Stamped Out

by Thayer, Terri

  Rocky made a face. “Well, I don’t know what you want from me, Mitchell. It’s paint, and if the paint is gone . . .” She shrugged her shoulders.

  April stepped in. “Wait. You can’t really tell how bad it is without taking a look at the wall. Can you come over there with me? Mrs. H. won’t be there right now. She would never have to know I was there.”

  Rocky looked as though she’d forgotten April was part of the conversation. “Not now. I’ve got four more holes to play. My club championship is at stake here.”

  April bit the inside of her lip. Her mind raced. She said quickly, “Can we get Mrs. H. out of the house tomorrow? I could see if my dad could take her to the supply house to pick out fixtures.” She hit her forehead. “That won’t work. I don’t want to tell my dad yet.”

  Mitch held up a hand. “Not to worry. It’s wash-and-set day.”

  April stared at him. Rocky let out a barking laugh.

  “Brother,” she said, “you’ve been neutered. What do you know about wash-and-set?”

  Mitch defended himself. “I’ve been working in that house for the past five months. Friday is beauty parlor day. Every week at 9 a.m. Pardon me for noticing.”

  Rocky grinned at him. “Eunuch!”

  “Tomorrow, then,” April said, eager to nail Rocky down. “I’ll meet you there at nine.”

  A cart careened off the path, barely missing running over them. April, Mitch and Rocky scattered. April felt her heart pound, and not just from the near miss.

  The driver jumped out. Her feet were bare and she looked as though she’d just gotten out of the shower. April was relieved. This was not Mrs. H.

  “Where’s Piper?” she asked, her eyes wild.

  Rocky said, “Yo, Suzi, chill. You nearly ran us over.”

  This was Suzi? April looked closer. She hadn’t recognized the stamper, whose short hair was plastered against her skull.

  Suzi pushed a wet strand off her face. “Piper!” she called. “Come here.”

  Tammy, Piper and Mary Lou walked over. Piper looked concerned at her friend’s state.

  “Not all of you. Just Piper needs to hear this,” Suzi said, out of breath, her face flushed. She stopped to catch her breath, pushing on her chest with the flat of her hand.

  “Hear what?” Rocky asked. She’d stopped swinging her club, all her attention on Suzi now.

  Suzi looked from Piper to the group and back again. “Look you guys, this doesn’t really concern you. I just need to tell Piper something. I’m not even supposed to know.”

  “Know what?” Piper said.

  “Spit it out,” Rocky said. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell us.” She looked around the group. “All of us.”

  Suzi looked to Piper for permission. Piper nodded.

  Suzi took in a breath. “Mitzi Parkhurst is in the dressing room telling everyone. Her husband is Dr. Parkhurst?” Suzi’s voice went up at the end in a question.

  Everyone stilled. Rocky was the only one who kept moving, sliding the club into her golf bag. The club banged into the others with a noisy clang.

  The moment stretched. April didn’t understand what was going on. A bullfrog croaked deeply in the water hazard, a barking noise that sounded human and sent a chill through April. A hawk soared overhead. The breeze ruffled through the willow tree. Giggles from the foursome on the next hole filtered back to them.

  “So?” Rocky said. She sounded casual, as though she didn’t care what Suzi had to say. But April detected a vein throbbing in her forehead and found her actions a little too studied. Her gaze kept slipping over to Tammy.

  Suzi said, “Dr. Parkhurst, the dentist.”

  “We know he’s a dentist, Suzi. Get to the point,” Rocky said.

  “The Castle. The skull,” Suzi said, stuttering. “He had a patient that matched the dental records of the skull. Mitzi’s not supposed to tell anyone, but she’s in there, blabbing . . .”

  April froze. The identity of the dead man was about to be revealed.

  Rocky roared, “Who is it, dammit?”

  Suzi’s eyes searched for Piper, who was standing still as though she’d taken root to the sawgrass beneath her feet. Suzi’s gaze didn’t leave Piper’s face. “It’s Frankie. Frankie Imperiale.”

  Piper’s eyes grew wide, and she brought her hand up over her open mouth. She made a groaning noise, and she bit down on the soft space between her thumb and finger.

  Frankie Imperiale was the body in the Castle. Dots floated in front of April’s eyes. She blinked to clear her vision. The sun was too bright.

  Frankie Imperiale. Now April knew where her father’s last employee from 1993 was. Buried in the Castle wall.

  Her throat closed as though she was trying to swallow golf balls. She had to get to her father. Did he know? What would Yost do if he knew? Had the cops already arrested him?

  April was surprised to hear Mitch speak first. “For sure?” he asked. He was frowning, arms tightly across his chest. He glanced at his sister. April heard recognition in his voice. How would he know this guy? He wasn’t home that summer. Was the name someone their father knew?

  Rocky shook her head at her brother slightly. He took a step toward her, as though to protect her. The memory of Frankie was between them. April didn’t know what their connection was, but it was palpable.

  The group of golfers was quiet, each of them taking in the information that Frankie Imperiale’s skull had been found in the Castle ruins. Mary Lou cleared her throat.

  Piper finally broke the silence. “He’s dead? The son of a bitch is dead? For how long?” Her voice trailed off, as if the effort of talking was more than she could handle.

  Suzi went to her, smoothing her hair, murmuring.

  “Who is this guy?” Mary Lou asked.

  April was confused, too, but no one answered her question. Piper stared straight ahead. Rocky, Mitch and Tammy formed a tight knot.

  A splash broke the reverie. In the nearby water hazard, a mallard dove, showing his tail feathers. When he righted himself, the sun glinted off his iridescent coat.

  “What’s Frankie Imperiale got to do with you, Piper?” Rocky said, the driver in her hand finally still.

  Piper’s response was lost in a strangled sob.

  Suzi explained, “Frankie is Jesse’s father.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Piper glared at Suzi, who shook her head slowly. “I promised I would never tell and I never did,” she said. Piper’s cries grew more desperate.

  Suzi hustled the now shaking Piper into their golf cart and took off.

  April exchanged a glance with Mary Lou, who shrugged dramatically.

  “That explains why none of us were invited to that wedding,” Mary Lou said.

  Rocky put an arm around Tammy, who’d gone pale. “She invented a husband who never existed. And we all bought it.” Rocky’s tone was almost admiring.

  Tammy said, “I can’t picture her with Frankie. I never remember even seeing them together.”

  Mary Lou said, “You can never be sure why some people fall for each other. It looks like Piper always thought Frankie was coming back to her someday.”

  Mitch was scowling. He didn’t look as attractive when he was mad. April preferred his smiling countenance. She wondered what his relationship to Frankie was. It was clear it had something to do with Rocky, but what?

  He started for his cart, but April headed him off. She grabbed the keys out of his hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Going to my father. Frankie Imperiale was his apprentice. He needs to know he’s dead.”

  She left him, his frown growing deeper.

  Ed had found her in the woods almost to Mirabella. The partying kids were spreading, getting closer to the Castle. Ed was uneasy. April wanted to disappear into the crowds.

  “April, please. Come back to the trailer. I need to wait for Yost. I promised him I would stay there until he got free.”

  “No, Dad, let me go. I don’t want to g
o back to that place. You’re practically living there. Your crossword puzzle, your Far Side mug.” Her voice broke. Her Father’s Day present.

  He drove her home instead. They sat at the kitchen table. April on one side of the banquette, Ed across from her. He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away.

  He sighed heavily. “You’re right, bug. I have been spending my nights at the Castle job. And you’re right to suspect it’s not about work.”

  To her surprise, she saw tears in his eyes. Ed could be a sentimental guy, crying at movies and at birthdays, but she saw real pain on his face. He looked past her into the kitchen, his eyes taking in the room as though for the first time. Or the last. April shivered and rubbed her arms.

  Ed sniffed and turned back to her. Tears lingered in his eyes, and he wiped them away hard with the back of his hand.

  “I’m struggling, sweetie. I love your mother, but—”

  “I knew it. You’ve got a girlfriend,” April said, but she couldn’t sustain her anger. She only wanted him to end the affair. To come home. She wanted Ed to go back to living at home. Living with her.

  Ed shook his head ponderously. His shoulders hunched, he looked more miserable than April had ever seen him. “No affair. I’ve been feeling not right for some time.”

  April’s heart froze. She felt her hands get clammy. “Are you sick? Dying?” She tried to picture life without her father. Tears filled her eyes. He had a terrible disease and didn’t want to tell her.

  He sat up straight. “God, no, honey. No. I’m fine. Really. Healthy as a horse.”

  Her plea to him was a silent one.

  His face contorted. “Honey, I’m gay.”

  Ed told Bonnie as soon as she got home from work that he wanted to leave the marriage. Bonnie was angrier than April had ever seen her, but it was Ed April worried about. His sadness about breaking up the family seemed overwhelming. She stayed by his side, helping him set up a bed in the office over the garage, moving his clothes out of the master bedroom. And watching him until he fell asleep.

  The next day, she snuck out, hiking back to the job trailer at midday to get her bike and his favorite mug. When she got there, she saw that the Castle had been completely boarded up.

  April’s heart was thumping, her foot pounding the spongy accelerator into the floor of the cart. She seemed to be standing still, but she went around a curve and down a slight hill and was soon out of sight of Rocky and her golf cart.

  She found the fork where she and Mitch had switched directions and putted over the bumpy trail.

  As April approached the Castle site, a state policeman watched her approach. He put his palm up for her to stop. Beyond him, she could see stakes and string gridding the rubble. A man with thick rubber gloves was running a metal detector over the ground. A woman was squatted over a pile, picking through the sifted earth carefully.

  “You can’t go any farther,” he told her. His trooper hat obscured his looks. She wasn’t sure if this was the same trooper she’d met yesterday.

  “I just need to talk to my dad,” she said, pointing out Ed, who was standing on the far side, near the path that led up the embankment.

  “Wait here,” the trooper said. He conferred with another trooper, who nodded his assent. She saluted her thanks before blushing with the inanity of the gesture. What an idiot.

  “Leave the cart, and watch where you’re walking. Stay out of the site.”

  She nodded that she understood and jumped out of the cart. She skirted the yellow tape and walked to where her father stood, clicking his phone shut. She bussed his cheek. He gave her a half frown at her greeting.

  “That was Vince,” he said. “Our clients watch entirely too much HGTV. They think all of our work should be done in two days.” He sighed. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the mansion?”

  Her news about Frankie was forgotten. April didn’t like her father’s grayish tone and the way his skin seemed to be sagging. “Did you eat at all today?” she asked.

  Ed shrugged. “I don’t remember. Yes, yes, one of the staties went out and brought back hoagies. I had a half of an Italian sub.”

  April looked for Yost. He was talking to several state policemen who were watching the technicians working inside the gridded area. They moved deliberately, like the astronauts in tapes she’d seen of men on the moon.

  “Okay,” she said. Her response was drowned out as Yost raised his voice. She couldn’t make out the words, but the tone seemed combative.

  “Dad,” she began.

  Ed interrupted, focused on the problems at hand.

  “Friggin’ Yost,” her father said. Ed’s brow furrowed, the lines cutting across his forehead so deeply that April wanted to smooth them out. She knew he wouldn’t let her and so kept her fingers to herself.

  “He’s trying to tell the staties what to do. Thinks he knows everything. He’s not even on duty. It’s his day off.”

  “Dad, I heard they identified the body,” April said. “Frankie Imperiale.”

  “Where’d you hear that?” Ed asked.

  “It’s all over the club.”

  “What were you doing at the club?” he asked, rubbing his face hard. He moved his hands over his cheeks again and again. Was it the identification or the fact that it was being talked about at the club that was bothering him? April couldn’t tell.

  “Why weren’t you at Mirabella?” He looked more worried than he had a moment ago. April’s stomach flipped. “I was with Mitch,” she said. At his renewed interest, she said, “Had you heard?”

  “That it was Frankie? Yeah.” He shrugged. “Not that they fill me in,” he said, pointing at the police. “You think they’d tell a guy. I mean, this is my job site.”

  April put a hand on his shoulder, trying to stop him from winding up into a full-blown whine. He sighed, blowing his lips out.

  “Did you know him?”

  “Frankie? The name’s familiar.”

  “Dad, Frankie Imperiale used to work for you,” April said.

  Ed’s lips pursed. “No, he didn’t. I don’t remember him,” he said.

  “I found the payroll records from the Castle. He might have been an apprentice.”

  “I’ve had a lot of apprentices over the years . . .” Ed said, trailing off, his eyes squinting as though he could see into the past.

  April stuffed her hands in her back pockets. She looked to see if Yost was done yet. He had to be interested to know that the dead man worked for Ed.

  Her fingers closed on the belt buckle in her pocket. She looked at her father, his face gray around the edges from the stress he was under. He needed a little relief.

  She pulled out the buckle.

  “Hey, Dad, check this out.” She opened her palm. “Look what I found in the woods,” she said, offering up the belt buckle. As she’d hoped, a large smile creased his face. These wrinkles were not as deep as the ones on his forehead. He didn’t smile often enough. When he did, April felt the joy in his heart. She smiled back, glad to have given him some happiness.

  “Is that what I think it is?” he asked.

  She pushed her hand closer. “Take it.”

  He lifted it from her outstretched hand. “Well, I’ll be dipped in cow manure. I haven’t seen one of these in years.”

  He held up the buckle and examined it. He ran his finger over the raised lettering on the embossed panel truck. “Where did you find this?”

  “Out there.” She pointed into the trees. “Can you believe it? It must have been out in the woods for a long time.”

  “How about that?” Ed said, wonder in his voice. “I’d forgotten all about these. Your mother had them made, for Christmas gifts for the men. I think there were only about twenty of them. Mine is long gone. Man, I wore that thing all the time.”

  “I remember, especially the time you wore it to my Christmas band recital.” All the other fathers had been in suits, and Ed had shown up in his favorite jeans, proudly displaying his leather belt and
large brass buckle.

  They laughed. Ed said, “Those other parents were so stuck up. Just because their kids played violin.”

  “Remember the cello player’s dad, always carting around her instrument?”

  He laughed. “Of course, she wasn’t even five feet tall.”

  “Still,” she said. “What was she going to do when she went off to college?”