Nora and Louisa were sitting toward the middle of the long table and Melody was standing over them, livid.
“Tell them,” she said, gesturing around the table where everyone was seated. “Tell them what you just told me.”
“Jack got married,” Nora said.
“Not that!” Melody said. “Tell them about seeing Leo.”
“You’re married?” Bea said to Jack and Walker. Walker raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and shook his head, absolving himself. He’d wanted to invite them all.
“When did you see Leo?” Jack asked Nora, ignoring Bea.
“Last October,” Nora said.
“Tell them the other part,” Melody said.
“He was in Central Park. Flat on his back,” Louisa said.
“In the park?” Bea turned her attention to Louisa now. “He was on his back in Central Park?”
“Drugs,” Melody said, biting off the word. “He was buying drugs.”
“I didn’t say that!” Louisa said. “I said he could have been buying drugs.”
“But you didn’t see him with drugs?” Jack asked.
“We just saw him on his back,” Nora said. “It was after that snowstorm, it was super icy. I think he just slipped.”
“It was the day we all met him at the Oyster Bar,” Melody said. “He supposedly came straight from Brooklyn. Remember? He said he was late because of the subway, so why was he up in Central Park?”
The three Plumbs sat, thinking. Why had Leo been in the park?
“Even if he was in the park to buy something,” Bea said, “what does that mean?”
Melody snorted. “Seriously? He’d been out of rehab for all of three days.”
“Okay,” Bea said. “But what does that have to do with us?” She was already tired of this conversation, tired of talking and thinking about and waiting on Leo, and also feeling secretly relieved and pleased about the stack of pages in her bag, the ones with his notes on them.
“When did you see Leo last?” Jack asked Bea.
Bea cowered a little in her chair; she’d hoped not to have to answer that question tonight. “I haven’t seen him in a few weeks,” she said, pouring herself more champagne.
“I thought he’d been hanging around your office. That’s what Jack told me,” Melody said.
“He had been,” Bea said. “But he hasn’t been around lately.”
“Jack’s seen Leo quite a bit,” Walker offered, amiably, placing a huge platter of chicken in the middle of the table that Melody looked at mournfully. She was losing her appetite. “Just last week, right?”
“You saw Leo last week?” Bea said.
Jack didn’t know how to respond. Every time he’d met with Tommy or one of the potential buyers for Tommy’s statue, he’d lied and told Walker he was meeting with Leo. “I, uh, I don’t know exactly when I saw him last—”
Before he could assemble some kind of sentence, the buzzer rang. Three short beats, followed by two long, just the way Leo always rang the bell. Jack’s shoulders slumped in relief. Bea stood so quickly she banged into the table and the water glasses rattled. Nora and Louisa straightened and looked at the door expectantly. Walt poured a little more olive oil on his plate for dunking bread.
“Oh, thank God,” Melody said as Walker moved to the door, wiping his hands on his apron. “He’s here.”
CHAPTER THIRTY–FIVE
When Walker opened the door and Stephanie crossed the threshold, the disappointment on everyone’s face was nearly comical. Jack began blathering immediately, wanting to know where Leo was and saying something about Melody’s daughters running into Leo buying drugs the very first weekend he’d been out of rehab.
“Is he in the park now?” Jack said, hands on hips, speaking to her as if Leo were her truant child. “Is he buying cocaine this very minute?”
“Excuse me,” she said. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Is Leo coming?” Bea asked.
Stephanie covered her mouth with her palm, shook her head and ran to a small wastebasket in the corner, bent over and started retching. The room quieted and everyone reluctantly listened until she was done. She picked up the small container and calmly walked down the hall to the bathroom. Rinsed out the basket. Washed her hands and put a small dab of toothpaste on her finger to freshen her mouth. All the while trying to process what Jack had just said. Leo in the park, buying drugs, the weekend of the snowstorm. She walked back into the living room where everyone was quiet and concerned looking and seated around a long table that looked like something out of a magazine. Walker must have done it.
“The table is pretty,” she said to him with a shaky smile. “Sorry about that spectacle. I usually have time to get to the bathroom.” She sat on the edge of a chair and unzipped her purse.
“Are you sick?” Bea said.
“Not exactly.” Stephanie opened a pack of sugarless spearmint gum. “Happy birthday, Melody.”
“Do you know where Leo is?” Melody asked hopefully.