‘You mean, if he assaulted her?’
Hannah nodded, and stared at her friend, her eyes wide with alarm.
Jackie sighed. ‘I could talk to her. I have some experience with this stuff.’
‘Would you?’ Hannah asked. ‘Oh, I can’t believe this. I didn’t even think about that …’
‘Informally,’ said Jackie. ‘I could come over.’
‘Tonight?’ Hannah exclaimed.
‘I’ll call you.’
They clasped hands for a moment. ‘Try not to worry,’ said Jackie. Then she turned and got into her car. Hannah opened the passenger door and slipped into the car beside Adam.
All Hannah could think of as she buckled herself into the seat was Lisa giving them a thumbs up as she left the courtroom. Had it never occurred to her to wonder? When she realized what a twisted mind Troy had, why didn’t she call the police? Why, instead, was she focused on going out to his house to get the money he owed her? That should have been the last thing on her mind.
‘Hannah?’ Adam asked.
She looked over at him. ‘Jackie just brought up something terrible. Something we have to think about.’
Adam faced out over the steering wheel, shaking his head. ‘I don’t even want to ask,’ he said. Then he turned to her, steeling himself. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Tell me.’
FIFTEEN
Cars were coming and going from the Dollards’ house next door, and Hannah wondered absently how long Chet would be in the hospital. She watched the activity in the driveway from the same chair she had been sitting in since they walked into the house. She had done nothing about dinner. Once they had collected Sydney and come home, Hannah had cradled her on her lap, unwilling to let her go. The toddler was weary after a day at daycare and seemed content to just rest against her grandmother, toying absently with a stuffed animal.
Hannah’s cellphone rang but it was on the dining-room table and she was unable to force herself out of the chair. Adam came in and answered it.
He turned to Hannah. ‘It’s Jackie,’ he said.
Hannah reached out with one hand. ‘I haven’t done a thing about dinner,’ she said to him apologetically.
Adam shook his head as he handed her the phone. ‘I’ll pick up dinner for us. You just rest there with Sydney.’
‘Thanks, darling,’ she said, and put the phone to her ear. ‘Jackie?’
‘Hi, Hannah.’
‘Are you coming over to talk to Sydney?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Jackie said slowly. ‘I thought about it some more and I’m not sure it’s a good idea.’
‘But you said you would help,’ Hannah protested.
‘I don’t want to do some kind of half-baked intervention. Children as young as Sydney have to be handled differently than older kids and it’s just not my area of expertise. I got you the name of someone, a child psychiatrist, who specializes in very young children.’
‘Are you sure you can’t do it? I’d like to just keep it quiet, between us,’ said Hannah.
‘I’m not comfortable,’ said Jackie. ‘I certainly don’t want to do more harm than good. But take this number. Please.’
‘OK,’ said Hannah. She shifted Sydney on her lap, and wrote down the name and number which Jackie offered. But as soon as she hung up, she put the information aside. There were so many questions in her mind. She didn’t know if she even had the right to take Sydney to a child psychiatrist. After all, Sydney was Lisa’s child, and Lisa might object. But part of her knew that it was more than that. How could Hannah ever explain why Lisa had left her child alone in the care of a strange man whom she knew so little about? Of course it was careless of her, but what if a psychiatrist regarded that as child neglect? Would the shrink feel compelled to report Lisa’s actions to the authorities? What if they tried to take Sydney away from her? That was the last thing any of them needed to have happen in the course of this trial.
Hannah was pondering how to proceed, and Sydney was getting restless to get down from her lap, when the phone rang again. Hannah answered it.
‘Hannah,’ a voice demanded imperiously.
‘Hi, Mother,’ said Hannah. She could picture her mother, seated in her hover-round chair, Fox News blaring on her TV. ‘How are you?’
‘I need you to come over here,’ said Pamela in a tone that brooked no protest.
Hannah protested anyway. ‘Mother, I’m exhausted. Can it wait? We’ve been at the court house all day. I’m just waiting for Adam to bring home some take out for dinner. Then I have to put Sydney to bed. I’m just so tired from all this …’
‘No, it cannot wait,’ said Pamela. ‘It’s about your daughter.’
‘What about her? Just tell me, Mother.’
‘There is someone you need to meet. ASAP.’ Pamela hung up.
Hannah was tempted to ignore the imperial summons. She just did not need the aggravation. But it was about Lisa. And she could not remember the last time her mother had been so insistent. Not in her usual way.
‘Want to take a ride to see Nana?’ Hannah asked Sydney, who was absorbed with her fabric dollhouse.
‘No,’ said Sydney.
‘Me neither,’ said Hannah, with a sigh.
Adam brought home shrimp and grits from a place downtown, and promised to get Sydney ready for bed so that Hannah could go and see her mother.
‘I’d go tomorrow,’ said Hannah apologetically, ‘but I think the defense might be wrapping this up quickly. I have to be in the courtroom.’
‘Your mother’s timing … Well, just go,’ said Adam. ‘We’ll be fine. But drink some coffee so you don’t fall asleep on your way out there.’
‘I’ll buy some on the way,’ she promised.
Good as her word, Hannah stopped at a drive-up window and got a cup of coffee to go. Then she drove the twenty minutes to the Veranda and parked in a space outside of Pamela’s building. The night was clear and warm, the crickets chirping, and the man-made pond centered in front of the main building glistened silver in the moonlight. For a moment, Hannah remembered summer nights at the lake, and wished she were just a girl again, carefree and moonstruck. But that life seemed to belong to a past she could barely remember. She trudged up the walkway and made her way to her mother’s door.
Pamela answered on the first ring. ‘You took your time,’ she said.
‘I’m here now,’ said Hannah. She started to enter the apartment but Pamela shook her head and gestured that she should go back out into the hallway. Pamela, dressed in sky blue linen, her hair a platinum cloud on her scalp, rolled out of the apartment and into the hallway. ‘Where are we going?’ said Hannah.
‘Down to Christina Shelton’s apartment,’ her mother said.
Hannah stifled a sigh. Christina Shelton was a living exemplar to Pamela of women properly revered. The widow of gentleman farmer and longtime state senator Jock Shelton, Christina was frail and infirm but, according to Pamela, her über-attentive children catered to her every heart’s desire, the minute she desired it. ‘Fine. Whatever you say.’
Pamela glared back at Hannah over her shoulder. ‘You’ll understand in just a few minutes. Follow me.’ Hannah trailed behind her mother’s motorized chair as they negotiated the hallways to the part of the building which had two- and three-bedroom apartments. They arrived at a door at the end and Pamela knocked.
‘She might be asleep,’ said Hannah anxiously.
‘She will be asleep,’ said Pamela.
Hannah frowned but waited obediently. The door opened and an aide in cheerful pink scrubs opened the door. The aide put a finger to her lips. ‘She’s sleeping,’ said the woman, who was thirtyish and overweight with a bleached-blonde pixie cut.
‘I know that,’ said Pamela impatiently. ‘It’s you we came to see. This is my daughter. Lisa’s mother.’
The woman looked startled and then smiled at Hannah, extending her hand. ‘Hi. I’m Wynonna Clemons.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ said Hannah.
‘Hannah n
eeds to hear what you have to say, Wynonna.’
Wynonna grimaced. ‘I really shouldn’t leave her.’
‘She can page you if she needs you. Check in on her,’ said Pamela. ‘Then meet us in the lounge across the hall.’
‘OK,’ said Wynonna. ‘Give me five minutes.’ She disappeared back into the apartment, closing the door quietly.
‘Three bedrooms,’ Pamela observed, shaking her head. ‘That’s the number of bedrooms a person should have.’ Then she abruptly turned her chair around and directed it toward the spacious, well-appointed lounge across the hall. Hannah followed her. Pamela pointed to a Duncan Phyfe-style sofa covered in crewel-work embroidery. Hannah sat down and Pamela glided across the butterscotch gleam of the hardwood floors, past wing chairs and mahogany end tables and parked her chair beside the sofa.
‘Mother, tell me again. Why, on this night when I am completely exhausted, do I want to talk to Mrs Shelton’s aide?’
‘Wynonna Clemons used to work at Vanderbilt Hospital as an LPN, but she was let go because she came to work several times smelling like a brewery.’
Hannah looked at her mother with raised eyebrows.
‘Oh, don’t bother looking shocked,’ said Pamela. ‘Christina told me that herself. But Christina’s children felt that their mother needed a full-time aide, and Wynonna was in need of work. Her husband is disabled and they’ve got two kids. So Christina’s children interviewed her several times and decided she might work out. As it happens, she and Christina get on very well.’
Good for Christina’s sainted children, Hannah thought, gritting her teeth. She glanced at the ormolu clock on the mantle. She just wanted to go home, kiss Sydney and climb into bed with Adam. Tomorrow promised to be trying. ‘Well,’ said Hannah, ‘I’m sure she’s a very nice woman.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Hannah. Stop talking as if I’m simple. I didn’t call you out here to lob compliments at a nurse’s aide.’
Hannah stifled a sigh. ‘Did we have to do this tonight? In the middle of the trial? You see these people every day. Why tonight?’
‘As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen them in a while, because Christina had a bad fall and spent the last several months in the nursing home wing. Don’t you remember I told you that? Wynonna took care of her there.’
‘Oh, yes, I remember you saying that she fell and broke her arm and her hip,’ said Hannah. ‘Where was the vaunted Wynonna when that happened?’
‘It was Wynonna’s day off, as a matter of fact,’ said Pamela. ‘And I’ll ask you to mind your tone.’
‘Sorry,’ said Hannah.
‘These days, Christina spends a lot of time in her room. But I ran into them today in the dining room, and Wynonna was anxious to talk.’
‘Here she comes,’ said Hannah in a warning tone.
Wynonna hurried across the room, and stood in front of the sofa. ‘May I?’ she asked Hannah.
‘Of course. Sit down,’ said Hannah.
Wynonna perched on the edge of the sofa cushion. ‘Your mother is a great lady,’ she confided to Hannah.
‘Thank you,’ said Hannah, smiling thinly.
‘I was just telling my daughter that you used to work at Vanderbilt.’
‘That’s right,’ said Wynonna, nodding. ‘I worked there for seven years. And then I was replaced by another nurse. That man your daughter … knew.’
Suddenly, Hannah understood why she had been summoned. ‘Troy Petty.’
‘Exactly right,’ said Wynonna. ‘I heard about the trial, like everybody else. But I never put it together with Mrs Hardcastle’s granddaughter until Mrs Shelton told me.’
Hannah sighed. ‘So you knew Troy Petty.’
Wynonna looked surprised. ‘No! I didn’t know him. They blindsided me at the hospital. Fired me one day, and already had him on deck.’
‘I’m sure that was very difficult,’ said Hannah sympathetically. At the same time, she had to wonder if her mother’s faculties were failing. Hannah had been summoned in the night to meet a woman who lost her job to Troy Petty. Apparently with good reason, because of her own alcohol problem.
‘A pedophile. They replaced me with a pedophile. It’s disgusting. Don’t you think, Mrs H?’
Pamela nodded sagely and gazed at Hannah.
Hannah nodded. ‘Ah, I see. You … heard about the testimony today.’
Wynonna agreed eagerly. ‘Yes, everyone was talking about it. About the sick child at the camp. I already knew about it.’
Hannah looked at Wynonna with narrowed eyes. ‘You knew about that?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Wynonna triumphantly. ‘Dolores told me all about it.’
Hannah shook her head. ‘I’m confused. Who’s Dolores?’
‘Dolores is a nurse I used to work with. Back in the fall when I lost my job to this Petty character, she called and told me that years ago she used to work at that Sunflower camp for sick kids. She said that Troy Petty was fired for molesting one of the little campers. I told my husband, Hank, to check it out on the computer. He’s a whiz on that thing. I wish he could get some computer work. He’s disabled, so he’s home all the time with nothing to do. In fact, your mother said that your husband works for Verizon …’
‘This is not the time, Wynonna,’ said Pamela imperiously.
Wynonna shrugged. ‘Well, anyway, Hank looked into it. There was an accusation made but no charges, so they couldn’t use his name.’
‘Perhaps you should have brought it to the hospital’s attention, Wynonna,’ drawled Pamela.
Wynonna looked away, somewhat sheepishly, rubbing her hands on her thighs. ‘I tried to. I tried to tell my old supervisor. She didn’t want to hear it. She said they didn’t fire me because of him. They said I lost my job for … other reasons.’
Hannah could feel her anger building. Obviously, her mother was delighted to have discovered this connection between Christina Shelton’s aide and Lisa’s trial. She had been called here to bear witness to Pamela’s cleverness in putting the two together. She felt overwhelmed by exhaustion and out of patience with her mother. This was not some kind of parlor game called ‘Make the Connection’. Then, suddenly, she thought of a way to aggravate her mother, and couldn’t resist using it. ‘Well, his job’s open now. You might be able to get your old job back.’
Wynonna shook her head. ‘No, as it happens, I’m very happy taking care of Mrs Shelton. She’s so good to me. So, in a way, maybe it was just as well. Nobody at that hospital wanted to know about it. I even told your daughter about it.’
Hannah’s heart skipped a sickening beat. ‘My daughter?’
‘Yes. When she was here one day visiting her grandmother. Mrs Hardcastle brought her over to the hospital to meet Mrs Shelton.’ Wynonna smiled shyly at Pamela. ‘You was so proud of her, being a child genius and all, and going to medical school at Vandy. Who wouldn’t be? Anyway, when I heard from Mrs Hardcastle that your daughter worked at Vandy, I told her all about it. Lisa, right? I told Lisa all about Troy Petty. I figured she would want to know about this guy, in case she ran into him, you know?’
‘You told Lisa,’ Hannah said slowly. ‘When was this?’
Wynonna frowned and looked skyward, waggling the fingers on one hand. ‘Last winter. At your birthday,’ she said, smiling at Pamela. ‘She came to bring Mrs Hardcastle her birthday present. You remember that?’
Pamela nodded.
‘That was nine months ago,’ said Hannah. ‘You’re saying that Lisa has known about this for nine months?’ She glanced at her mother. Pamela was watching her with a certain cold satisfaction.
Wynonna nodded. ‘I never will understand why she started dating that guy. I mean, young girls do like a bad boy. I know that. I was young once too. And maybe he just charmed her. I don’t know. All I can figure is that she didn’t believe me, and had to find out for herself. And I guess she did find out. After all, she ended up killing him, didn’t she?’
‘No. She did not,’ snapped Hannah.
Wynonn
a suddenly adopted a more reserved tone. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I’m truly sorry. It’s innocent till proven guilty. This is America, after all.’
Hannah could see her own hand shaking on the arm of the sofa. ‘That’s right. And I’ll thank you not to say that again.’
Wynonna turned to Pamela apologetically. ‘I’m so sorry. I misspoke.’
‘That’s all right, Wynonna,’ said Pamela. ‘You’re just the messenger.’
For some reason she could not explain, Hannah was simply furious with her mother. She refused to accompany her back to her apartment. She abruptly asked a passing aide to do the honors and slipped out into the night.
All the way home, her heart was pounding. Lisa knew about Troy Petty all along? She knew, and yet she let Sydney spend time alone with him? She couldn’t get her mind around it. It had to be a mistake. But there was no room for that in Wynonna’s account. Hannah knew that she had to tell Adam but she could not bear the thought of his face, the look in his eyes when he heard this.
She went inside, trudging as if on the road to Calvary. When she opened the back door, she found Adam was on the phone.
‘OK. That’s great,’ he said. ‘Give Chet our very best. Tell him we’ll come by and see him soon.’
He hung up the phone and turned to Hannah with a smile. She tried to force a smile onto her own face.
‘That was Rayanne,’ he said. ‘Chet’s out of the woods.’
‘That’s great,’ said Hannah.
Adam frowned at her. ‘What happened?’
‘Where is Sydney?’
‘Already in bed. Tell me. You’re white as a ghost.’
Hannah shook her head and sat down.
‘Do you want something? Tea? Something a bit stiffer?’
‘Whiskey,’ Hannah said. ‘Just pour me a shot.’
Adam frowned but did as she asked. He handed it to her. Hannah took a sip of the searing liquid and grimaced.
‘That’s my girl,’ Adam said, smiling briefly. ‘Now tell me. What did my dear mother-in-law say that got you so upset?’
I See You Page 12
