by Krista Davis
When I paid, she asked, “Are you from out of town?”
“How could you tell?”
“Everybody knows most everybody around here. What brings you to Durbin?”
Perfect. I couldn’t have asked for an easier opening. “I’m looking for Maria Delgado.”
The woman behind the counter took a hard look at me. “Are you now?”
Uh-oh. I didn’t know what Anne had done, or if Maria Delgado even was Anne, but I knew a suspicious face when I saw one. “I hear she does some amazing embroidery.”
“That she does. You looking to buy? I have a few of her pieces right there on that table.”
I picked out two linen hand towels embroidered with blue delphiniums and ladybugs. “Does she always put in a ladybug?”
“Pretty much. I’ve never seen anything she embroidered without at least a teeny one.”
I couldn’t stop grinning. The woman probably thought I was deranged. Maria had to be Anne. I paid for the towels, and the woman gladly gave me directions to Maria’s house. I met Nina on the sidewalk, lugging a forty-pound bag of dog food. Biting my lip to keep from laughing, I opened the back hatch for her.
She heaved it in. “Stop that!” But she couldn’t help laughing, either. “Be glad I didn’t make up a story about needing a salt block for my horse.”
She’d obtained the same directions. We hopped into the car and attacked our lunch. The ham was nicely salty, the biscuits still warm and melt-in-your-mouth flaky. If I lived around there, I would be a regular at the coffee shop for lunch.
We drove out of town, made a couple of turns, and found ourselves on a two-lane road lined by farms, fields, and forests.
“We should be there by now,” Nina complained. “I bet we took a wrong turn.”
“That’s it.”
“How can you tell? I don’t see a name on the mailbox.”
“The garden.” I didn’t have to say more. Flowers in a riot of colors surrounded the tiny bungalow. A vegetable garden grew off to the side, with eggplants and tomatoes waiting to be picked. An old pickup truck was parked on a gravel driveway. I pulled in behind it.
I couldn’t recall ever having been so nervous. This was it. Either Anne was alive or I’d been about as wrong as a person could be.
Nina and I walked to the front door.
“Are you about to jump out of your skin like I am?” she asked.
I held out my trembling hand to show her.
“Me, too. Knock already!”
I rapped on the door.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Dear Sophie,
A friend gave me a giant four-foot-tall pot! I love the rich purple color, but I haven’t the foggiest notion what to do with it. It sticks out like a sore thumb by my front door and on my patio.
—Eggplant Fan in Daisy, Georgia
Dear Eggplant Fan,
Place it in the garden in between shrubs or tall flowers. Pots are a delightful chic surprise in the garden and will draw the eye to the plants around them.
—Sophie
A woman with silver hair cut short like a man’s answered the door. “Can I help you?”
She didn’t look like the Anne I’d seen in pictures. We’d come all the way for nothing. I sagged. “I’m sorry to bother you. We were looking for Maria Delgado.”
“You’ll find her out back. I’m her landlord. Just fixing a leak under the kitchen sink.”
Nina and I exchanged a look. I couldn’t stand it. The tension was worse than Christmas for a kid who wanted a bike and didn’t see it under the tree.
We snuck around the side of the house. A woman worked at a rustic potting sink. Dark brown hair waved down her back, almost to her waist. She wore shorts and flip-flops. I was terrified to see her face yet anxious and excited that it might be her.
“Anne?”
She froze for a second but quickly resumed her work.
I inched around to see her face better. She tilted her head ever so slightly away from me.
“Anne Fleishman?”
She swung around and faced me dead-on with a weak smile. I’d found her! No question about it—she was the woman in Wolf’s pictures.
“I’m sorry, you must be mistaken. There’s no one here by that name. I’m Maria Delgado.”
“I don’t think so.” I opened my purse and pulled out the photo of Anne and Wolf in happier times.
The smile faded. “Who are you?” It was a mere whisper.
I wanted to jump up and down and shriek. Instead I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her, probably scaring her even more.
“Woohoo!” cried Nina. She ran to us to join in the hug.
When we let go, poor Anne looked bewildered.
Nina and I babbled simultaneously about Wolf and being so glad that she wasn’t dead. She must have thought us insane.
Deliriously happy, I said, “You have to come back. They think Wolf killed you.”
She seemed shocked. “Why would anyone think that?” She backed up ever so slightly. “Shelby!”
The landlady opened a screen door. “Don’t worry, Maria. I got your back.”
Shelby wasn’t menacing, she was just helping Anne like I would have backed up Nina.
“They think you’re dead because no one knows where you are. Your mother and Wolf have been looking for you for years.” I didn’t want to alienate her by asking how she could have been so cruel to them. I wasn’t sure how she would react if she knew I’d been dating Wolf, either, so I skipped over that part. “Your handbag and wallet were just found in Wolf’s garden, along with a rusty knife. That confirmed their worst fears that something terrible had happened to you.”
“Handbag? I never buried a handbag in my life.”
“Someone did. It has your driver’s license in it.” Something must have rung true to her because she chewed on her lower lip, her forehead wrinkled.
“I never buried my purse. I gave it to my best friend. We swapped driver’s licenses so I would have an ID that nobody would be tracking. I wanted it that way.”
“But why?” I asked. Nina and I exchanged a look.
Anne’s worried face relaxed a hair. “If you don’t mind, it’s all very personal. It’s a part of my life that I would rather forget.”
“Your old friend Tommy Lee Kenner is determined to nail Wolf for your murder.”
She snorted. “That’s impossible. I left notes. Wolf and my family know that I’m very much alive, and they know why I left. Well, kind of.”
“Notes?” It didn’t make sense. If Wolf and Mona knew she was alive—now I was confused.
“I didn’t want them to worry. So I left notes on the dining room table for Wolf and my parents explaining why I needed to leave.”
“They never saw them.” My words came out in a hushed tone. “I don’t think they ever got them.”
“You’re lying.” Anne’s voice faded. Her entire body trembled. Nina and I steadied her and lowered her to a split-log bench. Shelby bolted out of the house to help us.
I wet paper towels at the potting sink and handed them to Anne. “Hold these to your forehead.”
“You okay?” asked Shelby. When Anne nodded, Shelby rushed to the house and returned with a glass of water. “Drink this.”
Shelby sat next to Anne, her elbows on her knees. “I’m Shelby, and you would be…?”
We introduced ourselves, but again I steered clear of mentioning that I’d dated Wolf. Anne was clearly going through an emotional event as it was—I didn’t need to complicate it. She’d know soon enough.
“Your mom will be so happy to see you.” I smiled at Anne.
“Then you clearly don’t know my mother.” Her eyes darted from me to Nina and back. “What’s her name?”
“Mona, short for Desdemona,” offered Nina.
Anne raised trembling fingers to her cheek. “They know my mom, Shelby. That’s exactly how she introduces herself.” She shoved her hands through the hair around her face. “I’d forgotten all ab
out that purse. My mother thought I should have it because it was a status symbol that I had arrived. It was so expensive! Wolf thought it was a waste of money. I’ve never cared much about designers and logos and social status. It came to be a symbol of everything that was wrong with my life. I gave it to my girlfriend when I left. I had to be rid of it. I wonder why she buried it.”
“Can you see why people thought you were dead?” asked Nina.
Anne’s face contorted. “I don’t understand. If the notes were gone, Cricket would have told them—”
Nina and I shouted, “Cricket?!”
Cricket had known all along that Anne was alive but kept quiet for Anne’s benefit? “Tell us what happened.”
Nina and I pulled up old-fashioned aluminum lawn chairs.
“Nothing happened. I’d just made a shambles of my life. Oh, gosh. It was a mess. I thought Wolf and I were happily married. We had little squabbles like every couple, but then… I found out about his affair with my best friend.” She twisted the paper towels until they couldn’t go further, and her knuckles went white.
“Cricket?” asked Nina.
“Evidently you know her.”
I nodded. “She’s engaged to Audie Greene.”
“Audie? She left Wolf?”
“She actually wasn’t with Wolf.” I swallowed hard. Was she? Maybe she and Wolf got back together after Anne left, and Kenner didn’t know about it? He said he’d lost touch with Cricket.
Anne seemed relieved. “No, no. You must have me confused with someone else after all. It must be another Wolf.”
Right. Like we all knew a lot of people named Cricket and Wolf.
“My Cricket and Wolf are definitely together,” she insisted.
For a split second, I wondered if Wolf had been seeing Cricket in spite of her engagement to Audie. No, that didn’t seem possible. “Is your Cricket a bombshell redhead?”
Anne balled up her fists and pressed them against her mouth. “This can’t be happening. You must be mistaken. Cricket was pregnant. They have a little boy now.”
She ran inside the house and returned quickly, clutching a worn picture in her shaking hand. “Here. She sent this to me three years ago.”
I took it from her hand, and Nina looked over my shoulder. A towheaded toddler with intelligent blue eyes looked like an angel sitting on Cricket’s lap. He was older now, but I recognized the little fellow who had chanted “Poop, poop, poop” at the picnic and smeared his dirty hand on Natasha’s dress. I shook my head. “I’m sorry. This little fellow belongs to one of Roscoe’s employees.”
“Are you sure? Cricket was pregnant and…” Anne looked away, gathered her long hair into a ponytail, and twisted it.
She had to be in a state of shock. I glanced at Nina. What would I have done if Nina confessed to being involved with Mars when we were married? “You never confronted Wolf about his affair with Cricket?”
Her eyes popped open wide. “I have spent my life trying to avoid conflict. It’s horrible! I’m not clever that way. I don’t like to argue, and I hate it when people twist things around. Besides, can you imagine how I would have felt if Wolf had chosen to stay with me? He wanted children, and Cricket was going to have his baby, or so I thought. He would have hated me for keeping them apart. I thought he was going to have the family he always wanted. Our marriage wouldn’t have survived anyway under those circumstances. If I had stayed, he would have left me for Cricket eventually.”
Evidently she wasn’t quite the dumb bunny that her boss claimed. She’d certainly given that a lot of thought.
Of course, the embezzlement from Roscoe would have provided motivation to get out of town as well. Once Wolf learned of the embezzlement, that alone would probably have broken up her marriage to Wolf. He never would have trusted her again. I didn’t want to accuse her of trying to steal Roscoe’s money, though. She might take off. It was far more important to convince her to come back to Old Town. At least long enough for Kenner to see her and know she was still among the living. What happened after that was out of my control.
She turned her back to us, and her shoulders heaved as she sobbed. When she turned around again, she said, “I was so ashamed. Nothing was right, I didn’t succeed at anything. You can’t imagine the desperation. I hit rock bottom. I wasn’t the wife Wolf wanted. I wasn’t the daughter my parents wanted. But most of all, I wasn’t anything that I wanted. I don’t know… Maybe I latched onto that baby as an excuse to run away.
Shelby’s jaw had dropped open. “Let me get this straight. Her husband never had an affair with her best friend? And there is no baby?”
“That’s right,” said Nina.
Shelby stared at us in shock. “And now Maria’s husband is under suspicion for her murder?”
“It’s been a source of gossip for years,” said Nina.
Anne covered her face with her hands and moaned, “What have I done?”
Nina continued, “But when Sophie found Anne’s purse buried in the garden, it sort of brought things to a head.”
Shelby gazed at Anne. “Then, Maria—er, Anne—you have to go back and make it right. No matter how you feel about him or what he did, it’s not fair to make him go through that.”
Anne agreed to come back to Old Town with us if Shelby came along. I couldn’t blame her for wanting a friend by her side. She didn’t know Nina and me. It would have been stupid to just go along with us. Shelby drove her car, because Anne was a basket case, and Anne’s old truck wasn’t all that reliable. I was sorry they weren’t in our car. I would have liked to pepper Anne with questions. Not that she had many answers.
When our little caravan headed for Old Town, Nina said, “You do realize that your relationship with Wolf is probably going to come to a screeching end. And you’re bringing him the reason to break it off.”
I laughed at her. “I am painfully aware of that. What do you propose? That we ditch Anne and never tell him?”
“Um, you seem to be taking it well.”
“Nina, I had to come to grips with it the night you, Francie, and Mars spied on Wolf and me. Do you remember Mars saying Wolf was still in love with his wife? Mars was exactly right. Anne would have been a constant thorn in any relationship Wolf had. I don’t know if they can make a go of it after all that has happened, but Anne is Wolf’s wife.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t belong in that equation. I have no business there.”
She flashed me a sympathetic look. “So do you think Cricket lied to Anne because she wanted Wolf back?”
“It’s possible, I guess. But if that were the case, wouldn’t they be together now?”
“Maybe she chased after him, but he was too broken up about Anne to be interested.”
“She might have just wanted revenge on Anne because she thought Anne stole Wolf from her in the first place.”
“I hope not! What kind of best friend would be that evil?” Nina shivered.
“The better question is why would they continue to be friends at all?”
Nina cackled. “You’re friends with Natasha, and she stole Mars.”
I wasn’t sure that Natasha had stolen Mars. My family and friends thought so, and sometimes I even swayed that way. But more often I thought the truth was that my marriage had fizzled to a slow death on its own. Although, apparently, we still had a few sparks left in us. It made me itch to remember that romantic moment I’d had with Mars a few months ago. It had been little more than a kiss, but neither of us had stopped it. Why had it felt so right at that moment? I cringed at the memory. I was not cut out for romance with other women’s men. Whatever Cricket’s reasoning, lying about a baby so Anne would leave Wolf was about as low as she could get.
Nina called Kenner while I drove. “Sophie and I need to see you at Wolf’s house in about an hour. Can you find Mona and Wolf and have them meet us there? The backyard would be great!”
The scene was set. Nina and I acted like giddy children.
I had hoped to walk into Wolf’s backy
ard like the Three Musketeers being victorious, but I feared we more closely resembled the Four Stooges.
A little crowd had gathered there. Olive must have noticed something afoot and phoned Francie, because they were both there. Kenner had been able to contact Mona because she was present, too. A couple of other cops were on the premises as well as a host of people whom I didn’t know.
Anne was hesitant. We marched across Wolf’s lawn, coaxing and tugging her until everyone present had turned to look at us. Mona collapsed again, but not a single person went to her aid. All eyes were on Anne. Kenner broke the stunned silence. He ran to her, grabbed her in a hug, and swung her into the air in a circle. When she landed, he held her tight and closed his eyes like he knew heaven at that moment.
Nina and I high-fived, then we caved and jogged over to revive Mona.
Anne broke through the cluster of people around her and ran to Mona. She dropped to her knees. “Mama?”
Mona clasped Anne like she had held on to her purse. “I thought I would never have the chance to tell you how much I love you. I’m so sorry, Anne!”
“It’s okay, Mama.”
“No it’s not. I never should have pushed you to be something else. You’re perfect the way you are, kind and gentle with a heart of gold. I’m so grateful that you’re not dead, and that I have a second chance to make things right. That doesn’t happen often in life.”
Tears came to my eyes.
But one person was missing—Wolf.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Dear Natasha,
I love an elegant garden. How can I achieve a classic look?
—Domestic Diva in Boxwood, Delaware
Dear Domestic Diva,
Less is more. Topiaries, topiaries, topiaries. Keep them neat and trimmed. Use topiaries in sets of two or three or five to make an impression.
—Natasha
If Anne noticed Wolf’s absence, she didn’t mention it. As insecure as she was, I suspected she thought it meant he didn’t want to see her. She was the center of attention, though. Everyone clustered around her, hugging and asking questions.
