Aphrodite

19

Justin Westwood glanced in the rearview mirror as he drove and caught a glimpse of Kendall Harper asleep on the backseat. His eyes shifted to his right and he saw that Deena was watching him, staring, as if, once again, attempting to understand what was going on inside his mind. For her sake, Justin hoped she never succeeded.
“They’re not even worth a penny,” he said.
“What?” Deena asked, startled.
“My thoughts. A penny would be way overpaying.”
“I was that obvious, huh?”
“Well,” he said, “I’m a trained investigator.”
“I thought you said you were rusty.”
“Okay, you were that obvious.” His eyes went toward the mirror again. “She’s a terrific kid,” he said.
“I know. It’s a miracle, really. I mean, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“Sorry to shatter your illusions, but you’re doing something right.”
Deena smiled ruefully. “Thanks. That’s a nice thing to say.” She hesitated, started to say something else but stopped. She chewed on her lip for a moment, then shrugged and said, “You’re good with her.”
“I’m glad you think so. I like her.”
“You never wanted any?”
“Children, you mean?”
She nodded.
“Yes,” Justin said. “I wanted children.”
His words left a heavy silence in the air and she wasn’t exactly sure why. When she glanced at him again, his face looked drawn and his eyes were sad. He looked as if a pain was hammering away at him inside his head. Or, she thought, inside his soul.
Before she could say anything else, they heard a stirring from the backseat. “How much longer?” Kendall yawned.
“Another hour or so,” Justin said. “Not too much farther.”
“Do you have to go to the bathroom?” Deena asked.
“No,” Justin said.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Oh.”
“Do you have to go, sweetie?” she asked her daughter.
“No,” Kendall said.
“Are you sure?”
“If he can wait, I can wait,” the little girl said. And, looking straight at the rearview mirror, she nodded firmly and decisively.
Justin, eyes peering into the mirror, nodded back.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, just past 6:30 p.m., Justin pulled the Buick into the parking lot of the Leger Retirement Home. They were in upstate New York, about half an hour southeast of Albany, in a small blue-collar town called Woodlawn.
“You guys want to come in?”
“Yeah. Kenny can use the rest room.”
“No,” the little girl insisted. “I don’t have to go and I’m not going to.”
“Maybe we’ll come in anyway,” Deena said. “I’d like to use the rest room.”
They went up the steps to the Home, a modern one-story building. The lobby, which also served as the reception room, was comfortable but devoid of charm. Several elderly people were scattered around the room watching a large-screen television or playing cards. An attendant wheeled a white-haired woman past in a wheelchair. Kendall looked around curiously; she had never before seen so many old people in one room.
“Is one of these people Grampy-gramps?” Kendall asked quietly.
“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Justin told her. He went up to the reception desk—it had the feel of an airline check-in counter—and he said to the woman holding down the fort, “I’m here to see Lewis Granger.”
The woman at the desk paled and her eyes widened nervously. She gave Justin a pitying once-over, then quickly turned away, unable to look him in the eye. She said, “I’ll have to call the manager,” picked up the phone, and dialed. After a brief pause, she spoke into the receiver. “There’s someone to see Mr. Granger,” she said quietly. Another pause, then she hung up, turned to Justin, and said, “Mr. Depford will be right with you.”
“Is there a problem?” Justin asked.
“Mr. Depford will be right here,” she said, sat back down, and busied herself with what looked to be unnecessary paperwork.
In a few moments, a small, fortyish-looking man in a gray suit, white shirt, and blue tie came striding into the lobby. He walked directly up to Justin and stuck out his right hand. As they shook, the man in the suit used his left hand to grasp Justin above his wrist. Justin realized that this was meant to be a comforting gesture. Justin introduced Deena and Kendall as his wife and daughter; then he waited to find out why he needed to be comforted.
“Are you a relative?” Depford intoned.
“Yup,” Kendall piped up. Deena instantly grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled the girl backward.
“I’m his son,” Justin said, trying to match the manager’s solemnity. “I’m very sorry to tell you this,” the suited Depford said directly to Justin, “but I’m afraid your father has passed away.”
“He’s dead?” Justin said incredulously.
“I’m afraid so.”
“I just spoke to him yesterday. He sounded—”
“I know. He seemed fine up until the very end. That’s often the way here. Which we’re thankful for.”
“What happened?”
“It seemed to be very peaceful. He died in his bed,” Depford said.
“When?”
“Sometime this afternoon. He didn’t come down for supper. Eventually, one of the nurses went to check on him and found him in bed, not breathing. He didn’t look as if he suffered, if that’s any consolation.”
“Yeah, that’s a big consolation,” Justin said. “Is he still here?”
“Why …yes, we—”
“Has he been moved?”
“No. We’ve called the hospital and they’re going to come pick him up. I told them there was no extraordinary rush since he’s already … well …I called his nephew.”
“Ed Marion.”
“Yes.” Depford’s eyes narrowed and he stared at Kendall. “You called yesterday, didn’t you? I thought you said Ed Marion was your father.”
“This is my dad,” the little girl said, with a sweet smile on her face. “Right, Daddy?”
“Ed’s my cousin,” Justin said. “You must have misunderstood.”
“Yes, well …he’s the only person we had on file. We were unaware there were any other—”
“Can I see him?”
“Mr. Marion? Well, no. He hasn’t even responded to our call.”
“No,” Justin said. “Granger. I want to see …my father.”
“You mean you want to view the body?”
“That’s exactly what I want to do,” Justin said.
The four of them strode down the sterile hallway of the Leger Retirement Home until they reached a cheap wooden door that had the number 27, in even cheaper balsa wood, attached to it.
Depford stopped in front of the door, turned, and, in his most sorrowful tones, said, “Would you all like to go in?”
“Yes,” Kendall said immediately and a bit too enthusiastically. When all three grown-ups looked down at her, she said, with a little less enthusiasm, “I’ve never seen a dead guy before.”
Justin nodded and said, “Okay, we’ll all go in.”
Depford opened the door and started to step inside with them. Justin put his hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “We’d like a few private moments, please.”
“Of course,” Depford murmured. He waited until they were all inside, then he shut the door and said he’d wait for them in the hallway.
As soon as the door was closed, Justin moved to the bedside and began examining the body.
“What are you looking for?” Deena asked.
“Give me a minute and I’ll tell you.”
“Can I see?” Kendall wanted to know.
“In a minute.”
Justin picked up the dead man’s right hand, lifted it up toward the light. He twisted Granger’s head, fingering his neck and under his eyes, then he turned the body over on its side, doing some poking and probing.
“This is pretty yucky,” Kendall said. “I don’t think I want to see, after all.”
“I’m with you, baby,” Deena muttered.
Justin let Granger fall back onto the bed. When he turned around, he saw both mother and daughter staring at him expectantly.
“Look,” he said, turning back to the corpse. He picked up Granger’s left hand and ran his fingers down the wrist and arm of the corpse. “Red marks here. It looks like someone was holding him down, restraining him.” Justin turned the corpse over and showed Deena the back of the dead man’s right heel. “It’s bruised. The night table over here’s kind of skewed. My guess is he struggled and kicked it, that’s how he hurt himself.”
“Why was he struggling?” Deena asked.
“Because somebody smothered him to death,” Justin said. “And I’d have to say he probably didn’t like it too much.”
“What’s happening?” Deena whispered. He realized that she was speaking quietly not because she didn’t want to be overheard; fear was not allowing her to speak any louder. “Why are they killing people?”
Justin wished he had an answer for her, but all he could do was shake his head. He didn’t tell her what he was thinking. It was not a very comforting thought, and he knew that it would occur to her soon enough. He was thinking: Somebody beat us to Granger. Which means somebody knew we’d be here.
When he glanced back at Deena, he knew she’d just made the connection. She grabbed Kendall, drew her close, and hugged the girl to her body. As he watched Deena’s eyes flicker, he knew she’d also taken the thought to the next logical step.
Which means somebody knows we’re here now.
Mr. Depford was waiting for them in the hallway when they stepped out of Lewis Granger’s room.
“If there’s anything I can do,” he said, still using his most somber and funereal tone.
“Actually, there is,” Justin told him. “I’d like to look at any records you might have.”
“What kind of records do you wish to see?”
“My father always kept something a bit of a mystery. None of us ever knew how old he really was. I’d like to find out.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have that on file.”
“Isn’t that standard information?”
“Normally, yes. And, of course, we had it. But a few years ago, three to be exact—”
“You had a burglary.”
Depford looked surprised. “Why, yes.”
“Right before you started the job.”
The manager looked even more surprised. “That’s right. How did you—”
“Were any other files taken, other than my father’s?”
“A few. That’s what I was told. But no one who’s still with us, I’m afraid.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Depford. You’ve been very helpful.” Justin took Kendall by the hand and started walking down the hallway toward the stairs that led to the lobby. Depford did a little hop, step, and a jump to keep up with them.
“What about a funeral?”
“Excuse me?”
“What would you like me to do with the body? Now that you’re here …”
“Nothing but the best,” Justin said. “Spare no expense.”
“Um …yes …of course,” Depford said. They were downstairs and almost at the front door. The prim little man looked uncomfortable now. “But as far as payment …”
“The usual,” Justin said. “Send the bill to the Ellis Institute. Just be sure to tell them I okayed it.”
Depford didn’t follow them out to the parking lot. They headed quickly toward the car, until Deena pulled up short.
“I think you should use the rest room,” she said to Kendall.
“Mom,” the girl said. “I told you. I’m a big girl.”
“I know you are, sweetie, but sometimes even big girls—”
“I know when to go!”
“But we don’t know when we’ll find another stop,” Deena said. “I really think—”
“Mommmmm …”
“Okay,” Deena said. “Okay. But I don’t want any whining when we’re in the car. Just remember I told you that, because we’re not going to be able to stop in the middle of nowhere.”
The little girl tossed her head as if to say “I do not whine,” then skipped ahead of them toward the car.
“Tell me again how I’m doing something right,” she said to Justin.
“Nobody’s perfect,” he told her.
“Where do we go from here?” Deena asked.
“I was afraid you were going to ask that.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve got a couple of ideas,” he said. And then, when she looked at him incredulously, he added, “What, you thought I was kidding about that ‘nobody’s perfect’ thing?”
He got in the driver’s seat, reached over Deena’s lap into the glove compartment, and pulled out an old Dire Straits CD. The only thing he’d bothered to transfer from his old car to this one were his CDs. This one had a song on it, “The Bug,” that was one of his favorites. Justin skipped ahead to that song, heard Mark Knopfler twang out the line Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.
Yeah, Justin thought. And as he drove away, he realized that he’d spent the last six years of his life being the bug. But he never felt it quite so much as he did this very minute.