The Arcanum of Beth

by Mary Jane Russell

  Janet took a deep breath and made no response to Lou. “Will, how are you?”

  Will sat on the couch and didn’t look up. He had two fingers of what appeared to be scotch in a glass beside a photograph album. He stared at each square black and white snapshot held to the page by its corners before turning to the next set.

  Janet glimpsed two small children in each of the photos that had the look of being snapped by a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera that had been popular in the 1950s. She had similar collections of Melody—she too had preferred her old Hawkeye received on her tenth birthday to the newer color cameras that flooded the stores later. “All righty then.”

  Patti was in the downstairs bedroom. Janet could see her moving between the closet and the pile of business suits on the bed. There were two large matching suitcases with Patti’s monogram on the floor that she was clearly making room to unpack. She glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of Janet and quickly dropped the armload of silk blouses that went with the suits. “We’ve contacted a women’s shelter that helps single mothers back into the work force. I thought they could use these if you don’t have to do something else with them.” Patti walked to Janet, stopped within a foot of her, and leaned close without touching for an attempt at a friendly buss.

  Janet stiffened, inadvertently pulled away from the woman, and glanced about the room. Now she knew what was so different about the house—all the furniture had been rearranged into different groupings. What had been a guest bedroom was now clearly the master. There was a black plastic bag next to the doorway. Janet glanced down and saw framed photographs tossed haphazardly with no regard for the glass. She spied Beth and Lou on the beach and Beth and Buddy walking through the woods. “Trash?”

  Lou blushed.

  “You don’t mind then.” Janet removed the photo of Beth and Buddy and slid it into the briefcase she took from Lou’s hand. Her jaw clenched so tightly it was difficult to speak. “Let’s get this done, shall we?” She removed a three-page list from the folder. “Beth recently added a handwritten list to her will. She designated things to be sold for the trusts she had set up and things to go to friends.” Janet rummaged through the bag she had taken from Lou for a gel pen and removed the first packet of tags. “This would have been easier if you hadn’t moved the furniture.” She looked over her reading glasses at the two women who feigned innocence.

  “Well, they couldn’t exactly leave it looking as it was when Beth was here.” Will spoke from the living room.

  “Nineteen thirties walnut secretary bought in Stanton.” Janet glanced around the living room.

  “It’s in the den.” Lou inclined her head toward the back of the house.

  Janet walked through the kitchen, noticing the long row of liquor bottles on the end of the counter. Beth had been strictly a beer drinker.

  Janet tied a tag to the small knob on the upper doors of the secretary. “Auction.”

  “But I use that.” Lou looked from the tag to Janet and back again.

  “Did Beth buy it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you contribute to the purchase?”

  “No.”

  “She made a very specific list. Family pieces go to Will if he signs a statement that they stay in his home. Purchased pieces she had before you two met are to be sold. Beth started a trust for her cousin’s child in North Carolina who is set on medical school. Pieces you bought together stay here. Clothing to charity. Family papers and Bibles to the cousin in North Carolina who does all the genealogy research. Luke’s uniform and flight jacket, things he had during World War II, to the county museum. Kitchen things to you, Lou. That’s pretty much it.” Janet held up the sheaf of papers. “It’s all in her handwriting, signed and notarized. I brought a copy for you and for Will.” Janet handed the papers to Lou and started to hand the other copy to Patti, then stopped.

  “William, get in here now!” Patti’s voice carried through the house.

  Buddy barked from the front porch.

  Moments later, Will stood in the doorway from the kitchen to den. His clothes were wrinkled as though worn for several days—the jeans and cotton shirt were uncharacteristically casual for him. His hair looked shaggy and in need of a trip to the stylist he and Patti went to. His eyes were dark, giving him a haunted look that was accentuated by his whiskers. “I heard all of it. It was Beth’s to do with as she chose. She was the one who looked after our parents. God knows she earned all of it.” He took the handful of papers and glanced only at the front page. “That’s her writing. Put all of the furniture up for auction. I don’t want any of it. Don’t start, Patti.” He turned, reached for the unopened bottle of scotch on the counter, and walked back to the living room in a not quite straight line.

  “Damn him. He doesn’t care about anything. He has no backbone whatsoever.” Patti stopped herself from saying anything more.

  Lou swallowed. “That’s the majority of the furniture, what she restored before she met me and what came from Keith’s.”

  Janet looked over her glasses. “Well, let’s tag it and see how it works out. Remember, if you bought something together, it’s yours.” Janet caught the look that Lou gave Patti that seemed to say “fat chance.”

  “Surely, we could settle on some of the pieces that are just perfect for the house. Couldn’t we make an offer to ‘buy’ them?” Patti smiled.

  Janet removed her glasses. “That’s the thing of being an executrix for someone like Beth. She was a detail person. I have to follow her instructions to the letter. There’s no room or need for interpretation.”

  Patti visibly regrouped. “I know this must be hard on you. Losing such a close friend and having to go through all of this for her estate. Surely, we can help you make it as simple and painless as possible.”

  “What don’t you understand? I have a list of instructions, and I must follow them. These are Beth’s last wishes. They will be followed exactly as written, and I will see that every item is handled as she specified.” Janet wished her mother had not instilled her with manners. Again, the mantra in silence—don’t tip your hand, observe. As Gloria had glimpsed, Janet had a redneck side buried deep within her that badly wanted to break loose at times such as this. She would not compromise her executrix duties or give any reason to have the dispensation questioned. This had to be done calmly and professionally.

  Patti looked at Lou. “Don’t you need to check something outside?”

  Stunned, Lou left the house through the back door.

  Patti closed the distance to Janet. “Don’t play games or favorites with me. This all needs to be settled. Will needs the money. I know there’s to be a trust for him also, and we’ll find a way into it. So go ahead with your tags. Make your stand today. You don’t control a damn thing. If I were you, I’d not look too closely at things in this house. We were four consenting adults. You may not like what you find out about your dear, sweet friend who was so damned perfect. It’s none of your business unless you just get off on it.” Patti grabbed Janet’s arm as she tried to back away from her. “Oh, yes. I saw you and your chubby friend in Harrisonburg watching Lou and me. So what? We’re close. Beth and Will knew what was going on and didn’t try to stop us. Put your tags on, and get the hell out of here and leave us to our arrangement. We’ll make sure that all the tags are right, you can count on that.”

  The rest of the afternoon was spent in silence. Will remained on the sofa drinking steadily until he finally fell asleep holding the photo album. Lou and Patti followed Janet through the house and cottage. By the time every piece of furniture was photographed, tagged and marked, Janet was exhausted. “Are you going with me to the tractor shed?” She looked at the women who had stayed on her heels all afternoon.

  Patti’s complexion lightened beneath her makeup. “I am not. Will—”

  Janet went out the back door.

  Lou tried to bounce along like her former self who managed to cultivate flirtation with whomever she was with. “Sorry about the t
all grass. I’m letting the fescue grow this summer. Old Man Burnett is going to pay me for the bales he makes off it.”

  Janet made no comment.

  Lou nudged Janet’s shoulder with hers. “I’ve better things to do with my time than bump along on a tractor. I refuse to try to use that antique of Beth’s. I don’t have her touch, can’t get it to start half the time. Whoever changed the magneto for a distributor didn’t do a very good job.”

  Janet stopped and stared at her.

  Lou shrugged. “Okay, here’s the deal. I can’t afford to have the John Deere repaired. The fat-ass sheriff’s dragging out completing his report. It’s July already. Until I have the sheriff’s report, I can’t get my insurance carrier off dead center, plus the Deere dealer is saying the damage is not under warranty. I haven’t been able to do a damn thing with my tractor since it was towed under roof right after the accident. At the least, I know the engine mounts sheared.”

  Janet checked the setting of the digital camera for outdoors and made herself walk to the open shed and look inside. Seeing the John Deere tractor that had crushed Beth made all the breath exit her body. How could Lou tolerate the machine being on her property much less use it again? Janet felt as though she raised the camera in slow motion. “She wants the county museum to have the old wooden wheelbarrow that her great-grandfather made and Andy to have her father’s old McCormick Cub tractor. Her estate will pay for moving both.”

  “Bessie.” Lou patted the cowl of the small red Farmall. “Beth named the tractor after the postmistress assigned to the community that the Candler farm was part of, said they were both contrary to deal with sometimes. She called Bessie her training tractor, learned to drive it as a kid as soon as her legs were long enough to tap the brakes.” Lou’s voice was subdued.

  Janet took the photographs without looking at the saved images. She felt as though she was wearing leg weights as she walked back to the house. Something tickled her memory. She didn’t know if she had the concentration for the drive home or not, but she was surely going to try.

  “You know where the door is.” Lou and Patti stood side by side in the kitchen examining the Bourgeat copper cookware that would stay with Lou, as Janet checked it off the list. Beth had bought the French set at the beach as a surprise she never gave to Lou.

  “I can’t wait for the door to close behind me. All of you are absolutely despicable. There will be reckoning.” Janet stared at Lou. “She loved you so much.”

  Janet stopped in the living room to glare at Will but had no reaction from the man. “And you, too.” If he was feigning unconsciousness, he was doing an excellent imitation.

  Janet left the house. She stopped on the front porch and looked down at the dejected shepherd. “I can see why she loved you the best of anyone here.” She scratched the dog’s head. “I know you miss her as much as I do. Come on, Buddy, we’re going home.” The dog followed her to the car and hopped onto the front seat as though an old hand at riding with her. She rolled the window halfway down for him. She knew that Ellen would welcome him.

  “We’ll both try to make this ride without throwing up.” She rubbed his head and saw a glimmer of the sparkle that used to be in the dog’s hazel eyes for Beth.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Janet’s pen stopped, poised over the sheet of paper. She was using the fountain pen she had splurged on when she passed the bar exam. She delighted in keeping it filled with bright red ink. She refused to draft anything but a hard copy; she still didn’t quite trust not losing her work if only in the computer.

  She thought she heard a noise from the front of the building. She angled her head and closed her eyes slightly. “Damn it. I purposely stayed late tonight so I could lock myself in and get caught up on work.”

  It was Ellen’s ceramic class night—Janet had a bet with herself on how many of the classes Ellen would actually attend. She glanced at what Ellen had started as a coffee cup and ended as a pencil holder that Janet actually liked having on her desk. She had tried to convince Ellen that if she had seen it in a store, she would have paid money for it. Ellen told her she was always wasting her money on foolishness.

  There it was again. Someone was knocking on the front door of the small office building that had once been a brick ranch on the fringe of downtown.

  “Damn it.” She pushed away from her desk reluctantly and started out of the room. She went back to her tote bag for her cell phone just in case. Some of their clients were not always pleased with the case outcomes, regardless of whether they had violated the law or not.

  She crossed the open file room, then the reception area and pulled the narrow curtain aside to look out of the side light at the door.

  “Shit.” It was Will Candler. He looked worse than the last time she’d seen him.

  The hand held up to her in greeting shook slightly.

  Janet turned the deadbolt and opened the door.

  Tears ran down his unshaven cheeks. “Mrs. Evans.”

  “You need to talk. Come inside. I’ll fix us a cup of tea.” One deep breath told her he’d already put quite enough alcohol in his body. She ushered him into the conference room off of the lobby. She went into the kitchen entered directly from the conference room. Conveniently, a second door from the kitchen led to the back hall—just in case. She filled two cups with water from the sink and dropped in tea bags, then set the mugs inside the microwave.

  Janet turned and looked at Will as the water was nuked. He wore a ragged T-shirt over cargo shorts. His hair almost reached the back neck of his shirt. He had not shaved for several days. She smelled the alcohol coming through the pores of his skin. His eyes had progressed from haunted to dead. Red streaks were almost solid across the whites of his eyes. She returned to the conference room and led him to her back corner office, each with mug in hand.

  “I just wanted to make sure you had enough working capital to cover expenses as you settle Beth’s estate.” He perched on the very edge of the sofa. His gaze darted about the room, looking anywhere except into Janet’s. His leg bounced in a fast, unconscious rhythm.

  “Yes. It’s all coming along, it’s just a slow process. Beth had a fair amount of cash in an interest-earning account that she had already put me on as a second.” Janet watched Will’s face.

  “What?”

  Janet nodded. “You heard me. I had no idea, either.” She blew on the tea before taking a sip.

  Will looked down at the floor. His leg stilled. “She was right, wasn’t she?”

  “About what?”

  Will finally met Janet’s gaze. “She tried to talk to me. I wouldn’t let her. I couldn’t. I was awful to her. I have become an awful person.” He stopped, unable to say more.

  “I heard your conversation with Beth at the beach last October. I’ll never forget what was said or how much you hurt her that night.” Janet sipped the tea.

  “Yet she gave me another chance.”

  “And Lou and Patti continued their affair, enjoying it all the more because of the subterfuge. They thought they were fooling you and Beth, or were they?” Janet watched Will’s shoulders sag and his entire body slump.

  Will’s voice was broken. “I knew they wouldn’t stop. Beth believed them for a while. Beth wanted to believe them. I didn’t care. What they did didn’t matter to me. I was stuck with Patti until she was willing to let me go. That damn Lou. It was all her doing. I hate that woman.” He struck his thigh with his fist.

  Janet waited for him to calm down and continue.

  “Beth knew I couldn’t face how horrible Patti is, and I’m no better.”

  He had finally said what Janet needed to hear.

  “Did Beth ever come to you before about Patti?”

  “Only when she tried to figure out what was going on about a year after we married.” He stared at the floor. His tone was flat when he spoke. “I mishandled a client’s funds, and Patti took money out of her trust to keep it from being found out. I was so sure of the quick return that I we
nt way over my authorized limit, and it was a six-figure bust. I could have asked Beth for help, but I went to my wife.”

  “And ever since?”

  Will nodded. “Ever since, she owns me. Worse still, she’s bored by me and unsatisfied. She decided to make me suffer as I tried to maintain her standard of living while attempting to pay her back. At the rate I’m going, it will only take another twenty years or so. She never lets me forget that she can take away my client base like that.” He snapped his fingers.

  “Did Beth ever exaggerate anything or come to you for help without reason?”

  Will stared at Janet. “No, not even when we were kids.”

  “What about after the trip to the beach?”

  “I don’t remember much. I’ve been drinking rather heavily.”

  “What do you remember?”

  “That Patti and Lou were inseparable. That I had never seen my baby sister so miserable. That I couldn’t do anything about any of it.” He whispered the last.

  “It was easier for you to pretend it wasn’t happening.” It was not a question.

  “Yes, may God forgive me.”

  Janet felt nothing for the man—neither pity nor anger. He was in his own personal hell.

  “I know,” Will took a deep breath, “Beth told the truth. Beth always told the truth. She looked out for everyone’s interest except her own, looked out for me. It’s just that the last time she brought up Patti and Lou, she went too far.”

  Janet looked at him and raised her eyebrows.

  “She said they were planning to kill me after killing her so neither of them would lose money when they lost their spouses. I told her she was crazy as hell and I never wanted to see her again.” Will stared at his hands. “It’s all I can do not to choke the life out of Patti every night when she comes to bed when she’s not staying out in the country with Lou. I know Patti has documented my faux pas with her attorney. Patti leaves nothing to chance. She comes home just enough for appearance’s sake with the neighbors. They think she has some sort of job where she travels during the week.”