Half Past Mourning (8 page)

Three weeks!
Nina groaned at the idea of waiting another three weeks. “And there’s nothing we can do before that, is there?”

Peter’s half rueful smile showed a small dimple at the corner of his mouth. “It’s hard to deal with more waiting, isn’t it? At least something is happening. Do you want to go along when I talk to her?”

Nina thought a moment. Would her presence help or hurt the cause? She wasn’t sure. “Let’s decide that once you have a date to see her. If it will help, I want to be there, but I don’t want the woman to feel like I’m making trouble. She might not talk as freely if I’m around.”

“Then we’ll leave it for now.” He stood up, glanced at his watch, and frowned. “It’s really late, Nina. You’ve had a terrible shock and some hard things to deal with. You need to get to bed. Maybe things will look a little better tomorrow.”

“Not much better. I think I’d better go out tomorrow and warn Uncle Eldon before Tinker’s visit. What Tinker told me will be hard for my uncle to hear, but it would be worse to let him hear it from Tinker with no notion it’s coming.” She followed Peter to the door and turned on the porch light for him.

“It might be good to get your uncle’s viewpoint, as well. You said he and Danny were close.”

“Mentor and protégé, best buddies,” Nina told him. “Uncle Eldon looked on Danny almost as a son. He hoped Danny would take over the museum, in time.”

Peter stepped through the open doorway but turned back. “I’d like to meet your uncle, Nina. Would you mind if I went along?”

Nina felt a lessening of the darkness in her heart. “I’d love for you to go with me. Meet me here tomorrow afternoon after school. Or do you have a late class? I forget you don’t have the school hours I do.”

“One class in the morning, that’s it. I’ll be here by the time you are.” He gestured toward the aging Mercury in the drive. “Would it bother you if I drove the T-Bird over? Maybe you’d give me some driving pointers. Or maybe your uncle would?”

Nina drew a shaky breath. “If it bothers me, I guess I’d better get over it. Fear of running into a yellow T-Bird can’t be a shadow on my life forever. And I’d be happy to give you some driving tips.”

As Peter walked into the darkness, Nina closed the door and leaned against it. It had been a hellacious day, but at least it was over. She hoped she never had to face another like it. Peter’s timely arrival and common sense approach took much of the sting away. A wash of genuine gratitude swept over her. Thank goodness she’d found an ally like Peter Shayne.

Nina locked the door and turned off the lights, but as she started for her bedroom the phone rang. Its sharp bell pierced the night.

Uncle Eldon!
Her immediate reaction was fear that something had happened to him. Wheelchair-bound in daytime, he was completely helpless at night. She grabbed the phone before it could ring a third time.

“Now, Nina honey, I know your mother died while you weren’t much more than a child, but still and all, you should realize the neighbors notice, and they talk, when a young woman livin’ alone starts entertaining some man at the house in the middle of the night. Really, Nina, you’ve gotta be more circumspect. What would the school board have to say if they heard about it, sugar? You’ve gotta watch your reputation ever’ minute, never look even the least bit flighty. Schoolteachers in a small town just can’t take chances on the way folks look at things.” The too-sweet voice, freighted with artificial concern, poured through the phone like honey on a warm biscuit. “I know you don’t have a bit of family except your uncle, and he wasn’t coming over this time of night. Who was that man who turned up so late and stayed so long, honey?”

“Marigold?” Nina bit back a sharp retort before it came out of her mouth.
I forgot about her watchdog up the block. I’ll have to tell her about Danny, too. She was right all along about Danny leaving me. That should give her some satisfaction, even though Danny is still missing.
“Marigold, I was going to call you tomorrow. My visitor brought some word of Danny. He has Danny’s car.”

“Danny’s car?” Disbelief dripped from Marigold’s response. “I simply do not accept that, Nina. He’s mistaken, or trying to put something over on you. Danny would never turn loose of that car. Not in a million years, honey, not for anything.”

“No, it’s Danny’s car. I’m certain it is.”

“Then, child, you’d better get right on over here. Honey, I suspect that man’s some kind of con man, just looking to get his hands on Danny’s money.” Marigold’s “humph” was a ladylike snort of incredulity. “This man came into possession of the Thunderbird? I just can’t believe it, and I know I won’t sleep a wink till you come over here and tell me what he said. I’ll bet he’s trying to lead you on, working up to asking for money, and he’ll take advantage of your inexperience. He’s just made up some kind of phony evidence to fool you, you poor girl. I know you’d give anything to think Danny didn’t take off and leave you, Nina, but you gotta face up to it sometime.” Marigold’s New Orleans drawl came thicker with every word. “Let him try talkin’ to me, sugar. He’ll find it’s harder to pull the wool over my eyes. I’m not as easily fooled as you. I’ll set Sheriff Hayes on him, and that will put a stop to such shenanigans. You just get yourself on over here, Nina honey, and bring whatever your new ‘friend’ used to convince you of this nonsense. I’m waiting up and I’ll unlock the gates. You can be here in twenty minutes. Don’t dawdle now, child.” The phone clicked in Nina’s ear telling her that Marigold Wilson hadn’t waited for a response.

Nina looked down at her quilted robe. Twenty minutes? The day had already been much too long. She longed for her own bed, the comfort of Sinbad curled against her knees, and the blessed oblivion of sleep. Not yet, no, the day wasn’t over. Nina resigned herself to the inevitable. She couldn’t let go of the day’s events just yet. Much as she dreaded the drive, deeply as she resented Marigold’s demands, Nina knew she owed Danny’s mother the courtesy of telling her what she’d learned from Tinker. Marigold would gloat over hearing she was right when she had insisted Danny disappeared by his own choice. Nina just wasn’t sure what she’d say about his reasons. How could she tell Marigold that Danny had planned to leave, not because he couldn’t face marriage but because his overbearing, suffocating mother had taken over his life for too long?

Still torn between telling the whole story as Tinker told it or letting Marigold revel in the way Danny abandoned his bride, Nina unbuttoned her robe and headed for her bedroom to change back into the toreador pants, this time adding a sweater against the cool night air. Her day had been long, filled with unsettling revelations, and it wasn’t done yet. She still had to deal with Marigold, never an easy prospect.

Chapter 6

“Now, Nina, just sit yourself down and draw a breath. I’ve made some of my good New Orleans coffee. It always helps me get a grip on myself when things get to be a little too much.” Marigold swirled about the room, her white satin hostess robe floating over rose silk lounge pajamas as she put an eggshell-thin coffee service before Nina.

Every platinum strand of hair in place, makeup flawless even at midnight, Marigold, though she had to be distracted with questions for Nina, managed to personify Southern hospitality as she poured the steaming combination of strong coffee and hot milk into a cup. The facade was perfect, but Nina saw a tremor as her mother-in-law put the cup into its fragile saucer. She wondered why people generally found the woman gracious and endearing. Maybe they never felt the little barbs behind Marigold’s honeyed words. “Now tell me, sugar, what’s this about? A late night visitor with news about Danny? It sounds a little too convenient to me.”

“It is Danny’s car, Marigold.” Nina took a token swallow of the chicory-flavored coffee and put the cup back on the table. “The man who has it isn’t a con man or a charlatan. He’s a professor at San Felipe. He didn’t buy the T-Bird from Danny, but it’s the same car.” With as little detail as possible, Nina explained how she’d seen the car and met Peter Shayne.

“It’s just a coincidence, Nina. Danny took his car when he left. He had to, if he was going away, now didn’t he?” She patted Nina’s arm, her fingers so thin, the nails so long, they might have been bird claws. “That car was popular, and I don’t suppose Danny bought the only yellow one in the country. Stands to reason another one would turn up from time to time.” Her blue eyes, bright as marbles, narrowed. “Danny will come back, sugar, but he’s not going to come back to you. You’ve just got to admit that, Nina.” She sighed, and though her tone was sincere, pale eyebrows arched and lips puckered to show her concern, Nina found it theatrical. “Isn’t it time you accept what really happened, sugar? My boy was as sweet as he could be, but he had a hard time facing up to unpleasant situations. He didn’t want to get married, just didn’t feel ready for the responsibility, but he didn’t want to tell you. Couldn’t bring himself to say the words that would break your heart.” Marigold’s hands, dry and cool as polished bone, held Nina’s with an unpleasant intensity. “I wasn’t proud of the way he went about it, child, but I know my boy and how he handled things. Danny left, and you’re deluding yourself over this car that could have come from anywhere.”

Nina pulled her hands free so she could reach for her purse. “I’m not deluding myself, Marigold. It really is Danny’s car. I have proof.” She took the license and the pocket knife from her bag and dropped them into Marigold’s palm. “These were hidden under the trunk liner in the T-Bird. You know Danny must have put them there. I don’t know why he did, but they do prove it’s Danny’s car.”

Marigold stared down at the objects. She turned the pocket knife over, held it up so the light caught the tiny engraving, then put it aside to examine the license. Her face went white to the lips, the artificial rose of her cheeks and mouth garish against her stark pallor. “I...don’t...understand.” She fingered the worn crease in the driver’s license. Her head dropped down, her face covered by bone-thin hands. “It’s all wrong. Leaving the car, his identification, that wasn’t part of the plan. No, not what Danny said, not at all.” Marigold seemed to have forgotten Nina’s presence. She continued murmuring to herself, confusion and bewilderment robbing her words of meaning. Nina, concerned that the older woman was lapsing into shock, touched her shoulder with a cautious hand.

“Marigold? Marigold, did Danny tell you something you haven’t told me? You said Danny had a plan of some kind? He told you he intended to leave?”

“Oh, Nina, of course he did.” Marigold’s head snapped up and her eyes shone with exasperation. “Why do you think Sheriff Hayes was so slow to get started searching for Danny? I told him not to look, and I told him why. Danny intends to come home as soon as you realize the marriage isn’t a real one. I thought by now you’d see that.” She pushed Nina’s hand away. “You’re a fairly bright girl, considering your folks were just working people. I never thought you’d be so slow to understand or so stubborn about hanging on.”

Reeling from yet another affirmation of Danny’s faithless character, Nina sank deeper into the cushions of the sofa. If it was true, she had to know all of it, had to understand the part of Danny that could say he loved her while planning to abandon their life together. “Please, tell me everything. I need to know how it happened.” She felt a curtain of isolation surround her, almost as if she watched herself performing a role in some fantastic play that had no reality for her.

Marigold picked up the pocket knife and turned it over and over. Her focus was somewhere beyond the soft lighting of the white drawing room. She seemed to be looking into the past to a place only she could see. “We’d talk about it, talk about it for hours at a time. He couldn’t fool his mama. I knew Danny didn’t want to get married, and the week before the wedding he finally admitted it. Admitted it but said he just didn’t know how to get out of it. He thought it was too late to call it off. I offered to tell you myself, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He was afraid I’d be too blunt, tell it in a way that would make him look like a cad instead of a man who’d finally seen the error he was about to make. We went over it all for days, and finally he said he knew how to do it. He’d wait till the day before the wedding and go over to your house and tell you the wedding was off because it wasn’t fair to you. You shouldn’t be tied to a man with all the health problems Danny had. He said he’d make it quick but final. Less pain that way, less time for you to grieve over a wedding that wasn’t going to take place. Then he’d leave. He thought it would be better if he just went on to Dallas that night and met with the lawyers as soon as he could. He dreaded coming back here to face his friends, so I suggested he go to Daytona for a while. A Mr. France wanted to start some car thing, some kind of race there, on the beach, you know, and Danny was excited about being part of it. He got in touch with the man, even talked about investing some money in the project. Danny loved the idea, and the climate wouldn’t be too hard on him. He’d stay there for a while, maybe a month or six weeks, see how the racetrack project was going, and then come back when things settled down here. He went over to your house that night to square things with you, but when he came home, real late, too, he said he’d adjusted the plan. It would be easier for you if he just didn’t turn up at the church the next morning. It wasn’t the way a gentleman should have done it, but my Danny, he didn’t deal with things head-on. More apt to duck the unpleasant things he got himself into. But that was Danny’s way.”

Marigold’s blue eyes had the gleam of a mother’s zeal in their azure depths. “That wedding wasn’t supposed to happen, Nina. But somehow it did, with Danny standing right there beside you and saying those words like he meant every one of them. I knew better, so I couldn’t imagine why he did it. And then Danny went off after the ceremony without a word. I didn’t know what was in his mind, but I wasn’t at all surprised when he didn’t come back. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t, and I told Al Hayes not to waste time looking for him. Danny knew what he was doing.” She pushed the pocket knife and driver’s license away. “Maybe he thought the car would attract too much attention. Maybe he thought it would be better for him to get a Florida license. I don’t understand about the license and the car, but they must have been part of the changes he made. I thought we’d worked it all out. Danny always told me everything.” She glanced at Danny’s things on the coffee table, things that were a mute contradiction to her words. “At least I thought he did.”