“That’ll speed things up, right?”
There was an uncomfortable pause. “Not necessarily. Case manager is just a nice word for an investigator. From the fraud unit.”
“Fraud unit?” She choked on the words. Her hands felt icy.
“Now don’t go gettin’ yourself all upset,” Charlie said. “I’ve spoken to several people at the company, and they assure me it’s just a technicality. See, when you have a case without a body, that slows things up.”
“It was a boat accident,” Mary Bliss said. “I barely survived it myself. And I’ve got the headaches to prove it.” She glanced at her watch. She was working a double shift today, and she wanted to talk to Erin before leaving for work, but her daughter seemed to come and go at all kinds of odd hours these days.
“I know,” Charlie said soothingly. “But that, and the fact that the death occurred in Mexico, well, it’s a red flag. Nothing against you personally, but that’s how they handle these things.”
“But they’re not handling it,” Mary Bliss said. “You know the state Parker left us in. I’m barely holding my head above water. Can’t you do something?”
“There is something,” Charlie admitted. “I’m not crazy about the idea, but maybe you’ll think it’s all right.”
“What? I’ll do anything. Tell me,” she ordered him.
“A fella came to see me not long after the funeral,” Charlie said. “Real nice guy. He’s retired from law enforcement, got some kinda cushy consulting job. He was a friend of Parker’s, and he says he’s met you a couple times. He’s offered to help expedite things.”
“Who is it?” Mary Bliss asked. “What does he want?” She felt a sense of dread deepening in the pit of her stomach.
“I’ve got his card right here,” Charlie said. “Hold on a minute.”
She waited for what seemed like hours.
“Here we go,” Charlie said. “Matthew Hayslip. That name ring a bell?”
“I’ve met him,” Mary Bliss said. “He played doubles with Parker. He was at the funeral. But I barely know him. What’s he doing calling you?”
“We met for the first time in the bar of the country club,” Charlie said. “I was having a beer waiting for the rest of my foursome. He came over and introduced himself. He said he knew y’all, and asked how you were doing. Seemed real concerned about your welfare. I didn’t see any harm in telling him about our problems with the insurance company.”
“You talked to him about my finances?” Mary Bliss was incredulous. “Charlie, how could you? That’s private. It’s confidential. I can’t believe you would discuss my business with a total stranger in some bar.”
“Aw, Mary Bliss, hold on,” Charlie said. “He’s not a total stranger. I remembered seeing him at the funeral. Your mother-inlaw was bending his ear something awful. And I checked him out. He’s an okay guy. Used to be the number two or three guy with the GBI. He’s a member at the club. Lives over there in the Oaks.”
“I don’t care where he lives,” Mary Bliss said. “My business is none of his business.”
“That’s what I’m getting at,” Charlie said. “The insurance company can take their own sweet time investigating this claim. In the meantime, you’re about broke, right?”
“I don’t need help from this man,” Mary Bliss insisted. “Can’t you call the state insurance commissioner, or my congressman or something? If that insurance policy is good, like you say it is, they should just go ahead and pay me. Is this how they treat all the widows they do business with?” She was really worked up now.
“Just hear me out,” Charlie begged. “Matt thinks it might be helpful if we got affidavits from the police down in Mexico. The ones who investigated the accident.”
“Why do we need affidavits? You’ve got the police reports, and the death certificate. You’ve got my hospital records. And I’ve got the rental receipt for the boat, and the hotel bill…”
“It’s not for me,” Charlie said hastily. “For the insurance company. These guys want every I dotted and every T crossed. Like I keep telling you, it’s nothing personal. It’s just the way they do things.”
Mary Bliss looked up at the kitchen ceiling. It needed painting. Everything in the house suddenly seemed to need painting or fixing or pruning or mowing. It was all falling in on her.
“Charlie, listen to me. I can’t afford to pay for Matt Hayslip to take a joyride down to Mexico. And I shouldn’t have to. Tell him thanks, but no thanks. And then, could you please just keep on the insurance company’s back? You know a lot of people, can’t you call somebody and make them make the insurance company quit stalling and pay my claim?”
“I’ll do what I can,” Charlie said. “In the meantime, don’t get upset if you get a call from that fraud investigator, er, case worker. If he calls you, contact me right away. I want to be there when and if he interviews you.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m your lawyer,” Charlie said. “You need somebody on your side, Mary Bliss. And I’m the guy.”
“You’re the guy,” Mary Bliss said softly. “And I appreciate it, Charlie. I really do. I hope you’re keeping a record of all the hours you’re spending on this. Someday, when this is all over, and I get myself straightened out, I want to pay for every minute of your time.”
She was lacing up her sneakers and getting ready to leave for work when she heard the rumble of a lawn mower outside. Mary Bliss went to the kitchen door and looked out.
A shirtless Randy Bowden was pushing his lawn mower through her knee-high fescue. Sweat gleamed on his pale chest, and a goofy straw hat shaded his face. It was his own lawn mower too. Hers had quit functioning weeks ago.
She stood in the doorway and watched him, and smiled.
When he reached the edge of the yard nearest her, she walked up and shouted for his attention.
He turned, smiled, and cut the mower’s engine.
“Hey, neighbor,” he said.
“Randy, you don’t have to do this,” Mary Bliss said, blushing. “I actually like cutting the grass.”
“But your mower needs a new spark plug. I checked,” he said. “And you’ve been working a lot of hours lately. I’ve got a vacation day today, so I thought I’d get a little workout.” He slapped his washboard-flat belly. “Need the exercise.”
“You need your head examined, working in this heat,” she said. “Anyway, with this durned drought, it’s mostly weeds. I was thinking of turning it into a meadow for the birds.”
“Not in Fair Oaks,” Randy said. “We got an ordinance against that type of thing, young lady.”
“All right,” she said, giving in. “I do thank you. I’m working late tonight, but maybe you’d let me pay you back by coming over for supper tomorrow night? You could bring the kids too.”
“It’s a deal,” he said. “But I’m bringing the dessert. And the wine.”
“Fine,” she said. “I hope you guys like ham. ’Cause I’ve still got a freezerfull, left over from the funeral.”
“Ham, I am,” Randy said. He started the mower up and waved her away.
39
Mary Bliss lowered herself into the cool turquoise waters of the pool and squealed with delight.
“God, it’s cold!”
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Katharine asked. Her yellow raft bobbed in the waters of the nearly empty pool.
“It feels illegal,” Mary Bliss said, adjusting her sunglasses and glancing guiltily around the deck area of the Fair Oaks Country Club. “I’m not supposed to be here.” She lowered her voice. “Our dues are in arrears.”
“Don’t sweat it, sweetie,” Katharine said. “Charlie took care of it.”
“Oh, no,” Mary Bliss said, shaking her head.
“Well, the club does have a widow policy,” Katharine explained. “If the head of the household dies, your dues are automatically supposed to be paid. But some bitch on the board of directors was holding up approval of your widow status, and it pissed Charlie off, s
o he just paid ’em for you.”
Mary Bliss ducked her head under the water and let it drip down her face.
“Who?” she asked. “Who hates me that much?”
Katharine took a sip of her piña colada. “I’m not supposed to say. Hell, I’m not supposed to know, if it gets right down to it.”
“Tell me anyway,” Mary Bliss said. “It’s somebody I know, right?”
“You know everybody in town,” Katharine said.
“I’ll bet it’s Carol Kuhn,” Mary Bliss said. “She’s had it in for me ever since I beat her out for yard of the month two years ago. It’s her, isn’t it?”
“Can’t say,” Katharine said, taking another sip of her drink. “It’s confidential.”
“I know it’s her,” Mary Bliss said. “Right after they put the sign up in my yard, somebody snuck over in the middle of the night and cut the top off every single tulip I had in bloom. It has to be her. She gives me the evil eye all the time.”
“It’s just petty stuff,” Katharine said. “I’d advise you to rise above it.”
“Hey,” Mary Bliss said, perching her arms on the end of Katharine’s float. “How come Charlie’s telling you all this stuff? You guys talking again?”
“You could say that,” Katharine said, smirking.
“Friendly talk?”
“I can’t say,” Katharine said, flipping her eyeglasses up to avoid a tan line around them. “Lawyers are involved, you know.”
“You slut!” Mary Bliss splashed water on her. “You’re seeing him, aren’t you? You’re dating your ex-husband. You brazen hussy, you.”
Katharine’s eyelids flickered for a moment. “I wouldn’t call it dating.”
“What would you call it?” Mary Bliss asked. She helped herself to a sip from Katharine’s foam-insulated cup.
“Dinner,” Katharine said. “Just a harmless little dinner. Nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“What about after dinner? Did he stay for breakfast too?”
Katharine reached out with one hand and shoved Mary Bliss’s arms off her raft.
Her friend sank to the bottom, then swam back up. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said.
Katharine paddled lazily away. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
“Does Charlie talk in his sleep?” Mary Bliss asked. “Did he say anything about my insurance claim? I’m starting to get nervous. They’ve assigned a fraud investigator to the case.”
“At dinner,” Katharine said, “he mentioned the fraud investigator. He seems to think it’s all perfectly routine. Speaking of dinner,” she added, “the Fourth of July is coming up. I think you should make your first official appearance at the club dance.”
“No,” Mary Bliss said. “Not a chance. I’m not coming to a dance here with Carol Kuhn staring daggers at me. Besides, it’s too soon after the funeral.”
“You can come with me,” Katharine said. “I’ll tell everybody it’s therapy for both of us—the divorcée and the widow. We needed to get out, be around happy people to forget our own troubles.”
“Why would you want to come with me?” Mary Bliss asked. “This is a setup, isn’t it? You’ve got some evil little plot cooking, don’t you?”
Katharine lifted her head off the raft. “I resent that remark deeply,” she said. “It’s not an evil plot at all. I just thought it would do you good to get out.”
“And?”
One corner of Katharine’s upper lip twitched slightly. “And, I happen to know that Charlie’s girlfriend is going out of town. I think she has tickets to the Muppets on Ice, or something. He mentioned that it might be fun if we ran into each other at the dance.”
“Not on your life!” Mary Bliss said. “I’m not going as your beard, Katharine. Anyway, who cares if you see him? He’s not married to her. So he’s a free man, right?”
Katharine slid off the raft and into the water. She tilted her head back in the water to wet her short blonde hair.
“You don’t get it, do you?” she asked. “It’s more fun this way. More dangerous. Come on, say you’ll go to the dance with me. Please? For your best friend?”
“I haven’t been to a dance in ages,” Mary Bliss said. “I don’t want to go and just sit there and have everybody feeling sorry for me.”
“They won’t be feeling sorry for you,” Katharine said. “We’ll have fun. We’ll dress slutty and dance with other girls’ husbands, and drink too much and dance too much and have a blast. Okay?”
“Absolutely not,” Mary Bliss said.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Katharine said. “Come on, let’s go shopping. Everything’s half off at Phipps. And we’ll do dinner. My treat.”
“Can’t,” Mary Bliss said. She swam over to the side of the pool and pulled herself out.
She was arranging herself on a chaise longue when Katharine dropped down on the chair next to hers.
“Why can’t you? Money? I told you, it’s my treat. Charlie gave me back my credit cards.”
“So you are sleeping with him.”
“I did not say that,” Katharine said. “Why can’t you come out and play tonight? It’s been ages, M. B. You’ve been all sad and depressed. No fun at all.”
Mary Bliss adjusted her bathing suit straps, which had fallen down. “It’s hard to be fun when your life is caving in,” she said. “Anyway, I’ve sort of got plans.”
Katharine leaned over and lifted up Mary Bliss’s sunglasses, sticking her face within an inch of Mary Bliss’s.
“What kind of plans?”
Mary Bliss flipped her glasses back down again. “No big whoop. Randy came over yesterday and mowed the grass for me. So I invited him and the kids over for dinner tonight. Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s just leftover ham and whatever else I can heat up that’s been in the freezer since the funeral.”
“He’s stuck on you,” Katharine said. “Don’t encourage him.”
“I’m not encouraging him,” Mary Bliss said. “He mowed the grass in hundred-degree heat. The least I can do is feed the poor man. He’s so thin, he reminds me of one of those refugees from Somalia or something.”
“He’s starving himself so you’ll feel sorry for him and marry him and take care of all those snotty-nosed boys of his,” Katharine said. “Feed him and send him packing, if you want my advice.”
“I don’t,” Mary Bliss said.
She was setting the table when Erin came in the back door. “What’s all this?” Erin asked, pointing at the place mats and the cloth napkins. “You throwing some kind of party or something?”
Mary Bliss bit her lip. “The Bowdens are having supper with us tonight. Nothing special, just ham and potato casserole and a tossed salad.”
“Don’t set a place for me,” Erin said. “I’m not hungry.”
“But Josh is coming too,” Mary Bliss said. “I thought you’d be pleased.”
“I had a late lunch,” Erin said.
“We haven’t eaten a meal together in weeks,” Mary Bliss said, her voice pleading. “Please? Just one nice family meal?”
“They’re not my family,” Erin said, her voice cool.
“I’m your family,” Mary Bliss said, putting her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “And you’re all I’ve got. Please?”
Erin shrugged. “I guess I could eat a salad.”
“Thank you,” her mother said, beaming. “And I made that strawberry whip parfait you like, for dessert. I thought it would be nice to have something cool and light.”
“Josh is allergic to strawberries,” Erin said. “But Jeremy and Jason will scarf ’em up. Those two eat anything that’s not nailed down.”
Mary Bliss glanced at the clock. “They’ll be here in about half an hour. You’d better get a shower.”
Erin gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Let me make the salad. I’ll be right down as soon as I get cleaned up.”
When she was gone, Mary Bliss fixed a pitcher of iced tea and found herself humming. She put candlestic
ks on the table, placing them on either side of a glass jelly jar full of zinnias she’d just picked from her yard. She had nicer flowers, and a nicer silver vase, but she didn’t want to give Randy Bowden the idea that this was anything more than potluck.
Erin had switched on the radio before she’d left the kitchen, and now Mary Bliss found herself humming along to a song they were playing on 99X, Erin’s favorite station. “It’ll take some time,” the song went. “But everything will be all right. All right.”
40
Dinner went well. Erin ate two helpings of salad, and she snuck a smidge of the ham casserole when she thought nobody was looking. Mary Bliss felt pleased and relieved. She served up little ice cream dishes of the strawberry parfait and poured wine for herself and Randy, and milk for the kids.
Jeremy, the eight-year-old, was spooning up the strawberries as fast as he could, while Jason, his younger brother, seemed intent on studying his surroundings. “Miz McGowan, this is a nice house,” he said, pausing to dab milk from his upper lip.
Mary Bliss winked at Erin. “Why, thank you, Jason. I’m glad you like it.”
He looked around the kitchen, cozy in the candlelight. “Y’all got a lot of pots!”
“Yes,” Mary Bliss agreed. “I guess I dirty up a lot of pots and pans when I cook. Erin’s always complaining, because she has to do the dishes.”
“Well, that’s good,” Jason said, smiling in satisfaction. “I guess my mama was wrong.”
Randy coughed and Josh coughed, and Jeremy put down his spoon to listen.
“What was your mama wrong about, Jason?” Mary Bliss asked gently.
“Well,” Jason said, sitting up straight, proud to be the center of attention. “My mama said Erin’s daddy died, and now y’all don’t have a pot to piss in. But y’all got bunches and bunches of pots!”
There was a sudden thump from under the table, and Jason howled, bending down to examine his wounded foot.
“Excuse me,” Josh said, hopping up from the table. “Guess I better take Jason home, to see if he needs a Band-Aid or something.” He yanked his little brother out of the chair and out the kitchen door before Mary Bliss could blink an eye.
Little Bitty Lies Page 20
