used to stay here.' But mine that you'd be using your best friend's name, she thought, silently taking credit.
“Your mother's staying here is what gave me the idea, too,' Penny admitted.
“Look, Penny, we've come because we've all been very worried about you. Why don't we go upstairs to your room and talk, then we can figure out what to do next.”
Penny nodded. 'All right, but the room is ... well, a bit small. Two of us would have to sit on the bed. There's a coffee shop across the street where I've been taking my meals, although I could have them here. Why don't we go there?' Faith noticed Penny still had her coat on. She must have come in minutes before they had.
“Fine.' Coffee sounded great. Food sounded better. Maybe it was some diamond-in-the-rough place where they baked everything themselves.
What it was was a perfectly adequate sub shop with a Greek accent. The three of them settled around one of the square Formica tables at the window, beneath a dramatic travel poster of the Acropolis at night. Penny chose a chair that placed her back to the street. She had only wanted a cup of tea. Pix ordered a Greek salad and Faith the same, with a slight glance at the large cheese steak another patron was enjoying. But this was not Philadelphia, and besides, it would be difficult to maintain the necessary investigative decorum required by the situation while dripping grease.
“I suppose you want to know why I left Tuesday night.' Penny sounded vaguely hopeful that Pix and Faith might be there for another reason. Say, her recipe for mincemeat bars.
“Why did you leave?' Faith asked.
“This is not easy for me to talk about and it's something I have never told anyone, not even Francis. Not even Millicent.' Penny said the latter as if surprised at herself—or at Millicent for not getting it out of her. 'However, after I saw you at Horticultural Hall, I decided if you found me here, I'd tell you. But, I will not go back to Aleford until Alden's murderer is arrested. You'll see why.”
Pix reached across the table and took Penny's hand. 'You know that you can trust us. It's you we're concerned about, not anybody else.”
Faith nodded vehemently. She wanted to hear what Penny had to say.
“Pix, you were young at the time, but you may remember I nursed my husband, Francis, at home the year before he died. There was nothing that any doctor could do for him and we wanted to be together until the end. I hoped he could die with dignity, as they say, but there is no dignity in the kind of, pain he suffered. The end was a blessing.' She looked down at the tepid liquid in her teacup and took a swallow.
“He went to bed in August. It's funny ... I remem- ber it so clearly. There was a day when he just didn't get up. The day before he had. One day so different from the next. And I knew he would never get up again. I'm sorry to be rambling. Anyway, that fall a young woman who worked in his firm—I think she was a secretary, but not Francis's secretary. That was Mrs. Phillips. She used to bring him books to read and flowers until he didn't want to see anyone. But this other secretary called me and said she had something very important to discuss with me and would I meet her in town the following day. I explained Francis was seriously ill and couldn't be left. She said she knew and that was why she was approaching me. She didn't want to bother him, but she would if I didn't come'
“Did it sound like a threat?' Faith asked.
“It sounded as though she meant it, not exactly a threat. I arranged for a neighbor to come sit with Francis and went into town. We met at a restaurant on Newbury Street. When I walked in, she came over and greeted me by name. I'd never seen her before. She was quite pregnant, and after we sat down at a table, she told me she was carrying Francis's child.”
Faith was stunned. 'But wasn't that impossible?' she blurted out before thinking.
Penny allowed a shadow of amusement to cross her face. 'Millicent told you, I presume. In fact, it was not a big secret, though we didn't announce it from the rooftops. We felt one's biological destiny or what have you is nothing of which to be ashamed. Yes, it was impossible. Francis was sterile. He'd contracted mumps in the army. I knew it when I married him and never regretted the decision for a single moment:'
“Certainly you told this blackmailer that!' Pix was indignant.
“I did tell her, but she was very insistent. And you're right—she did want money. As she spoke, I began to realize that although the baby was not Francis's, he may have had a few foolish meetings with her. She knew so much about him, about us. I don't think it's uncommon for people, when they know they have very little time left in this world, to want to try things they've never done. Francis had been diagnosed the winter before. It's highly possible this woman was his way of assuring himself he remained alive and able to have an adventure of sorts.”
Faith had always admired Penelope Bartlett. Never more than now. Still, it would have been better for all concerned if her husband had taken up skydiving.
“So, you paid her to leave Francis alone.' It was very clear. What was not was what any of this had to do with the matter at hand.
“Yes, I did. I didn't want the time Francis had left to be complicated by ugly rumors. As I said, she was a very fIrm person and I have no doubt she would have continued to insist on the paternity of her child until Francis submitted to some sort of test. It was all too unpleasant to consider.'
“But this was almost twenty years ago,' Pix said, anticipating Faith's question.
“Yes, I know, except I have not been allowed to forget it. You see, Alden found out certain things.”
Of course, Pix and Faith read each other's minds.
“I couldn't take such a large sum of money from the bank without Francis's knowledge. We were a traditional couple by today's standards,' she commented wryly. 'He gave me plenty of money for the household accounts and clothing, but he controlled the rest. There was only one way for me to get it without telling him,and telling him was out of the question. That was to sell some shares in a family business in New Hampshire my father had left to me. Unfortunately, one of the conditions of the bequest was that they had to be offered to family members first, several cousins and Alden. I tried my cousins. They were not interested, so I was forced to go to Alden, who was. He never asked me why I needed the money and I thought all would be well.'
“Surely this is not what he and Dan Garrison have been alluding to during the campaign? They kept talking about your taxes.' Faith realized there must be more. There was.
“I did a very stupid thing. I didn't declare the income from the sale of those shares that year. Francis was still well enough in February to go over our taxes with Barry Lacey, who helped him prepare them. I never intended to cheat the government. I just couldn't let Francis be worried.”
Faith understood completely. She would have done the same thing herself.
“Francis died in early September, a little more than a year after he had become bedridden. When I was settling the estate, I told our lawyer that, in the stress of Francis's illness, I had neglected to declare the sale of the shares to my brother and asked if he and Barry would straighten it out. I said I would pay the penalties. And they did. But during the course of all this, Alden must have discovered what I had done. He never said a word. Not until the debate the other night.'
“Oh, Penny! What a terrible shock that must have been for you,' Pix empathized.
“It was. Alden knew there had to be some reason out of the ordinary that I was selling my shares. He was just biding his time. But I was darned if I was going to drag all this past history out into the open when it had nothing to do with the campaign. And, in fact, I had made amends and paid the fine. But hearing this alone without the whole story would have caused a ruckus. You know what sticklers people around here are about their—and more especially your—taxes. And I'm glad I didn't say anything. Especially since Francis can't be here to defend himself. I know this town, and there would have been more than one sly comment at his expense.”
Something more was puzzling Faith. f Penny hadn't known until recently that Alden knew about the tax return, why didn't she speak to him?
“But what was it that led to the coolness between you and Alden? You haven't spoken to him for years.”
Penny sighed. 'I feel like that child with a finger in the dike. The difference is, I've taken mine out and now the water is pouring in from everywhere.'
“This may not be something we need to know,' Pix offered soothingly.
Maybe Pix would not make such a good partner, after all. Faith was about to say something to the effect that
