An actual wine bottle bobbed in melted ice in a tin pail on the table. Nina helped herself.
Ben came over to join them. Jolene said, “Ah, sweetie,” and hugged him. Ben murmured something to her and she said, “We enjoyed him. He worked hard. It wasn’t for charity, honey. Now then, you takin’ care of yourself? You get that supper I put on your porch?”
“Sure did,” Ben said. “Thanks.” They started talking about the burial.
Nina wandered off, looking for Debbie. She found her in the kitchen on the phone. Hanging up, Debbie said, “That was Elizabeth. She wanted to stay home but I talked her into getting over here.”
“Is Elizabeth your older sister?”
“No, younger by a lot of years, only thirty. I try to look out for her. She’s shy, kind of like Ben. Intelligent, but she doesn’t understand people. She’s a conservationist. She’s going to get her Ph.D. next year.”
“That’s something to be proud of.”
“Is it ever. I never made it past high school. Married Sam, had our babies. We’ve been married twenty years. Our kids both went down to L.A. for college.”
Smiling, Nina said, “That’s also something to be proud of.”
“Elizabeth is special. You might like each other. She’ll be here in five minutes.”
“Food’s on the table!” they heard from the deck.
Jolene came in saying, “Where’s that mac dish?”
“Well, in the oven. I forgot all about it.”
“George gets grumpy when he doesn’t get his mac and cheese.” She put on two orange oven mitts and pulled a magnificent casserole with spicy peppers, tricolor chunks of melting cheese, and a crunchy paprika topping, out of the oven.
“Ow!”
“Oh, honey, you okay?”
“I’m going to get you some thicker mitts, Deb. Don’t worry about it, I’m just clumsy tonight. We’re all off-key because of Danny. I mean, we just got over the fire across the river, and now this. George’s blood sugar has been all over the place.”
“He’s happy tonight.”
“Yes, I think he’s feeling better the last couple days.”
“Britta’s a sight tonight.”
“I think Tory’s pregnant. She’s not telling yet.”
The two women went out, Nina trailing behind.
The children had crowded onto the deck, bringing noise and chaos along. A separate table had been set up for them. Jolene, at Nina’s side, said, “There’s my dolls. Callie’s got the red hair and April’s the smaller one.” The girls ran past them toward the food set up on the big table.
“Those over there are the Cowan boys. They run wild. Britta neglects ’em.” Two small towheaded boys filled up their plates. One wore nothing but a sagging diaper and tiny red rubber boots.
“Darryl and Tory have four. There’s Mikey, he’s the oldest.” Nina gave Mikey a sharp inspection. The handsome Eubanks kid with sunburned skin and light eyes was shaved to the skull like his dad in the current sports-figure style and couldn’t have been older than thirteen. He couldn’t have killed Danny or threatened Wish. Scratch the Eubanks kids, she thought.
“What about Ted and Megan? Do they have kids?”
“No. They want to have all their time for their biking and sailing and whatnot.” Nina could see that Jolene couldn’t countenance this. Jolene’s lips pursed. She shook her head. She went on, “We better get our plates before it’s all gone. I’m gonna go see what else George wants.” George was entertaining them all with his guitar.
“He’s talented, isn’t he?” Nina said. She looked all the kids over one more time. They were all too young.
“Used to play in a country-western band. He didn’t get anywhere. Then we started the nursery. Sold out and retired five years ago and we thought what with the money from that and the social security we were set. Just goes to show.”
“How so?”
“Oh, you know, investments went down the tubes. Then our daughter ran into trouble. Drugs, I don’t mind telling you. She almost lost the girls. We took ’em, George and me, and my daughter moved to Oklahoma City with her boyfriend. And now we have the girls to raise. Oh, it’s fun. I love ’em to death. But George can’t work anymore, he’s got diabetes, and he worries about how to keep us.” While she kept up this nonstop narrative, Jolene had drawn Nina to the railing.
“And then I had a stroke, nothing much, really, but it added to George’s burdens, and he finally got a bright idea, that he’d subdivide our lot. It’s deep, you know, goes back from the river two hundred feet. So we’d keep the house in front and sell the area in back. Nice lot like that would go for three, four hundred thousand. We’d be set.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“Well, just goes to show.”
George stopped playing and beckoned to his wife. All the other men except for Ben surrounded him, plates piled high with food. In between bites, they were engaged in intense conversation, their voices low.
“Be right there, hon,” she called, and went on, “You’re gonna have a hard time believing this, but see that little old stream down there? Looks like nothing much, right? Well, this is a drought year, remember. A few years ago we had two winters in a row where it rained three months straight. The first winter, I just watched that water get muddier and faster and higher and didn’t worry at all. There had never been a flood here or close to one in the thirty-six years we’ve lived here.
“So when it happened, the fire department, the neighbors, we were all took by surprise. About 4:00 A.M. in pouring rain in February, it came over the top, where the riprap is now, and rolled down the street and wiped it out. Rolled through our lot and flooded our house, took out the garden and the fences, and rolled like the Mississippi down the next street. Took out that street, houses and all. Believe it? We had to evacuate for two days. The Red Cross set up a tent by the bridge and made free dinners and we all got tetanus shots. Took us six months to fix up the house, and the other street? Took them the whole year.”
“Amazing,” Nina said.
“Kind of thing supposed to happen once in maybe a hundred years. But the next year it happened again. Believe it? It did. This time it took out the bridge. We were all ready to evacuate, we had our stuff out of the house, so it wasn’t quite so bad as the first nasty surprise. Since then, that river has been sleepy as a baby. Probably never will get loco like that again.”
“Jolene! You get me some food!” George hollered over the din. The singing over, and whatever conversation they had going interrupted by their frequent trips to the buffet for food, the other men dissolved into the crowd.
“Comin’! So anyways, we thought we were back to normal except for that puke-producing riprap the county put in and the new bridge. So George started getting ready to sell the Back Acre, that’s what he calls it. Guess what happened. The county told us we couldn’t do it.”
“No.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jolene folded her arms. “Right after the Green River development got approved. Some new commission passed an ordinance after the floods. George and I heard nothing about it until it happened. We sure didn’t see it coming. The new law says you can’t build, you can’t remodel, you can’t do anything within two hundred feet of the river. We can’t subdivide.”
Nina said, “Were you home when the model home across the river burned down?”
“It happened in the middle of the night. I heard the fire trucks and looked out and saw the smoke, so I woke George up and we went out to see what was the matter. Just about the whole block got up to watch it. I hate to say it, but I was glad to see it burn. And I’ll tell you something else. I hope they decide not to rebuild. For thirty-six years I’ve come out my front door and seen a green hill and willows. I don’t want to see fancy houses that somebody else got to build when we couldn’t.” Her mouth was set. “I’d be full of hate and bitterness, watching George and the girls struggling because we couldn’t do the same.”
“What are you going to do
?”
“Trust in the Lord. What else can we do? Well, I know you’d like to talk to me some more, honey, but maybe later, okay?”
Jolene gave Nina a pat on the arm and wended her way toward her husband, and Nina headed toward the food, thinking that she wouldn’t want to come up against Jolene in court. That woman would be a huge hit with juries.
The adult neighbors sat down at their table, and Nina noticed they fell naturally into groups.
On the left end of the table, the Hills, the Eubankses, and Ben Cervantes.
On the right end, Ted and Megan Ballard, David and Britta Cowan.
In the middle, Sam and Debbie talked to both sides.
Even the food had been set on the table with some invisible demarcations. On one side, Jolene’s “mac” dish along with Tory’s deviled eggs and a big bowl of potato salad; in the middle, platters of ribs and chicken; on the right, in front of Ted and Megan, the Thai and Greek dishes, green salad, fruit salad, and soy milk in cartons. The liquor was similarly split into beer on the left and wine on the right, except for the whiskey glasses in front of Sam and Britta.
Sitting down next to Ben, Nina filled up her plate with starchy food. She pushed her wineglass back and Ben opened a bottle of Dos Equis for her.
Surprise, surprise, Jolene was holding forth at this end of the table, while George shoveled mac and cheese into his mouth and Darryl, Tory, and Ben listened with consternation.
“And she said she saw one of the arsonists pull into Siesta Court and drop the other one off!”
“The Cat Lady’s nuts, though. You can’t take somebody like her seriously,” Darryl said. “Remember when Debbie invited her to one of the parties and we all had to listen to her Twelve Points?”
Ben said, “I didn’t know she was that definite about what she saw.”
“Yessir, she was buying cat food at the market-they must give her a discount-and that’s exactly what she told me. She said she doesn’t know who it was but she thought it was men in the car.”
“But it wasn’t Danny,” Ben said uncertainly. “The kid, Danny’s friend Wish, says he and Danny were just trying to catch the guy.”
Tory pushed her hair back and scratched her head. “But if Ruthie saw that, and it wasn’t Danny, it’d have to be somebody else on this block.”
“That’s a good one,” George said. “Like who?”
“Like you,” Jolene said, and kissed him. “Maybe we should do a lineup,” she went on. “The Cat Lady might be able to pick out the bad guy.”
Tory looked around the table. Nina followed her eyes on each man: Tory’s husband first, big Darryl; George Hill, already tired out from playing a few songs, drooping a bit over his plate; broad-shouldered, compact Ben; Sam, ignoring his food and pouring himself another shot of Jack Daniel’s; Ted, talking animatedly to Britta and Megan about a hiking trip to New Zealand; and David Cowan, silent and birdlike at the far end of the table.
Hill broke the silence with a laugh. “It was probably Elizabeth,” he said.
“Please don’t hate me ’cuz I’m beautiful,” Tory said in a high voice, laughing too. She took her husband’s hand, and Nina saw Darryl wince.
Debbie said, “Hey. Watch what you say about my sister,” but in a joking voice.
Jolene said, “Aw, Debbie, it’s no reflection on you. It’s not your fault she’s got a burr up her ass.”
“She’s beautiful and smart and you’re just jealous.”
“She’s Miss Priss,” Jolene said, “but if she wants to come down the hill and slum with us regular folks, why, she’s welcome. As long as I don’t have to hear any more about keeping Robles untouched, now that she’s built her glass house.”
“Speak of the devil,” Tory said, and nudged Debbie. “Your sister’s here.”
At the gate, Nina saw a young woman in a soft gray sweater and black leggings, toting a leather purse. She waved to Debbie, who jumped up and opened the gate and hugged her, then led her, holding her hand, toward the table.
Elizabeth seemed unsure of her reception, and from what Nina had been hearing, she could understand why. But Darryl jumped up too, and went to her and Debbie with a bottle of beer in his hand. “Hey, there,” he said. “Glad you could make it.”
An awkward silence ensued. Tory was glaring after Darryl. Nina happened to glance at Ben and saw that he was glaring at Darryl too.
12
S OMETHING HAD CHANGED FOR NINA AS she ate dinner with the neighbors. Before, she had been an observer, but now she had become part of the party. It was like going to the theater and finding yourself on stage. She was involved in some sort of drama, and she didn’t know the story line yet.
Or maybe she shouldn’t have drunk that Dos Equis on top of the wine.
Elizabeth accepted the bottle. “Thanks,” she said in a low voice. “Hi, all. Sorry I’m late.” She had luminous skin and high cheekbones. She wore her shining black hair simply, in an old-fashioned straight bob with a fringe. On her the effect was ravishing.
“It takes a while to climb down from one o’ them big redwoods,” George Hill said. Jolene giggled at this.
Elizabeth went straight to Ben, sitting at the table, and put her arm around him. “I am so sorry,” she said. “Are you all right?”
“I’m all right. Thanks for the flowers,” Ben told her.
“Come sit with us-” Darryl started, but Megan called from the other side, “We saved a spot for you.”
Smiling, Elizabeth said, “I need to say hi to Megan.” She went to the group at the far side, and Ted and Megan made room for her between them. The loud conversations resumed, but Darryl seemed to have lost interest. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the beautiful woman at the other end of the table. Tory, beside him, was seething.
Why, he’s madly in love with her, Nina thought with dismay. Four kids under the age of thirteen, a devoted wife-how could he? No question, Tory must know, because Darryl was about as subtle about it as a chain saw biting into a chunk of hardwood.
Nina hoped he and Elizabeth weren’t having an affair. She had liked Darryl, before.
Ben, too, seemed distracted by Elizabeth’s presence, although he was not as obvious. Elizabeth didn’t glance down the table again. She set her bottle of beer aside and poured herself some soy milk.
“You know what?” Tory said suddenly. “I’m going home.”
“I’m not ready,” Darryl said.
“Then stay here, damn you.” Tory got up and went into the house, followed by Jolene and Debbie. Darryl started to rise, then sat back down again.
“She gets into these moods,” he said.
Nina ate some more of Jolene’s tasty pasta. The night was young, and she had a feeling that she’d better keep her strength up.
Jolene and Debbie returned from the kitchen without Tory and the party moved into a new phase as they all started moving around again. Nina helped carry endless paper plates and dump them into trash sacks while Sam and Darryl went out into the backyard, working on something. The kids ran back into the woods.
George took up his seat on the bench, picked up his guitar, and started playing, looking now and then at Britta, who hung on the deck railing.
Green eyes and white lies
Like a fool I fell in love
An’ I’m haunted by the memory of her
Soft skin… so lost in
Dreams of those few nights together
I can’t seem to forget her
Green eyes… and white lies
“That’s your song, Sweet Lips,” he said.
Megan and Ted gathered with Elizabeth and began talking intently, and Nina, reminding herself of her mission, drifted over to listen.
“He worked on David’s Porsche a few weeks ago,” Ted was saying.
“He did all kinds of odd jobs for David and Britta,” Megan said. “Jolene got George to pay him a few bucks to clean up the Back Acre. He was immune to poison oak. I saw him back there a month or so ago, tearing up the brush, working hard.
He did a good job, but he was troubled. He always looked so unhappy.”
“But he’d lost his job,” Elizabeth said. “Of course he was unhappy.” She had moved aside slightly to let Nina join the group. Standing next to her, Nina smelled the strong soap she used, something expensive and fresh.
Megan said, “No, he always had a problem. But, listen, I’m being nice about this, here’s what happened that same night. Danny was out front wrapping twine around the stuff he had pulled up, and Jolene invited him to dinner. Which would be okay, except they sat on the porch and George kept feeding him alcohol. You know some Native Americans have a big problem with that. Not to perpetuate a stereotype or anything.”
“Alcohol should be banned,” Ted said, and Elizabeth and Megan nodded. “Marijuana, there’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t make people go out and commit crimes.”
“Wine is good for you in moderation,” Elizabeth said. “That’s not alcohol in the sense you’re using it.”
“We tasted the most incredible merlot at Galante Vineyards last weekend,” Megan said. They talked about wine for a while, and Nina was about to leave when Megan suddenly returned to her earlier topic.
“Anyway, I heard Danny tell George that George was like a father to him. Danny was maudlin. And you know what that doofus George said?”
“What?”
“He said, ‘You were my kid, you wouldn’t be such a useless little loser.’ He actually said that. Danny didn’t say a word. He went up the street past our house toward home and he was crying. I saw him.”
“That’s the saddest thing I ever heard,” Elizabeth said.
“Let’s talk about something else,” Ted said.
“How’s the new place coming?” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, the permit process was terrible.” Megan turned to Nina and said, “We’re going to move up the hill from Siesta Court soon. Green River’s going to ruin this street, so we’re building up on the mountain, about a quarter mile from Elizabeth. And it’s getting too… too… oh, you know, all the locals down here. God, the jokes tonight. I mean, get some wit.” Ted and Elizabeth laughed.
Presumption Of Death Page 13
