Cast into Doubt

EIGHTEEN

In the morning, she hedged the truth. She told Jeremy that Daddy had gotten hurt in the car, and had to go to the emergency room. Jeremy, whose playtime mishaps had landed him in the emergency room himself several times, found nothing to question in this. When he asked, ‘Is he still there?’ Shelby said that the doctors were making him stay a while until he got better.

When she deposited him at preschool Darcie asked, ‘Does he know about the accident?’

‘As little as possible,’ said Shelby. ‘Let’s keep it that way for now.’

Darcie nodded agreement.

As soon as Shelby got back into the car, she phoned Perry at Markson’s.

There was a slight delay, and then Perry got on the line.

‘Perry,’ she said breathlessly. ‘A few things have happened that I think you should know about. There may be no connection—’

Before she could get any further, Perry cleared his throat and said, ‘Shelby, listen . . .’

Shelby heard the apology in his tone. She frowned and waited.

‘I am truly, truly sorry about this, but I am not going to be able to go any farther with this.’

‘What do you mean?’ Shelby asked. ‘Why not?’

Perry hesitated. Then he said, ‘Apparently the Sunset Cruise Line contacted Elliott Markson. Told him that his security chief had been asking questions about your daughter.’

‘Oh no,’ said Shelby.

‘He blew up when he heard about it.’

‘I was afraid of that when you said you would do this on company time.’

‘Mr Markson would have wanted me to try to help you.’

Shelby sighed. ‘Well, it’s a new era. A new Markson. Look, Perry, I can pay you under the table. Can you continue on your own time?’ she said.

There was a silence at Perry’s end. He cleared his throat again. Then he sighed. ‘He basically said that he doesn’t want any trouble with the cruise lines. There may be corporate conflicts of interest.’

It was Shelby’s turn to be silent.

‘Shelby, I am really sorry. But I can’t afford to lose my job over this. With my daughter’s condition, we need the health insurance. And my hours here are flexible so I can help my wife to manage her care. Elliott Markson gave me a direct order to drop the matter. I’m afraid if I defy him . . .’

Shelby took a deep breath. ‘I understand, Perry.’

‘I can recommend some people to you who might be able to help.’

Shelby’s heart was filled with outrage at this new management that had replaced Albert Markson’s good manners and compassion with a flinty attitude of distrust and hostility. You could run a business and be decent to your employees at the same time. But then she forced herself to let it go. There is no time, she reminded herself, to worry about feeling angry or betrayed. ‘That would be great,’ she said, ‘email them to me,’ although she felt little optimism at the prospect of hiring another detective. It seemed as if she alone cared about the truth of what happened to Chloe. She couldn’t think about it right now. Right now she had to find a lady pirate.

Shelby sat down on a bench under a tree across the street from the church, opened her newspaper and peeked out around it. She didn’t want anyone leaving the church after the meeting to recognize her. After her ejection the other day, she felt certain that her face would be memorable. She pretended to read, and waited for the meeting to let out.

Just when she was beginning to wonder if today’s meeting had been canceled, a few people began to straggle out and head in different directions down the street. There was no guarantee, of course, that on this particular day, at this particular meeting, everyone from the previous meeting would attend. She held her breath and waited, holding the paper open in front of her face and lowering it just enough to watch the people as they emerged from the church doors.

She saw Ted, the former gym teacher, coming down the steps. Instead of a tracksuit, today he was wearing chinos and a windbreaker. He loped across the street in her direction. Shelby frowned into the paper she was clutching in front of her face. Ted did not hesitate, but kept walking, entering the park behind her and heading off down one of the paths.

Shelby lowered the paper and glanced across the street just in time to see a gray braid above the Ed Hardy skull and hearts logo heading in the opposite direction. She jumped up from the bench, crossed the street and rushed after Barbara, who had turned at the corner. Shelby caught up with her as she was unlocking the door of an industrial-looking building on a street that was little more than an alleyway.

‘Barbara,’ she said.

The tall, lanky woman turned and looked at her, frowning. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses that covered her eyepatch.

‘Chloe’s mother,’ Shelby reminded her.

Barbara grimaced and looked all around her, as if to be sure there was no one in earshot. ‘What? What do you want?’ she said irritably.

‘I need to talk to you,’ said Shelby.

‘Look, I can’t help you. I don’t—’

‘I know you went to see my son-in-law,’ said Shelby flatly, although she was only taking a stab in the dark.

Barbara sighed and glanced at her watch. ‘I have work to do,’ she said vaguely.

‘This won’t take long,’ said Shelby. ‘Please.’

Barbara sighed and hunched her shoulders. ‘I can’t avoid this, can I?’

Shelby shook her head.

Barbara pushed open the door and nodded for Shelby to follow her. The foyer was dim, and the elevator looked like it had not been serviced in a century. Shelby followed Barbara inside and they rode to the fourth floor in silence.

Barbara unlocked a large door on the landing and pushed it to the side. Behind the door was a loft space with a wall of windows. There were paintings everywhere, on easels and pushed up against the furniture. Shelby looked around with a knowledgeable eye. The loft space was large and clearly a valuable space. The paintings were plentiful, but ordinary and uninteresting. Barbara was not paying for this loft space by selling these paintings.

‘This is my studio. And my home,’ Barbara said proudly.

‘What a fantastic space,’ said Shelby.

‘Yeah,’ said Barbara. ‘My dad owns the building.’

Shelby nodded, her suspicions confirmed. Barbara had to be at least forty-five years old. How discouraging to still be dependant, she thought.

‘Sit,’ said Barbara, perching on a kitchen stool by a stainless steel island.

Shelby sat down in a lipstick-red, art deco style armchair.

‘So he told you,’ said Barbara in a grumpy tone.

‘I’m sorry?’ Shelby asked.

‘Your son-in-law. He told you about my visit? I asked him specifically not to tell anyone.’

Shelby shook her head. ‘No. My grandson saw you. He described you to me. You’re very distinctive-looking.’

Barbara took off her shades and set them down on the island. She waved her long, narrow, paint-stained fingers dismissively. ‘I don’t know why you’re pestering me. If you want to know what we talked about, ask your son-in-law.’

‘I can’t ask him. His car was forced off the road last night. He’s in the hospital, unconscious,’ Shelby said bluntly.

‘Oh my God. Sorry,’ said Barbara.

‘So I have to ask you. What did you tell him? And why?’

‘I should never have gone over there,’ said Barbara, shaking her head. ‘I knew it, and I did it anyway. I broke every rule of AA. Everything that you hear at a meeting is supposed to stay in the meeting. No exceptions.’

Shelby watched her the way one might watch an exotic bird perched on a feeder – fearful of scaring it away with any sudden moves.

‘I told myself it was wrong, and that I shouldn’t go, but I did it anyway.’

‘Why did you go there? How did you find him?’ Shelby asked.

Barbara shrugged. ‘It wasn’t that difficult. After you showed up at the meeting with that picture of Chloe, and said her name was Kendricks, I just Googled her, and there was the whole story. About the cruise and all. I looked them up in the Philly phone book. They’re listed. Address and phone number.’

‘So what did you tell Rob that got him so upset? My grandson said you were arguing,’ Shelby said grimly.

‘We weren’t arguing,’ Barbara protested. Then she sighed again. ‘I’m not going to get rid of you, am I?’

Shelby shook her head.

Barbara shook her head. ‘Chloe used to come to our meeting. I can’t believe I’m telling you this – if you ever breathe a word of this . . .’ She pointed a finger at Shelby.

Shelby closed her eyes and shook her head to indicate that she would not.

‘She and I just hit it off. She had a very artistic soul. I miss her. She came for a while. Must have been at least a year.’

Shelby registered the fact that now she knew. Chloe, her baby, had been an alcoholic. There was no doubt Rob had told the truth about that. She didn’t have time to have any feelings about this news, other than to realize that she now had one answer, for certain. But at this moment, she just wanted to encourage her elusive witness and not scare her off. ‘Yes, that’s what I understand,’ said Shelby cautiously.

‘I knew they were going on the cruise. I warned her about those things. There’s so much drinking on those boats. There’s a bar every three feet. My parents took me with me with them once when I was a teenager.’

Shelby felt a stab of guilt. She had never even thought about that when she planned their gift. But she didn’t ever dream it would be a problem for her daughter. Chloe had kept it a secret.

‘She knew she was a little shaky, but she really wanted to go. She thought it would be good for her marriage. I think things were a little rocky.’

Shelby watched her cautiously.

‘Anyhow, about a week before the trip, she came in and she was all agitated. She said she had a problem and she didn’t know what to do. She wanted to tell me about it. Just me. Not the whole meeting. We would usually talk before the meeting. That’s the beauty of it. Sometimes you can tell things to a stranger that you can’t tell the people in your life.’

‘Sure,’ Shelby murmured encouragingly.

Barbara gave Shelby a disparaging glance, as if Shelby were to blame for her egregious breaking of the rules.

‘What was it?’ Shelby asked.

‘She had found out somehow that her husband’s ex-wife had been deceiving him. His daughter was not actually his. She was the child of another man.’

Shelby’s mouth dropped open. ‘Molly?’

Barbara shrugged. ‘I don’t know the kid’s name.’

‘It’s Molly,’ said Shelby. ‘I can’t believe it. What other man? How did Chloe know that?’ But even as she asked, Shelby had an inkling. Dr Cliburn was Lianna’s ob-gyn. It must have been in her records. Her confidential, medical records.

‘I don’t know,’ said Barbara. ‘I didn’t ask. It’s not important. The thing was, she knew she should tell Rob, but it was just before the cruise. She said if she told him, they’d have to cancel the cruise. He’d be all freaked out about it and he wouldn’t want to go. So, she wanted to wait until they got back to tell him. But she didn’t want to lie to him.’

‘What did you say?’ Shelby asked.

Barbara shrugged. ‘I said it wasn’t lying if she was going to tell him, after all. There was no harm in their having a nice vacation and then telling him after they got back. I think that’s what she wanted to hear, because she decided that’s what she would do. I didn’t think any more about it until you came to the meeting with that picture of her and said that she died on the cruise. And I thought, what the f*ck happened?

‘So, I decided to tell her husband myself,’ said Barbara. ‘I figured he had a right to know. If Chloe wasn’t going to be able to tell him, I would.’ Barbara made a fist and rapped it on the cutting board built into the island.

‘I had no idea,’ said Shelby.

‘And this is why you’re supposed to keep your mouth shut about what you hear at these meetings,’ said Barbara. ‘To avoid a situation just like this one.’

Shelby forced her mind out of the tailspin it was in. She looked squarely at Barbara. ‘I know you feel guilty about breaking the rules,’ she said. ‘But I really want to thank you for doing it. And for caring so much about Chloe.’

Barbara was staring at the paint-spattered floor, her jaw working as if she was trying not to cry. ‘Maybe if she’d told him right away, none of this would have happened.’

‘Or maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference at all,’ said Shelby.

‘I don’t know why anyone would take advice from me anyway,’ said Barbara. ‘All my relationships have gone down in flames. My life is so f*cked up. How do I know what someone should do?’

Shelby understood that Barbara was about to introduce her own problems into the conversation. She also knew that she owed it to this woman to listen. This woman had gone way out of her way for Chloe. And now she wanted a little time, a little empathy for herself. Shelby vowed to herself that she would pay this debt off someday. But not today.

‘There wasn’t anything wrong with the advice you gave her,’ said Shelby, pushing herself up from the chair. ‘It made perfect sense, what you said to Chloe.’

Barbara looked up at her ruefully. ‘Is that it?’ she said.

‘I can never thank you enough,’ Shelby said.

‘I should have kept my mouth shut,’ said Barbara woefully. ‘I never learn.’