Cold Heart

by Sheila Dryden

  They had left first thing the next morning and next summer had come and gone with no trip to Uncle Max’s. There were never anymore trips to Uncle Max’s because that night her father had learned that his wife and his brother had lied to him about their relationship. Whenever she asked why they couldn’t go and see Uncle Max she would hear them fighting, so she stopped asking. Her father’s attitude toward both of them had changed that night and now she understood why.

  Lexi decided it was time to turn back. Her stomach was rumbling and she decided that maybe a little dinner was advisable. She whistled for Tucker, climbed in the SUV and they drove back to Wildwood.

  “Well we didn’t find water,” she said to Tucker as he jumped out of the vehicle once they had returned, “But maybe some other answers.”

  Tucker was running around sniffing the ground making Lexi apprehensive. Had someone been here?

  “What is it boy? Do you smell something?”

  Thank goodness the locksmith was coming tomorrow and the landscaper. Good, lots of activity, there was safety in numbers. She regretted not getting Carter to show her how to use that shotgun before he left. Of course, she didn’t have a permit. Maybe she would have to get one. What was she thinking? She didn’t want to shoot anyone. She approached the front door cautiously and unlocked it. Tucker seemed to have settled down so she decided maybe he had just smelled a squirrel or something.

  After a quick dinner, she decided that she would tackle the rest of the drawers and the closet in Uncle Max’s room, in hopes that she would find something, anything that might give a clue to where this water source was. She called Tucker to come with her. She would be keeping him close from now on. Then she went up to Max’s room, assembled a few more boxes and got to work.

  The closet held clothes and those she put in a couple of boxes she marked ‘DONATE’. The same was the case with the dresser drawers, except for the bottom one. There were a few pictures, old ones. They were family perhaps, Lexi thought. As she flipped through them she found one that looked to be the whole family; her father, Max and their parents. Her grandmother looked a lot like Lexi with those same dimples. The ones Uncle Max had and her father didn’t. Then she found one that made her gasp. Her mother, standing with Uncle Max, his arms wrapped around her. Her mother was smiling and he was looking at her with such love.

  There was a date on the back of the picture. It was January, six months after they had graduated from high school and six months before she would run off with Max’s own brother. A troubling thought was creeping into her brain. Grace had said that they eloped in June. Lexi had been born at the end of January. They had always said she was premature, not wanting her to think that it had been a shotgun wedding she supposed. She’d been tiny, weighing not quite six pounds at birth so it seemed quite plausible and she had no reason to suspect anything different.

  But what if her mother was already pregnant when she ran off with Max’s older brother? No, that didn’t seem like something her mother would do. It was bad enough to run off with another man but to be pregnant and not let on that you were carrying someone else’s baby. Of course her father would not have suspected anything because he didn’t know that her mother and Uncle Max had been anything but friends. It was all too much. Lexi abandoned her search. She took the photos and called Tucker and the two went downstairs.

  It was only eight o’clock, was it too late to call Grace? What the heck, she couldn’t wait all night for an answer. She dialed the number and when the maid answered she asked for Grace.

  “Hello Lexi,” Grace said.

  “Hi Grace. I hope it’s not too late to be calling,” Lexi said.”

  “Not to worry, its fine,” Grace said.

  “I have a bit of an odd question for you,” Lexi said.

  “Okay go ahead ask away,” Grace said.

  “I was wondering if my mom and Uncle Max would have been ... well ... sleeping together?” she said.

  “Oh my yes, we were all sleeping with someone, my dear. It was the seventies. The sexual revolution, the pill and all that,” Grace said. “I hope that doesn’t shock you.”

  “No,” Lexi said. “It’s just that, well, never mind, I was just wondering. I should let you go, but thank you I appreciate your candor.”

  “Anytime dear,” Grace said.

  Lexi hung up. She didn’t understand how this nice lady could be married to such an asshole.

  Lexi wandered around the main floor, she felt totally alone. She wished that Carter were here to talk to. She wasn’t sure what to do with all this new information. Then it occurred to her that she had other more pressing problems; the fact that maybe her life was in danger. Or was it? What possible good would it do Montgomery if she were dead? He wouldn’t get Wildwood and the land, her beneficiary would and who was to say that he would have any more luck convincing them to sell. Of course she didn’t have a beneficiary because she hadn’t done anything about a will and perhaps she ought to do that.

  Who would she leave the property to? She had no family. She would have to think about that but she decided she would call Mr. Beatty in the morning. She had another thought and went to get her laptop to do some research. The locksmith was coming tomorrow and that would be very reassuring but maybe she needed her own private security at night, just until this got sorted out. She looked that up. She soon realized this was prohibitively expensive. It was about fifty dollars an hour for someone who was unarmed. What good would that do? The price just skyrocketed from there. She was going to have to learn to use that shot gun.

  It was dark outside. Damn she had wanted to take Tucker out before it got dark. She hated feeling afraid in her own place. She got Tucker and put him on a leash and then turned on as many lights as she thought she needed to feel secure outside. She summoned up all her courage and went out to the porch and then down to the yard. Tucker was cooperative and thankfully she was back inside quickly.

  This was ridiculous Lexi thought. She kept telling herself that she was of no use to them dead. Just the same she better get a will in place. She needed to figure out what she was going to do about that. She went into the office and looked at the gallery of photos she had put on the shelves and picked up one of her mother when her mother was in her twenties. She had been a beautiful woman, a beautiful, selfish woman.

  “You cold hearted bitch,” she said to the picture and then slammed it face down on the shelf.

  19

  Carter struggled to keep his eyes open. He rubbed his chin and realized he had a couple of days of stubble now. No matter, his mother wasn’t going to notice. She had been mostly unconscious the whole time he’d been here, many times her breathing so shallow he thought she had left him. There was nothing but the chair he was sitting in and the bed in the room. The recliner she had used for awhile when she was still able to get out of bed had long since been removed. The nursing home was quiet except for the occasional voice of a staff member or a resident and the beep, beep, beep of the monitor they had wired up to his mother, now that the end was near. The flowers Carter brought when he’d come, did nothing to override the antiseptic smell of the room.

  It was said that your life flashed before you as you were dying. He doubted that there was anything going on inside his mother’s head. His life on the other hand was replaying over and over for him as he sat waiting for her to leave this world. Carter remembered sitting on her knee, maybe at about three, how she would play with his hair and kiss him. The first day of kindergarten she had given him a little metal lunch box with a snack and then waited with him for the bus to come. He could see her face how she’d looked at him, with a mixture of pride and sadness because her baby was going off to school. He thought of the time he fell off his horse when he was eight and broke his arm and how his mother had cried and cried. He remembered the talk she had given him the first time he had taken a girl on a date. His father had given him “the talk” but his mother had talked to him about all the things a real man did to show his respect for a gi
rl.

  Carter could picture his parents when they would come to his football games when he was in high school. They would stand off to the side so as not to embarrass him, so proud. He remembered his wedding day, his mom telling him she was a lovely girl, even though he knew she felt he could have done better. She had longed for grandchildren and he was sorry he hadn’t been able to give her that gift. More than anything he realized that he had felt loved, that for all her ministering to the world around her, she had loved him with all her heart.

  His mom moaned and roused him from his reverie.

  “Carter,” she said.

  He was not expecting this. She hadn’t known him for weeks. He took her hand.

  “I’m here Mom,” he said.

  “Carter, I want you to take this bread over to Mrs. Hall,” she said. “Go on your bike; take it now, while it is still warm. Off you go, be quick.”

  “Yes ... mom ... okay, I will,” he said. She squeezed his hand.

  And that was it. Her last words to him and the little blips on the monitor just slowed and then stopped. An alarm sounded which brought just one nurse. There would be no bells and whistles, no heroic measures. The nurse put a stethoscope to his mothers chest and then to her neck. She looked at Carter and nodded.

  It was done. He knew he should feel something but he just felt numb. His mother was dead. She was sixty-three. Carter realized he was still holding her hand. He got up and leaned over and kissed her forehead.

  “Bye mom,” he said and left the room.

  He stopped at the nurse’s station down the hall. Most of the staff was off in the evening and at that moment there was just one person at the desk.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss Mr. Monroe,” she said.

  “Thanks,” he said. “You have all the paperwork for the funeral home, don’t you?”

  “Yes, we do,” she replied.

  “Okay then,” he said. “I’ll leave her in your capable hands. Thank you for everything.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m sure Catherine will be in touch with you tomorrow,” she said. Catherine was the administrator and Carter had dealt with her many times over the past couple of years. She had been of immeasurable assistance to him on more than one occasion.

  He found his way to his car though he didn’t remember walking there. He wanted sleep desperately and wasn’t sure that undertaking the two hour drive home was the smartest thing to do but what he wanted more than anything right now was to see Lexi. The thought of holding her in his arms was the one thing keeping him going. He had sensed something not quite right when they had spoken earlier. He wasn’t sure what but he’d just had the sense that she wasn’t telling him everything.

  He drove with the windows open and the cooler night air helped to keep him awake. He stopped at a drive thru part way along the route and got a burger hoping that would keep him going. It was nearly nine thirty when he reached her place and pulled into the driveway and stopped. The lights came on and the door opened and Tucker came running out with Lexi on his heels. Carter was out of the car in a flash hugged the wiggling dog and then slowed and walked toward Lexi who had also slowed her steps.

  “Is she?”

  “She’s gone,” Carter finished for her.

  “I’m so sorry,” Lexi said taking a step closer.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I lost her months ago.”

  He closed the distance and took her in his arms, holding her as close as possible and then he pulled back and looked at her face and searched her eyes.

  “You okay?” he asked. “You sounded weird on the phone. I was worried.”

  “Reading my mind already, are we?” she said.

  “So, something did happen while I was gone,” he said.

  “Yes, I didn’t want to worry you while you ... while your mother was dying,” she said. “Come inside and I’ll bring you up to date.”

  They walked up the steps, his arm around her waist and hers around his. Tucker followed. She led him into the great room and they sat next to each other on one of the sofas. Carter held her hand and looked at her.

  “Tell me,” he said.

  “Well, it was a really eventful day. Someone broke in, or got in with a key and wrote on my mirror in my bathroom upstairs. They wrote LEAVE using my own lipstick. I’ve got a locksmith coming tomorrow to change all the locks. I think whoever is doing this, must have a key. There was no sign of forced entry anywhere and I checked, believe me.”

  “Did you call the Sherriff?” he asked.

  “No, didn’t seem like there was any point,” Lexi said. “These guys cover their tracks too well.”

  “This is so frustrating there has to be a way to stop them,” Carter said.

  “Well there’s more,” Lexi said.

  “I went and had tea with Grace Montgomery today,” she said. “We talked about my mother and that’s a whole other story but while I was there, Montgomery himself came out and spoke to us. Then he left saying he had a meeting. I stalled a little and then asked to use the washroom, knowing it was just down the hall from his office.”

  “Geez Lexi,” Carter said. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”

  “Just listen,” she said impatiently. “I could hear voices and the door to the office was slightly open. I snuck up close and heard some man, didn’t see him but later saw him leave in a big black limo. He was telling Montgomery to deal with me and get this land and ... that water, he said or your loan is coming due immediately.”

  “Whoa, so he into some loan shark for capital?” Carter asked.

  “I think so and get this, from the conversation; I gather that Mitch actually works for this guy and was sent here to expedite things. They didn’t actually admit to killing Uncle Max, who by the way may actually have been my father, but it sounded like they might have killed him.” Lexi stopped to take a breath.

  “What?” Carter said.

  “What, what?” Lexi asked.

  “Max might have been your father?” Carter said.

  “See I told you it was an eventful day,” Lexi laughed.

  “I’m glad you can laugh about it,” Carter said. “But this is serious stuff, Lexi.”

  “I know, I know, I’m super freaked out about it,” she said. “But if they kill me they don’t get the land, it just goes to my beneficiary, though I don’t actually have one of those right now. I am going to see a lawyer tomorrow and do a will.”

  “Finish the story about these guys you overheard,” he said. “You can tell me about the Max thing after.”

  “Well really that’s about all there was,” I heard chairs moving and thought the mystery man might be leaving and I didn’t want to be seen so I hightailed it out of there,” she said.

  “We’ve got to talk to the Sherriff,” Carter said.

  “But I thought you thought that the Sherriff was in cahoots with his cousin,” Lexi said.

  “Not in cahoots but certainly I think he would tend to be more on his side. I’m not sure of that,” he said. “I just didn’t want to start slinging accusations when we had no proof of anything.”

  “Well we still have no proof,” Lexi said. “It’s just my word against his.”

  “We need to find out about this water thing.” Carter said.

  “Well I drove around the property today trying to see if there was a lake or a stream or something on the property. I didn’t find anything as I sort of got side tracked, which leads me to another part of the story.”

  “I think I need a drink,” Carter said. This was definitely getting out of hand and he was really getting worried. “Do you have anything stronger than wine?”

  “I found a bottle of scotch the other day,” she said, “Uncle Max ... must have been a scotch drinker.”

  “Yes actually, he was,” he said. “Make mine a double.”

  Lexi went off to the kitchen. She returned with two glasses, one had ice, one did not and she had a bottle of scotch.

  “I couldn’t remember if you put ice in
it the other night when you had it at your place,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  When she came back she had a glass of wine.

  “Tell me about the Uncle Max thing,” Carter said.

  “Well, I went to talk to Grace about my mom. She said that my mom and she and Max had all been friends in high school and that Max and my mom were ... get this ... in love and planning on getting married and ... sleeping together. Then his brother Ralph comes back to town, because their parents died and my mom takes up with him and up and elopes. Max not wanting to make waves with the only family he has in the world, just takes it and doesn’t let on that she was his girl.”

  “But how does that make him your father?” Carter said.

  “Well I was doing the math. They always said I was premature. I was born in January, which means if I was a full term baby I was likely conceived in March. My mom and Ralph ran off in June she was with Max in March.”

  “Okay but,” Carter started to say.

  “Just wait, there’s more,” she interrupted.

  “When I was out driving around today I came across this big old tree that I remembered from when I was twelve. I’d gone out there on that old mare that Uncle Max used to have and was kind of pining away because I was going home the next day and I wasn’t going to see this older boy, that I had my first real crush on, who by the way didn’t even know I was alive. It was going to be a whole year before I would see him again and I was feeling pretty down.”

  “Excuse me, just need to insert a correction here,” Carter said. “I most certainly did know you were alive. As I recall you were particularly well endowed for a twelve year old, make that twelve and a half, now that I know when your birthday is. Anyway, I most definitely did notice you and my father happened to notice how I was noticing you. He told me in no uncertain terms, that you were jail bait and I’d better be keeping my hands in my pockets and my eyes on your face when I was around you or I’d be spending my senior year grounded.”