let anyone else in the room during the final stages of her last illness. He wanted her all to himself. Second in hovering was my dad.' She looked across the room at Fred Hart, who'd suddenly decided to talk to Joel. I didn't know what the conversation covered, but Joel was looking politely bored.
'I guess Victor was too young to visit the hospital much.'
'Yeah, we didn't want him to remember Whitney like she looked toward the end. I stayed at their house and took care of Victor. He was so little, so cute.'
'He's a handsome young man,' I said politely.
'I still keep an eye on him for my sister's sake. It's been great, having them here in Memphis. Victor stays with me sometimes if things get too tense at home.'
She was dying for me to ask her why things would be tense at home. Surely, the abduction and disappearance of a little girl was reason enough? 'He's lucky to have such a conscientious aunt,' I said, selecting the least weighted of responses. 'I saw your brother a couple of times,' Felicia said suddenly, as though tossing a pebble into a pool to see what happened.
'That's what he told me,' I told her in a completely neutral voice.
She seemed stymied when I didn't continue. After a pause, Felicia said, 'I think he took it a bit hard when the distances between us made me think we'd be better off apart.'
I had no response to that, but I was angry, you can bet on it. This was totally not the story Tolliver had told me. So, of course, she was lying.
'It must be difficult to find someone to date, when you're at that in-between age,' I said.
Her eyes narrowed.
'I mean,' I continued, 'men are either married, or they're on their first divorce, and they may have kids and all kinds of entanglements.'
'I haven't found that a problem,' she said through clenched teeth. 'But I suppose since you travel all the time, it's very hard to meet eligible men.'
Oh, ouch—not. If she thought it would bother me to be reminded that I was always in Tolliver's company, she was wrong. Besides, why should I cross swords with this woman? Tolliver was an adult, and he could handle her mixed signals, all on his own.
'Do you know Clyde Nunley?' I said, looking anywhere but at her face.
'Well, we went to Bingham together,' she said, which gave me a jolt. I'd been so sure she'd say she'd never met him. 'He's a couple of years older, but we know each other. Clyde and David are actually fraternity brothers.'
She nodded at David. He looked questioning, and when she smiled at him, he came over, though a bit reluctantly. David Morgenstern would not want to be president of my fan club. But he shook my hand civilly, and when Felicia said, 'Harper was asking about Clyde Nunley.'
David rolled his eyes. 'What an asshole,' he said. 'He was a wild guy in college, lots of fun, but he decided he was the establishment as soon as he became a professor. Smarter than mere mortals, cooler than dry ice. I don't see him socially, but I do catch a glimpse of him at alumni meetings.'
Not any more.
'Look, Diane wants us to come into the dining room,' Felicia said, and I rose to follow the others. David excused himself and went down the hall to a door I assumed was a bathroom's. Tolliver was having a serious talk with the older Morgensterns, but from the few words I caught, he was talking about the Memphis city government. I thought they looked a little relieved, maybe glad not to have to be talking about Tabitha, just for a few minutes. I trailed in the direction Felicia indicated. We were both glad to have an end to our tete-a-tete, I think. I didn't know what Felicia had thought she needed to convey to me, but I'd missed it. 'Why'd you ask about Clyde?' Felicia asked suddenly.
'He came to our hotel last night, kind of irate,' I said, after a moment.
She looked astonished. 'What on earth about?' 'I don't know,' I said, not wanting to talk about it any longer.
Diane had simply made a buffet out of all the food the neighbors had brought over. She and her two Nashville friends had arranged the dishes on a long counter in the spotless kitchen. There was an eat-in area at one end of the room, and the gray winter sky loomed through the large windows around that table in an unpleasant way. There was also a breakfast bar with high stools forming a right angle to one end of the counter, and I'd passed through a formal dining room. This house was focused on eating.
Some of the dishes were hot, some were cold, and there were a lot of casseroles. Some of the flowers and plants the family had received were arranged in with the food and on the two dining tables, formal and informal. This attractive presentation was a talent of Diane's I hadn't expected. I wondered if her friends had done it all, and then chided myself for not giving her enough credit. I'd never seen the unstressed side of the woman.
While the guests were milling around, I eyed the room. The kitchen was simply beautiful, like something that could be photographed for a magazine. White cabinets, dark marble counters, a center island. Beautiful china stacked at the beginning of the spread, and shining silver. The sinks and appliances gleamed with stainless steel— not a fingerprint in sight. If the Morgensterns had a maid, she was invisible. Maybe Diane was the kind of woman who cleaned when she got upset.
At Diane's urging, Joel's parents went through the line first, with Diane herself holding Mrs. Morgenstern's plate while the older woman selected what she wanted to eat. Diane got them settled at the table in the formal dining room and told the rest of us to please go ahead. I lined up behind Felicia and David.
As I waited, I watched Fred Hart shake his head when Diane urged him to get in line. Felicia observed the encounter with a curiously blank face, as if she had no emotion left for her father. After a long moment, she went over to him and said something to him in a low voice. He flinched away from her and left the room. As I picked up a plate and silverware, I wondered if I should go out searching for a happy family. Maybe it was my line of work that threw me in the path of so many unhappy ones.
Esther attracted my attention with a little wave of her hand. It was my turn to begin serving myself, and I'd been standing immobile, holding up the line. I gave myself a mental shake.
