Running on Empty

by Sandra Balzo

  Of course that would require guests and a hostess and there were no signs of either. Had Daisy been lured into a trap?

  In obstinate consistency, the doorknob didn't turn.

  So either you ring the bell or go around the back, AnnaLise thought.

  'The back it is,' she said in a whisper as she descended the porch steps. Circling the big house, AnnaLise heard voices. Female voices, but try as she might, she couldn't distinguish even syllables, much less words or phrases.

  Staying close to the base of the house so she couldn't be seen from above, AnnaLise took the same outdoor staircase she had on Sunday. Climbing, the voices became clearer.

  'I told you to stay away from that boy,' Daisy was saying. 'He's nothing but trouble.'

  'I never should have told you,' Mrs. B said. 'It's just... I was just so alone, Lorry.'

  'Not alone enough,' Daisy sniffed.

  AnnaLise flattened herself on the steps and slowly raised her head so she could get an ant's view onto the decking. The outdoor kitchen installation was visible, but Daisy and Mrs. B weren't, unless they'd jumped into the hot tub, which AnnaLise thought unlikely.

  Mrs. B's voice again. 'I could say the same for you.' The conversation was coming from the outer deck, cantilevered over the lake.

  'I never lied, Ema. You told the wrong man he was the daddy of your baby.' Daisy's tone was edging south.

  'And just what was I supposed to do? Back in Florida, they would've put me in jail for having sex with someone fourteen or fifteen. I didn't know what they'd do to me in North Carolina, no matter how... mature Rance appeared. And besides, even if he was eighteen, he couldn't have supported Bobby and me.

  'Hell,' Ema continued. 'If anything, it's been the other way around for decades, what with the money Rance's been extorting from me.'

  Daisy, now, voice dead-level. 'But it's only part of your allowance from Dickens for a baby he didn't father.'

  A silence, as AnnaLise climbed onto the deck and, keeping low, crept toward them.

  Then, Mrs. B: 'You could've told him.'

  AnnaLise noticed that Mrs. B's cultivated timbre was slipping, replaced by the common contractions she'd managed to eradicate.

  'You think Dickens will believe me?' Daisy asked. 'He already believes you and he's seen little Bobby.' A pause and then, in a stronger voice. 'Besides, that's not how I want things, anyway.'

  AnnaLise had gained enough ground to see both women down the length of the walkway. Daisy sitting on the big chaise longue chair, Mrs. B looming above her. Her mother's body language told AnnaLise what she'd suspected from the sound of her mother's voice and the fact that Daisy, but not Mrs. B, was speaking in present tense.

  This was not 'today's' Daisy Griggs. It was yesterday's Lorraine Kuchenbacher.

  Mrs. B said, 'Oh, it's so easy to be holier than thou when you have people who love you and will take care of you.'

  'I am lucky, that's a fact,' Daisy said, looking up and AnnaLise could see the light that shone from her mother. 'I have Tim who loves me no matter what. And Phyllis, too.'

  'Ah, yes. Your "best" friend,' Mrs. B said, and the pique in her voice almost made AnnaLise believe she, too, had reverted to a simpler time. One when you could have only a single 'best' friend.

  But Mrs. B just projected nasty, and grown-up nasty at that. 'You two were like...' She crossed her fingers tightly and showed their union to Daisy. 'Lorry, you didn't have time for somebody like me anymore.'

  'I didn't have time for anything, what with the baby and Tim and the store. Besides, you went away. Came back "married".' Inflection, if not finger quotes, around the word 'married'.

  'I was married,' Mrs. B protested. 'I had — and have — every right to say so.'

  'Married?' Daisy asked, screwing up her face. 'To who?'

  Whom, AnnaLise silently corrected. But then 'Lorraine' was young and could be excused.

  Ema said, 'I don't like to talk about it.'

  'You can't make things go away that easy. Try as you might to forget.'

  'There's nothing to remember.' Mrs. B's posture was ramrod straight. 'I was married and my husband died in a car accident.'

  'Just like that story you foisted on Sutherton,' Daisy said.

  'Except this was a long time ago, before I ever came here.'

  'So you used your true story so you'd remember?'

  'No, Lorry. I used my "true" story so I wouldn't forget the one I made up.'

  'But that's the same thing.' Daisy looked confused.

  'Not at all. I just didn't want to get tripped up with the "facts" of the lie, so I stayed as close to the truth as I could. Right down to this.' She pushed aside that hank of hair to show her scar.

  'So you were in that accident, too,' Daisy said. 'The only thing you had to sprinkle in was the "miracle" baby, because there wasn't one.'

  AnnaLise, recognizing a cue when she heard it, stood up. 'Actually, there was.'

  Neither Mrs. B nor Daisy seemed surprised to see her there.

  AnnaLise started across the bridge toward them. 'The only difference was, that little boy wasn't strapped into an infant seat like the fictional one was. Japan didn't require them.'

  AnnaLise was guessing, but Mrs. B made no effort to correct her.

  Instead, she said, 'He died.'

  'He did,' AnnaLise replied. 'But not then.' She drew the envelope from her pocket and waved it. 'You wrote this letter to your in-laws after you settled here in Sutherton.'

  Ema didn't move to take it. 'They never answered and I could certainly understand.' She looked at AnnaLise. 'I was the reminder of what they'd lost and... well, they just couldn't accept it.'

  'No, Mrs. B,' AnnaLise said. 'It's you who can't accept that all these years your inlaws had what you lost. Your son. And they didn't answer because they didn't want to give him back. The more contact, the higher the possibility you'd find out your baby survived the accident. They were afraid you'd take their grandchild to the United States and they'd never see him again.'

  Mrs. B was shaking her head, but AnnaLise wasn't sure the woman had even heard her. 'Bobby Bradenham is my baby. My only son.'

  A sound suspiciously like the notes from The Twilight Zone theme came from Daisy. When AnnaLise looked at her mother, the seated woman rotated an index finger next to her temple.

  AnnaLise cleared her throat. 'Ichiro must have found your letter in the house after his grandfather died. The DNA tests had already sparked his curiosity and the letter just confirmed what he already knew. His grandparents had been lying to him. Just like you've been lying to Bobby.'

  'Those damn tests,' Mrs. B snapped. 'That's what started all this.'

  'No,' AnnaLise said, gaining confidence. 'I'm pretty sure you did.'

  'Why, what do you mean?' Daisy asked, eyes round.

  AnnaLise leaned down and plucked something from between the planks of the decking. 'Ichiro came here Saturday night, when he knew Bobby would be at Sal's. Your other son wanted to talk to you in private.'

  No reaction, even to the word 'son'.

  AnnaLise plunged on. 'But you wanted nothing to do with him. An argument broke out and became violent. So violent, your pearl necklace broke, didn't it?' AnnaLise held up the object she'd snagged. 'Here, you missed one.'

  She tossed the pink pearl toward Ema Bradenham, but the woman didn't seem to see it. 'That man attacked me, tried to steal my necklace. I did the only thing I could do when he lurched at me like a hulk. I pulled the cane away and hit him.'

  'Ichiro wasn't stealing from you.' AnnaLise was remembering the photo of the young Japanese woman. June Cleaver, as Tucker had put it, right down to the necklace. 'The pearls had been his grandmother's. He even had an old photograph of her wearing them. If you'd only given him the chance, he could have shown you.'

  'That strand was a gift from my husband.' Her hands were at her throat, caressing pearls that weren't there. She'd loved them so much she'd destroyed them. Along with her eldest son.

  'They were only jew
elry.' AnnaLise wanted to cry. 'Ichiro was the gift. And you killed him in cold blood.'

  'I certainly did not.' Again, with the phantom pearls. 'I merely hit him and he fell.'

  'But then why didn't you call for help? Ichiro was still alive when he went into the water.'

  Mrs. B looked startled, and AnnaLise had a glimpse of the girl who had awakened, only to be told her husband and son were dead.

  Then the face changed. A wall went up, as sturdy as the deck under their feet. 'I'm afraid that was impossible."

  'Impossible?' AnnaLise echoed.

  'She has too many secrets.' Daisy, suddenly lucid, was leaning forward. 'I think Ema already had killed Rance Smoaks. She couldn't admit she'd attacked another man and then have him live to talk about it.' 'I let the water close over him,' said Ema, gazing out over the lake. 'It was like he'd never been here.'

  'And stashed the murder weapon in my garage,' Daisy said. 'Why?'

  Mrs. B pulled herself up to full height, seemingly about to deny it. Then, like a balloon pricked by a pin, the air whooshed out of her and she seemed to shrink. 'I knew the lake current would carry the body away, but I wasn't sure whether his cane would float or sink. I wiped the thing off and put it in my car's trunk, intending to dispose of it later elsewhere. When I saw the garage door open and you at Mama's, I decided it would be as good a place as any.'

  'Meaning, you framed my mother,' Annalise said.

  'Lorraine was already acting strangely. I thought the police would buy it.' Mrs. B shrugged. 'It was worth a try.'

  'Who's strange?' Daisy — or was it Lorraine? — demanded. 'I'm rubber, you're glue, Ema Sikes.'

  Mrs. B rolled her eyes. 'It was in the chief's office the next day I realized that young Lorry, crazy, might well be more dangerous to me than middle-aged Daisy, sane.'

  'Because she knew the truth about Bobby's father.'

  'And, more importantly, couldn't be depended on any longer. That's why I invited Lorry over for a private... party today.'

  One that could well have resulted in another private burial, AnnaLise realized, feeling sick.

  Mrs. B extended a hand. 'You have to understand, Little One. It was all unraveling. First Dickens tells me my allowance has to be reduced because he's having money problems.'

  'Hart's Landing is underwater,' AnnaLise said.

  Mrs. B dropped her hand. 'That left me with no choice but to renegotiate Rance Smoaks' stipend.'

  'His blackmail, you mean. Or maybe his cut would be more accurate.'

  Again, no acknowledgment. 'Rance didn't seem to understand that he needed to absorb some of the shared loss. He threatened to inform Dickens that Bobby wasn't his son.'

  'Told you so,' Daisy sing-songed.

  Now Ema Sikes 'Bradenham' finally lashed out. 'You shut your mouth, Lorraine Kuchenbacher. You've been sitting here preaching about how I should've told the truth.'

  Mrs. B nodded toward AnnaLise. 'Why don't you tell her the truth, Lorry?'

  'I said nothing.' Daisy stood up. 'Not to Phyllis, not to anyone.'

  'Until now.' This from Mrs. B.

  The two were toe-to-toe and nose-to-chest, given their respective heights, and far too near the low railing for AnnaLise's taste. Behind them on the lake a waverunner zipped past. 'Can you just shift―'

  'I couldn't let you hurt anyone else,' Daisy said. 'The lies―'

  'You're a fine one to talk about lies, Lorry. What about your own precious Tim?'

  Timothy Griggs? AnnaLise thought, her head spinning. 'What does my father have to do with this?'

  'Yes, Lorry. What does her father have to do with this?' Mrs. B parroted.

  'Tim knew the truth.' Daisy brought up both hands and shoved Mrs. B. 'It didn't matter to him.'

  'Yes, but do your beloved AnnaLise and her real father feel the―'

  Daisy hurled herself into the other woman, and the two of them toppled over the rail and into the lake below.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  'Damn good thing neither one hit her head or we'd have another body on our hands,' said Bobby Bradenham.

  'Or two, possibly,' AnnaLise amended. 'Daisy never really learned to swim and, given all the splashing and thrashing going on, I don't think either of our mothers wanted saving, if it meant not being able to kill the other.'

  Bobby and AnnaLise were sitting on a black vinyl couch, tufts of white stuffing peeking through the seams, in the hospital waiting room. AnnaLise couldn't help but wonder if it could be the same furniture she'd sat on with Mama way back when.

  AnnaLise remained slightly damp from the lake water. Bobby and she were waiting for their mothers to be processed — Daisy to go home, Ema into police custody. Chuck had been true-blue enough to volunteer for a decent-coffee run.

  AnnaLise would have preferred a shot. Of anything that assayed out at over 80-proof.

  'Lucky those waverunners came by,' Bobby said.

  'Lucky I didn't nail them with my car before they ever launched,' AnnaLise muttered.

  'What?' Bobby looked startled.

  AnnaLise did a quick mental survey. The fact that she'd nearly collided with the SUV pulling the trailer holding the Sutherton-despised waverunners that ultimately rescued their mothers should be the least of Bobby's worries right now.

  'Not a big deal.' She looked over at him. 'You OK?'

  'Frankly, no. You?'

  'Ditto.'

  Bobby sighed. 'Talk about "mother" issues. It's going to take a shit-load of therapy to get me through all of ours.'

  'Not to mention the father ones.' She looked at him. 'But, while we're on the subject, who do you figure mine is?'

  'From what you said they said? Dickens Hart. My once presumed, if now former, illegitimate father.'

  She gave his arm a squeeze. 'Does this make us presumed bastards-in-law?'

  'Once removed,' Bobby said, with a weary smile.

  'Randy Smoaks begat Bobby Bradenham, and Dickens Hart begat... me. Huh.' AnnaLise was probably in those journals. Or a gleam in the eye of one of them.

  'Hey, things could be worse,' Bobby said. 'My father, a drunken blackmailer; my mother, a murderer.'

  'There is that.' AnnaLise laid her head on his shoulder. 'I am so, so sorry.'

  'Me, too.' He rested his cheek atop her head. 'I liked Ichiro and it turns out he was my half-brother. Would have been interesting to get the chance of knowing him better.'

  'Given the events of the last few days, do any of us — at the risk of sounding trite — really know anyone?'

  'Sounding trite? Trite 'R Us.'

  'Trite Is Us.'

  Bobby cuffed her on the side of the head that wasn't against his shoulder.

  'That's assault.' Chuck had returned with two paper cups. 'Coffee machine was broken, so I brought you bourbon.'

  AnnaLise took one. 'Ahh, the cure turns out to be better than the disease.'

  'Sutherton has bourbon vending machines?' Bobby asked, taking the other. 'Is this a great town or what?'

  AnnaLise just looked at him. 'Bobby, you're the mayor of this town.'

  'I sent an officer to get it from my office,' Chuck said mildly.

  'Bourbon vending machines in the police station. Even better.' AnnaLise raised her cup. 'To the High Country.'

  'To the High Country,' Bobby saluted, and they bumped cardboard cups.

  AnnaLise took a sip and shuddered.

  'Cold?' Chuck asked. 'Here's the blanket the EMTs left.'

  'Thanks, but I prefer heating myself from within right now.' AnnaLise had another hit and set her cup down on a two-year-old copy of Good Housekeeping. 'So, have you talked to... them?'

  She really wanted to know about Daisy, but it seemed rude not to include Bobby's psycho mother.

  'More like listened,' the chief said, pulling over a matching black vinyl chair to sit across from them.

  'The Ema Bradenham dam has been eroded?' Bobby asked.

  'More like busted and hurtling downstream,' Chuck said. 'Your mother is spewing like a vo
lcano.'

  AnnaLise said, 'Chuck, no mixing of metaphors, OK?' She tilted her head toward Bobby.

  'Sorry,' Chuck said, 'I didn't mean to seem insensitive.'

  Bobby shook his head. 'I think we're way past that line. Annie told me that Ma killed my half-brother — also, by the way, her own son — by hitting him with his cane, then pushing him off our deck and into the lake.'

  Chuck's eyebrows went up. 'And I'm insensitive?'

  AnnaLise shrugged. 'I was traumatized. Thoughts just came tumbling out.'

  'Speaking of trauma,' Chuck said, 'you didn't report being attacked in Daisy's garage.'

  'Don't tell me,' Bobby said. 'My mother again, right?'

  'Well, I don't―' AnnaLise started.

  'So Mrs. B herself says,' Chuck confirmed. 'She mistook you for your mother.'

  AnnaLise came forward, elbows on knees. 'She was trying to kill Daisy? I mean, even before Ema pushed my mother into the lake?'

  'Uh,' Bobby raised his hand. 'I think, in the interests of accuracy, that you told me your mother pushed mine into the lake.'

  'Point taken,' AnnaLise said. 'But the question still stands, why did Mrs. B want to hurt my Daisy?'

  'She didn't, particularly, though it might have started her thinking about it. Fact is, planting the cane to divert attention had worked so well, Ema Bradenham decided maybe she should stash the rifle there, too. You surprised the woman is all, Lise. Nearly caught her in the act.'

  'The rifle?' Bobby repeated. 'The one that was used to shoot Smoaks and Hart?'

  Stated that way, it sounded like a North Carolina law firm. AnnaLise, despite herself and the situation, emitted an involuntary giggle.

  Side-cutting a look at her, Chuck moved both cups of bourbon to his end of the table. 'The very same. It's yours, in fact.'

  'Wait just a minute.' Bobby shook his head like a horse on a cold morning. 'Ma used my deer rifle?'

  Of all the things he'd heard, this upset Bobby the most?

  'I'm sure Ema planned to put your gun back,' AnnaLise said, patting him on the shoulder. 'I mean, until the time she decided to plant it in our garage.'

  She turned to Chuck. 'Where is it now, by the way?'