Dying Wishes (22 page)

By
mid-afternoon Emma had run out to the town hall to do yet another title search,
and Jimmy and Isabel were at closings in Windsor and Haddam, respectively.
Margo and I took advantage of the brief lull to microwave a couple of mugs of
soup from the emergency stash we kept for days like this. Just for a change of
scene, we carried them up to the lobby level, where we sat on the big sofa and
took a deep breath apiece.
Before we could savor even a sip,
however, the front door of the Law Barn opened, and in walked Tommy Garcia and
Sandy.

“Just
when you thought this day couldn’t get any more complicated,” Margo said and
put down her mug with obvious regret. I did the same.

“Tommy,
Sandy, come in.” I waved at the chairs opposite the couch. “Margo and I were
going to try to contact you later today. We need to talk.”

The
two young people stood uncertainly. Their hands were tightly clasped, I
noticed. After exchanging a long look, Tommy nodded, and they sat. I was used
to seeing Sandy in her spiffy work clothes with full makeup, and I barely
recognized this barefaced waif in jeans and a sweater. Denuded of her
professional camouflage, she looked hardly old enough to drive. On the other
hand, Tommy was nothing like the devil-may-care busboy full of jokes and good
humor I had grown accustomed to seeing in the Vista View dining room. This
sober young man with a two-day stubble of beard looked tired and careworn
beyond his years. My heart went out to him, as I knew Margo’s did. He looked at
Sandy and nodded again encouragingly.

“I
want to apologize…” she and I began simultaneously and stopped.

“Please
let me,” Sandy continued, and I leaned back. Margo sat quietly, her eyes
attentive but cold. I might forgive a little paint on the door, her expression
seemed to convey, but this girl messed with my Rhett.

“When
Tommy heard about what happened at the Vista View party and found out what I’d
done to make you so mad at me, he pitched a fit,” she began, her eyes lowered,
“but honestly, I had to do something to stop you, and he just wouldn’t.”

“Stop
us from what?” I asked.

“Poking
around in our private business and accusing Tommy of being some kind of male
prostitute with those sweet old ladies he gave massages to. He never was
anything but nice and polite to every one of them. Sometimes he didn’t even
charge them, if he thought they couldn’t afford it,” she fumed as her anger
reignited.

Tommy
put a hand on her arm and frowned. “That’s not what we came here to say,
Sandy.”

“Oh,
like you never got hot and, say, quit your job or something stupid,” she shot
back, and he had the grace to look abashed. Theirs must be an interesting
relationship, I reflected. Her temper could match his Latino fire degree for
degree. Sitting there with their eyes blazing at each other, they reminded me
of Armando and me on a few occasions. I glanced at Margo and saw her mouth
twitch as she suppressed a grin.

I
cleared my throat to regain their attention. “I assume by now you know that Ms.
Harkness
and I had nothing to do with the rumors
circulating about Tommy—quite the opposite, in fact. Margo has been Tommy’s
chief defender since she got to know him. But even if she or I had, in fact,
been responsible for spreading silly gossip, how was vandalizing our office …”

“…
or
stealin
’ my poor dog,” Margo inserted hotly.

“…
going
to help the situation?”

It
was Sandy’s turn to squirm. “I wasn’t thinking, I guess. I just wanted you to
butt out.” She looked at Margo contritely. “I feel really bad about the dog,
and I want you to know he was never in any danger. I wouldn’t do anything to
hurt him. In fact, I crouched in the bushes at the side of that old house and
watched him the whole time he was tied to the car to make sure somebody found
him. There were a lot of thorns in there, too,” she complained. She pushed up
her sweater sleeves to display red welts on her forearms. “He’s okay, isn’t
he?” she asked anxiously.

I
could feel Margo softening after learning that Rhett had never been in real
jeopardy, but she wasn’t ready to forgive and forget just yet.

“He’s
out in his pen, thank you for
askin
’, which has a
shiny new combination lock on it. It’s a nuisance, but it’s worth it to know
he’s not in danger of
bein
’ stolen again,” she said
coolly. She turned to Tommy. “As for you, how could you have let Ginny Preston
provoke you into
quittin
’ your job? A handsome young
man and a bunch of old biddies is a surefire recipe for gossip, but
walkin
’ out just convinced her she was right to pay
attention to it, don’t you see?”

I
was amused by her motherly tone.

“I
do now,” he replied, “but I was just so darned mad when she accused me of
inappropriate behavior. That’s one of the first rules of hands-on physical
therapy, and I’ve always been extra careful to respect people’s boundaries. So
when she laid that on me, I couldn’t think of anything to do but get out of
there as quick as I could. I really liked that job, too,” he finished sadly.

Now
I felt the prick of conscience. “I think we’ve all had some experience lately
with getting angry and dealing with it inappropriately,” I admitted. “Our
little scene at the Vista View party Saturday night isn’t something we remember
with pride either.” I caught Margo’s eye. “What do you say we all go pay Ms.
Preston a visit and see if we can’t get Tommy his job back?”

The
two young people looked at each other and back at us.

“Right
now?” said Tommy.

“You’d
do that for us after everything that’s happened?” asked Sandy. With her lower
lip quivering, she looked even younger.

Margo
finally cracked a smile as she nodded and stood up. “I’m in.”

“It
will be all right,” I told them. “I’m almost sure of it.” I collected our mugs
of cold soup and started toward the office to switch the phones over to the
answering service. Margo followed to get her purse.

“Ms.
Harkness
? Thank you very, very much,” Tommy said with
obvious sincerity. “I told Sandy you were a terrific lady.”

“He
did,” Sandy was quick to agree. “In fact, he said you reminded him a lot of his
mother.”

The
smile faded from Margo’s face. I muffled my laughter in my sweater sleeve as
she stalked across the lobby to the stairs. “You’re quite welcome. Now go home
and shave, and meet us at Vista View in half an hour.”

~

By
the time we reassembled in the lobby of Building One,
Strutter
had left for the day, which was probably a good thing. As nervous as Tommy was,
he didn’t need one more mother giving him last-minute pointers on how to thaw
Ginny Preston’s heart. He’d already had plenty of those from me and Margo.

We
left Sandy pacing in the lobby and approached Ginny’s office just as she was
shutting down her computer for the day. She wasn’t as surprised to see us as I
had expected her to be, nor was her attitude as hostile as it had been at our
last meeting. When she saw Margo, she actually blushed, obviously remembering her
insulting comment to me.

Ginny
invited us to sit and listened without interruption to Tommy’s apology, Margo’s
refutation of the rumors of sexual misconduct, and our request that he be
allowed to rescind his resignation. Then, most surprisingly of all, she smiled
at Tommy.

“I’m
very glad you came to see me,” she told him. “In fact, I was hoping you would.
I’m afraid I allowed some unfounded rumors to overwhelm my better judgment in
this matter, besides which I didn’t make myself clear the other day. It was my
intention merely to warn you. Your continuing in your position was never in
question, but we both lost our tempers, and things went too far. That’s one of
the problems with hot tempers,” she smiled again. “I’m happy to accept your
apology if you will accept mine, Mr. Garcia.”

Tommy’s
expression was an almost comical mixture of astonishment and relief. “Does this
mean I can come back to work?” he asked in a voice tinged with disbelief.

“I’ll
notify the kitchen to expect you first thing in the morning, if that’s
acceptable, or will you need another day?”

“No,
no, I’ll be here tomorrow bright and early,” he assured her, “but what about
the fellow who took my place?”

“A
temporary solution and not a very good one, as it turned out. We’ll plan on
seeing you tomorrow, then.”

She
rose and extended her hand to Tommy across her desk, and he leaped to his feet
to clasp it. “I’m very grateful,” was all he said, but his glance included
Margo and me.

The
three of us started for the door, but Ginny said, “Kate, can you give me
another minute? I promise not to keep you long.”

“I’ll
be in the car,” Margo said and left with Tommy to give Sandy the good news. I
looked at Ginny questioningly, hoping she wasn’t about to terminate Mack
Realty’s contract for gross interference.

“I
just want to apologize to you, as well, for my bad temper and for asking you to
look into the circumstances of Margaret Butler’s death. It was entirely
inappropriate, and if I had been thinking straight …” She paused to rub her
temples. “I’m afraid I haven’t been myself lately.”

“Who
could blame you? You’ve been under a lot of stress, I know,” I hastened to help
her out.

“No
more than usual, really, except for the retirement decision,” she mused, “but
now that
Rog
and I have decided to go, everything else
has fallen back into proper perspective.”

I
was taken aback. She had told me she and her husband were considering the move
down south, but somehow I’d never believed they would actually do it.

“You’re
really moving to North Carolina?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“The
Margaret Butler incident has completely thrown me. I can’t help feeling there
was something more I could have done, but unless I know the truth, I’ll never
know what. I’ve already told central administration that I’m resigning as of
the end of December. I finally realized that I was behaving irrationally. The
Tommy incident was a glaring example.”

I
struggled to find the right words. Did this mean she was finally letting go of
Margaret’s death? “We’ll miss you very much,” I said finally. “Everyone here
will. You’re the heart and soul of this place, Gin.”

“Thank
you for that. Administration has kindly given me a month to reconsider, but
it’s time to go,” she said firmly. “On another subject, I’m aware that you and
Bert Rosenthal have become friends. I thought you would want to know that he
suffered a mild heart attack on Saturday evening, but he is recovering very
well at Hartford Hospital. We expect him to return to us tomorrow or the next
day.”

My
relief was enormous. “That’s so good to know, but Bert lives alone here,
doesn’t he? Is that wise?”

Ginny
smiled reassuringly. “No one is ever really alone here, Kate. That’s what Vista
View is all about. Bert will spend a day or two in our nursing facility but
will return to his apartment when his confidence returns, as we fully expect it
to. Despite what some people may think, we’re not eager to make invalids out of
adults who are still capable of looking after
themselves
.
In fact, we give them the support services they need to do just that, if they
want to make use of them.”

If they want to make use of them.
I flashed on Margaret lying cold and composed, perhaps for days, in her silent
apartment. Had she wanted to make use of those services but been unable to do
so? Suddenly I was bone tired. Too many emotions were threatening to overwhelm
me.

“I
should go. Margo’s waiting in the car, and she’s not a happy waiter.”
Impulsively, I went to Ginny and gave her a hug, which she accepted willingly
enough. “See you Wednesday,” I said huskily and nearly ran for the door.

All
in all, it had been quite a day, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Seventeen

Tuesday
was devoted to paperwork and lots of it. Before work I sealed my completed
questionnaires in a manila envelope with a request for a follow-up appointment
on Wednesday and pushed the package through the old-fashioned mail slot in the
front door of
MacRae’s
office. On my way back to the
car, I noticed the thick, thorny bushes at the corner of the house and smiled
to myself. It served her right, the little minx. Actions have consequences. I
hoped she scratched for days.

My
first call after I reached the office was to
Ada
Henstock
. The sisters had decided to move into the
two-bedroom unit they had seen with Bert and me, and both the listing agreement
on the house and the lease agreement on their Vista View unit were ready for
signature. I made arrangements to stop by at four o’clock that afternoon.

After
that I was caught up in the whirl of the day, as were both
Strutter
and Margo. Emma thumped up and down the stairs regularly, making endless
photocopies and putting the final touches on transaction packages needed for
the day’s closings. Where she got her stamina, I could not fathom, but somehow
she managed to keep Jimmy and Isabel on track while simultaneously juggling
innumerable nervous clients.