Do You Want to Know a Secret? (14 page)

“Knock, knock.”

Mack played along. “Who’s there?”

“Annie.”

“Annie who?”

“Annie body ready to eat?” Janie giggled, quite pleased with herself.

“Janie!” the adults laughed approvingly.

Plates of eggs benedict for Eliza and Mack and a hamburger with french fries for Janie were presented on the silk-screened tablecloth. For a time, they ate in a comfortable silence that Mack finally broke.

“You know what I remember most about that first night here? I remember feeling so privileged. Here I was, a kid straight out of a state school, and I was working for
KEY News
and coming to a place like this. I was awed by it all. I must admit, I still am sometimes.” Mack paused, studying the flowers on the tablecloth. “KEY without Bill Kendall. It’s hard to imagine.” In a whisper Janie wouldn’t hear, he said, “And he did it to
himself
.” Mack continued, “But as the saying goes, no one is indispensable and KEY will go on without him. KEY has already gone on.” Mack took a large drink of his Bloody Mary.

Eliza filled Janie’s request for more ketchup, spooning it all over her fries. If there was such an animal as a sentimental realist, Eliza thought the description fit Mack McBride. He had worked his way up through the ranks exclusively at KEY, an unlikely scenario for an on-air type at the network. Nowadays, most correspondents had honed their television skills at smaller markets before making the jump to network news. Others had come from the radio side, writing and reporting the news hourlies on the KEY Radio Network until, rarely, an offer to try out on television came their way. Mack, instead, had worked himself up the editorial ladder always in television. After his stint as a TV desk assistant, then broadcast associate, assistant producer, assignment editor, associate producer. After he had been writing the scripts while acting as a producer on pieces that the correspondents voiced and signed off with their own names, Mack had decided that he wanted to be the one doing the reporting. Through some wrangling, a lot of hard work and some patience, he had reached his goal. Mack McBride had been a KEY correspondent for eight years and he had made a solid name for himself.

Eliza watched Mack as he read the dessert menu to Janie. As the two debated the merits of chocolate fudge cake and ice cream sundaes, Eliza considered that Mack was the first man she had felt really good about since John’s death. Yes, she’d gone out on dates, but she’d always been forcing herself, urged on by well-meaning friends. But with so much time taken up by work, Eliza was content to spend her off hours with Janie. Besides, she didn’t want to fall in love with anyone else again.

“You know what I just don’t get?” Eliza swallowed the last of her coffee and was conscious of Janie sitting beside her. “How could Bill have done that, knowing that William would find him?”

“That’s just it,” Mack said. “He
didn’t
know. According to Louise Kendall, William’s visit was totally unexpected. Apparently, he had been making such good progress in the self-sufficiency department that without consulting his mother or his counselor, he had decided to make his first journey alone from New Jersey to New York. He planned to surprise his father. Instead, well, William got the surprise.”

Eliza thought about William bravely concentrating on making the trip, taking the right bus into the Port Authority, going out to the street to hail a cab and give proper destination instructions to the driver. Not terribly difficult for most people. For young William Kendall, a major undertaking. And when he proudly arrived and let himself into his father’s townhouse to have found his dad that way . . . how cruel!

Eliza reached over and wiped the red rim around her daughter’s mouth with her napkin. She noticed that two of the three rabbits appliquéd on the front of Janie’s yellow pinafore were now wearing ketchup coats. Janie was noticing the mess, too. “Mommy . . .” She pointed to the offending bunnies, her eyes brimming. Eliza could see the beginning of an upset. Janie was already showing signs of being a perfectionist.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll wash that out as soon as we get home.”

It was so easy to satisfy the child. Or maybe Janie was just very willing to be satisfied. Whichever it was, Eliza was suddenly profoundly thankful that she was sitting beside a healthy little girl whose biggest problem at the moment was a dirty dress.

After brunch, they stepped into the early afternoon sunshine.

“Walk or ride?” Mack gestured toward a hansom cab.

“As much as I love those horse and buggy rides, I think I’d rather walk. We need some exercise and fresh air. And today, I think you could almost call it fresh.”

The three made a handsome picture as they walked through the park with hundreds of other New Yorkers enjoying the May Sunday. Some strolled, some jogged, some rode bikes, some rollerbladed, purposeful even in their pursuit of leisure time. Eliza and Mack admired the detailed stonework of Playmate’s Arch, appreciated the Victorian lampposts embraced by budding pink and white magnolias, smiled at lovers walking hand in hand. Janie was intrigued by the spinning pinwheel Mack bought her from a vendor. Some heads turned and a few people whispered to one another and smiled as they recognized Eliza.

She hated what she was thinking. She turned to Mack.

“Do you think they’ve all seen it?”

“Who’s ‘they’ and what’s ‘it’?”

“These people,” Eliza made a sweeping gesture. “Do you think they’ve seen
The Mole?”

“I wasn’t going to bring it up, but now that you have, yes, some of them have seen it or heard about it. But I’d wager that most paid little or no attention. People are more concerned with what’s happening in their own lives than with what they read about somebody else’s in a scandal sheet. Try not to worry about this, Eliza.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“You’re right. It is easy for me to say. But I happen to believe it.”

Eliza considered his words. “You’re probably right. I
hope
you’re right. It really bugs me, though. I keep wondering who the
KEY News
source was who so nobly proclaimed that, quote, the public depends on the mental stability of those entrusted with reporting the news, end quote. That backstabber threw my ability to do my job into question! What a low blow! Can you imagine anyone being that vicious?”

“Yes, Pollyanna, I can.”

Eliza ignored him, continuing on. “I’m going to find out who is behind that article. I’ve already called
The Mole
, but of course they won’t reveal their source. Journalistic privilege and all that. But don’t worry, I’m going to find out who did this.”

Mack couldn’t help but grin. “I have no doubt.”

Eliza smiled back, the first genuine smile of the past several days. “Forget it. Let’s not waste this glorious day!”

They continued on their way deeper into the park. Mack turned to Eliza. “Okay, where does ‘Eliza’ come from? A family name?”

Eliza looked at him, a half smile on her lips. “Ready? The first Broadway show my mother ever saw was
My Fair Lady
. She vowed that if she ever had a little girl, she’d name her Eliza. How do you like that?”

“On you, it somehow fits.”

“It gets better. Guess what the middle name is?”

“What was the Professor’s name . . . ‘Higgins’?”

“Funny, very funny. Nope. Scarlett.”

“She was a
Gone with the Wind
freak, too?”

“You got it.”

They laughed.

“And Blake? Is that your real last name?”

Mack watched Eliza’s happy grin fade and he thought he saw her blue eyes cloud over. The Eliza that America saw every morning was beautiful, bright and in control. The Eliza that he stood with in Central Park today was beautiful, bright and vulnerable.

“Blake is my married name. I was already using Blake professionally when John died. My maiden name was Gallagher.”

Though tempted to ask more about the marriage, Mack sensed that Eliza was not interested in talking about it at that moment. She was watching Janie hop up and down, pointing excitedly to the jumbo merry-go-round up ahead.

“You game?” Mack asked when they reached the carousel.

“Why not?”

As the three of them rode up and down on the gaily painted horses, Eliza Scarlett Gallagher Blake closed her eyes and felt the refreshing spring breeze blow across her face. It felt good. She thought of Bill, still unbelieving that the man she had admired so much would have taken his own life. She wished she had reached out to him more, wondered if it would have made any difference. But she hadn’t even had any idea that anything was really wrong. Bill’s suicide was so sad, such a waste of a wonderful human being. His death squeezed her heart and she wagered that just about everyone who knew Bill felt bruised.

Eliza looked over at her glowing, healthy Janie gleefully riding her wooden horse with the flowing mane and the big white teeth. She was more keenly aware than ever of the fragility of life and was extremely grateful to be there, with her precious little girl, alive.

Chapter 24

Daddy
.

William had a sad feeling when he thought of his dad. He missed his father. Mom said today was Dad’s funeral.

William went to his dresser, opened the top drawer and began rummaging through the computer diskettes inside until he found the one he was looking for.

He turned on his computer, and put the diskette in the opening where it was supposed to go, and pushed the buttons he knew he had to push to make the letter appear on the screen.

Dear William,

You are a very good person.

You are a very good son.

I am very proud of you.

I am proud of the way you always try so hard.

I am sorry to leave you.

Keep doing a good job.

I love you very much and I always will, even in

heaven.

DAD.

P.S. And remember, William, an elephant never forgets.

He had known all of the words. He knew that heaven was the place people went after they died. Daddy was there now. It made William feel a little better to know where his father was and that he still loved him.

Chapter 25