Susan’s eyes went to the mirror, seeking the person who spoke. Jake half turned, looking puzzled. Each glanced at the other.
I held my breath. Perhaps each would conclude it was the other’s voice, even though mine is far huskier than Jake’s and much more vigorous than Susan’s. Once again I had acted without thinking. I must remember: I am not here, I am not here, I am not…
A knock sounded on the bedroom door.
Susan stroked the lustrous coins and gave them a satisfied pat. She glanced at the clock on the mantel. “Wade is always punctual.”
Peg held the door. She looked young and cheerful and pleased. “Good morning, Susan. Wade’s here.” She stood aside for the lawyer to enter.
Jake swung toward the door with a forced smile. “Good morning, Wade.”
Peg darted a concerned glance at her mother.
Susan slowly rose, steadying herself with the cane. She stood stiff and straight and looked across the room. She didn’t speak.
Wade Farrell’s brown eyes were kind. “Keith is Mitchell’s son.”
Susan wavered, one hand on the cane, the other on the dresser, struggling for breath.
Jake fluttered her hands. “Susan, this is too much for you. You’ve had a shock. You know you mustn’t be upset. Wade can leave the file with me.” She looked at the lawyer. “Susan can look at the papers later, when she’s rested.”
Susan’s smile was tremulous. “My grandson.”
The lawyer glanced from Jake to Susan. “Would you like for me to leave the folder? We can talk another time.”
“We will talk now.” Susan’s tone was sharp. She waved a hand toward Jake. “You and Peg may leave.”
Jake’s plump cheeks flushed. Her lips pressed together.
Peg hurried to her mother. “We’ll go down and help Keith decorate the Christmas cookies.”
“Certainly. If we aren’t wanted here.” Jake’s words were clipped. She darted a resentful glance at Susan, then walked swiftly toward the door, her shoes clumping on the floor. She brushed by Wade as if he weren’t there.
When the door closed behind them, Susan gripped her ebony cane and took slow steps to her chair in front of the fireplace. She gestured toward the opposite chair. “Please sit down, Wade. I appreciate the effort you made to get the facts on such short notice.” She paused, struggling to breathe. “And you are wonderful to come here on a Saturday morning.”
He smiled. “I will always come when you call, Susan.”
“Thank you, my dear.” Her breaths came in quick gasps as she lowered herself into her chair.
The lawyer looked at her in concern.
“I’m all right. I’ll get my breath.” Slowly, her breathing eased.
He handed her a green folder and sat down in a Morris chair. “You’ll find everything documented. Mitchell joined the Army two years after he left home. We weren’t able to trace his movements before then.” His voice was carefully uninflected with no hint of the despair that drove Mitchell away and the lost days that now would never be accounted for. “He trained at Fort Sill. He served a three-year tour in Germany and was stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison in Schweinfurt.”
I heard a tiny click. I have acute hearing.
The Morris chair creaked as Wade rose to hand several papers to Susan.
“He met Marlene Schmidt in Bad Kissingen. That’s a resort spa not far from the post. She was nineteen and worked in the gift shop at the Steigenberger Hotel. Here’s a picture taken by a friend. It was sent in a digital file, but I printed it out for you.”
I glanced over Susan’s shoulder.
“What a beautiful girl. What a kind face she had.” Susan’s voice was soft.
Standing amid summer greenery near a placid pond, Marlene tossed a flower into the water. Slender and blond, she was laughing as a light breeze ruffled her pink sundress.
My eyes moved to the hall door. The knob turned ever so slowly, and the door opened a tiny crack.
“Their wedding was an outdoor ceremony in Kurpark an der Saale. Keith was born a year later on June 6 at the Sixty-seventh Combat Support Hospital in Wurzburg. Here is a copy of his birth certificate. He is four and a half years old.”
Susan took the printout.
I breezed into the hall.
Jake pressed close to the hairline crack, one hand tight on the knob.
Wade’s voice carried well, as lawyers’ voices usually do. “Mitchell and his wife and son returned to the United States and to Fort Sill. He was deployed to Iraq where he was killed in an ambush in Ramadi. The notification of his death came to you because he listed you and Tom as his next of kin when he joined and never altered the information.”
“Marlene and Keith?”
“They were living in an apartment in Lawton. She thought about going home to Germany, but she decided to
