“I know what it means,” Stacey says with a shudder. “I took three years of Latin.”
Memento mori. Remember you must die.
“It’s pretty bizarre that something like that would be hanging in a house where a mother, father, and daughter were murdered a hundred years later,” Lennon comments. “Don’t you think?”
Hell, yes, she thinks. But she says nothing, thoughts spinning.
“Sorry to freak you out,” he goes on, “but I figured you knew.”
“How would I know? That’s not our picture. It came with the house. It was there when we moved in.”
“But I can’t believe your mom didn’t mention it to you after Jules told her.”
“I can. My mom doesn’t want Piper and me to be afraid, living there, because of what happened to the Toskas. She already said not to dwell on that because it was a long time ago, but . . . God. No wonder she’s been so . . .” She shakes her head, remembering the dead-bolted door the other day, and how quiet and distant her mother has been all week.
“She’s been so . . . what?”
“I bet she’s scared.”
“Of what?”
Maybe Mom, too, is worried that the killer will come back. Maybe she, too, has seen someone watching the house.
“Forget it,” she tells Lennon. “I mean, it’s not like some weird nineteenth-century corpse portrait has anything to do with the Toska murders.”
“Unless . . .”
“What?”
“Never mind. You said you don’t believe in that stuff.”
“What?”
“You know . . . ghosts. Or vibes.”
“I don’t.”
“But if something bad happened to that family in the 1800s . . .”
“Apparently, something horrible happened to them if their kid died,” she points out.
“Exactly. Maybe whatever happened to their family cursed the Toska family.”
“This isn’t The Shining, Lennon, okay?”
“Okay.” He inches closer and puts his arms around her. “Why are we even wasting time talking about this?”
He kisses her, and she tries to lose herself in it, in him.
But when she closes her eyes, she sees the dead girl’s grim gaze, and the silhouette of a man on the roof with binoculars.
Nora
Jules is pleased when Nora rejoins her with a pair of pumpkin spice lattes. “Oh, good, you like them, too. Heather thinks they’re too rich and cloyingly sweet.”
Sipping the beverage, Nora decides Heather is right.
“Hey, thanks for sending my salad bowl over with Piper last night,” Jules says. “Courtney was glad they got to hang out for a while. I guess they made plans to go shopping on Saturday.”
Nora nods as though she knows, though Piper hadn’t mentioned it. Or maybe she had, and Nora had been preoccupied. Her younger daughter’s been full of chatter the last couple of days about how much she loves her school, her new friends, the city.
Keith’s “stick together” rule was shattered by day two. Piper heads to school an hour earlier than Stacey and home an hour later, meeting with teachers and using the Academic Center in an effort to stay on top of the new curriculum. Stacey has adapted far more quickly, as a senior accustomed to the high school workload, and a better all-around student.
Jules leans in across the table. “Not only that, but Stacey and Lennon are . . . I don’t even know what they call it these days, do you?”
“Um . . . that depends on what ‘it’ is.”
“If I said dating, my kids would roll their eyes like I did at that age when my mother used that word. Dating is dances and movies, you know? This is more like . . . hanging out.”
“Like Piper and Courtney.”
“Not like that. Something’s going on, but . . . I take it Stacey didn’t tell you?”
“No.” That, Nora would have noticed, preoccupied or not. Stacey’s been quiet the last few days, but it isn’t unusual.
“Lennon didn’t tell me, either. Courtney did.”
“He told her?”
“God, no. He doesn’t tell anyone anything. She probably read his texts. She’s good with stuff like that.”
“With . . .”
“You know. Technology. Invasion of privacy.” Jules shrugs. “My daughter is the nosiest person in the world. She’s always snooping around, spying on the rest of us. Good thing we’ve got nothing major to hide, right?”
Nora hopes her own “Right” doesn’t sound as hollow to Jules’s ears as it does to her own.
“Anyway, Lennon and Stacey have been meeting up here after school and in the park the last few nights, in case you were wondering.”
“Here after school? In this café? So any minute now, they might show up?”
“Right.”
Nora looks to the window, surveying the steady stream of pedestrians.
“Were you wondering?” Jules asks her.
“No, I mean . . . Stacey walks Kato after dinner, but she’s supposed to stay on Edgemont. I can’t believe she’s going to the park alone after dark.”
“Not alone. With Lennon.” Jules peers at her. “Ah, that’s even worse?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“It’s written all over your face, girlfriend.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not about your son—I’m sure he’s a great kid, and—”
“Yeah, no, he’s not. Definitely not a great kid, unless you have a soft spot for surly geniuses. He’s a pain in the ass. Not that I don’t love him more than life itself, but—anyway, he’s not a horrible kid, either, as far as I know. So you don’t have to worry about that.”
I have to worry about everything. You have no idea.
Nora sips the milky, syrupy coffee and says nothing. She keeps an eye on the window, watching for her daughter, as Jules, capable of carrying both sides of the conversation, tells her about Lennon’s bad breakup early in the summer.
“They were only together a few months before she dumped him, but he was crazy in love, and you’d have thought he was widowed after fifty years of marriage. Heather and I didn’t think he’d ever smile again. Come to think of it, has he?” She tilts her head, like Nora might know. “But at least he’s back to eating and sleeping and bathing. Poor kid. You know what it’s like at that age when you get your heart broken, unless . . . wait, you were the girl who always had a boyfriend in high school, right?”
“Me? High school boyfriends? No.”
“Oh, come on. You never had a first love who wasn’t your husband?”
“Well, that . . . yes. But it didn’t end well.”
“Does anything? So what happened? One of you cheated?”
Nora forces a laugh, and a lie. “Exactly. How’d you guess?”
“Oldest story ever. I’ve been the cheatee, and the cheater. How about you?”
“Same.”
“Wow, really? You mean you’re not as perfect as I thought! If it makes you feel any better about Lennon and Stacey, he was the good guy when he and his girlfriend broke up. She was the one who cheated. Not him. He was loyal. Crazy about her. He fought to keep her. It doesn’t mean he won’t break your daughter’s heart, but if that’s what you’re worried about, he doesn’t have that particular strike against him.”
Is that what she’s worried about? That Stacey will be hurt in a relationship?
Of course that’s part of it. Certainly the only part she’d admit to Jules.