Finding Madelyn

by Suzette Vaughn

  “Harland,” she said. “That might be a good place to start.”

  His face flushed.

  “You want to go in for coffee?” She decided maybe that wasn’t a good place to begin.

  “You’re comfortable here. Let’s talk about Harland.” His eye was slightly bruised.

  Her eyes moved back to the water.

  “When you left he was very kind.” She started but she wasn’t going to tell him how devastated she was at that time. “Somehow he understood what I was going through.

  “Well, one night I was mindlessly straightening papers in Fredric’s study and he walked up behind me and said my name. When I turned around, he was on one knee with your grandmother’s ring in an open box.

  “I wondered what in the world he was doing. Before it really registered, he’s putting that ring on my finger, your mama’s laughing, and Fredric is patting him on the back. It took all night for me to figure out what really happened then I still couldn’t figure why. Really what was he thinking?”

  “Taking care of his brother’s widow.” Galen’s eyes were planted on the north side of the beach away from her.

  “Maybe. At least that makes some kind of strange sense. Of course, we would’ve needed to actually be married and you dead for it to be true.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell them, ‘No,’ once you came to your senses?”

  “I was working on that. The next day everyone kept saying congratulations. Then after dinner, Harland’s giving me bridal magazines, Kate’s still laughing, and Fredric’s standing around like a guard dog.

  “While I’m trying to figure how to tell them all it’s a mistake, it hits me that if I do, I might as well not exist. I would never get a job, never find a home, and there would be no one to help me. There wasn’t anything in town that Fredric didn’t have a hand in.

  “And when I looked at him, he smiled. He knew when I realized it. He’d been waiting for me to try and break it off so he could explain the situation I was in.

  “I told them I needed rest, that it was all too exciting. I went up to your room and cried. I really didn’t know what to do. Each time someone opened the door to check on me, I feigned sleep.”

  She couldn’t look at Galen but he was intently watching her now, instead of the shoreline.

  “When everyone was asleep I packed. I’d decided it was the only thing I could do. Leave and try to never be found.”

  “That sounds simple.” Galen’s voice was deep, riddled with anger. At least he was showing some kind of emotion.

  “It was harder than joining the war.” She bit back.

  His eyes were mere slits with the glare she received.

  She huffed, “If you don’t want to listen then we are wasting my time. You might as well do what you want.”

  Her stomach hurt. Too much emotion pouring through remembering that time and the decisions she had to make. It was torturous staring at the sea with him so close and not being the man he once was. To think about how long he was gone and then have him show up like this.

  “How did you find me?” It shocked her that the question came aloud when it was barely a thought.

  “A man knocked on the door with a picture and a place.”

  “I haven’t had my picture taken.”

  He rifled through his jacket and handed a picture to her. She was serving Frank coffee in the diner.

  “Still have no clue who or when but thank you.” She handed it back. He stared at it for a moment, then put it back in his pocket.

  “Are you going to tell me how you ended up being accused of stealing the payroll?”

  She considered for a moment the way he put accused. He was accusing her of it himself. She didn’t like it but he didn’t understand. She hoped by the end of the day he would understand the full story.

  “I walked in the back door with my suitcase full of what I could take with me, which wasn’t much. I went into the study to put the ring on the desk where it wouldn’t be missed and Kate was asleep on the sofa, still wearing her dinner dress. She’d done that a few times since you left. I put down the suitcase and retrieved the quilt that was in the parlor. When I put it over her though she woke up.”

  “What are you doing up?” Kate asked, then she saw the suitcase. “I wondered if you wouldn’t end up running.”

  “I don’t have any other choice.”

  She sat up on the sofa. “Before you go I want to talk to you. Get me a drink if you will.”

  Of course, Maddy did as asked.

  “Sit down, sweetie.”

  She sat in the chair by the desk as Kate took down the bourbon.

  “Fred has a mind of his own, thinks he rules it all too. It was his idea that Harland ask you and he wouldn’t take no as an answer. You’re doing both of you a favor taking off. I don’t want to know where you’re going, but how do you expect to get there?”

  “I don’t know where I’m going and I’ll walk or catch a ride. I just can’t be here.”

  “I’m amazed you’ve stayed as long as you have. Fred shouldn’t have sent Galen off like that. He just can’t see it.”

  Maddy looked to the floor, she couldn’t think about Galen just now. He wasn’t here and he would have to understand.

  “I need to tell you something that I’ve held in too long.” She held out the empty glass.

  Maddy refilled it and took her seat again. Kate didn’t slosh it down like she had the last but took a reasonable drink of the clear brown liquid.

  “Your mama was working late.” She took another sip. “I offered to give her a ride home but she declined as always. Said the walking did her good, kept her closer to God. I always thought she didn’t want me to come face to face with your pa but I never knew for sure and he was gone at that point anyway.”

  “Probably a little of both.” Maddy offered.

  Kate looked up from the drink to her but only for a moment. “You remind me more and more every day of her. Your hair may be dark but you are your mother’s daughter. Anyway, Cassie said she was going to put the washtub away in the garage and go on home. I agreed she’d worked late enough. You’d been sick that week and she was picking up the slack, of course. Cassie just couldn’t leave something left undone.”

  It hit Maddy that she was talking about the week Mama had disappeared.

  “I saw Will pull in the driveway and expected he was going up to his apartment over the garage. You remember he stayed here for a time.”

  He’d stayed there for years prior to Maddy moving in.

  “A little while later, I couldn’t tell you how long, I heard a noise in the garage and went out to check. I figured Will was working on the car but Fredric had told him not to do that, it leaves oil stains on the floor.”

  Kate took down the rest of her drink, again in one swallow. Maddy stood to refill it but got waved back to her seat. Each word came out a little softer as Kate continued, she was lost in the memory. Her eyes glossed over and it wasn’t only from the liquor.

  “The garage door was closed and I thought that was odd, Will never remembered to close it. So, I went through the side door and stopped. My hand covered my mouth so as to not scream. I didn’t believe what my own eyes saw. Will was . . .” Kate cleared her throat. “He had Cassie sitting on the work bench out there, pushed back toward the corner, cans from the bench tossed on the floor. At first, I thought I’d walked in on the two of them having an affair but I knew Cassie better than that.”

  Even though Kate was looking at her, Maddy couldn’t return the look. Too many questions going through her mind and each making her more angry.

  “I looked closer and Cassie was trying to talk. There were red marks on her throat, to the point that it was raw, where she was scratching trying to loosen the belt he’d wrapped around there. I’m not sure if he realized he was slowly choking her or not. He yelled something at me. I don’t know if he was so out of his mind that he didn’t speak right or if I was in enough shock that I didn’t hear it.”

>   Her jaw shook. She stood and walked over to pour her own drink, clanking the glass together. She took a large swallow almost emptying the glass.

  “I ran from the garage. I intended to call the police and have them come and help. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know how to help her. When I came into the kitchen, Fred was there. I started telling him what I could and trying to drag him to the garage. He patted my hand and walked out there telling me to stay in the kitchen. He told me to get a drink and calm down, that he would take care of Will.”

  She finished off her drink probably mimicking what she did that day.

  “I waited in the kitchen. Tess came in asking about the commotion, and I sent her upstairs to clean up. She didn’t need to see what Will had done. When Fred came in, he took me up to bed. Said I had an awful fright but everything was fine. He was going to take Cassie to the doctor and make sure she was alright. The two had gotten into a fight, that was all. I tried again to tell him what I saw and he kissed me and left me to rest in bed.”

  Kate stared at Maddy for a moment. Tears were falling down Maddy’s face no matter how much she tried to stop them.

  “I woke up when you came in the house that night.” Her voice filled with sorrow. “I just couldn’t think about what I’d seen and what you were saying. After Galen left with you, Fred came up to checked on me.”

  Kate sounded like she’d gone completely back to that day, like she was no longer in the study. It was eerie enough to stop the tears.

  “I tried to tell him again what I’d seen. He said that I hadn’t seen anything. He said I was dreaming it because I had a fever and was hearing you talk in the foyer. He gave me a pill and told me I was never to speak about it to anyone.”

  Kate reached for the decanter.

  “The next morning I tried again. He yelled saying I would obey him as his wife. That I would never say what I thought I saw. It would ruin the family. It would ruin my sons. I kept trying to ask him what it would do to you not to know. He said it was simple, Cassie ran away. That was it.”

  Kate sat back on the sofa with a full drink.

  “I wonder what he’ll do when I tell him I told you? Told you everything.”

  She laughed, like she had over the previous two days. That laugh that said everything was funny to her because it was so surreal.

  “You know,” Kate continued, “you try and tell anyone I told you this I’ll deny it. Much like you have no choice but to leave, I have no choice but to stand by my husband.”

  It made sense to Maddy. Kate knew what she did, there was no way to escape their lots in life. Not the way they stood now.

  Kate drained her drink, stood on wobbly legs, and put the glass with the decanter that was now empty.

  “You put that ring back in the box in the safe and take what you need to leave with. I would say that when Galen comes home, he’ll come find you, but we both know his daddy sent him off to die. But if . . . if he comes home, rest assured he will come after you.”

  Twelve

  Maddy looked at Galen who had disbelief in his eyes, looking at her but seeing straight through her. His eyes reminded her of Kate’s. Those clear blue, unseeing eyes.

  Anger and tears swelled in her but she refused to let either go. She did however stand up and step over him. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

  She heard him moving behind her. “Madelyn, wait.”

  She shook her head crossing from dock to land. Trying to keep the quilt wrapped around her.

  He caught her and his fingers dug into her arm as he turned her to look at him. “Why didn’t you go to the sheriff? Why didn’t you tell someone?”

  “Let go.” She pushed him away heading up the hill to her cottage. “What does it matter? You don’t believe me. How in the world was anyone else going to?”

  “Damn it—Madelyn—stop.” This time he grabbed both her arms, shaking just a little. “Look at me.”

  His blues were nearly gray with anger. His face marked with lines.

  She pushed away, his grip didn’t waiver. “Go home, Galen.”

  “I can’t,” breathed through clenched teeth. “Why didn’t you fight him?”

  “How? Who would have been on my side?”

  “Does that really matter?”

  “You just can’t see it can you? Why would I fight? There was no one left to fight for.”

  “I was still there. Your mama’s still out there somewhere.” He spun her around again before she could open the door to the porch.

  She slapped him across the face, the last bit of control she held gone. “She’s dead, Galen. She didn’t run off. She didn’t leave me. She’s dead. Will stole her from me. He claimed to have loved her and took her. And you were halfway around the world doing just what your daddy wanted. Dying for your country. Damn it, you think I didn’t want to fight it? That I didn’t want the truth for everyone to know? That man took away the only two people I ever loved.”

  Her hand went to her mouth not believing she’d just said that aloud, but that is what anger does best; forces out what needs to be said. He reached for her, she pushed him away and let the screen door slam behind her. She made it as far as her kitchen, with blood pounding in her temples then her knees refused to move farther.

  

  Frank pulled in the driveway wondering what he was doing here. He’d never had the urge to check up on Maddy on a Saturday before. Yet, he stepped out of the car and walked down the drive. He knocked on the door, hoping he would be interrupting whatever Washington had planned. It wasn’t in him to let someone walk in and take his girl. Even though he couldn’t exactly call Maddy his girl. They’d dated but she wouldn’t let him much closer than that.

  When no one answered the door, he headed around the side of the house. He stopped when he saw her standing up from the dock. Washington jumped up right behind her. His muscles protested to standing there but his mind was right. Maddy didn’t need anyone to save her. He wasn’t leaving just in case, but she would come out of it fine.

  He watched as they went back and forth across the backyard. Each time the boy touched her, more anger built. It all went out with the wind in him when she said “…the only two people I ever loved”. That didn’t include him.

  He knew when he started asking her out that she didn’t love him. He’d hoped she’d move his way over time. The way Washington was kicking around the leaves one of those people she’d loved was him.

  The thought of staying and giving her a piece of his mind rang in his ears as he walked back to his car, hoping he’d get out of the drive before she’d notice.

  

  Galen tried to remain calm and took a hard seat on the porch with her blanket in hand. He knew there were reasons she ran that he couldn’t even conceive of. Will killing Cassie hadn’t been one of them. Hadn’t even been in the same ballpark as anything he could think of. He sat on her porch steps trying to line up the timing.

  When was it his mama had taken ill? When was it that Dad had moved Will out to the country? He remembered when Cassie disappeared. It really was the first day of his mama’s illness.

  Mama had taken ill for the evening leaving him and Fredric at the table in silence. Seemed with every day the silence grew. Harland had been to college since September, his second year there, and Galen was allowed to take the car more. Which was great, he could sneak off to see Maddy and not be at home.

  The pounding on the door echoed through the empty air but couldn’t fill the space. Tess moved from the kitchen to answer it. When the pounding came again, Tess spoke toward the door, hurrying her steps.

  “Quiet now or you’ll disturb the missus.”

  The door opened at the same time that Maddy’s voice filled the house.

  “Tess, have you seen Mama?” She was talking fast, her feet pacing the foyer, he didn’t have to see her, he just knew her that well.

  “Not since she left here this afternoon. What’s wrong?”

  “She’s not h
ome yet. She should have been home hours ago.”

  Galen stood from the table.

  “Sit down, son.” Fredric put down his fork, pushed away from the table, and walked down the hall.

  Galen jumped up to go through the parlor. Once in front of Tess and Maddy, he wouldn’t get yelled at. The hell would come when they were gone but it wouldn’t matter, right now, she needed him.

  “Slow down, Maddy, you’re not making sense.” Tess continued.

  “I came here the same way she comes home. I asked everyone I saw. No one’s seen her.” Her voice cracked a little more with each word.

  “Maybe she passed another way.” Fredric glared at Galen with the women in between them.

  “She goes the same way every day.” Maddy was near hysterics. “I have to find her.”

  “I bet you just passed her by on your way.” Fredric’s voice stayed steady. Steadily mad but it didn’t waver.

  “But she stays on the road, she goes that way every day.” Maddy’s voice was anything but steady. “She would have told me if she was supposed to go anywhere else.”

  “Now you just calm down little girl, there is no reason in waking Mrs. Langley while she’s ill.”

  Maddy was hurt. She was having a problem speaking now, her mouth opened but nothing would come out.

  “Why don’t I take her back home.” Galen offered. “Maybe by the sheriff’s.”

  Maddy looked even more nervous and Fredric didn’t like the idea.

  Tess piped in, “I think that would be a great idea.”

  Thank God for Tess.

  “No need in bothering the sheriff over a girl whose mother is late. If she hasn’t come home tomorrow, then Maddy can go talk to him.”

  Galen walked behind Maddy and pulled his coat down.

  “Take her home and come straight back.” Fredric stood firm, arms crossed.

  Galen put his hand on her back and helped her move out the door a little quicker than she was moving on her own. He opened the car door and held her hand while she settled into the seat. He drove. Her fingers fidgeted. When he stopped the car in front of the sheriff’s office, her head shot up.