THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER

by Ginna Gray

  "Don't say that."

  "Sorry, but that's the price you pay. I'll put a plastic trash can beside your bed. Now, let's get you out of these clothes and into a nightgown." With her arm around Jo Beth, she gently turned to guide her back into the bedroom but stopped short when they came face-to-face with their father.

  "Daddy!"

  Somehow he looked both fierce and pathetically fragile, standing there in the doorway, leaning heavily on Charley Minze for support, his face gray from the effort. Lily hovered behind the two men, pale and upset and wringing her hands.

  "Daddy, I know this looks bad, but please don't be too hard on h—"

  "How could you?"

  Maggie blinked. "Pardon me?"

  The male nurse gave her a sympathetic look, and belatedly she realized the raw fury in her father's voice and eyes was directed not at Jo Beth, but at her.

  "You took that child out carousing and got her drunk."

  "No! That's not—"

  "I was beginning to believe you'd changed. You seemed to be working hard, taking your responsibilities seriously. I should have known better. You just couldn't resist falling back into your old ways, could you?"

  Maggie's chin came up. "Before you start throwing accusations around, you might get the facts. I didn't—"

  "No. I don't want to hear any of your lies and excuses."

  "Daddy, you've got it all wro—" Jo Beth started to shake her head, then groaned and twisted back around to hang over the commode again.

  "Oh, my poor baby." Lily squeezed past the two men and Maggie to tend to her youngest daughter.

  "What in the world is going on in here?" Nan strode into the room, tightening the sash on her robe. "Doesn't anyone in this house know what time it is?"

  "Stay out of this, Nan," Jacob ordered, never taking his eyes from Maggie. "I warned you what would happen if you caused trouble. I will give you until noon tomorrow to pack your things and leave this house. And this time, don't come back."

  "Jacob!" Nan and Lily gasped in unison, but he ignored them both.

  "Take me back to my room, Charley. I've seen enough."

  "Jacob Malone, have you lost your mind?" Nan started after him, but Maggie put a hand on her arm and stopped her.

  "No. Let him go, Aunt Nan."

  "But, Maggie—"

  "Don't worry." Maggie's gaze followed her father's slow progress down the hall. Her expression remained calm, but inside the old hurt churned.

  Shaking off the pain, she managed a weak smile for her aunt. "We'll get it all sorted out in the morning. By then Jo Beth will be able to tell him what really happened. Now, why don't you and Momma go back to bed? I'll take care of Jo Beth."

  Lily would have argued, but Nan took charge and guided her out, reminding her that Charley probably needed her assistance getting Jacob settled again.

  When they had gone Maggie helped her sister get into her nightgown and tucked her into bed. She placed a cool wet cloth in a decorative dish on the nightstand, along with a glass of water, and put a plastic trash can beside the bed. When she was done she hung Jo Beth's discarded clothes in the closet.

  "There, I think you're all set." She glanced at the empty twin bed next to the one in which Jo Beth lay moaning and thought of what had awaited her in her own. "You know, if you'd like, I could sleep in here tonight. Just in case you get sick again."

  Jo Beth opened one bleary eye. For an instant Maggie thought she saw relief there, but her sister's expression turned sullen and she closed her eye again and shrugged. "Makes no difference to me. I can take care of myself."

  "Fine, then I'll see you in the morning."

  She turned to leave, but her steps faltered when a familiar photograph caught her eye. It lay next to an open album on her sister's desk. Curious, Maggie walked over for a closer look.

  The picture had been cut from a magazine. It was a full-page ad for Eve Cosmetics showing a close-up of her own face, with her trademark provocative smile and laughing eyes. She'd done the shoot months ago.

  Maggie stared at the open album. "What is this?" she asked, but Jo Beth didn't answer, and when she glanced over her shoulder she saw that her sister was asleep.

  She looked back at the album and hesitated, but curiosity won out. Slowly, she paged backward, all the way to the beginning. Her amazement grew with every page she turned. Each contained clippings of the various ads that she'd done during the past year.

  On the shelf above the desk, Maggie noticed other albums. On closer inspection, she found that they were all filled with her clippings, and each one bore a number, one through six. She flipped over the album on the desk and saw that it was labeled with the number seven. One for every year that she'd been modeling.

  Maggie stared, dumbfounded. Her little sister had been keeping scrapbooks of her career. It appeared she had a copy of every photo ad she had ever done, plus clippings and pictures from gossip columns and society pages of various newspapers.

  Maggie looked back at the sleeping girl. Why, Jo Beth Malone, you little fraud. All that antagonism is nothing more than a defensive shield.

  But it was a defense that Maggie understood all too well. Loving and not being loved in return hurt. It was easier to pretend you didn't care.

  Maggie ran her fingers over the scrapbooks and glanced at Jo Beth again, then quietly left the room. Five minutes later she returned, dressed in her nightgown, and climbed into the twin bed beside her sister's.

  * * *

  Fourteen

  « ^ »

  The next morning, Maggie returned from an early run and rousted the hungover girl out of bed at seven, ignoring her groans and whines and claims of imminent death.

  "C'mon, get a move on, little sister."

  "Ooooh, I can't. My head. My head."

  "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you overindulge in that 'who hit John.'"

  "I'm dying, I tell you. I gotta go back to bed."

  "Oh, no you don't. I need to get to work, but you have some explaining to do before I can. I did my best to shield you, but I'm not taking the fall for you on this one, kiddo. There's too much at stake. So move it."

  "Okay, okay. I'm going. Just stop shouting, will you?"

  With the advancing season, breakfast had been moved back into the dining room a few weeks before. The whole family was already there when Maggie and Jo Beth arrived downstairs.

  However, Jacob was no more in a mood to listen than he'd been the previous night.

  He watched in grim-lipped disapproval as his youngest daughter eased herself into a chair with excruciating care, propped her elbows on the table and cradled her head between her palms. Slowly, in a voice that reflected her misery, she recited her sins of the night before.

  "So don't blame Maggie. She had nothing to do with it," she ended in a reedy whisper.

  "If I find out you're lying to protect your sister—"

  "She isn't lying," Dan said from the doorway, and every head swiveled in that direction. "I went with Maggie to Rowdy's to bring Jo Beth home."

  He ambled into the dining room and poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot on the sideboard, then sat down across from Maggie and looked at Jacob. "She was just trying to help."

  Jacob stared at him. "I see. Well, that, uh … that does put a different light on things."

  "Yeah," Jo Beth mumbled, still holding her head. "Instead of ragging on Maggie, you oughta be thanking her. We had a talk on the way home last night, and she convinced me that I should go to college."

  Maggie shot the girl a startled look. Considering Jo Beth's condition at the time, she was surprised that she remembered their conversation, and she certainly hadn't had time to think it over. Jo Beth had to have made a snap decision just now.

  "Oh, thank heaven," Lily exclaimed.

  As Jacob and Nan added their approval, Maggie eyed her little sister. She couldn't help but be suspicious. Had the announcement been an attempt to help get Maggie back in Jacob's good graces? Or had it been merely a cleve
r ploy to take the heat off herself?

  "Aaah. Please, y'all, keep it down, will ya?" Jo Beth begged, gripping her head tightly. "And before you get too excited, you might as well know, I'm not going to study business. I'm going to major in theater arts."

  "What? Now, see here—"

  "Easy, brother," Nan cautioned. "The important thing is, she's going to college. At this point I think you'd be wise to just smile and count your blessings."

  Jacob didn't like it. He glared and huffed, but after a moment he resigned himself and agreed. He even congratulated Jo Beth and told her that he was proud of her for making the right choice.

  "And it appears that I owe you my thanks for talking some sense into her, Katherine." He cleared his throat. "I, uh … I also owe you an apology. I shouldn't have blamed you for your sister's folly. That was unfair of me, and I'm sorry."

  Maggie stared at him. Never once had her father ever apologized to her for anything.

  Realizing suddenly that her mouth was hanging open she snapped it shut and murmured, "That's, uh … that's all right."

  Maggie had no idea what she ate or how or if she responded to the conversation around her. She knew it was foolish to be so affected by a simple apology. It was long overdue—a mere crumb, really. Nevertheless, she couldn't remember ever being so happy.

  When she and Dan met with Jacob in the family room after breakfast and told him about the vandalism and their suspicions, not even his explosive reaction could dim the glow of happiness deep inside her.

  More than she dreaded her father's anger, Maggie hated to burden him with bad news. In the two months that she'd been home he had steadily declined.

  They had taken him back to the hospital twice more to have his lungs drained, and each time it took him longer to bounce back, and never as much as the time before.

  He was so weak he required assistance merely to stand. Consequently he spent most of his time in bed or propped up on a mound of pillows in his recliner in the family room.

  Her mother fussed over him and daily Ida Lou tried to tempt him with his favorite foods, but his appetite was almost nonexistent. He'd lost so much weight his skin seemed to hang on his bones and his complexion had such a deathly gray cast it wrung Maggie's heart every time she looked at him.

  Bit by bit, he was slipping away from them, and there was nothing they could do about it. For Maggie the knowledge was especially painful, knowing that the hope she'd carried in her heart all of her life would die with him.

  However, no matter how much the insidious disease ravaged Jacob's body, nothing could rob him of his mind or his spirit, and when his anger came, Maggie was braced for it.

  "Dammit, why the hell didn't you come to me with this before?" he demanded after scanning the list of incidents that she'd compiled.

  "What was the point? You wouldn't have believed me. Anyway, at first it was just a suspicion. I had no proof that the incidents were anything more than a string of incredible bad luck. Now there's no longer any doubt. It appears whoever is doing this has decided that he wants us to know we're under attack."

  Jacob shook his head. "It's still difficult to believe. The people in this area depend on the cannery for a living. Why in God's name would anyone do this?"

  "The Tolivers aren't exactly fond of us," Maggie offered.

  "Maybe. But they've hated us for over seventy years. Why go on the offensive now?"

  "Maybe they heard about the offer from Bountiful Foods. I'm sure they'd be tickled if we were forced to sell out."

  "True. Still, I can't see them stooping to something like this unless they stood to gain, and gain big. The Tolivers never stir themselves to do anything unless there's a profit involved."

  "There's always a ticked-off ex-employee," Dan said, speaking up for the first time. "Someone with an imagined grudge."

  "Hmm. Maybe."

  Maggie exchanged a quick look with Dan, then cleared her throat. "Martin seems anxious for us to sell."

  "What are you saying? That Martin is out to ruin us? Don't be ridiculous, girl. He's a vice president, and his wife will be a major shareholder soon. That would be cutting off his nose to spite his face. Martin's not the brightest bulb in the box, but he's not stupid."

  "Yet he has repeatedly urged you to take Bountiful's offer."

  "Only because he wants us to salvage what we can before it's too late. And he certainly wouldn't do anything that would devalue the company before the sale."

  Jacob scowled and pointed a bony finger at Maggie. "Just because you resent Martin isn't any reason to make unfounded accusations. Do you have a shred of evidence linking him to even one of these acts?"

  Maggie exhaled a long sigh. "No, none." The truth was, Martin had been out of town almost every time something had occurred.

  "I thought not. Any more theories?"

  She shook her head. She didn't dare mention Jo Beth. Anyway, she had all but ruled out her sister.

  "All right, so we have no idea who's doing this," Dan said. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

  "I don't think we have any choice," Maggie replied. "We have to hire twenty-four-hour security to patrol the orchards and the cannery."

  "What? Don't be absurd. This is Ruby Falls, not New York. You expect me to guard my business from friends and neighbors? Folks around here would take that as an insult. Next thing you'll be saying, we should all lock our doors."

  Maggie thought about her slashed tires and the rat she'd found in her bed the night before, and barely suppressed a shudder. She had yet to mention either incident to anyone and had no intention of doing so. They had both seemed so … so personal, so obviously intended to frighten and degrade her. It was humiliating. Besides, she was still leery of what her father's reaction would be.

  "Actually, I was going to suggest that."

  "Oh, for— What's next? A moat with alligators?"

  "Daddy, I know it's difficult to accept, but someone around here is behind all this, and his acts of vandalism are escalating."

  "Yeah, well, you can just forget hiring any security. We can't afford to do that."

  "We can't afford not to," Maggie insisted in a quiet voice.

  She pulled papers from a file folder and passed them out to her father and Dan. "The top few pages are a breakdown on what the incidents have cost us so far. While they don't totally account for our plunge in profits, they are hurting us. Badly. At the back you'll find bids from three security companies, two out of Dallas and one out of Houston. As you can see, their fees for the same span of time would have been much less than the damage cost us."

  "Hmm." Jacob scanned the papers. "Well, you've certainly done your homework, I'll say that for you."

  He looked up and drilled her with a penetrating stare. "If this malicious mischief doesn't account for all our losses, what does?"

  "I don't know yet. But I'm going to find out. I think the answer lies in the books. I can't put my finger on what exactly, but there's something that's just not quite right there."

  "Are you suggesting that someone in the office is embezzling?"

  "I'm not suggesting anything yet. At this point all I can do is go with my instincts."

  She didn't bother to mention that those same instincts were telling her that Elaine Udall was somehow involved in whatever was going on.

  At the moment she had no proof and no real reason to dismiss the woman, beyond disliking her intensely. Elaine was frosty and officious, and she pushed Maggie's patience to the limit, but she never quite stepped over the line into outright insubordination.

  "That's why I've been going through the books after hours. If someone is doing some creative bookkeeping I don't want them to know that I'm suspicious. But I intend to find out what's going on and put a stop to it."

  "See that you do."

  "So. Do I have your okay to hire security guards?"

  Jacob looked at Dan. "What's your opinion?"

  "I think Maggie's right. We've taken it on the chin long enough. We don't
have any choice but to protect ourselves."

  Jacob scowled, clearly uncomfortable with the idea, but finally he nodded. "All right, see to it. But don't sign any long-term contracts. If we don't see results fast, they're out."

  "Okay." Maggie stood up. "I'll get on it as soon as I get to the office. Now, if you'll excuse me."

  Maggie left the house through the French doors leading out of the family room. Through the windows, both men watched her cross the terrace with that leggy stride and lope down the steps, heading for the garage. When she was out of sight, Jacob turned to Dan.

  "Well, you were right. You said that she would tell me what she suspected, and she did."

  Dan frowned and shifted in his chair. "She was just waiting until she had enough proof to convince you."

  "I noticed she didn't say anything about someone chasing her through the orchard, though."

  "I imagine she was afraid that would upset you."

  Either that, or she's afraid that it won't, Dan added silently. He suspected the latter, and that bothered him. He didn't like having such thoughts about Jacob, but he'd have to be blind not to notice the man's coolness to his oldest daughter. He'd never known Jacob to treat anyone as harshly as he did Maggie. Dan didn't understand it.

  "She never worried about upsetting me in the past. Used to go out of her way to rattle my cage. I'm telling you, that girl used to pull some of the most outlandish stunts imaginable."

  "Hell, Jacob, that was more than ten years ago. She's not a kid anymore. Look, I'm through doing this. Reporting on everything Maggie does makes my skin crawl. I don't know what you're worried about, anyway. She's bright and hard-working, and if you ask me, she doing a helluva good job under trying conditions."

  "Maybe. You don't think she's up to something?"

  "Like what, for Christ's sake?"

  "Like maybe trying to wreck the business. Or steal it from her sisters."

  "If she wanted to ruin the company all she had to do was sit back and do nothing. We were already in trouble and heading down a slippery slope when she took over. Remember? And how could she steal the business?"