by Joanne Fluke
Andrea glanced up. “It’s beautiful and it must have cost a bundle.”
“Not that. I can tell it’s expensive. But it’s way up there. How do you clean it?”
“I should have known that would be the first question you’d ask.” Andrea gave a little laugh. “The answer is, you don’t clean that window. You hire someone to come in every month with a special ladder, and they clean that window.”
“But ... wouldn’t that be expensive?”
“Of course it would be expensive. But you don’t care about that because Phillip makes huge pots of money, and he needs to impress everyone with his expensive home.”
“Right.” Hannah trotted obediently after her sister as Andrea led the way to a massive kitchen that would be almost impossible for one ordinary housewife to keep clean, several powder rooms on the main floor, and a small bedroom, living room, and bathroom that Andrea called the maid’s suite.
The second floor was next, and Hannah counted six roomy bedrooms with walk-in closets and three full bathrooms. The master suite was behind doors and boasted a Jacuzzi in the massive bathroom, and a double fireplace that was built into the wall between the sitting room and the bedroom. There was even a refrigerator and a wine cooler in the sitting room, presumably there so that the master and mistress of the manor wouldn’t have to trek all the way down the stairs to get their late-evening libations.
Hannah was glad when Andrea locked the door behind them. All this luxury coupled with the enormous asking price of the house they’d just seen was making her head spin. It was a relief to go next door to the modest two-story home that belonged to Doctor Bev’s mother.
“If Diana’s not home, I’ll have to find something of hers to take with me,” Andrea said as she prepared to ring the doorbell. “I hope she invites us in.”
Hannah wasn’t sure what she expected when Mrs. Thorndike answered their knock on the door, but it certainly wasn’t the woman standing there. Bev’s mother was the polar opposite of Delores although they were roughly the same age. Doctor Bev’s mother was pleasantly plump, while Delores was sleek and svelte. And while Delores dressed in designer outfits, Doctor Bev’s mother was wearing pull-on slacks and an old University of Minnesota sweatshirt that had seen better days. Doctor Bev’s mother wore no makeup, and she’d had, in Hannah’s opinion, a total of zero facelifts.
“Hello,” she said cheerily. “I’m Judy Thorndike. I saw you looking at the house next door.”
“Grace Benson from Up-Front Realty,” Andrea introduced herself. “This is my client, Mrs. Newhall.”
“Call me Joyce,” Hannah held out her hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Mrs. Thorndike.”
“ Judy. So what did you think of the house?”
“It’s just beautiful,” Hannah said truthfully, “but I think it might be a little too large for us.”
“How many children do you have?”
“Two,” Hannah replied. But at almost the same time, Andrea said, “Three.”
Hannah’s mind went on red alert. Andrea had strayed from the script. She latched on to the first explanation that occurred to her, and gave a little laugh. “I’m afraid Grace is guilty of counting chickens before they’re hatched. Or in this case, counting babies before they’re born. Our third won’t be making an appearance until right after Christmas.”
“Joyce was wondering about the schools in this area,” Andrea said, returning to the script.
“Oh, they’re very good. There’s a private elementary school, Scott Academy, only three blocks from here. It has an excellent reputation although it’s not inexpensive, if you know what I mean. The public schools are also very good, but the nearest, Taft Elementary, is almost a mile away. There’s an excellent preschool called Ready-Set-Learn that’s only two blocks from here. My granddaughter, Diana, goes there and she absolutely loves it. I just know she’s going to be terribly upset when we have to leave.”
“You have to leave?” Hannah asked.
“Yes. My daughter’s marrying a dentist, and his clinic is over forty miles from here. She’s a dentist too, and she works there now. They’re getting married next weekend, and she wants me to move into his house with her to take care of Diana while they work. But Diana and I have made such a nice life for ourselves here, that I just hate to give it all up and start over.”
“Oh, dear.” Hannah gave her a sympathetic glance. “Have you lived here long?”
“Over forty years. It’s a wonderful neighborhood. I can tell you all the names of the neighbors and where the best grocery stores are, and ... would you like to come in and have a cup of coffee with me? I just put on a second pot.”
“We’d love to,” Hannah accepted quickly. It was exactly as they’d hoped. Doctor Bev’s mother was friendly, and she’d invited them inside the house where Diana lived.
Chapter Eighteen
The house they entered was neat and tidy, the sort of home that welcomed visitors in from the cold. The decor wasn’t designer perfect, but it was comfortable and soothing. Judy led them to the kitchen, where a close relative to Hannah’s Formica table and padded chrome chairs sat in a breakfast nook.
“I love this kitchen set,” Hannah said as she pulled out a chair and sat down. “I have one almost like it at home. Mine’s yellow, but I wish it was red, like yours.”
“You should buy my house. I’ll probably have to leave all my furniture.” Judy turned to face her. “I’m going to put it up for sale, but not for couple of months. I want to wait to see if this works.”
“You mean ... the marriage?” Andrea asked, jumping to the obvious conclusion.
“Yes.” Judy carried mugs of coffee to the table and went back for cream and sugar. “I have some Raspberry Drop Sandwich Cookies Diana and I baked last night. Would you like one?”
“I would,” Hannah said. “I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like.”
“This is a good recipe,” Judy said, bringing a plate of cookies to the table. “Raspberry is one of Diana’s favorite fruits.”
Hannah bit into a cookie. It was fabulous. The raspberry taste was intense, and the cookie was soft and utterly delicious. There was a little frosting in the middle. It tasted like tart raspberry, and it went perfectly with the sweetness of the cookie. “They’re wonderful cookies, Judy. Could I have a copy of the recipe?”
“Of course.” Doctor Bev’s mother opened a three-ring binder and took out a sheet of paper. “Here you are,” she said, handing it to Hannah.
As Hannah accepted the printed recipe, she began to feel a bit guilty for deceiving Judy, but Norman’s happiness was at stake. Anything they could learn about Doctor Bev and Diana could be beneficial.
“I put all my recipes on the computer when Diana was a baby. Every time she took a nap, I typed at least one into the file. It’s taken me four years, but it’s very convenient to print out a clean copy every time I cook or bake.”
“That’s something I have to do,” Hannah told her. “I have some on my computer, but there are a lot more to type up.”
“You said you wanted to wait and see if your daughter’s marriage works,” Andrea said, getting them back on subject. “Are you worried about the man your daughter is marrying?”
“Not at all,” Judy said, sounding very definite. “I met him last weekend and he’s just wonderful. He’s generous, and kind, and ... just the nicest person. I ...” she stopped and took another swallow of her coffee. “It’s my daughter I’m worried about. She’s just not cut out for marriage.”
“Oh?” Hannah questioned. She gave Andrea a look that warned her to be silent, and then they both waited for Judy to explain what she’d meant by not cut out for marriage.
Hannah counted the seconds as they ticked by. The hardest thing in the world was to wait for someone to speak. But it was imperative that Judy trust them enough to tell them something, anything, that they could use to stop the marriage between Doctor Bev and Norman. The silence stretched on as the second hand on Judy’s kitchen clock made ano
ther full round, and then she sighed loudly.
“This is a hard thing for a mother to say,” Judy began, but then she was silent again. After a moment or two, she took a deep breath and confessed, “I don’t think she loves this man at all. I think she’s only marrying him for financial reasons. Of course she doesn’t tell me that. She says she wants Diana to have a normal family life with a mother and a father.”
“But you don’t believe her?” Andrea asked.
“No. She’d like me to think that she’s turned over a new leaf and she really cares about Diana now. But if she really did care about Diana, she’d spend more time with her and less time with her own friends.”
It was a harsh assessment, and Hannah could tell that it hurt Judy to say so. Part of her wanted to say something to make Judy feel better, but the other part of her wanted to hear even more negative things about Doctor Bev.
“To tell the truth, I don’t think my daughter even likes Diana. She was always more interested in going out and having fun than she was in being a good mother to her. It’s clear that Diana is a burden to her. And she wants to pass that burden on to me and her new husband.”
“And you don’t think this man would be a good father to Diana?” Hannah asked. And then she held her breath waiting for the answer.
“Oh, he’d be a wonderful father! I just don’t think it’s fair, that’s all. It’s clear to me he doesn’t love my daughter, and it’s also clear she doesn’t love him. Getting married for the sake of a child never works.”
“Even if this man is Diana’s biological father?”
“That could be different. Then he might feel a certain responsibility, and he’d put up with my daughter for Diana’s sake. But he’s not.”
“He’s not Diana’s biological father?” Hannah asked.
Judy sighed deeply. “I shouldn’t say that. I don’t really know if he is or he isn’t, but he just doesn’t fit the other things she’s said about the man who fathered her baby. When she came back home pregnant, all she’d say was that she’d made a bad mistake, Diana’s father had refused to marry her, and it was too late to do anything about it. That certainly doesn’t sound like this man. He’s just too ... honorable. If he was Diana’s father and Bev asked him to marry her, he would have married her immediately.”
You’re right, Hannah thought. Norman would have married her. But Doctor Bev didn’t ask him, not then. The way Hannah saw it, there were three possibilities. The first was that Doctor Bev had asked Diana’s father to marry her, but that man she’d asked wasn’t Norman. The second possibility was that Doctor Bev had lied to her mother about asking Diana’s father to marry her. And the third possibility was that Doctor Bev had asked Norman to marry her and Norman was lying about being asked. Hannah rejected the third possibility immediately. Norman didn’t lie.
“This whole thing must be terribly upsetting for you,” Andrea said sympathetically.
“It is.” Judy turned to Hannah. “So you’d rather have a smaller house?”
“That’s right,” Hannah said quickly. It was clear that Judy wanted to change the subject and Hannah was fine with that. They’d gotten much more information from her than they’d expected. It was interesting that Doctor Bev’s own mother didn’t think that Norman was Diana’s father, but that didn’t prove anything. The only way to prove it was by DNA testing, and Andrea still hadn’t gotten a sample. Somehow they had to get Judy to show them through her house so that ... but there was a great opportunity just staring her right in the face!
“I’d much rather live in a house like yours,” Hannah said, smiling at Judy. “It’s so cozy and comfortable. And since I’m a stay-at-home mom, I could keep it up all by myself without hiring a stranger to come in and clean. A house like yours would be perfect for us.” Hannah stopped and looked thoughtful. “And you think you might be selling your house in a few months?”
Judy sighed deeply. “I think I’ll have to sell my house if this marriage actually happens. My daughter plans to keep working, and I don’t want a stranger taking care of Diana. In a way, I’m the only mother she’s ever known. I’ve taken care of her from the very beginning, and my daughter doesn’t spend that much time here. Take tonight for instance. She’s driving here after work to go to a friend’s birthday party, but she won’t have time to stop by. She said the party is going to run late because they’re going out to a club. She said she didn’t want to wake us up by coming home that late, so she’ll just spend the night with her friend and drive back on Sunday.”
Andrea began to frown. “So she’ll be in town, but she won’t see you or her daughter at all?”
“That’s right. She says she’ll see us next week, but it’ll have to be a rush trip because she’s so busy planning the wedding.”
Hannah felt like scowling, but somehow she managed to keep a neutral expression on her face. Doctor Bev didn’t sound like a good mother at all! It was time to change the subject before she said something she shouldn’t. “If you think your house may be up for sale in the next six months or so, I’d love to take a look at it. I really don’t think our family will be happy in the house next door.”
“How about taking a look right now?” Judy drained her coffee cup and stood up. “I’ll show both of you through the house. If you’re interested you can leave a number and I’ll contact you when I’m ready to sell.”
Judy led the way up the front staircase. Hannah made a move to follow, but Andrea pulled her back.
“Good work!” Andrea said softly, very close to Hannah’s ear.
“Thanks.”
Judy’s house was larger than Hannah had thought. There were four bedrooms upstairs, certainly enough for her mythical family. “If the girls double up, I can even have room for an office,” she said.
“There’s a perfect office space downstairs,” Judy told her. “It’s the piano room.”
“Piano room?” Andrea sounded interested.
“That’s what they called it when my husband and I bought this house. It’s just off the living room, and it has French doors that can be closed when your child is practicing, or during a piano lesson . And you can open them when your little protégé is playing a recital for your guests. We use it as a playroom for Diana right now, but I’d planned to rent a piano when she turned six. My daughter once said that Diana’s father was very musical.”
“Really!” Hannah exchanged glances with Andrea. Norman was a lot like her. He couldn’t carry a tune in a suitcase, and he’d never mentioned playing any type of musical instrument. Their suspicions were already aroused concerning Norman’s role in Diana’s paternity. This new piece of information from Judy served to make them even more suspicious.
The master bedroom certainly wasn’t as large as the master suite next door. There was no wine cooler, or built-in refrigerator, but there was a dressing room and an attached private bathroom.
“I’m not using these rooms now that my daughter moved away,” Judy said, opening the door to a fairly large bedroom with flowered wallpaper and ruffled curtains at the windows. “This was her room as a child, and she used it again when she came back home to live with us.”
“It’s a nice room,” Hannah said, following Judy to another bedroom down the hall. She noticed that Andrea was lagging behind and she wasn’t sure why, but she wasn’t about to mention it to Judy.
“This is the guest room,” Judy said, opening the door so that Hannah could see inside. “There’s a connecting bathroom between the two bedrooms.”
“That’s convenient,” Andrea said, joining them so quickly Hannah doubted that Judy had noticed her absence. “Where’s your granddaughter’s room?”
“Right here, next to my bedroom. It was originally the nursery and there’s a connecting door between her bedroom and mine.”
“That must have come in very handy when she was a baby,” Andrea commented.
“Oh, it did. I left it open for the first few years so that I could hear her if she woke up during the night. Now tha
t she’s a big girl, we close it ... unless there a storm, of course. Then we leave it open.”
“I can tell you’re a wonderful grandmother,” Hannah said.
“I hope so. Diana is my life. She’s a sweet girl and I love her so much. You should have seen me the first day I took her to Ready-Set-Learn and left her there. I came home and cried.”
“I did the same thing when my daughter went to preschool,” Andrea admitted. “You want them to grow up with every advantage, but part of you wants to keep them as babies.”
“Exactly!”
Hannah watched as Judy and Andrea shared a smile. She was a bit uncomfortable pretending to feel the same way when a similar occasion hadn’t actually happened to her, so she walked over to look at the vertical blinds in Diana’s room. “Oh, wow!” she exclaimed, pulling them closed to reveal a large picture of Cinderella getting into the pumpkin coach in the lovely dress she would wear to the ball at the palace. “Where did you get these wonderful blinds?”
“There’s a home decorating store at the mall that sells them. Cinderella’s on this window, and the Little Mermaid’s on the other. They’re Diana’s favorite Disney characters, and they were her birthday present when she turned three.”
Hannah looked around at the rest of the room. The wallpaper was printed with colorful hot air balloons in every shape and size imaginable, floating in a cerulean blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. The bed was child-size and had a fluffy pink comforter with a white ruffle around the edges. There were two white bookshelves filled with children’s books, and one Hannah remembered from her own childhood, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, sat on a bed table next to an adult-size rocking chair.
“Are you reading that for a bedtime story?” she asked Judy.
“Yes, for the third time. Diana just loves it. Next week we’re starting the Harry Potter series. It may be a little old for her, but we’ll see. If it is, we’ll save it for later.” Judy motioned to Hannah. “Come downstairs and I’ll show you the piano room. It’s quite large and it would be perfect for an office.”