Carolyn looked from one woman to the other. “My goodness, what’s going on? You make this sound so serious.”
Anna set down her water glass. “You asked us to stay out of it, but I couldn’t. I was worried for your safety. Not only physical, but emotional, as well. Your back seemed to get worse each time the subject came up, so although I thought about it any number of times, I decided not to ask your permission to try and figure all of this out. I’m hopeful you will understand. We made a promise to each other. We promised to watch each other’s backs. In your case, literally.”
It took the entire meal, but Anna left nothing out.
How she’d worried. How she’d thought about Carolyn’s safety and weighed that against her meddling. How she had come to a theory and how her theory had been proven correct.
“Roland compiled a very detailed background on Zelma.”
Carolyn spoke quietly. “And what did Roland find?”
The girls couldn’t tell if she was angry, resigned, or hurt. They decided it best to plow right through it and let the chips fall where they may.
Adeline spoke softly. “Zelma has had a rough go of it.”
Anna drew a picture for Carolyn of an angry woman that held resentments and found it difficult to move forward with life. She had been married multiple times, had two children. One ended up in prison for killing his girlfriend’s child. They didn’t use the term shaken baby syndrome back then, but it was appropriate. Once in prison, his downward spiral continued. Assaults and infractions were an almost daily occurrence. By 1972, he was a lost soul and was killed by his cellmate. The cellmate got an additional thirty-seven days added to his sentence.
She also had a daughter. Named her Emmy.
Adeline broke in. She felt that Carolyn needed a moment to focus on something other than the horrors of the asylums and prisons of their time. She had been in a number of meetings lately that bombarded her with distressing information and knew the toll it would take on her friend. “You have to wonder if Emmy was the namesake of Emerson in some way. I understand Emerson had a junior, so perhaps the name Emmy was a tribute of some sort.”
“She was very close to her brother. At the time, it caused me pain and I was vexed by it. Now, with maturity and time softening some of the edges, I admire her for her dogged pursuit of anything that would help her brother.”
“She worked hard at it. Right up until the time of his death. Are you aware of all of that? Do you have any interest in it, or should I just stick to the facts about Zelma?”
“I want to hear it all. After the last meeting at Seddon Station, I walked away and never looked back. In the years surrounding all of the complexity with Zelma and Emerson, I had some female problems, and the medications the doctors prescribed were quite habit-forming. It took effort to free myself, and my focus was on that and my family.”
Anna did not allow the surprise to register on her face. Had Carolyn just confessed to being addicted to drugs?
At that moment, Adeline heard a skeleton of her own rattle. Not the same skeleton, to be sure, but Adeline felt her closeted bones were much more vile.
Neither of the girls commented, and Carolyn shared no more secrets, so Anna continued. “From what we’ve been able to piece together, Emerson started his road to returned mental health in a place in Lantana, Florida.”
Carolyn confirmed. “Zelma asked me to go there. They used a crude form of electroshock therapy.”
“Yes, the facility was known for that. They treated more children than they did adults. I try not to think about it. It took a long time for the authorities to close the place down.”
“Times have changed. We are much more sophisticated now, although I’m not at all sure we are any more enlightened.” Adeline looked to Anna to continue.
“Unfortunately, Emerson went to Lantana more than once, but he caught the attention of a young doctor there. He, too, had a military background and was rather enthralled with the aftercare of our service members. A concept well ahead of its time.”
“I thank God for that. I’m glad he got the required help.”
“It took a while. And you need to remember most of this medical information is tertiary. It comes to us third-hand and sometimes more distant, but it looks as if there was progress made each time he was treated, and eventually, he was truly helped.”
Carolyn couldn’t help herself. “And his marriage?”
“They had a complicated relationship. The pattern seems to be a sad one. She would kick him out or walk away; they would then end up together again, usually having a child to commemorate the reunion. They have quite a brood. For the most part, the kids grew up well enough. Some professionals. Some worker bees.”
“Thank you.” Carolyn straightened her silverware. “We’re off point, are we not? You were telling me about Zelma.”
Anna assumed Carolyn could only process small amounts of information about Emerson and let the details go. For now, anyway. She had no doubt Carolyn would want to know everything when she was ready to hear it.
“Zelma has had mental health issues of her own. She has bounced from one marriage to another. Her children claimed she was neglectful, sometimes abusive. There were substance abuse issues and stability issues. She has lived in affluent areas and has been homeless. It appears she catapults from one extreme to the other.”
Tears fell down Carolyn’s cheeks. “She was once my friend. I should have been there. Emerson and his wife moved away not long after my last confrontation with him, but Zelma stayed in town. I should have been there for her.”
Adeline defended her friend’s actions. “How could you have known? She tried to force you into situations that would destroy your marriage. You made a choice. I believe it to be the correct choice.”
“Thank you, but life doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Once Emerson moved away, I could have easily rekindled my friendship with Zelma. I could have insisted on appropriate boundaries.”
Adeline tried to comfort her. “We didn’t think about boundaries and the often-times convoluted contortions people subject themselves to now just to keep a questionable friend. Your friend was your friend or not. It was a time when a friend treated you with dignity and respect, or they were no longer your friend. Zelma chose not to be your friend. You chose your husband and children’s well-being over that of a person who regularly treated you unwell. I think it wise.”
Carolyn nodded her agreement, but said nothing.
Anna tried to get them back on track. “What I find confusing is how Zelma knew where you live or that we were at Arlington.”
“Roland’s notes don’t tell you?”
“Quite the opposite. We were able to trace most of her actions through her church. She was very active for a long time. The way I found her initially was through the church. Unfortunately, it was a prayer request she was mentioned in. Zelma has become somewhat unstable.”
Carolyn picked her napkin off her lap as if she were ready to leave, then simply put it back. “Where does she live? She must be local.”
“That’s the thing.” Anna flipped pages. “In the last few years—we’ll call it six or seven—she’s been living by the goodwill of others.”
“What does that mean?” Carolyn sounded short even to her own ears.
“Someone in the church will invite her to stay with them or see to it she has a job. She’s had help from lots of different government programs. If she’d stay put, she’d probably get the help she needs, but she wanders away.”
“A mental health problem?”
“I’m sure it is, but she refuses any kind of treatment. The people of her church claim she vacillates between being perfectly rational and, without any discernible cause, begins looking for her son. He’s been dead for a very long time. Then she will be rational for a while, they get her situated and all cleaned up, and then she loses it again.”
Adeline introduced the subject carefully. “By cleaned up, do you mean she’s self-medicating?”
“From all the information I have, she’s not a drug or drink abuser. Not even a user. Back in our day, they would have scooped her up off the streets and put her in an institution to try to help her regain normality.”
“Yes, that’s what Emerson went through. His wife saw to it. Electroshock in a glorified bucket.”
Adeline sounded cold. “While it was a very inhumane way of dealing with mental instability, is it more humane to allow his sister to wander the streets?”
Anna chose not to comment, but made a note in her mental file. Something about Carolyn’s comment had hit a nerve for Adeline.
“I know we’re focusing on Zelma, but I just have to say”—Anna flipped a page, found what she was looking for, and then continued—“after three stints—first Lantana and then another institution in Clearwater—Emerson recovered. He may have had a miserable marriage, but it would seem that was separate and apart from any mental health issues he had.”
Carolyn’s voice shook just a bit. “With Zelma deteriorating the way she has, I have to wonder if their mental health issues were shared. Perhaps genetic. Maybe environmental. It sounds like Zelma passed her problems on to her children. I’m very sorry for that. Tell me: Emmy. What has happened to her?”
“I’m still working on Emmy. I haven’t found her yet. Nor has Roland.”
Anna almost smiled at the fact she and Roland were in somewhat of a contest to see who could come up with Emmy first. He’d doffed a virtual cap and made it a challenge. Anna was always up for a good challenge.
Carolyn took a very long breath. “What can I do to help? I think we need to find Zelma, or at the very least Emmy, and see what we can do for these two women.”
Adeline was immediately concerned. “Do you think that wise? Perhaps a confrontation with either of these women would result in unfortunate…” She searched for an appropriate word. Finding none, she continued. “Drama.”
Anna nodded. “I don’t know these people, and I’m searching on a computer. Don’t you think mine is a safer approach? You don’t really want to see them face-to-face, do you, Carolyn?”
“I do, indeed. Zelma was once a friend of mine. She supported me through a rough time in my life. Not once Emerson was home and ill, but when he was away and doing whatever it was he did for our country. I think it only fitting I honor them both by trying to see to it his sister and her child are helped if possible.”
Adeline shook her head slightly. “I’m not at all comfortable with this.”
Carolyn’s voice was cool. “I’m not asking for help. I can take care of this myself. I appreciate your concern, but I have made my decision.”
Anna’s eyebrows went north. She’d never heard Carolyn so stern. “We don’t need to agree with you to support you, Carolyn. Whatever you need.”
“Thank you, but I think it would be best if I take it from here.”
Adeline and Anna exchanged a look. There was no way they intended to allow Carolyn to do this alone. They would need to be careful how they broached their concerns.
Carolyn very purposefully changed the subject and didn’t allow the conversation about Emerson and Zelma to reignite.
NINE
ANNA SAT AT the computer. She had always agreed with an artist. The one that said a sculpture was already inside the rock, all you had to do was chip away everything that didn’t belong.
Anna felt the same way about life. All the answers are there; all you have to do is chip away everything that is not the answer, and the answer will present itself. That was a whole lot of answers, and Anna only had questions.
She had taken on the challenge from Roland to find Emmy before he did, but now that Carolyn was determined to find both Emmy and Zelma, the search was more urgent. The last thing Anna wanted was for Carolyn to find any of the unsettling characters involved in her past difficulties without any backup available to her.
The more Anna thought about it, the more she was convinced she was on the right track. Others might not agree with the level of danger Anna believed to be present, but she’d long ago learned to trust her gut. She believed the note, and therefore the threat, had come from Zelma.
Roland called and said Zelma was once again in the wind. She’d left her most recent accommodation. Simply walked away from a room in a long-term motel the church had paid for. They’d set her up with a room, providing clothing from the clothes closet and food from the church’s food pantry. A member of the congregation checked on her every day and took her for soup and sandwiches at the church recreation building where they served those in need every evening.
When the volunteer had shown up to fetch Zelma last evening, she was gone. Because most of Zelma’s clothing was still in the room, the woman in charge of the church’s charitable works decided to pay the proprietor in order to keep the room available until the end of the week. They did so on the off-chance Zelma returned.
It wouldn’t be the first time Zelma had pulled such a stunt, and the members of the church were praying it wouldn’t be the last.
Anna assumed Zelma had no transportation available to her if a volunteer from the church had to pick her up and drop her off each evening. She would start with that assumption.
Zelma was on foot.
She could use public transit, so Anna would look into buses, as well.
She brought up Google Maps and entered the address of the motel Zelma had been staying in and the address of Carolyn’s condo. Just over eighteen miles.
Anna didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath. She let it go when she decided Zelma probably wouldn’t be walking to Carolyn’s. She switched her attention to a bus ride. It would be a very circuitous route. Two bus changes. It was possible, but unlikely.
Besides, if Zelma had enough cognitive function to make such a journey, she probably wasn’t as dangerous as Anna had feared.
She got up, made herself a cup of tea, and then decided her assumption was a bad one. How many crazy stalker people were able to hunt their victims for extended periods of time over great distances? Just how many were able to make outrageous plans and then execute them?
She chastised herself for even thinking about the term “execute.”
She then decided it was better not to have too much information and didn’t look up the statistics of successful crazed stalkers, although she was sure the information was available online.
She needed to talk to Adeline.
Maybe Roland’s people had come up with something and had neglected to inform her. Although Adeline told her any number of times that she wasn’t to be shy about calling Roland or any other member of her staff or providers, Anna hated to call and bother them.
Adeline paid these people. She did not. Anna believed it was Adeline who should determine how much manpower was utilized.
She also wanted to talk to Adeline about the cruise.
The deeper she got into the Zelma and Emerson drama, the more she was convinced a few days of relaxation would be good for all of them.
Clear thinking requires a clear mind. A clear mind needs time to let everything fall to the wayside and just be.
Anna shut down the equipment in her little home office. She understood computers could be left on all day and night, but she didn’t like the idea of having that kind of portal available to any young kid with a mind to hack into her home.
It wasn’t like she expected anything bad to happen.
More like a peeping tom versus a home invasion.
She didn’t want to be a party to either experience and thought a moment to turn things off was little price to pay for letting her mind rest. Just a bit.
She grabbed her purse and headed for the car.
She’d stop at the bakery and buy some of the dessert Teagan O’Flynn had gotten the girls addicted to: Sin. A chocolate decadence that would put a little too much meat on her bones, but both Carolyn and Adeline could use the caloric onslaught.
She decided to call Adeline after buying the dessert and let her know she was
on her way. She had to admit to herself, it was a bit of a manipulation. She knew her friend would never turn her away at the door, although Adeline might just tell her not to come if she knew Anna was calling from the comfort of her home. She was worried enough about her friend not to allow herself to be dissuaded.
The phone rang several times and then went to voicemail.
Obviously Adeline was on the line, yet again, with a lawyer or an accountant or some titan of industry. She’d been burning the candle at both ends for far too long, and Anna decided it was time she spoke up.
How many times had Adeline told her there was no cause to call first? She was welcome at any time. She’d even been given a key, and the doorman had been instructed not to bother calling before Anna or Carolyn headed up in the elevator.
Anna checked to make sure the Sin was well settled, put her car in drive, and headed off to the loft.
She and Adeline might have to have a little talk.
It would be excellent practice for the talk she intended to have with Carolyn.
Confronting Zelma, or even Emmy, was not a good plan, and Anna had to think of a way to stop it from happening.
Anna rang the doorbell. She hated Adeline’s doorbell. It was muted and sophisticated, but she preferred her own. Anna’s doorbell could wake the dead.
When Adeline didn’t answer the door, Anna started to mutter to herself. Why had it not dawned on her Adeline might be out? She was a full-grown woman. She had multiple cars and a driver. Although she usually checked in with the girls before she left, there was no law requiring it. She should have stopped and asked Joaquin—the doorman—before hitting the elevator. She made an executive decision. She’d just go inside, put the Sin in the fridge, and let herself back out.
Maybe it was a God thing.
Maybe now wasn’t the time to confront Adeline.
Or Carolyn.
Maybe she was just being overly controlling and needed to take a step back. She recognized she would be very annoyed if her friends were to take it upon themselves to insist she live her life according to their wishes.
At Seddon Station (The Girls Book 5) Page 9