Return to Sullivans Island (35 page)

“What good will
that
do us?”

“Oh, Beth. I don’t know, but I can’t stand to hear the fear and panic in your voice and I want to be there with you, so I’m coming. We will figure this out together. See you soon.”

He disconnected the call and Beth stood there looking at the phone, mystified.

“Well, that was a short conversation! What did he say?”

“He’s coming.”

“Why?”

“Believe it or not, to help.” Beth reached for another tissue and blew her nose for the umpteenth time. “He said he couldn’t stand to hear the panic and dread in my voice and he wants to be here. He wants to help.”

“I like this guy,” Cecily said.

“He’s wonderful, Cecily. He really is.”

“Let me give you a hand to straighten up the house and get the room ready for him. Where do you want him to sleep?”

“I’ll show you. Oh, Cecily! Thank you so much for being here! What would I do without you?”

“I can’t imagine.”

Over the next few hours, Cecily stayed to help Beth ready Woody’s room and she made a trip to the Piggly Wiggly. To make the time go faster, she and Beth put a dinner together so that when Woody walked in the door, he could sit down to a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and a salad. And Cecily bought a pie from the Piggly Wiggly’s bakery with a pint of vanilla ice cream.

“If you feed an angry man first, he is less likely to knock your teeth out. And I’ll stick around to be sure he doesn’t,” Cecily said, bringing the bags in.

“I’m sure you’re right. Here, let me help you.” She took two bags from Cecily and put them on the table. “You know what, Cecily? I was thinking while you were at the Pig, and I might have a temporary solution to keep me from getting that lethal injection.”

“What! Well, for heaven’s sake, tell me this second!” Cecily dropped the rest of her bags all at once on the kitchen counter.

“Well, it’s a long shot, but it might work. You know my Aunt Sophie, right?”

“You’re thinking she would give you one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars?”

“No, just park it in my account for a while until we can see if we can get any of our money back from Max. I mean, we might get some of the money back.”

“You’re dreaming, I hate to say it, but you’re dreaming.”

“Wait! The FBI said it was
probably
gone but they didn’t know that for a fact. At least they didn’t say it like it was for sure.”

“Now, tell me why your Aunt Sophie would do this for you?”

“Because she can. Look, she really loves me and she knows I’ve never done a sketchy thing in my whole life. And because she’s told me like a thousand times that she wishes she had a daughter like me and if there’s ever
anything
she can do for me, all I have to do is ask.”

“Okay. Ask!”

“Boy, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Woody walked in here and we could tell him we had this all set?”

“It would be a miracle.”

Beth and Cecily set the table, organized dinner, and Beth picked up the phone and called her aunts’ house. One of her aunts answered on the third ring.

“Aunt Sophie? It’s me, Beth! How are you?”

“What? I’m very busy right now and I can’t talk to you! And a storm is coming! I can see lightning! Call back tomorrow! Sorry!” And she hung up.

Beth put the phone back on the receiver and looked at Cecily.

“What happened?” Cecily said.

“She hung up on me.”

“What?”

“She said she was busy, a storm was coming, there was lightning…That’s just about the most bizarre thing she’s ever, ever done!”

“What? What are you saying?”

“Right. What’s the matter with her?”

“Maybe she was having sex?”

“Oh, please! Don’t you think I would’ve heard her moving around or something like heavy breathing?”

“I was kidding. Bad joke.”

“Oh.” Beth rolled her eyes at Cecily. “Well then, what’s wrong with her? I mean, my Aunt Sophie has never been like that. She was downright rude. Very rude, in fact.”

“Maybe it wasn’t your Aunt Sophie.”

“Maybe. But why would Aunt Allison act like that? I mean, come on! That’s just insane.”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you just wait a couple of hours and call back. Maybe she was having a fight with her boyfriend, what’s his name?”

“Geoffrey with a
G
.”

“That’s a stupid name to hang on a man, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I’ll call her back. Oh Lord! Cecily! What if she can’t help us?”

“Then you’re back to square one, facing the music.”

“Oh God! Isn’t there any way out of this?”

“I wish there was. I’m going to go and open the doors in the living room and get some air moving in the house.”

The next thing Beth heard was Cecily screaming for her to come quickly. She found Cecily in front of the mirror pointing to it.

She said, “What do butterflies mean? Look at them! They’re all over the mirror!”

There were no butterflies on the mirror, but there were hundreds of them inside the mirror.

“Oh no! It’s my Aunt Sophie!”

“What do you mean?”

“My Aunt Sophie has a butterfly tattoo on her hip. Cecily! No one in the family knows it except me!”

“Wait a minute! Maybe this is a sign from Livvie that you are supposed to get the money from her. Maybe you should go down there and ask her in person?”

“No, Cecily. This is a sign that my Aunt Sophie is dead.”

“Beth Hayes? Hush up your fool mouth right this instant! Haven’t you had enough trouble for one day? You are way, way overreacting!”

“No I’m not! I know something is dreadfully wrong with my Aunt Sophie. I can feel it in my chest!”

“Don’t say she’s dead! That’s a
terrible
thing to even think!”

“That’s why my Aunt Allison was so freaked out on the phone.”

“Stop!”

“I think Aunt Sophie is dead, Cecily! I think she’s dead! Why else would there be butterflies in the mirror?”

“Let’s calm down, okay? Let’s think this through. Tell me why your Aunt Allison wouldn’t tell you if something were wrong with your Aunt Sophie?”

“I don’t know! Because she’s hiding something? Why would she hide something like that?”

“You tell me. In the meanwhile I think we should stop talking about this until Woody gets here. Your brain is worn out from today. Dealing with Max and the FBI is enough. So just stop thinking about this and go say a prayer that she’s fine. Take a shower and fix yourself up so you don’t look like this when he gets here.”

“What did you say?”

“You heard me. Go!”

Beth stared at Cecily for a minute that seemed to last an hour and then she shook her head.

“You’re right. Listen to me. I’m losing it. Aunt Allison was probably jacked up on some of her wacko vitamins.”

“See? There we go! That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, isn’t it? Nobody’s dead.”

“Right. You’re probably right. I think I’ll go take a shower.”

“Good idea.”

An hour or so later, Woody had arrived and they were all seated at the table. For someone who professed not to have much of an appetite, Woody was making short order of the chicken and mashed potatoes. Cecily picked at her food while Beth barely swallowed a bite. Her concerns about Sophie had multiplied.

“Tell me about your conversation with your aunt again?” he said.

Beth recounted the conversation verbatim.

He wrinkled his brow. “That’s completely screwed up. And what’s the deal with their vitamin business?”

Beth explained that they had just launched a new line of herbal vitamins.

“But with no FDA approval, right?”

“No. Not that I know of.”

“And tell me this weird butterfly story again.”

He listened, finally pushed back from the table, and said, “You know what? Go call your aunt again. Just because we took the shaft today in a very big way, that doesn’t mean that something
didn’t
happen to your Aunt Sophie. Two bad things can come down in one day. Happens all the time.”

“Usually in bunches of three. He’s right, you know,” Cecily said. “But law! I hope he’s wrong.”

Beth dialed her aunts again and Cecily and Woody listened on extension telephones in other rooms.

“Hello?”

“Aunt Allison?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Beth. Your niece.”

“What do you want?”

“I’d like to speak to my Aunt Sophie.”

“She can’t come to the phone.”

“Oh. Is she at home?”

“She’s sick. I gotta go.”

Allison, no longer pretending to be Sophie on this phone call, hung up on Beth again.

Woody and Cecily came to the kitchen, where Beth was still holding the receiver in her hand.

Cecily spoke first. “I’ll watch Lola and I’ll clean up.”

“Go pack a few things,” Woody said. “We’re driving to Coral Gables tonight.”

“But it’s like nine hours from here,” Cecily said. “Wouldn’t you rather leave early in the morning?”

“No. I’m afraid that Beth’s right about her aunt, Cecily.”

“I’ll be right back,” Beth said, and ran up the stairs.

“Maybe Sophie
is
sick or maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation for her Aunt Allison’s behavior. But if they were my aunts? I’d be on the road. Something is very wrong with Allison for sure, and maybe Sophie too.”

“Gosh, I hope not.”

“Well, we’ll call you as soon as we know something.”

In a few minutes, Beth was there with her bag. She picked up Lola and gave her a hug and a kiss on top of her head.

“Hey, Cecily? If my mother calls? Or Aunt Maggie?”

“I’ll tell them you went to Atlanta for two days or something like that?”

“No,” Woody said. “Tell them the truth. No more lies.”

“Okay!”

Beth gave Cecily a hug and Cecily whispered in her ear.

“He’s kind of squirrelly-looking, but I like him, Beth. A lot.”

“For yourself?” she whispered back.

“No! For you!”

16

Dark Cloud, Silver Lining

[email protected]

Maggie, you know what? I talked to Simon for a long time last night, as I’m sure you probably already heard. I have to get out of here. I love Paris and the museums and all the fabulous things there are to do, but I’m just too far away from y’all. I need some humidity, some sand in my shoes, and my family. Guess I’m just an old Geechee Girl and that’s all there is to it. I’m thinking in two weeks? Can y’all come home to Sullivans Island when I do? xx

[email protected]

Susan, well, you old sentimental fool! Darlin’? I was surprised you wanted to go to France in the first place—those people don’t even speak English or know how to fry a decent piece of flounder. You come on home and I’ll get everyone there. Send us your flight times when you know, okay? xxx P.S. Sure do love my sister!

A
LL THE WAY
to Florida, eighteen-wheelers zoomed by, causing their car to wobble and shake. The trucks were too many to count, and at times they were a dangerous menace, getting right up on Woody’s bumper, flashing their high beams, scaring them out of their wits.

They stopped for coffee and gas only twice. Woody drove until he was bleary-eyed and then Beth took over so he could sleep for a few hours. When they weren’t sleeping, or pumping gas, they were talking.

“It’s inconceivable to me that a man could do something like Max did to us, well, to you, really.”

“Listen, he biopsied your wallet for a cool twenty-five thousand. That’s not nothing.”

“
Biopsied my wallet
. Where did you learn a term like that?”

“My mother. She has about a million funny little sayings that she says all the time. She says creative language makes people listen to you. You’ll love her.”

“I’ll bet I will. But okay, back to Max, he biopsied my wallet, as you say, but I only got scammed. He wasn’t playing with my emotions. So what are you thinking?”

“I’m over it.”

“Are you?”

“Uh,
yeah
! Max Mitchell, or whatever his real name is, probably cost me my credibility for the rest of my life with my entire family,
if
they ever speak to me again. Which they probably won’t. Unless they don’t find out.
If
my Aunt Sophie is okay, which I am doubting more and more, and
if
she is willing to help us, and
if
the FBI gets him, and
if
he didn’t already blow all the money—”

“Too many
if
s.”

“You said it. So, knowing that, how could I still be—”

“In love with him?”

“Boy, Woody. Let me tell you something, if that’s what love looks like, you can keep it. You know, looking back, there were probably a thousand signs that he was a skunk and I ignored them all.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. He would do these things or say something really insensitive, things that no one should ever say to someone they cared about. But I just wrote it all off, excusing everything. I don’t know what came over me.”

“He seduced you, Beth, just like a pro. Plain and simple. I mean, here’s this guy, a good-looking devil if I ever saw one, and he comes along flashing big smiles and flattering you and all that. Pretty textbook.”

“Humph. Yeah, but his true colors were there all the time. I was the moron who chose to ignore them.”

“Now, I want to hear this because as far as I know, you don’t miss much. Not much at all.”

“Oh yes I do. Okay, remember that night when Mike got very tipsy…”

“Mike was solid in the bag.”

“I stand corrected. Anyway, I saw Max climbing in the hammock with Phoebe, who was also solid in the bag. And he denied it, I mean, he told me that I wasn’t seeing what I was seeing! I saw him in the hammock pulling Phoebe in and he said, No you didn’t see that, and I just said, Oh, okay.”

“Nice. It’s like the old joke? A woman catches her husband in bed with some other woman and he says,
Are you going to believe your lying eyes, or are you going to believe what I tell you?
”

“Exactly! Yeah, and one night he came to Atlanticville before he knew I worked there?”

“Okay…”

“And, he was with this half-naked old dame who was hanging all over him. She had to be easily forty or more and he said it was just business.”

“Maybe it was.”

“Right. How about monkey business? Look, first of all, he told me he was just thirty-seven and it turns out he’s forty-five or forty-six. And he was sleeping with that woman and I knew it and when he said no, I just believed him.”

“Beth? You are a lovely young woman. You’re free of guile, honest, and caring, and you have all those good qualities men love so much in women.”

“Fat lot of good it ever did me, but thanks.”

“In the end, virtue will serve you well. It’s so unusual these days.”

“Yeah, you pick up the papers and it seems like everyone is a lying crook.”

“Just like Max, except on a larger scale. Anyway, Max was a professional liar, a hustler, a felon on the run from the law, and a user of the worst sort. The only thing you had in common with him is that you were both in love with the same person. Him.”

“I feel like such an idiot.”

“So do I.”

“Okay, but I’m a flaming idiot.”

“It’s okay. And you’re not.”

“Yeah? Wait till my Uncle Henry hears about this, and wait till my mother gets her hands around my throat.”

“That’s another reason I came down here.”

“Why? To watch a family execution?”

“No. To stand by you until this is over.”

“Really? Don’t you have to go back to work?” Woody has to be the nicest person I have ever known, she thought.

“Nope. Basically, I’m fired.”

“What do you mean? Did you talk to Uncle Henry?”

“Nope. I fired myself. First, I’m taking some personal days. But when it hits the fan? Old Henry is gonna go wild. I mean, wild!”

“Oh Lord, Woody. I’m so busy fretting over my side of the sewer, I didn’t think about yours. You’re right. Uncle Henry will not be amused.”

“Well, look. I’ve known Henry for a long time and I have never missed a step with him. I’m just going to tell him the truth—that you got completely blinded by the biggest rush into romance I have ever seen. That when I met Max, which he knows I did, I thought he was okay too. If he fooled me, he could have easily fooled you.”

“Oh, thanks a lot.”

“No, Beth, wait. What I meant was Henry and I are in the business of sizing up companies and the people who run them. When you do that all the time you develop a sixth sense for the business. You can smell a bad deal or an unscrupulous person from miles away. And I’m good at this or I wouldn’t be working for your uncle. Believe me. So along comes Max. He seemed like a hardworking, gregarious altar boy to me. Right out of the Wholesome Boys’ Central Casting. He completely, completely, completely fooled me.”

“I feel only slightly better. Don’t you think Uncle Henry is going to think you paid a fair penalty when he finds out how much of your own money you lost?”

“I think his first loyalty is to you, as it should be, and when he finds out I let this loan go through without calling him? He’s never going to want to see my face again. And I wouldn’t blame him.”

“You don’t know that, Woody. You have to wait and see what happens, don’t you think?”

“Sure. We’ll see. I hope I remember how to milk cows. Is this our exit?”

Within half an hour, they pulled into her aunts’ driveway. Their house was typical of the wealthy neighborhoods of Coral Gables, built of stucco, lots of arches, painted a pastel pink. There was a courtyard with a pool and the property was artistically landscaped with palms, aloes, and other kinds of succulents that could stand up to the vicious heat. The interiors were open spaces with cool marble floors and tons of light. Beth had only been there twice but she loved the house because it was glamorous and modern and so different from how she had ever lived.

It was just past seven in the morning when Beth rang the doorbell.

“Wouldn’t it be great if my Aunt Sophie just opened that door, made us pancakes, and took out her checkbook?”

“Beth? Neither one of us have that kind of luck lately.”

The door opened and one of her aunts stood there, squinting in the blinding sunlight. Without her makeup and hair done, it was difficult for Beth to figure out which aunt it was. But Beth quickly decided it was Allison, peeping around the partially opened door with a very unwelcoming demeanor. It
was
Allison. Allison’s eyes darted back and forth between them as though they were robbers or, worse, Jehovah’s Witnesses. She didn’t recognize Beth at all.

“Good morning, Aunt Allison.”

“Beth? Is that you?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were coming. How did you get here?” Her voice was agitated and edgy.

“We drove. This is my friend Woody Morrison. Can we come in?”

Allison paused before she answered, which was very unsettling to Beth.

“Only for a minute. I have to go out. In fact, I’m late.”

Beth and Woody looked at each other as if to say, We drove five hundred miles to stay for a minute? And, where’s she going at this hour? And where’s she going dressed like that? Allison looked like she had been up all night. Maybe longer.

“Her pupils are huge,” Woody whispered to Beth.

Beth nodded her head in agreement. “She’s definitely on something. I knew it.”

They stepped inside and stood in the foyer waiting for Allison to invite them into the house for a cup of coffee or to offer some basic hospitality, but she did not. They felt like interlopers, awkward and uneasy.

“So, what can I do for you?” she asked.

What can I do for you?
What a strange thing to say, Beth thought, like we’re selling encyclopedias? Something is incredibly out of whack here.

“Is Aunt Sophie all right?”

“Sophie? Sophie? Is Sophie all right? What are you talking about?”

“Last night you told me she was sick. And I got very concerned.”

“Why would you be concerned about Sophie? People get sick. Then they get well.”

“Well, can I see her?”

“She’s not here.” Allison paused. “She went to the doctor.”

Woody had yet to say a word but he was listening. He too knew something was dreadfully wrong. Beth’s Aunt Allison was having some kind of psychotic episode. And she was lying. That much was clear.

“What doctor did she go to?” Beth said.

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because I want to go there and see my aunt.”

“Why are you so nosy? Hmm? Answer me that, little girl.”

“I’m not nosy, Aunt Allison. I love you and I am very worried about both of you. Is there something wrong? Do you need help?”

“It’s time for you to leave. I have things to do.”

At that point, Beth was beginning to shake all over from nerves.

“Where’s Geoffrey, Aunt Allison?”

“I wouldn’t know, would I? The son of a bitch took all the money and left, didn’t he?”

Okay, Beth thought, now we’re getting somewhere. But talk about parallel lives?

“Who’s Geoffrey?” Woody whispered to Beth.

“Her boyfriend who’s some kind of pharmacologist who made up the vitamins.”

“He’s gonna get it too!” Allison said, her voice rising. “Oh yes! He’ll get his! The long arm of the law is gonna crack his head!”

What did that mean? Woody and Beth exchanged suspicious looks, knowing they were in the presence of a demented mind.

“He’s going to get it! But good!”

Beth felt sick in her heart to see her aunt this way. Where was her Aunt Sophie? She was either in some terrible peril or, God forbid, she
was
dead.

“Aunt Allison? Something is very wrong here.”

“Well, it’s none of your business. So run along now.”

Beth, who had never been in a situation like this in all her life, was very unsure of what to do next. So she simply stood up to her aunt.

“No ma’am. I’m not leaving until I am certain beyond any doubt that my Aunt Sophie is alive.”

“Is that so? Well, then go and have yourself a look around. I told you she’s not here. And then I want you to go. You just can’t come in here like this! Who do you think you are? Hillary Clinton? She was in the yard this morning but she left.”

“Okay. Aunt Allison? I am your niece who loves you and is very worried about you. And I’m going to get you some help. Why don’t you sit on the sofa and I’ll make you some breakfast?”

To her complete astonishment, her aunt went directly to the living room and sat on the sofa, leaving the front door of the house wide open. Woody closed it and followed them to the living room. Allison was staring into space and muttering, having a silent conversation with someone who wasn’t there. She was hallucinating. Beth had witnessed people hallucinating in college, but that was drug-induced. Had her aunt taken some sort of hallucinogenic? Beth knelt in front of her and spoke to her very sweetly.