“Well, the pain isn’t life-threatening, I understand. He had a nurse call me this morning. She said he was stable and they were trying to figure out just how to keep him that way. She said he would be there no more than a few days. It’s possible he could testify.”
“Do you think we could talk this woman who had such startling results into testifying? That could be very crucial. It justifies Elizabeth’s motive very strongly.”
Adrienne and Elizabeth looked at each other. They had no answer. “We could ask her,” Elizabeth said doubtfully.
“Yes, we could ask her,” Adrienne echoed thinly.
“Why don’t I call her?” Kate offered. It was evident the lawyer thought she could sway her into making the right decision, and Elizabeth didn’t like it.
Before she could say a word, though, Serenity walked in, right behind Kellan and Gregory. “Hello, hello,” Kellan greeted the room at large.
Standing nearby, Serenity nodded pleasantly to each of the people there as Kellan leaned over and gave her mother a hug and a kiss, even as her grandmother stood up, protesting.
“Your mother just saw you weeks ago, Kellan, and I haven’t seen you in months,” the old woman complained, but Carol had already jumped up and claimed her godchild before Kellan could get to Virginia Mae and then, last, her father.
Following that, introductions were made all around, with lots of handshakes. Drawing Serenity in closer, Kellan explained, “We saw Serenity walking up the road and offered to bring her with us. She said Mehalia was here and besides, she wanted to say something to you, Mom.”
All eyes moved to the very pretty young girl, dressed in a flowing yellow skirt and simple white blouse topped with a colorful sweater. Her face, glowing from the briskness of the pleasant day, was captivating.
“Yes, ma’am,” the low voice spoke elegantly and Carol, impressed, thought that this was one self-assured teenager. But looking like that, what else could she be?
“I wanted to say how very sorry I am for what happened. I thought we made everything look so . . . ordinary, so . . . so natural. I am very sorry also that you fell.”
Serenity shook her head sadly, which caused the long rippling mantle of dark wavy hair to dance.
Elizabeth was nodding and smiling at the pretty apology, but Adrienne wasn’t buying it.
She focused intent eyes on the child and asked in a direct, hard voice, “Serenity, do you know how much the ten joints you gave Elizabeth are worth?”
With a clear, uncomplicated face, Serenity answered, “Four hundred dollars.”
Elizabeth’s eyes dropped to the floor as her face reddened. She hated confrontations and even now could not believe this child was capable of any real mischief.
Adrienne shook her head. “The police valued those joints at one hundred dollars.”
Serenity merely shrugged. “I explained everything to Mrs. Whittaker. Perhaps she did not explain it to you?” She paused and waited for Adrienne to say something. When she did not, she patiently explained again. “The joints were passed through three other dealers before they came to me. Each wanted their cut, including the original dealer. I’m sorry, but it was the best I could do.”
Adrienne wasn’t finished. “Why did you put each joint in a separate plastic bag this time? You had never done that before.”
Serenity didn’t particularly like these questions, but she forced herself to remain unperturbed. With remarkable casualness a tiny smile lit her face. She motioned to Elizabeth. “She told me it would be the last time and I wanted to be make it easy. A little more special.”
“But you marked them each with a number. Why?”
Again the girl lifted a graceful shoulder. “Just to be different. Make it a little different.”
She was perfect, Adrienne thought. Perfect inflection in her voice, face casting just the right amount of certainty to make everything she said so plausible. But Adrienne knew something Serenity didn’t. She and Mehalia had talked yesterday. Now it was time to bring this farce to an end.
“Mehalia, please come in here.” Adrienne never took her eyes off Serenity. Serenity’s grandmother had been hovering just out of sight, hearing everything, and she immediately walked in.
Carol, chin resting on a hand, wondered what was going on.
“If what you are saying is true,” Mehalia said, her back as erect as her innate sense of right and wrong, “then explain how you have precisely the amount of money those other three dealers should have?”
She flung out the hidden hand, holding several one-hundred-dollar bills. “Fifteen hundred, to be exact.”
Carol saw the slight ripple, the tightening of Serenity’s mouth, but only because she was watching so closely. This unexpected drama was fascinating.
“You know where I found this?” Mehalia demanded.
Serenity nodded slowly. “In my room. Between the mattresses of my bed.”
“And where in this world would you get fifteen hundred dollars?” Mehalia’s angry face suddenly tumbled into worry and sadness, and her strong shoulders began to sag.
“Granny, that is the money I’ve been saving all my life.” These words were spoken with such honesty Mehalia faltered. But Adrienne Moore did not.
“Come on, Serenity. Give it up, girl. You’ve been caught. You charged Elizabeth, well, all of us, thirty dollars more each time we bought a joint from you. Three hundred dollars for five weeks too conveniently adds up to exactly the amount of money Mehalia found.”
The young girl looked around, gauging their reaction. She tossed her head, her demeanor haughty. “I see you’re not going to believe me if I deny it; you’ve already made up your minds.” Then she seemed to change course as deftly as if she were steering a boat through treacherous and deceptive water.
She looked at her grandmother. “What do you want me to do, Granny?”
Startled that her granddaughter was actually asking her advice, Mehalia put the money down on the table in front of Elizabeth. “Get down on your knees and apologize to this fine lady for what you did—apologize that you are a cheat and a liar.”
The girl looked seriously at her grandmother as if absorbing those words and within a long moment of consideration, literally became them.
Trembling, as if gripped in a clench of repentance and shame, Serenity fell fluidly to her knees in front of Elizabeth, tears beginning to pool in her eyes then gently cascading down her face. It took several moments before she was able to talk.
“Mrs. Whittaker,” she said, her voice filled with anguish. “I am so very sorry . . . You must think I’m awful, and you’re right. I am a terrible, terrible person like my granny just said. You have no obligation to do so (sob), but please, ma’am, I ask (sniff) . . . I ask, no, I beg . . . please, could you (sniff) please forgive me?” The girl was in misery and Elizabeth’s soft heart couldn’t stand it, listening to her cry.
She reached out and touched Serenity’s bowed head. “Serenity dear, please, it’s okay; of course I forgive you.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when the elegant head shot up, the beautiful face cleared. Elizabeth’s words had eliminated any more need for a performance. There was no more sniffling; the tears stopped. Serenity flung off the image of a sincere apologist and rose, turned slightly to look at her grandmother. “Happy?”
Startled at the smooth impudence she saw in those clear eyes, Mehalia was too stunned to say a word. Everyone in the room stared, motionless.
Serenity’s hand shot out, snatched the money cleanly off the table. With graceful ease she turned and walked away. Although her steps were swift, she managed to retain an elegance that seemed perfectly natural.
Mehalia, a hand over her mouth, sank into the closest chair, trembling. She was beyond anger; she was filled with a fatal hopelessness. What in the world was going to happen to this child?
The older woman was not crying, but her eyes were moist and she blinked rapidly. Elizabeth, wanting to go and comfort her friend, got up a little
too quickly and reached out to steady herself on Adrienne’s chair.
At the same time, Adrienne was trying to apologize to Mehalia and everyone all at once. “I am sorry. I didn’t know this was going to happen, Mehalia; I just wanted to make her see that what she had done was wrong.”
Kate was watching the entire scene, wondering if anything could be used to help the defense. Michael wondered if he should just call the sheriff’s department and turn this girl in and be done with it all. He also wondered just where Serenity was taking all that money.
Elizabeth by now had reached Mehalia and put her arms around the old woman, murmuring words of comfort.
“What am I going to do, Elizabeth? I don’t have any earthly idea what I can do to make that child understand what she’s doing. I just don’t know . . .”
“Shhh, we’ll work it out. She’s not a bad person, Mehalia, she just needs some . . .” She floundered briefly before finally saying, “We’ll find someone who can help her.”
Carol, who had watched the performance from start to finish, was glowing and although she had not yet spoken, Serenity was barely out of the room before she mouthed one word: Wow.
Virginia Mae was appalled. “I cannot believe that child. Well, she’s hardly a child anymore. She should know better. I bet she’s a—what do you call those people who have no conscience—a sociopath? Like Ted Bundy; yes indeed, that girl is a sociopath. Mehalia, she’s going to murder you in your bed if you don’t do something about her,” she admonished the old woman, waving a finger in her direction, which finally caused tears to flow over and out. Mehalia fished out a handkerchief from a pocket and buried her face in it, her sobs quiet and desperate.
Carol finally found her voice and stood up. “Mehalia.” Her voice cut through the nonsense and caught the old woman’s attention. “We have to talk. Let’s go into the kitchen.”
No one had any idea what Carol could possibly want with the old lady, except Gordon. Although he, too, had been appalled at the girl’s duplicity, he had also seen Carol’s reaction. What seemed like aberrant, even immoral, behavior to some, Carol saw as great talent.
Go figure, he thought. Carol was part of the world of make-believe, and that girl certainly had a knack for it. He followed the two women into the kitchen.
Kellan was barely listening to what was going on around them; she was too busy exchanging glances with Gregory.
Since they had met just weeks ago, they had talked every day on the phone. Last weekend and last night they had spent together.
But it wasn’t a typical lovers’ tryst. This was a man she could entrust herself to, she knew it intuitively; he would not hurt her or take advantage of her. He had a guest bedroom. At the end of each evening they had stood in front of that door, he kissed her, said good night, and left for his own room.
It was so honorable, she had told her mother just a few days ago. “He’s treating me with such respect. And we’re learning about each other in small, wonderful ways . . . We’re becoming intimate with our feelings, rather than jumping into bed and losing ourselves in a fit of physical passion that might not go anywhere. It’s really special.”
Elizabeth had been so happy for her. And Kellan had never been more radiant. Gregory, too, smiled more but was still conflicted.
Kellan kept telling him to stop worrying and then did her best to chase away all the fears. She had succeeded too well in making him forget . . . It had been idyllic. They created a harmony that made them complete. And there was the expectancy, the anticipation of waiting that made everything brighter and more intensely real.
He was learning, slowly, that the future would have to take care of itself.
Michael, too, had noticed the glances between his daughter and this Gregory person. The young man seemed to be nice, though Michael hadn’t heard the first word about him. That would change before this day ended.
The phone rang and Elizabeth went to get it. With a brief good-bye, Carol had driven off with Mehalia to find her granddaughter and taken Gordon with her.
Virginia Mae was disgusted with the whole situation. They had turned everything into a carnival; once Carol had left, she walked into the kitchen to clean up and perhaps have another plate or so of the delicious food.
Moment’s later Elizabeth came back, holding the cordless. “That was Albert. He talked with Pearl and Sally. They all planned to be here this afternoon”—she said this to Kate, glancing at Adrienne—“but everyone is feeling really lousy and they send their regrets.”
“I see.” Kate sat, thinking for a long moment.
Adrienne and Elizabeth looked at each other, wondering what was going to happen now. Again, Adrienne murmured softly, “I am sorry about Serenity.”
Elizabeth just shrugged and smiled. “It doesn’t matter.”
Kate Wilkins spoke up. “Elizabeth, may I speak with you privately?”
“Of course,” Elizabeth said, uneasy. “We can go sit out on the back deck. It’s adjacent to my bedroom.”
Kate nodded to the others and followed Elizabeth through one of the sliding glass doors.
Michael frowned, not liking this at all, but he felt powerless. He looked over at Gregory with curiosity and spoke. “Now, you are . . . Gregory? Am I getting it right?”
“Yes, sir, Gregory Jamison.” The young man held out a hand.
Michael approved of the strength he felt there and then he eyed his daughter. “How come I’ve never met this young man?” He said this with a quizzical smile and watched Kellan’s face beam as though she’d won the lottery.
“Because I only met him a few weeks ago. I haven’t had time to bring him home. Mom knows him, though.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, sir. She’s a fine woman.” Gregory wondered how far he should go with this. Should he tell Mr. Whittaker everything now or what? What was the protocol in a situation like this? He looked away and saw Adrienne smile.
She moved over to where he sat and began talking. “I think Elizabeth has shown amazing courage through this whole ordeal. I know you must be very proud. And it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Whittaker. She has told me such good things about you.” Adrienne’s smile was wide and inviting.
“I’ve heard a great deal about you, too, Mrs. Moore,” he said solemnly, “and it’s Michael.”
She extended a hand. “Adrienne.”
The doors were open and Kate and Elizabeth walked back in. Michael frowned when he saw how pale his wife looked.
“Is everything all right?”
He was deaf to the harshness of his worry, but Elizabeth felt it, and it made her own voice curt. “Everything’s fine.” She turned away before she saw the hurt in his eyes.
Kate Wilkins was putting things back into her briefcase as she spoke.
“It’s been a pleasure meeting all of you.” She nodded to the room at large and then pulled out a cell phone from her briefcase. “Michael, I’m calling my son to come pick me up.” She glanced around and explained, “The family’s at our river place this weekend; my son is waiting for my call.” A few moments later she switched the phone off. “He should be here in about ten minutes. Michael, perhaps you could keep me company out front and we can chat a bit?”
And then she and Michael were gone. “What did she talk to you about?” Adrienne was curious but Elizabeth shook her head.
“Kellan, are you and Gregory planning on spending the night here?”
Kellan shook her head. “No, we planned on going back to Fredericksburg. Gregory’s promised me the grand tour.”
Elizabeth saw the happiness brimming in her daughter’s eyes and refused to think beyond that one thought.
“If that’s all right with you, Elizabeth,” Gregory added earnestly. He didn’t want to do anything upsetting.
Elizabeth smiled. “Just take good care of my daughter.”
He smiled and she was struck again at what an attractive man he was. “You have nothing to worry about.” She could see the matching joy in his ey
es and for the briefest of moments, envied them.
Kellan slipped her hand inside his larger one. “Thanks, Mom.”
Virginia Mae walked into the family room after finishing putting away the leftovers.
“Kellan, how would you like to go with me to the shop down the road? I saw some beautiful dresses in the window as I was driving here. They would look wonderful on you.” Her grandmother sat down and looked at her expectantly.
“I’m sorry, Grammy, but I’m going to Fredericksburg with Gregory. We’re leaving in just a little bit.”
“Oh, no,” a disappointed Virginia Mae exclaimed, her voice hurt. “I see you for barely three seconds and you’re leaving. Why, I expected you to spend the night. I never get to see you, and certainly your mother wants to spend time with you—”
“Mother.” Elizabeth’s tired voice was firm. “They are going to Fredericksburg.” Then she stood up, cueing the young couple to stand up and make their getaway.
At the front door Kellan threw her arms around her mother and whispered, “You’re the best, Mom. Thanks.”
Elizabeth smiled and watched as the two young people went to say good-bye to Michael. She turned to go back inside and found her mother standing rigidly in the hallway, hands on her hips, glaring at her.
“Who is that young man, and how can you just let your daughter go off with him? They’re probably going to be sleeping together, Elizabeth! How can you allow this?”
Elizabeth smiled at her mother. “I trust my daughter. That’s all I need to know.” She walked past Virginia Mae to sit with Adrienne.
Virginia Mae was left gaping, absolutely shocked at how her daughter was behaving. It took several seconds before it dawned on her no one noticed her anger. She closed her mouth, straightened her back, and walked into the kitchen, thinking she, too, would get in her car and leave. After one more cup of coffee. That would show them all. They would be sorry, especially Elizabeth. She would deprive her daughter of the pleasure of her mother’s company.
A Sundog Moment Page 33