to her room. She's sleeping right now. She'll be so pleased.”
Jane and Shelley waited patiently for Grace to return. 'You look exhausted,' Shelley said when Grace rejoined them. 'Let us buy you some lunch. I'll bet you didn't get any.”
Grace smiled. 'I don't think I have eaten, come to think of it. But not here. The food in this place makes me think of that old movie
“You'd eat pizza?' Jane said in amazement. 'On purpose?”
When they'd walked across the street and were seated on remarkably uncomfortable rigid plastic chairs, Jane asked, 'How is your sister doing?”
Grace lifted her shoulders. 'Still sedated. The doctor thinks it was just exhaustion, topped off by that awful man dying in the storeroom. He says a couple days of enforced rest ought to put her right.'
“Meanwhile you're doing her work and yours,' Shelley said.
“The work's not bad. I'm not much of a cook and Conrad found someone to help him from a restaurant that's shut down for renovations. It'll really screw up our budget, but mainly I'm concerned with Sarah.”
Jane said, 'Is there anything we can do for her? Bring her magazines or newspapers or some kind of craft project to occupy her?'
“I can't think what,' Grace said. 'Certainly not newspapers. Conrad would flip. He won't even allow that little local rag in the house because he didn't want her to know about the zoning battle.”
A perky waitress came and took their orders. When she'd gone, Shelley said hesitantly, picking her words with care, 'I'm a little surprised at the change in Sarah. I remember her in high school as very outgoing, bubbly —'
“—and I was the shy, nerdy one,' Grace said.
“Not nerdy, but shy — yes. It's like you've changed roles. What happened?'
“With me, it's simple and not very interesting. I married a jerk and finally got up the courage to divorce him. I'd taken all those bookkeeping classes in school and found out that I was pretty good at numbers and could earn my own living. Once I'd done that, it was like a great revelation that I could control my life! Funny how some of us have to be slapped upside the head with something traumatic to understand that, while others—'
“Like Sarah—' Shelley prompted.
Grace nodded. 'Of course, Sarah's trauma was so much worse than mine.'
“I don't mean to pry,' Shelley said, 'but Ihave no idea what you mean by that.'
“You don't know? Really?' Grace asked. 'I'd have thought the old school grapevine reached everybody.”
Shelley shook her head.
“You haven't heard about the baby?'
“I heard they lost a child, but I didn't know if it was a miscarriage or what and I wasn't sure it was true.”
The waitress brought their salads and Grace picked at hers. 'They had a child with severe brain damage. Extremely severe. Unable to survive without a hideous array of machines. Constant convulsions. It was unbelievably awful. Sarah had been trying to get pregnant for years, desperately wanted the child, had a devastating delivery that made it impossible for her to have more children. In spite of that, and because she believed the child was suffering horribly, Sarah wanted the life support removed. The hospital agreed. Unofficially, of course. But they couldn't allow it without a court order. Sarah never left the baby's side. The hospital had to put a guard on her to make certain they couldn't be accused of having benignly ignored the possibility that she might turn off the machines. So she never even had any private moments with the baby.'
“How awful for her,' Jane said, knowing ordinary words couldn't begin to express what it must have been like for the grieving mother.
The waitress arrived with their pizza and the subject was dropped while they divided it up and sampled it. Finally, after eating only one slice, Grace continued. 'They had to go to court to get an order to disconnect the machines. But the judge refused to agree. The baby lived another month.'
“I'm sorry,' Shelley said, handing Grace a packet of tissues from her purse. 'I had no business asking about this and upsetting you more.”
Grace mopped her eyes and blew her nose. 'No, it's okay. I haven't talked about it in years and I need to every once in a while. It sort of builds up inside and needs to be let out. I had to quit my job to go stay with Sarah for that last month. When the baby finally died, I thought it might be the beginning of Sarah's healing, but she went completely to pieces. She was almost catatonic. When she finally came around, she was a completely different person. Shy, withdrawn, nervous, afraid of everything. It was like losing her, too. She wasn't Sarah anymore.'
“What a loss for you, too,' Jane said. 'Is she your only sibling?”
Grace nodded. 'And as strange as it seemed to others that the bubbly cheerleader and the bespectacled nerd sister got along, we were always very close until then. Anyhow, she was released from the hospital and she and Conrad took off roaming around. I guess you've heard they cooked for logging camps.”
Shelley nodded. 'Your grandmother told my mother that.'
“All over the west — Oregon and Washington mainly. Like a pair of hippies, except they were kind of late to qualify. I don't think they ever stayed anywhere more than a couple months. As if they were afraid of making friends or forming bonds with anyone.'
“—and having them broken, like with the baby?' Jane asked.
“I guess so. Not that Sarah would say so. Sarah wouldn't say anything personal. We became cordial acquaintances. She always let me know how to reach them if I needed to. Our parents had died before this all happened, but our grandmother was still living and Sarah was concerned about her. It was the one thing we still shared, our love of Gramma.'
“My mother thought the world of your grandmother,' Shelley said, taking back the tissues and dabbing at her own eyes.
“She was a lovely person. I moved in with her and took care of her for the last year, and she was never once pathetic or self-pitying. Better than I can claim.'
“But she left the house to both you and Sarah?' Jane asked.
