The Cast Net

by Mille West

  In late May, the thirteenth annual Spoleto Festival began in Charleston, and Mills’s mother Rebecca and her friend Blake arrived in town for the festivities. Mills met them at Cooper’s townhome and she found Blake to be pleasant and attentive to her mother. They planned to stay in Charleston for a few days before continuing to St. Augustine where Blake had family.

  The evening of the Mozart performance, Cooper met Mills, her mother, and Blake at the Barbadoes Room for cocktails at five-thirty. Mills introduced everyone as they sat down in the courtyard. Rebecca was trim, with the same dark, wavy hair as her daughter. She was a beautiful, middle-aged woman. Blake was of medium height with sandy blonde hair that had a touch of gray. Mills thought he had a nice smile that caused laugh lines all the way to his eyes.

  “I am pleased to meet you, and thank you for being so kind to my daughter,” she told Cooper.

  “I’m sure you already know that Mills is an exceptional young lady, and I’m proud to have her as the director of the Heath Foundation. She works very hard.”

  The jazz pianist in the Barbadoes Room began to play, which prompted Rebecca to say, “Cooper—Mills and Vivien have told me what a wonderful pianist you are. I hope to hear you play while I’m here.”

  “If you’re not too tired after the Mozart performance, we can stop by my uncle’s home and I’ll play for you. He’s out of town, so we won’t be disturbing him.”

  Cooper took them to the East Bay Club for dinner. During their meal, Blake explained, “Mozart’s Requiem was his last composition and he died before he was able to finish it. The artist’s wife, Constanze, had the work completed by another composer, or composers, so that she could be paid for the music and ensure that Mozart received credit for the composition. While he was composing the arrangement, he told his wife that he was writing the Requiem for himself.”

  As they departed the club, Mills pulled Cooper aside. “I didn’t know you belonged to the East Bay Club.”

  “Yes, but these days, I only come here for business meetings.”

  After the concert, they walked to Ian’s home on Church Street. Rain had fallen while they attended the Mozart performance and a light mist hung in the air. Cooper opened the front door to his uncle’s home and offered refreshments to his guests before inviting them into the living room where Ian’s baby grand piano was situated.

  The first composition he performed was Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” or “For Elise.” He explained that his wife was fond of the song.

  Mills listened to his interpretation of this hauntingly beautiful composition. He’s like a poet reading fine prose.

  Cooper next played two Mozart sonatas that she had never heard and he performed them flawlessly from memory.

  “I have one last song that I would like to play, and I wrote it for a dear friend on the occasion of her twenty-sixth birthday. This is ‘Mills’s Song.’”

  Cooper played the composition with such conviction that he appeared exhausted at the completion of the arrangement. He seemed oblivious to the applause that went through the room after his performance.

  “That was brilliant,” Blake told him. “Really, Cooper, I’ve never heard better.”

  After his recital, the group sat in the living room and talked. “Cooper, we had a wonderful evening,” Rebecca said.

  “I’m glad that you did,” he responded.

  “When Mills first expressed her interest in working for you, I was worried about the circumstances surrounding your wife’s disappearance. Mills holds you in high regard and I think my original concerns were unfounded. I pray for your wife every day.”

  Cooper, still on the piano bench, said simply, “Thank you, Mrs. Taylor.”

  Before midnight, Cooper walked them to his townhouse and the group thanked him again for the wonderful evening. After her mother and Blake went inside, Mills said, “I didn’t realize you knew those Mozart compositions.”

  “I started practicing them after you told me your mother was a Mozart fan, just in case I had the opportunity to play for her. I wanted to perform selections that would please her.”

  “You did. Thank you, Cooper.”

  Before bed, Mills and her mother sat together in the courtyard behind Cooper’s townhome. Rebecca looked around the dimly lit courtyard before she said, “Cooper has a lovely garden here.”

  “Wait until you see his Edisto garden.”

  Her mother was quiet for a moment before she said, “Mills, I’m afraid that Cooper has a tortured heart. The first song he played, ‘For Elise,’ was a tribute to his wife, but the song he wrote for you was played with conviction; he poured his soul into your song. Mills, you’ve always exercised good judgment. Please continue to do so.”

  Her mother didn’t say anything else, but kissed Mills on her forehead and said good night. Mills realized that her mother’s last statement was a gentle warning in regard to affairs of the heart.

  Before Rebecca and Blake departed for St. Augustine, Mills gave the two a tour of Cooper’s Edisto property and introduced them to Charles and Marian. Rebecca told her that this was as close to paradise as she could imagine. When they stood at the construction site of the new boathouse, Rebecca took Mills’s hand and said, “Thank God, Cooper was at home that night to protect you.”

  Graduation day for the students involved in the Heath Scholarship program arrived and Mills had the printer create parchment certificates that the students could frame in regard to their scholarships.

  Cooper was to be a commencement speaker at both high schools where students were being awarded the scholarship, and when they arrived at Prospect High School, Dr. Warren was extremely flustered. She greeted Cooper and Mills with, “I’m trying to head off a disaster. Mr. Heath, I know you are an accomplished pianist and the lady who was going to play tonight has been involved in an accident. Would you consider playing for us?”

  “I’ll be glad to help you. Where’s the sheet music?”

  “It’s on the piano.”

  Cooper played “Pomp and Circumstance,” when the seniors marched into the auditorium and Mills performed her usual duty as page turner. When he reached a stopping point, he smiled and whispered in her ear, “Thank you, let’s get to the stage.”

  Cooper gave an inspirational speech to the students, challenging them to excel at their chosen endeavors and then complimented the students who had received the Heath Scholarship. As the students were awarded their diplomas, Mills handed out certificates to the scholarship winners. Before the exercises were over, Cooper tugged at Mills’s elbow and motioned for her to return to the piano.

  As the students filed out, Cooper enthusiastically played the exit music of “Pomp and Circumstance,” and when the commencement exercises were complete, Cooper and Mills joined the school administrators in conversation. As they said good night and started to leave, the voice of a woman called to Cooper from a darkened row in the auditorium.

  “Mr. Heath, I know you won’t recognize me, but I wanted to speak to you.”

  Cooper walked over to the woman, who appeared to be in her late thirties. As he approached, she rose from her seat and joined him in the aisle. “I enjoyed your performance of ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ this evening.”


  “Thank you, Miss—?”

  “It’s Mrs. Brown. Years ago, your mother and Dr. Devereux helped me during a desperate time of my life . . . I’m sorry, but I saw in the paper when your mother passed away. I went to her grave and placed flowers on it.”

  Cooper introduced Mills to her and admitted that he could not recall making her acquaintance.

  “You were just about twelve or thirteen, and you were usually with your brother at Dr. Devereux’s clinic. I wasn’t quite eighteen, but I was in trouble and your mother turned my life around.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she said, “My oldest son graduated tonight. I’m so proud of him.”

  “Did your son apply for the Heath Scholarship?”

  “No, sir. My husband and I earn too much for my son to qualify, not that I’m complaining. My husband owns an engineering firm, and I’m a registered nurse. I chose a profession where I could help people, a repayment of sorts, I suppose.”

  “Mrs. Brown, thank you for speaking to me tonight.”

  “Please tell Dr. Devereux that Elaine Miller Brown said hello. I know she still operates her clinic.”

  “I will, and congratulations to your son.”

  As Cooper drove Mills home that evening, Mills asked, “How did your mother and Williston help Elaine Brown?”

  “Julia believed that women should have safe medical services available to them when they were in trouble. Williston felt the same way.”

  Mills realized what he meant, and she was stunned after hearing Cooper’s admission. Abortions?

  “I trust your discretion; otherwise, it would have forever been left a secret.”

  “Cooper, Elaine Brown became a registered nurse. That was Eula’s goal.”

  The next evening, the graduation ceremony at Washington High went smoothly and, after the awards, Cooper invited Mills to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina, at the end of the week to pick up Marian’s great-granddaughters for a visit.

  CHAPTER 21

  Yellow Jackets

  O ne morning, while Mills worked on orders for the farm, Cooper came into the study and said, “I’d like to show you something.” “What is it?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Before we go, will you help me find a mistake in the farm checkbook?” Cooper sat down behind the desk and reviewed the financial inputs. “Here it is. I’ll correct it for you.” He changed the numbers inside the book. “Are you ready to go?”

  “You did those calculations in your head.”

  “I was just fortunate to catch it.”

  He led her out of the house and they walked in the direction of the old barn. This was the site of Lee Roy’s incendiary spray painting, months before. Cooper opened the barn’s double doors and they stepped inside. Old farm equipment was stored at the rear of the building and bales of hay were stacked to the sides.

  Cooper pointed to an open space between the bales of hay. In the straw, almost hidden from view, were a mother cat and two kittens. The mother’s coat was a mix of gray and white, while the kittens were almost entirely white. “I thought you might want a kitten. They’re too little to leave their mother now, but I’ll feed her and see if she sticks around. She can always assist in keeping the mouse population down,” he said, as he lightly petted the mother cat.

  “They’re adorable. Yes, I’d like to have a kitten.”

  Friday morning, Cooper and Mills flew his Baron from the John’s Island Airport to Charlotte to pick up Marian’s great-granddaughters. Mills flew the airplane from the right seat of the cockpit until they neared Charlotte. Then Cooper took over the controls and Mills watched as he followed an airliner on the approach to Runway 36 Right. She noticed that he landed the airplane farther down the runway than where the airliner touched down.

  He taxied the plane to a building where numerous airplanes were tied down, and after he shut the engines down, they went inside. Cooper spotted Charles’s granddaughters and their mother; the girls ran to him and jumped into his arms.

  “Thank you for coming to get us. We’ve been excited about flying again.” Cooper introduced Mills to Charles’s daughter, Ramona, and his granddaughters, Elizabeth and Jane. “Please call us Lizzie and Janie,” they said, as they shook Mills’s hand.

  Cooper spoke with Ramona for several minutes before he loaded their suitcases in the Baron and they taxied for takeoff.

  About one hour later, they landed at the John’s Island Airport and drove to Cooper’s farm. Marian and Charles came outside and hugged the girls. “I think you two have grown four inches since I last saw you,” Charles said.

  “Not that much, Granddaddy.”

  Marian had prepared a lunch of fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden. She told them as they sat down at the kitchen table, “I tasted the most delicious tomato. I think we’re going to have a wonderful harvest.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Cooper responded.

  After lunch, Cooper told Mills she could have the afternoon off to swim with the girls in the pool. Mills went to her cottage and changed into her bathing suit and met the girls at the pool. Lizzie and Janie were accomplished swimmers and also talented on the diving board.

  “Where did you learn to swim like that?”

  “We swim on the Charlotte YMCA team, and we dive as well.”

  “You’re both very talented.”

  “Thank you, Miss Taylor.”

  The girls swam races against one another and then practiced their dives. In between dives, Mills clapped for them as they emerged from the water.

  “What’s your favorite subject in school?”

  “I think my favorite class is science,” Lizzie responded.

  “Mine is algebra,” Janie added.

  “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

  “We want to be like Dr. Will and her daughters and become doctors.”

  “Wow! Those are wonderful goals!”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “That’s outstanding. After we finish swimming, would you like to walk to the barn? A mother cat and her kittens are living there.” Excitedly, the girls responded, “Oh, yes. We’d love to.”

  Mills changed into a pair of navy shorts and a blouse while the girls went to Cooper’s house to put on dry clothes. They met in the front courtyard and started their walk to the barn. The afternoon heat and humidity were oppressive, and Mills was damp with beads of sweat that rolled down her chest and back.

  They passed Cooper and Charles near the stable mending a fence, and both men waved as they passed by.

  “How was your swim?”

  “We had a wonderful time. Thank you for letting us swim,” Lizzie replied.

  “I’m going to show the girls the kittens. See you shortly,” Mills said. When they reached the barn, Mills opened the double doors and found the air inside the building to be cooler than the outside. She was glad to get out of the sun.

  They walked to the rear of the barn where the mother cat and kittens lived. Food and water were set out for the mother.

  “They’re adorable,” Lizzie quiet
ly said. The mother cat left her kittens and jumped up on a bale of hay. The girls started to pet her and Janie exclaimed, “She holds herself with pride; she looks like a queen. Does she have a name, Miss Taylor?”

  “Girls, please call me Mills, and we haven’t named them yet.”

  “I think she should be named Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt,” Janie exclaimed. “We’ll call her Cleo for short.”

  “What shall we name her kittens?”

  “Oh, we better figure out if they’re girls or boys,” Janie said.

  Mills lifted the kittens one at a time and Cleo watched her carefully while she held them.

  “I believe they’re both females,” Mills observed.

  “I think the cat that is almost white should be called Carmen, short for Lady Carmen Ashley, and the other kitten should be named Maya, after my favorite poet, Maya Angelou,” Lizzie declared.

  “Do you think Cooper would let us take the kittens home with us when we leave later this summer?” Janie asked.

  “I don’t see why not, but you’ll have to ask your parents.”

  “We will. We’re going to call them tonight.”

  “Mills, could we go back to Cooper’s and get a drink of water? It’s awfully hot.”

  “Sure, girls. Let’s go.”

  They said goodbye to Cleo and her kittens, and Mills noticed a side door that was several steps closer than the double doors. The girls followed her, and she turned the doorknob, but found the door was stuck at the base. She gave the door a firm push and it opened. Mills held the barn door open as the girls exited in front of her.

  Suddenly, she felt a sharp, intense pain on her right calf followed by another on her left thigh, and another. She looked down at her legs, and bees—or yellow jackets—were swarming out from the base of the barn door around her, dozens on her legs already. Mills yelled, “Run, girls!” as she was stung again and again.