“Did he say anything to you?” I asked.
“He told me good morning. He always does.” She pursed her lips as she thought. “Then he said he was taking a fishing trip for a few days, and to keep an eye on things here for him. That’s ridiculous, of course, I can’t spend twenty-four hours a day watching over the neighborhood.”
I thanked her and wished her a good day, and then I walked toward the shed. The garage was my mother’s domain. When I was a kid, that’s where she’d done her Jane Fonda workouts and watched TV if my dad was home and had the house TV occupied. The shed and the garage were strictly adult zones, though Phoebe and I had tried to look in the windows from time to time. Entrance was forbidden, which made us want to see inside all the more.
When I was sixteen I’d gotten my shot. The door had been left unlocked by some miracle and Bobby Wallace and I had snuck in to have a major make-out session. Since Bobby Wallace had been the quarterback of the football team, the captain of the swim team, and there was a rumor going around that the bulge in his Speedo was all natural, it seemed like the chance of a lifetime.
What I didn’t know, and would have if I’d understood context clues, was that the door was unlocked for a reason. Bobby was barely past first base when the door slammed open and a gaggle of cackling women barged in. My mom played bridge on Sunday nights, and she and the ladies had decided to make a trip for ice cream in between games.
I’d been so hot for Bobby I hadn’t noticed the wine glasses or the table set up with cards. Unfortunately for Bobby, his mother got an eyeful and he got shipped off to military school for the rest of his senior year. No one had seen him since.
That experience had cured me of ever wanting to see in my parents’ private sanctums, and I never tested my luck again.
When I reached my dad’s shed, I was relieved to find the door locked. The way my mother had talked, it sounded like we’d be ready for war at a moment’s notice. I trudged back to the house and my mother opened the door before I got there.
“What did Edna have to say?” she asked, looking both ways before quickly shutting the door behind me. “She knows something is up. She’s been looking over her fence all morning.”
“She said she hasn’t seen Vince in three days, and he told her he was going fishing.”
My mother snorted. “I’m telling you, that man has never fished a day in his life. Hunting and fishing are his least favorite things to do on the planet. He said he hunted humans for most of his life, so he has no desire to do it to animals.”
“I guess I can see his point,” I said. “But I needed a timeline and Edna gave it to me. You didn’t hear him leave? He didn’t leave a note?”
She crossed her arms and gnawed at her thumbnail. “I was mad, and I told him I was tired of being ignored, and then I went out and slept in the garage. I didn’t hear him leave. He sent me a text saying he loved me and he’d call when he could, but that was three days ago and I haven’t heard from him since. What if he didn’t leave? What if something happened to him?”
I was glad to know she’d worked through her anger to see there were other possibilities.
“I need to get into Dad’s shed,” I said. “Do you know where the key is?”
It was so ingrained to deny entrance that she hesitated before nodding and going to rummage around in a kitchen drawer. “I put it in the junk drawer,” she said. “Do you need something to eat? You look a little peaky.”
“I’ve got a burger,” I said. “Is Scarlet here? I saw my car out front.”
“Ssh,” my mother said, putting her hand over my mouth, her eyes wide with panic. “You’ll wake her up.”
“What’s she doing here?” I asked.
“She said this was the only place she could get peace and quiet for her morning nap. I asked her why she didn’t just go to a hotel, but she was kind of closed-lipped about the whole thing.”
“She got banned,” I said.
“Huh, maybe I’ll try that.” Mom blew out a breath. “At least she’s sleeping for now. No one makes me pop Xanax like that woman does.”
“I didn’t know you popped Xanax,” I said.
“I don’t do it often anymore,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll take them before I get a massage because it makes me tense when they rub me. And I always take one when I go Black Friday shopping because I’ve found they enhance my reflexes.”
“I don’t think that’s how they’re supposed to work,” I said.
“I dunno,” she said, shrugging. “But I took two as soon as Scarlet got here and the urge to strangle her in her sleep has disappeared. I’m going to make you some cookies to take with you. I want to make sure you give birth to one of those cute chubby babies. Gladys Pike’s granddaughter came out looking like a scarecrow. Scared me to death. Gladys still isn’t speaking to me because I screamed. But I don’t care what anybody says, there are such things as ugly babies.”
I smiled tightly and crept out the back door so as not to wake Scarlet, and I made my way back across the yard to the shed. Edna had moved to her porch swing and was bundled up like an Eskimo, but she was still watching the house with a great deal of interest. Probably waiting for Scarlet to come out.
My dad had replaced the shed door with a solid, regular-size exterior door.
