by Leena Clover
Truth be told, Jenny wasn’t sure what she would do if anyone attacked them.
“I have lived right next door all these years, Jimmy. All by myself. Stop trying to scare us.”
Jenny stepped out for her walk an hour later. The roses and gardenias perfumed the air with their heady fragrance. Jenny stood in the garden, reveling in the salty breeze coming off the ocean.
Her feet ached but she forced herself to walk a mile. Part of her hoped she would run into Adam. She wanted to give him a piece of her mind. But Adam and Tank were nowhere to be seen.
Jenny pulled out her third batch of banana walnut muffins out of the oven. She was making mushroom soup for lunch. Heather came in to the kitchen, looking somber.
“What’s on your mind, honey?” Jenny asked immediately.
There was a temporary lull in the café. Jenny made sure everyone who was seated had what they wanted. She poured fresh coffee in two mugs and placed two muffins and a crock of butter on a plate.
“Let’s go sit outside.”
“Take your time,” Petunia whispered to her. “Something’s not right with that girl. I can feel it.”
Heather barely waited for Jenny to sit down.
“Did you see how they were carrying on?” she cried. “Right in front of me too.”
Jenny steeled herself for a difficult conversation.
“This is too much,” Heather muttered, crumbling the muffin with her fingers. “I can’t take it anymore.”
“Are you talking about Molly and Chris?” Jenny asked gently.
Heather’s look of despair was answer enough.
“They are serious about each other,” Jenny said simply. “I think they might even have a future.”
“What about my future with Chris?”
“You were the one who chose to date other people.”
“Are you going to rub it in? Chris has always been there for me. Always. I trusted him.”
“This is a difficult situation, Heather. You created it. Please don’t ask me to judge who’s right or wrong. I can’t.”
“What am I going to do, Jenny? I love him. How can I bear seeing him with another woman, someone who is my friend, no less.”
“You’ll have to suck it up. I’m sorry, sweetie. Life hands us tough breaks sometimes.”
“So I just put on a smile and pretend nothing has changed?”
“Something like that.”
“What if I talk to Chris? Beg him to take me back?”
Jenny took Heather’s hands in hers. She could feel Heather’s pain.
“I think that ship has sailed,” she said reluctantly. “At least for now.”
“So you think they might not make it?”
“I don’t think any such thing, Heather. I can’t. You are all my friends and you have come to mean a lot to me. I want you all to be happy.”
“What about my grandma?” Heather asked, her eyes filling with fear. “She won’t take it well.”
“We’ll have to break it to her gently,” Jenny nodded. “But I wouldn’t worry about her.”
“I was always supposed to marry Chris,” Heather said with a faraway look in her eyes. “I dug my own grave.”
Jenny sat with Heather for a long time, trying to pacify her as much as she could. Heather finally broke down. Tears streamed down her eyes and nothing Jenny said could console her.
Heather left before it was time for the Magnolias to come in.
“Where’s Heather?” Molly asked.
“She’s taking Tootsie for a walk,” Jenny told them.
“Tootsie had her walk in the morning,” Betty Sue said sharply, looking up from her knitting. “What’s that girl up to now?”
“Let me guess,” Molly chirped. “She’s on a date.”
Molly was glowing with happiness. Her bright orange tunic suited her well. Jenny thought she looked pretty.
“What’s the latest on the Save our Library project?” Star asked. “Has Barb assigned tasks to the volunteers yet?”
“We need readers,” Jenny told them. “People who can read fast and read a lot.”
“Everyone reads. What’s the big thing about it?”
“The more people read, the more money we can raise,” Molly said. “Will I be allowed to volunteer?”
“I don’t see why not,” Betty Sue declared. “We all need to pitch in if we want to save the library. I am going to put my name in and ask the other board members to do the same.”
“So the board is not against this fund raising effort?” Star asked.
“They better not be,” Betty Sue grunted.
A uniformed guy walked up the steps with a big bouquet of red roses.
“Delivery for Jenny King,” he said.
The women exclaimed over the flowers and peered over Jenny’s shoulder as she read the attached card.
A blush stole over her face and she smiled broadly.
“They are from Adam.”
“That boy has finally done something right!” Betty Sue exclaimed. “What does he say?”
“He wants to take me to dinner tonight.”
“Will you go?” Molly raised an eyebrow.
“Of course I will,” Jenny gurgled.
“You’re too easy,” Star snorted. “I would make him squirm a bit.”
“He says he’s sorry,” Jenny reasoned. “That’s good enough for me.”
“We should go on a double date,” Molly beamed.
Betty Sue narrowed her eyes.
“Since when do you have a young man, Molly?”
Molly reddened and looked at Jenny. Jenny gave her a shrug. Molly gulped before answering Betty Sue.
“I have an announcement. Chris and I are seeing each other.”
This was news to the older ladies. Star and Petunia congratulated her warmly. Everyone waited for Betty Sue’s reaction.
“You’re a good girl, Molly. I know you’ll treat him better than my Heather did.”
“What are you doing later?” Jenny asked her aunt. “Can you make some phone calls for me?”
“Bring them on,” Star said with a nod. “Jimmy and I will do it together.”
“Any updates on Mrs. Bones?” Molly asked.
“The police are tight lipped as usual. I’m going to have to ramp up my own efforts.”
“You’re seeing Adam tonight,” Star reminded her.
“That’s personal,” Jenny said quickly. “Adam is very particular about keeping his professional life separate from his private one.”
“What a fusspot,” Star grumbled.
“He’s a stickler for doing the right thing,” Jenny defended him. “I like that about him.”
“What else do you like?” Petunia winked. “Those baby blue eyes of his?”
Jenny let them tease her. She was busy thinking about what to wear for her date. She didn’t know what Adam had planned for the evening. Would he take her to the Steakhouse?
Chapter 13
Barb Norton had taken over the conversation as usual. The Magnolias were not happy. Betty Sue drained her coffee and focused on her knitting. Star doodled something on a paper napkin. Heather was engrossed in her phone and Molly sat staring at the ocean with a smile on her face.
“Are you listening to me, Jenny?” Barb asked sharply. “What do you think?”
“I agree,” Jenny nodded. She forced herself to concentrate on Barb. “So you are saying we should ask people to pay for one hour segments?”
“Donate, Jenny, donate,” Barb corrected her. “We need to use the right lingo.”
“I still don’t get it,” Star grumbled. “How much will people donate for one hour?” She stressed the word donate.
“We spread the event over three days,” Barb said. “We can set up a marquee in the town square. All the readers will sit there and read as much as they can. They will report every hour that is read. One of the moderators will keep track of the hours.”
“Go on,” Star said, waving a pencil in the air.
“
The donors will give money by the hour. So for example, one man might donate money for five hours. The moderator will deduct those hours by five.”
“How much will they donate?” Jenny asked.
“We are giving them three options,” Barb explained. “We want to keep it simple. So we have $5, $25 or $50. This way they can choose the hourly rate and the number of hours and pay according to that.”
“So a man choosing five hours at $50 per hour pays two fifty.” Star did the math.
“Exactly!” Barb beamed.
“Is this really going to work?” Jenny asked. “Do you think people will donate that kind of money?”
“They will,” Dale spoke up.
He had been leaning against a pillar, listening to them.
“Most people will donate both money and time. You will see.”
“I need some food photos from you,” Barb told Jenny. “Those donuts you are making look good. We need to put them all over that Internet.”
She looked at Heather with a frown.
“Can I count on you to spread the word online?”
“Sure, Barb,” Heather said without looking up.
“People will want to make a day of it,” Barb said with a gleam in her eyes. “How can we make this better? Think!”
“What about offering a hayride on the beach?” Star asked. “It’s the right season. Food, fun, books and a chance to do something for a good cause … sounds like a day of fun to me.”
Barb didn’t leave them until she had discussed the finer points of the proposed read-a-thon. Jenny was beginning to look forward to it.
Adam came to the café for lunch. Jenny had a special smile for him as she served him his tomato soup. Jenny’s wish had come true. Adam had taken her to the Steakhouse and treated her like a queen. Jenny was beginning to discover a different side of Adam. She just wasn’t sure when his pleasant persona would disappear and he would start berating her. It was almost as if he had two personalities.
“What are you doing later?” he asked as he took a hefty bite of his oyster po’boy.
Jenny thought of the little excursion she had planned with Heather. Adam was better off not knowing about it.
“Just some girl stuff with Heather,” she smiled.
Jenny felt apprehensive as she piled into her car that afternoon.
“Did you feed the address in your phone?” she asked Heather.
“It’s pretty straightforward, Jenny. Take the bridge out of town and turn right on the state road. Then you have to make a left after ten miles.”
“Do you think they’ll talk to us?”
Heather shrugged. “We don’t even know if these are the right people. Did you just ask them about the missing girl?”
“Their daughter,” Jenny supplied. “Star talked to them. I don’t know how she tackled them.”
“They agreed to meet you, right?” Heather reasoned. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“They’ll turn us out,” Jenny quipped. “You’re right. I’m just a bit nervous.”
“This is so not like you.”
Jenny fingered the tiny gold charm around her neck as she maneuvered her car on the bridge. Built in the seventies, the two mile long bridge connected the barrier island of Pelican Cove to the mainland.
“Actually, this is very much like me. I’m famous for being low on confidence.”
“Not in our world,” Heather pointed out. “You’re a brave woman, Jenny. One of the strongest I have ever met. I look up to you.”
Jenny flashed a grateful look at the young girl sitting beside her. Heather and Molly had come to mean a lot to her. She cherished their new friendship more than the ones she had left behind. None of the women she had hobnobbed with for the past twenty years had cared to ask after her. She had become persona non grata in the suburban soccer mom club as soon as her husband traded her in for a new model. At forty four, Jenny had given up all hopes of finding any new friends again. The Magnolias had helped her believe.
“What do you think of Jason’s new girl friend?” Heather asked suddenly.
“Jason has a girl friend?” Jenny asked, swerving to avoid some debris on the road.
“Kandy?” Heather reminded her. “She’s so posh.”
“I didn’t know Jason was going out with her.”
Jenny made a left to enter another small town. Heather gave her directions until she pulled up in front of a small Cape Cod tucked away in a cul de sac. Jenny needn’t have worried about her reception.
A slim woman with a salt and pepper bob greeted them at the door. Her gray eyes were warm and the smile on her face seemed genuine. She offered them coffee or tea. Jenny added sugar to her coffee and stirred it as she thought of how to begin.
“Try these cookies,” the woman said. “They are fresh out of the oven.”
“Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Turner,” Jenny began. “I know this might be painful for you.”
“Our Emily’s been gone twenty six years,” the woman sighed. “People around these parts barely remember her.”
“So you don’t mind talking to us about her?” Heather burst out.
“I’ll take any chance to talk about my baby.”
“It must be hard on you,” Jenny sympathized.
Jenny couldn’t bear the thought of losing her son Nick. She couldn’t imagine how this woman had survived all these years without any news of her daughter.
“I try to keep her memory alive.”
The woman pointed to an array of photographs on the mantel. Jenny guessed they all portrayed the missing girl. There were photos of her at all ages – a bonny baby, a gap toothed toddler, a girl in pig tails, and an older girl looking grownup in a sleeveless frock and a strand of pearls around her neck.
There were several photos of the grownup girl and Jenny peered at them curiously, trying to ignore a feeling of déjà vu. Goosebumps broke out on her body as she realized why the girl looked familiar.
“Are the police still looking for your girl?”
The woman dabbed a tissue at her eyes and shook her head.
“Although she’s still listed as missing, they stopped looking for her long ago.”
“Did she ever contact you?”
Mrs. Turner shook her head.
“Never. I would give anything to know she’s okay. I just want her to be safe and happy wherever she is.”
“Did she say why she was leaving?”
“She went out for a party one Saturday evening,” Mrs. Turner said hoarsely. “She never came back.”
“Did you have any disagreements?” Jenny asked politely. “Any reason she might have run away?”
“My Emily was a good girl. She had a 4.0 GPA. She sang in the church choir. She was all set to go to an Ivy League college.”
Emily Turner sounded perfect. Jenny wondered what had made her leave home.
“Was she involved with anyone?”
“She was going out with a local boy,” Mrs. Turner told them. “We knew his folks well. He knew Emily since middle school.”
“Did she tell him anything?”
“The police questioned him, of course. He didn’t know about that party she went to.”
“Could she have been seeing someone else?”
“I wouldn’t have believed that once,” Mrs. Turner said sadly. “But now, who knows? I have come up with plenty of theories over the years. None of them brought my girl back.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Turner,” Jenny apologized again.
“Why are you asking about this now?” the woman asked suddenly.
“I was doing some research on missing women,” Jenny said lamely. “It’s a project I am working on.”
“Who told you about Emily?”
“I came across some old newspaper clippings,” Jenny told her honestly.
“All the local newspapers wrote about it,” Mrs. Turner nodded. “We even printed a message for her in the papers, begging her to come back home.”
“Did Emily ever
go to Pelican Cove?” Jenny asked in a hushed voice.
“I don’t think so. She didn’t have a car. We were going to buy her a new one after her high school graduation.”
“But she had friends who drove cars?” Jenny asked. “She went out with them?”
“She must have,” Mrs. Turner sighed. “She was always home before curfew so we didn’t keep tabs on her. Maybe we should have.”
Jenny and Heather said their goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with Mrs. Turner. Jenny couldn’t wait to get in her car.
“Something’s got you hot and bothered,” Heather noted as Jenny peeled out of the driveway. “Spill it.”
“Those photos on the mantel … anything ring a bell?”
“I didn’t really look. It was kind of sad. Why?”
“She’s the girl in the locket,” Jenny burst out. “I’m sure of it.”
“You mean the locket you found in that dead guy’s room?”
“Your grandma confirmed the boy in the photo was Keith. But she didn’t know who the girl was. I am sure it was Emily.”
“So Keith knew Emily?”
Jenny’s head was buzzing with different scenarios.
“You don’t carry just anyone’s photo in a locket. Keith not only knew Emily, I’m willing to bet he was in love with her.”
“But she had a boyfriend in her own town. You just heard what her mother said.”
“Think like a teenager, Heather. You have a steady boyfriend but you meet some boy in another town. Wouldn’t you keep him hidden?”
“I never had eyes for anyone other than Chris,” Heather said sadly.
“Never mind that,” Jenny dismissed. “Think hypothetically.”
“Keith was a junkie, remember? Maybe that’s why Emily didn’t want to tell her parents about him. She wanted to maintain her goody-goody image.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Jenny crowed, banging her hand on the steering wheel.
“Slow down, Jenny,” Heather shrieked. “Do you want a speeding ticket?”
Jenny forced herself to calm down.
“What do they say about the scene of the crime?” she said out loud. “Something about the criminal always going back.”
“What are you hinting at?”
“Why did Keith come to Pelican Cove? Why now? Why after all these years?”
