Mirror Image

by Curry, Edna

  He seemed to weaken and gave a shrug. “Oh, hell, LaRae. Okay, let’s forget it. I’m going out for some golf. I need some exercise.”

  Chapter 11

  Laurie sighed and went back to the family room.

  Susie was still lying on the floor, watching television. She looked up when Laurie entered, a worried look on her face.

  “Is Daddy still mad?”

  “No. He was only upset about a bill. You know, grown-up, business stuff, Sweetheart. Everything’s okay.”

  “Then why is he leaving?”

  “He’s just going out to play golf for a while. He’ll be back in time for supper.” I hope. Her stomach felt queasy. She hated being at odds with anyone, and she had no idea how Jass usually reacted to a quarrel. Did he get over anger easily, or did he hold a grudge? She had so much to learn about him and being thrown into living with him was definitely doing it the hard way.

  Laurie smiled reassuringly at Susie, and settled back in her easy chair with her cookbook.

  She realized now that taking a cooking class, and trying to hide it from Jass would just add to the lies. It was a bad idea. She’d have to learn to cook on her own, from these books and from watching Agnes.

  When Susie had turned her attention back to the television, Laurie opened the bill and read it carefully. Jass was right. LaRae must have stopped in Las Vegas for the three days prior to her arrival in California. All of the charges on those days were either at an expensive hotel or were for large cash withdrawals at an ATM machine. LaRae’s idea of having a good time away from her husband evidently ran to partying and gambling. Had she been alone?

  Laurie felt even more sick to her stomach. No wonder Jass was angry. Had LaRae been unfaithful? More important, did Jass think she had been? If he did, then, she, Laurie, was the one who was going to have to earn his forgiveness for LaRae, and win back his trust. Even though she wasn’t guilty.

  Well, she was not guilty of that act of dishonesty. But when he found out how she was really deceiving him, he was going to be even more disgusted with her.

  The long, quiet Sunday dragged on. Laurie read for a while, then heated frozen dinners for herself and Susie for lunch. Afterward, she read to Susie, and practiced playing bridge on the computer while Susie napped.

  Bored, she began going through LaRae’s desk. A folder with the familiar name of her late father’s stockbroker, “Louis Elton” on it caught her eye. She remembered Mr. Elton as a silver-haired, though admittedly attractive, playboy type.

  Surely LaRae wasn’t still dealing with that old man? She’d assumed he would have retired years ago. A picture of Louis with his pipe, laughing and talking with her father before they went into his den flashed into her mind. She’d never liked the man because he’d always insisted on kissing both girls and pinching their cheeks, but her father had liked and trusted him.

  Laurie opened the large manila envelope she’d found and leafed through it. It contained his brokerage firm’s statements of many stock transactions over the past five years. She read through the most recent ones in dismay and disbelief.

  LaRae had evidently given him free reign to manage her share of their father’s estate, and Louis was churning it for all he could get in brokerage fees. Whatever had she been thinking of?

  Laurie’s dismay turned to anger. She’d fix this in short order. The man was a crook.

  She tried the phone number on the sheet in front of her. When it rang unanswered, she remembered it was Sunday and his office was closed. She found the telephone book and hunted up his home number. Also no answer.

  After studying the statements a while longer, she sat down at her computer and drafted him a formal letter of withdrawal, ordering him to sell those stocks she didn’t approve of and send her a check for the proceeds. She ordered a transfer of the stocks she approved into her own name so that only she had control of them, listing each by name and number of shares, as per his last statement. She ended by an order to close her account when all those transfers were completed.

  Then she printed it out, signed it, and took it out to the mailbox at the end of their driveway, still seething with anger.

  How could LaRae have let him get away with this? Surely she’d learned enough by listening to her parents discuss the ways of the stock market and brokerage firms to have known better, hadn’t she?

  She could still see herself and her sister, giggling and rolling their eyes at each other when their parents began those conversations at the dinner table. But, disgusted or not, she’d learned a lot and still remembered much of what the adults had said.

  Surely inheriting a sizable amount of stocks would have made LaRae do the same? Evidently not.

  There was no evidence that she had overseen Louis. No memos or records of phone calls to Louis directing buy or sell orders. Of course, she could have done it without noting it in her records. But there wasn’t any stock market information such as financial books on her shelves or financial newsletters in her files.

  When she stopped to think about it, Laurie remembered her sister had always hated math in any form. Perhaps it had seemed natural to just let her father’s broker continue to handle everything as he saw fit. But why hadn’t Jass objected? She would certainly ask him as soon as he got home. Provided he’d cooled off from the other fiasco of the day, she remembered, pulling a face.

  Then she realized she couldn’t ask Jass. She was supposed to be LaRae, who would know all this already. She would have to deal with it on her own, and play it all by ear, one step at a time.

  Late in the afternoon, the telephone rang. Laurie grabbed it, hoping it would be Jass. Instead she heard Aunt Martha’s voice, sounding strangely muffled.

  “LaRae. Thank…goodness.”

  “Aunt Martha, what’s wrong?”

  “I need help. I...think I’m sick or…something. I feel funny.”

  Fear tightened Laurie’s throat and she gripped the phone hard. “Funny? How?”

  “I…can’t move my arm very well and my tongue…feels thick. I think I must have fallen asleep in my chair, and now I’m all stiff and can’t get up.”

  “I’ll get an ambulance.”

  “Ambulance? But…I don’t think I need…”

  “Yes. I’ll be right there, okay? Just stay right there and wait for me.” Which was a dumb thing to tell Martha if she couldn’t move, Laurie thought, trying not to panic.

  She hung up and dialed 911. Forcing herself to speak calmly, she explained the problem and gave them directions to Martha’s house.

  Hanging up, she ran to find Susie. Jass was not going to be happy if she drove, but she had no choice. She had to go to Aunt Martha and there was no one else here to drive them.

  Susie was in her room, and looked up in surprise as Laurie dashed in.

  “Come, get your jacket. We have to go help Aunt Martha. She’s sick. Do you know where my car keys are?”

  “You and Daddy always put keys on the hook in the kitchen, Mommy. Did you look there?”

  They ran back downstairs, Laurie praying the little girl was right. The keys were there. Thank goodness for a child’s sharp eyes.

  She awkwardly penned a quick note to Jass, and locked the door behind them. Amazingly, the car in the garage was almost identical to the one LaRae had rented in San Francisco. It gave Laurie an eerie feeling to get behind the wheel, but she had no time to think about LaRae or their accident. She remembered seeing Jass pull down his visor and push a button to work the garage door opener, and reached up to her visor. She was right. A similar device was clipped to the one in her car, and she quickly pressed the button.

  As the noisy door rolled up out of the way, she started the engine and backed out, pressing the button again to close the garage behind her.

  “I thought Daddy said you couldn’t drive with one hand, Mommy?”

  “Of course I can. He just didn’t want me to. See, I’m doing fine. Besides, it’s an emergency.”

  “Is Daddy going to be mad at you again?�
��

  “Maybe.” She turned to give Susie a reassuring smile. “It’s not important. He’ll understand when we tell him Aunt Martha needed us.”

  Thanking her lucky stars for light traffic, Laurie drove as fast as she dared. From what Martha had told her, she felt sure her aunt had suffered a stroke.

  The ambulance crew was trying to get into Martha’s house as she arrived. She jumped out and ran to them.

  “Do you have a key?”

  “No.”

  “The door’s locked, and she doesn’t answer.”

  “Break the glass. She needs help, now.”

  Luckily, the door was an old-fashioned one with a large window. They were able to reach in and unlock the door.

  Martha was sitting in her chair by the phone, conscious, but apparently unable to get up to unlock the door. Laurie ran to her and knelt beside her.

  “I can’t seem to get out of my chair.” There was a worried look on her face and her words came out thick and slow.

  “We’re going to take you to the hospital, Aunt Martha.”

  “I suppose. Something seems to…be wrong.”

  The ambulance crew was taking her pulse and blood pressure.

  Martha frowned as they took their tests.

  Laurie sought to re-assure her. “We’ll just have you checked out to find out what’s the matter, Aunt Martha. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She prayed it would be true.

  They lifted her into the ambulance. Laurie and Susie got into their car and followed it back to Canton to the hospital next to the clinic she’d visited only days before.

  A worried look on her face, Susie turned to Laurie as they drove. “Is she going to be okay, Mommy?”

  For Susie’s sake, Laurie tried to smile cheerfully. “I hope so, Susie. They’ll take good care of her.”

  Once inside the emergency door, Martha was whisked out of sight and Laurie and Susie were shown to a waiting room down the hall.

  Susie picked up a children’s magazine to look at, but Laurie could only pace, worrying.

  When Dr. Henry appeared later, he confirmed her fears. It had indeed been a stroke, but it would be a while before they could assess how much damage it had done. Aunt Martha would need to remain in the hospital. They could see her for just a minute.

  Aunt Martha was very pale but Laurie felt re-assured at seeing her. When she fell asleep a few minutes later, they returned to the waiting room to find Jass there, pacing. His dark hair was disheveled, as though he’d been running his hands through it.

  ***

  “Daddy!” Susie cried and ran to him.

  Laurie watched him stoop and hug his daughter, then he looked up, his eyes searching her face. She braced herself for his anger about her driving, but instead he asked, “How is Martha?”

  Relieved, Laurie explained what the doctor had told her, and added, “I’m sure you can go in, but she was asleep a minute ago. She’s in the second room on your right down the hall. We’ll wait here for you.”

  When he returned, he asked, “Have you eaten?”

  “No, but I don’t want to leave just yet. The doctor said he’d be back in a couple of hours.”

  “LaRae, she’s asleep. A nurse is keeping an eye on her, and we all need some food.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “We could go down to the hospital cafeteria. Or there’s a fried chicken place a couple of blocks from here.”

  “Fried chicken,” Susie put in.

  “Whatever you two want,” Laurie said. She picked up Susie’s jacket and held it for her as Susie slid her arms into it.

  Jass did the same for Laurie, and they went out into the cool spring night.

  “Look, Mommy. There’s the first star. Make a wish.”

  Laurie closed her eyes. She wished with all her might Martha would get well. And she, Laurie, could remain in this family and win Jass’s love. If only wishing could make it so.

  Over their meal, she told Jass all about Martha’s call and their rushed trip to the hospital.

  “I’m just so glad she was able to talk and could call me,” Laurie said.

  “And near enough to the phone, since she was unable to move,” he agreed. “I shudder to think that otherwise she could have sat there all night before someone realized anything was wrong.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” she exclaimed.

  “What?”

  “We had to break the glass in her front door to get in. Her house is open to anyone.”

  Jass put his hand over hers across the table. “Don’t worry about it, Honey. I’ll have George fix it.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  After they finished eating, Jass drove her back to the hospital, then said, “I’ll take Susie home and come back.”

  “I want to stay here, too.”

  “No, Susie. It’s almost your bedtime. Little girls need their beauty sleep, you know.”

  “Oh, Daddy,” she giggled.

  “You’d better stay with Susie. I have the car.”

  “I know. She’ll be fine. I’m sure Diane is home by now.”

  True to his word, Jass came back. He sat down in a plastic chair beside her in the hospital waiting room. They had the austere small room all to themselves.

  She sat in silence, awaiting his reaction to her driving. He was apparently not going to mention her it, so she broached the subject herself. “I’m sorry I drove after you told me not to, Jass. I couldn’t think of any other solution.”

  Jass smiled at her, a bit wryly. “I thought about that all the way into town after I read your note, LaRae.”

  “Then you’re not mad at me?”

  He took her in his arms and kissed her, then smoothed back her hair and nuzzled her neck. “Of course not. How can I stay mad at you? I’m sure you did fine. Besides, rules usually go out the window in emergencies, don’t they?”

  Relieved, she laughed and nodded agreement. “Then you’ll let me drive in to see her when you’re at work?”

  “Only when I’m not around to drive you.” At her frown, he sighed. “As you said, your father used to drive with one finger on the wheel. But I still don’t think it was a good idea.”

  “I know it wasn’t. Thanks for not being angry with me, Jass.” She cast him a rueful grin. He did understand. In fact, he seemed as worried about her aunt as she was herself.

  When at last they talked to the doctor again, he had no further news. Martha awoke for a while and Laurie and Jass talked to her, promising to return in the morning.

  ***

  Every day, Laurie drove into town to see her aunt. She was so upset about Martha’s stroke, she almost forgot about her discovery of Louis Elton’s mishandling of her sister’s stocks.

  She’d come home for lunch three days later when he reached her by phone.

  “LaRae. At last. I’ve called and called, but your housekeeper keeps telling me you’re out.”

  “Yes. I’ve been very busy.” She explained about Aunt Martha’s hospitalization, knowing Mr. Elton knew her, too, although he lived in the next town.

  “Sorry to hear about it. I’ll send the dear lady some flowers. But, what’s this about selling stocks and closing your account, LaRae, honey? I was very disappointed to get your letter.”

  I’ll just bet you were. No more big commissions from LaRae this year.

  His voice went on in a plaintive tone. “I’ve been doing business with your daddy since you were just a little tyke.” He managed to make it sound as though she were deserting a family tradition, instead of doing business with a firm.

  Her fingers tightened on the telephone. “I’m sorry, Mr. Elton. But I’ve decided to take over managing these stocks myself, so I won’t be needing your services any longer. Please follow the directions in my letter immediately.”

  “Aren’t you satisfied with the way I’ve been doing things?”

  “No, Mr. Elton, I’m not. I’m in the market for the long haul. I don’t like this frequent trading in and out of stocks. I beli
eve it’s called ‘churning an account' in the industry, isn’t it?”

  There was a long silence on his end. “But you never said anything before. And I’ve made you a bit of money over the years doing that, you know. Not as much as we could have, if the market had gone our way more often, but still, a nice piece of change.”

  “And a heck of a lot more for yourself in commissions.” The sharp retort was out before she could stop it. She bit her tongue to hold back further angry comment and ended the conversation as politely as she could. Returning to her lunch, she found she was no longer hungry.

  “I’m going back to the hospital, Agnes,” she said, and picked up her purse and walked out.

  ***

  Jass was surprised when his secretary buzzed him over the intercom, announcing a phone call from Louis Elton. He’d had no business dealings with LaRae’s stockbroker and didn’t like him. He was quite sure the feeling was mutual. However, he said, “Put him on.” Then, “Yes, Mr. Elton. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, Jass, you can set my mind at ease about your wife. Has she been feeling okay?”

  “LaRae? Yes, her injuries are healing nicely, Mr. Elton. Why do you ask?”

  “Well…I got the strangest letter, requesting the sale of a lot of stock for cash that she wants sent to her. I’m not sure what I should do about it.”