That Summer

by Joan Wolf

  We had a good American high-fat meal of steak and French fries and ice cream. We both were silent as Liam drove back to the Holiday Inn.

  He had taken two rooms for us and they had a connecting door between them. Liam said, “Do you want to stay here, or go down to the bar next door and watch the TV there?”

  “Let's go down to the bar,” I said. “It's inter-league play and the Orioles are playing the Mets, so the game will be televised.”

  “We could watch it here.”

  “That's true.”

  “If we go to the bar, you'll order a glass of wine, and you've already had two.”

  “Good grief, are you my chaperone?”

  “Remember how you felt the last time you had too much wine?”

  I shuddered. “I was going to drink ginger ale.”

  “We can get a soda from the machine on the floor.”

  Clearly, he did not want to go to the bar. “Okay,” I said. “We'll stay in.”

  While Liam went for the sodas, I took off my shoes and propped up two pillows to rest my back. When Liam came back he did the same thing. He poured me a glass of ginger ale and put it on the table next to my side of the bed. Then he poured himself a glass of Coke.

  “What time are we flying out tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Ten o'clock.”

  “Good. I'll be home in time to get some work done.”

  Liam said, “There's something that I ought to tell you.”

  “What is that?”

  “I told the police that the miraculous medal they found was mine.”

  I froze. “You what?”

  “I told the police that the miraculous medal they found was mine.”

  I put down my ginger ale. “In the name of God, why did you do that?”

  He looked very grim. “I thought it over and it was impossible to deny that it was mine. Too many people know I wore a medal that summer. So all your blandishment of Kevin went for nothing.”

  My heart began to hammer in my chest. I felt as if I couldn't catch my breath. I don't ever remember being so scared in all my life. “Don't you get it, Liam? That medal puts you at the site of the murder.”

  “It puts me at the site of the burial.”

  “There's not much difference between the two.”

  He said quietly, “The police were bound to find out, and then it would have looked badly for me. I told the police that I had lost the medal and didn't know how it came to show up at the burial site.”

  “I thought you told me that you still had the medal,” I said suspiciously.

  “I forgot that I had lost it.”

  Something about this wasn't sounding right.

  “Is there something involved here that I don't know about?”

  He smiled at me. “Loyal Annie. I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but there is nothing else to report.”

  “What did the police say when you told them it was your medal?”

  “They asked me a bunch of questions, but Dad wouldn't let me answer any of them. He's hiring a lawyer for me.”

  A cold fist of terror squeezed my stomach. “A lawyer?”

  “Apparently I'm going to need one.”

  “What did your mother say?”

  “Mom wasn't there. She didn't come home; she's staying with friends in Massachusetts.”

  “Liam, I don't believe that it was your medal. You were quite sure it wasn't either the last time we talked about it.”

  He gave me an impatient look. “Why would I say that it was mine if it wasn't?”

  “Why did you tell me that you still had it?”

  “I forgot that I had lost it.”

  “I don't believe you.”

  “Stop being so stubborn, Annie. Your golden boy isn't perfect. I forgot about the bloody medal.”

  I still didn't believe him, but this argument was getting us nowhere.

  I said in a small voice, “Are they going to arrest you, Liam?”

  “I don't know. That's why I wanted to get up here to see Buster. I don't know how much longer I'll be free to move around the way I want.”

  “Oh Liam. I'm so scared.”

  “Don't be scared, Annie.” He reached out an arm to me and I slid over to sit within its circle. “They won't convict me: I didn't do it.”

  “Look at the cases of all those people who were convicted and now the DNA evidence is showing that they were innocent. Innocent people spent years of their lives in jail, Liam! Don't tell me that you're safe just because you didn't do it.”

  He said quietly, “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I did do it?”

  “No,” I replied immediately.

  “Do you really think you know me that well?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “And you don't think I'm capable of murder?”

  “Maybe we're all capable of murder, if the stakes are high enough. But you didn't murder Leslie because she screwed Kevin. It's absurd even to think that.”

  His arm pulled me closer. “I don't deserve you, Annie.”

  “Sure you do.”

  “I missed you. Why did you stay away for so long?”

  “I was staying away from you. I was trying not to love you, you see.”

  “And were you successful?”

  “You know the answer to that.”

  He was silent for a long minute. Then he said, “When I think of my childhood, you were always there.”

  “I know. We were a great team, Liam.”

  “We were.” I could feel his lips against my hair. “You grew up behind my back.”

  “I suppose I did.”

  “I needed a little time to grow accustomed to the fact that you weren't my little pal any more.”

  “And have you grown accustomed to that fact?”

  “I'm getting there.”

  I looked up to see his face and his mouth came down on mine. This wasn't a tender kiss, it was serious, and I responded immediately. His kiss became harder as he bent over me, pushing my head back into the pillows. I slid my hands up and down his back.

  He broke away from my mouth and kissed my forehead and my eyelids. “Annie, how did you get to be so beautiful?”

  “I'm glad you think I'm pretty.”

  “No,” he said. “Not pretty. Beautiful.”

  “Kiss me some more,” I suggested and he obliged.

  When his mouth lifted again, I said, “Liam did you ever see the movie Gigi?”

  He lifted his eyebrows in surprise at the change of subject. “Nope.”

  “It's about an older man and a young girl and about how he comes to realize that she's his one true love.”

  “It sounds pretty corny.”

  “It's not! It's beautiful. And the song he sings—it's a musical—when he realizes she's grown up is beautiful. It's sort of like what's happening to us.”

  “I'm hardly an ‘older man’,”

  “You always thought of yourself as older. You used to boss me around unmercifully.”

  “Hah,” he replied. “You always did exactly as you pleased. You're the most unbossable person that I know.”

  “I was always pleased to do whatever you wanted.”

  “You were intelligent enough to know that my way was always best.”

  I kissed his jaw. “We were a partnership, but you were the senior member.”

  “I guess I'll go along with that.”

  We stayed nestled in each other's arms for a few more minutes. Then I said, “I think you should go back to your own room now.”

  I could feel him stiffen. “Why? I thought we might do a little more kissing.”

  “A little more kissing will lead to a little more of everything else, and I'm not sure you're ready for that yet.”

  “I think I'm the best judge of that.”

  I said, “I think you still have reservations, Liam. I don't want to take advantage of you.”

  He scowled. “Do you realize how ridiculous you sound? You can't possibly take advantage of me.”

&nbs
p; “Yes, I can. I know that you want me now, but I have to be sure that it's not a momentary thing. You have to want me all the time, Liam, otherwise it's not good enough for me.”

  He raked his hair off his forehead. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

  “I think you do, old buddy. I think you do.”

  “The only thing in that tirade that I understood was that you wanted me to go back to my own room.”

  “I do want that.”

  He straightened away from me and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Fine. If that's what you want, I'll go.”

  “It is.”

  “I think you're making a mistake.”

  “I don't.”

  “All right, damn it. I'll go.” He shoved his feet into his loafers.

  I said, “What time do you want to meet for breakfast tomorrow?”

  He turned and looked at me. After a while he said, “We need to be at the airport at nine so let's meet for breakfast at eight.”

  “Okay, see you then.”

  He made his way to the connecting door, then he turned and said, “I should have let you have that extra glass of wine.”

  I laughed. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” he said grumpily and closed the door behind him.

  I lay there looking at the door and wondering if I was crazy. If I had let him make love to me, maybe all our problems would have been solved. But in my heart I just did not feel that it was the right time. I wanted him to want me so badly he hurt with it, the way I hurt from wanting him. I wanted him to run around Paris, like Gigi's Gaston, shouting out how much he loved me. I didn't want any tentativeness at all.

  I'm making progress, I told myself. This kiss was much better than the last one.

  After awhile I put on the ballgame and watched the Orioles get annihilated by the Yankees 12 to 3. Then I went to bed.

  CHAPTER 22

  When Mom got home from school, I told her about Liam and the medal. “He told me he still had it, then he completely changed his story and claimed the medal they found at the burial site was his. I don't understand him at all.”

  “Perhaps he's just telling the truth, Anne. He thought he still had the medal and when he looked for it and it was gone he remembered that he had lost it.”

  “I don't believe that.”

  “If it was lost, anyone could have found it and put it by the grave to incriminate Liam.”

  “Whoever buried Leslie thought she'd never be found.”

  “That's probably true, but the medal was a kind of insurance.”

  “Mom, you don't think Liam killed Leslie, do you?”

  “In my heart? No. I don't.”

  Thank God.

  I said, “He should have kept his mouth shut about the medal. Now he's got to hire a lawyer, and that won't look good.”

  “Under the circumstances, I think a lawyer is necessary.”

  It was a warm day and we were sitting in the kitchen with all the windows open. I said, “Damn. Why did they have to find that medal?”

  “If you don't think it's Liam's then who do you think it belongs to?” Mom asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “That's the problem. It's not the sort of thing that people wear nowadays. Liam got it from his grandmother as a gift. That's why he wore it. He would have a hard time denying that the medal was his.”

  “Well, if the medal is his, then someone else put it there.”

  “That could be what happened.”

  We sat talking for a little longer, then Mom said she had to go food shopping. I offered to go for her and she gave me a list. I got in my car and drove to the Safeway.

  I was in the frozen food section when I ran into Michael Bates.

  “Hi,” I said. “It's a surprise to see you here.”

  “I've been picking up my dinner items,” he said, gesturing to the pile of TV dinners in his basket.

  “I eat a lot of Lean Cuisine myself when I'm at home,” I said. “There just isn't much incentive to cook when it's only for yourself.”

  “It's about the only thing I miss from my marriage— coming home and finding dinner on the table.”

  I smiled.

  He looked at the fruit and vegetables in my cart. “You look like you're eating healthy.”

  “Mom believes in having everything fresh. She'd die if she knew I was eating TV dinners.”

  He laughed. “My mother was the same way.”

  I said, “I hear that Liam claimed the medal to be his.”

  He frowned. “Yes, he identified it.”

  “I don't think it's his, Michael.”

  He looked wary. “If it isn't his, then why did he say it was?”

  “He thought it would look bad if he denied it when everyone knew he wore a medal just like it.”

  “That doesn't make sense, Anne.”

  A lady said, “Excuse me,” and we moved our baskets out of her way.

  “Liam did not kill Leslie, Michael.”

  “Maybe he didn't, but the only piece of evidence we have points to him.”

  “You mean the medal?”

  “I mean the medal.”

  “Kevin could have stolen it,” I said. “He lived in the same house as Liam. He could easily have lifted it.”

  “Are you saying that Kevin killed Leslie and left Liam's medal at the grave to implicate him?”

  “It's possible.”

  “If Kevin was going to do something like that, he would have left the medal in the summerhouse.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  “I think you're really pushing things here, Anne. I know you're fond of Liam, but evidence is evidence.”

  “Liam said he lost the medal. Anyone could have found it and used it.”

  “You started off this conversation by denying that the medal was Liam's. Now you're saying it's his, but it was planted at the grave by someone else. Which is it. Anne?”

  “It could be either of those things,” I said defiantly.

  “It could be, but to be honest, the greatest likelihood is that Liam buried that body and lost the medal there. The chain was broken.”

  “He didn't do it, Michael.”

  “Well, we'll let a jury settle that question, Anne.”

  A jury! Oh no. I said, “Are you going to arrest Liam, Michael?”

  “I can't tell you that, Anne.”

  I pressed my hand to my mouth. “Oh my God. This is terrible.”

  “I'm sorry Anne, but that's the way the evidence points.”

  “You're making a terrible mistake.”

  “Perhaps we are, but someone killed Leslie and at this point we think it was Liam.”

  I was silent, my heart thumping in my chest. “I'm so scared,” I whispered at last.

  “I'm sorry to upset you, but I want to be honest with you.”

  I nodded.

  He said, “I guess there's no point in my asking you out again.”

  I shook my head. “I can't go out with you anymore, Michael.”

  “That's too bad. I like you a lot, Anne.”

  “I like you too, but I love Liam.”

  “I'm sorry.”

  “I have to get home now,” I said. “Goodbye, Michael.”

  “Goodbye.”

  I went through the check-out line, loaded the groceries in the car and drove home to put them away. Then I got back in the car and drove out to Wellington to warn Liam.

  I tried the house first and Kevin answered the door. “Hi,” I said. “Is Liam here?”

  He looked somber. “He was arrested two hours ago, Anne. They took him into town to the police station to book him.”

  All of a sudden I saw black spots in front of my eyes. “Kevin,” I said and reached out my hand. He grabbed me and sat me down in the hallway chair.

  “Put your head down,” he instructed. I did as he said, trying to breathe evenly. I had broken out into a clammy sweat and I felt awful.

  Liam‘s been arrested! I thought.

&nb
sp; “They're not going to keep him,” Kevin said reassuringly. “He called his lawyer, who said he would be down to bail him out. He should be home in a few hours.”

  “I can't believe this is happening.”

  Kevin said, “Get ahold of yourself, Anne. It's not that bad.”

  “How can you say that? Liam's been arrested for murder! What could be more terrible than that?”

  “They don't have enough evidence to convict him.”

  “They have that damn medal.”

  “A single medal is an awfully small thing to convict a man of murder.”

  “It's the only evidence they have, and it points to Liam. The police are under the gun to arrest someone for Leslie's murder. What if they take this all the way to trial?”

  “Liam would be acquitted.”

  The black spots had disappeared from in front of my eyes and I sat up straight. “Kevin, I am so scared.”

  “It's a scary situation, I'll give you that. But we'll get the best lawyer available for him, Anne.”

  “Uncle Lawrence can't afford a good lawyer. He told Liam all of the horses would have to be sold.”

  Kevin frowned. “Is he in that deep?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Well, I have plenty of money, Anne. I'll make sure that Liam has the best lawyer. So don't worry about that.”

  I stood up and hugged him. “Thank you, Kevin! Thank you!”

  “I doubt that Liam will be so happy to be in my debt, but he'll have to put up with it,” Kevin said.

  “You're an angel.”

  “Don't despair, Anne. We'll get him out of this.”

  Thank God for Kevin, I thought as I gave him a tremulous smile.

  “Where is the senator?” I asked.

  “He and Aunt Alyssa are in Maine, visiting friends.”

  “How could he go away when he must have known that Liam was going to be arrested?”

  Kevin shrugged.

  I said, “The press will have a field day with this, what with Liam being a senator's son and the owner of a potential Triple Crown winner.”

  “It's going to be ugly.”

  I said, “I'm going to go into the police station to see if there's anything I can do.”

  “You'll only be in the way, Anne. Let the attorney handle it.”

  I twisted my hands. “I have to do something, Kevin.”

  “Wait until Liam gets back. I bet he'll be glad to see you.”