Broken Women

by Anne Hagan

  When I mentioned what I sensed to Mel later, she swore she hadn’t noticed anything amiss. She told me Janet was grieving and that probably brought up similar feelings again for Barb too so they were both probably feeling ‘down’ as she put it, and then she changed the subject so I let it drop.

  After this funeral and a proper period of mourning for Janet, I’m going to get to the bottom of that, I vowed to myself.

  A few minutes passed along with Mel and I studying the little programs for the service that we’d been given at the door when I looked up again to catch Leslie staring at the profile of a man standing at the bier. Janet was stealing quick looks at Barb who was waiting for her turn a few people behind him.

  The man turned from view Edith’s countenance, took a step toward Janet and reached out to take her hand. He was speaking but I couldn’t make out the words. Whatever he was saying, she shrank away from him and tried to pull her hand away but he wouldn’t let go. Leslie stepped sideways to face the two of them, her back to the room, cutting off my view of his face and Janet’s. Her stance was rigid suggesting this mourner might be unwelcome.

  I nudged Mel and told her what was going on. We both watched up front while the discussion proceeded for another thirty seconds or so and then Leslie stepped aside and the man left the receiving line, ignoring the curious looks of Aunt Rhoda who’d been shielded from and shut out of their conversation by Leslie.

  He proceeded down the side aisle and, as I turned to follow his movement, he went all the way to the back of the sanctuary and out the front doors of the church. When I turned back around, Janet wasn’t up front anymore, only Leslie and Rhoda were. Another man was speaking with them and Barb was at the bier. A few people remained behind her.

  “What time is it?”

  Mel consulted her watch. “1:20.”

  “I’m worried about Janet. Whoever that man was, it seems to have affected her. She’s stepped away and there are still people in line for the viewing.”

  “The service starts soon. Maybe she needed a breather.”

  “I’m going to go and check on her.”

  Without waiting for a response, I got up and approached Leslie who was now greeting Barb.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt but I saw that Janet left and I was concerned. Barb looked on, her features clouded, as I asked after the other woman. I just couldn’t read her but I really didn’t have time for that at the moment.

  “She was taken by surprise and I’m worried that she may be more than just a little upset,” Leslie confided. “Her father showed up. She hasn’t seen him in 25 years or more and I guarantee she didn’t remember him.”

  “Where’d she go?”

  “Into the pastor’s office; through there,” she pointed, “and down the hall.”

  “I’ll go check on her.”

  “Janet?” I tapped on the frosted glass upper portion of the closed door.

  “It’s open,” she called out in a small voice.

  Not knowing if the pastor was with her or not, I didn’t say anything at first as I entered. When I didn’t see him, only her sitting in one of the arm chairs around a small table at one side of the office, her elbows on the table, her head in her hands, I approached her speaking softly. “Janet, honey, I came back here to check on you. Leslie told me what happened.”

  Moving behind her, I braced my hands on her shoulders and leaned in as she leaned back until we were hugging cheek to cheek. Her face was hot and she was trembling but not crying.

  “Why did he wait and pick today of all days to show back up in my life and then try to introduce himself as my dad?”

  It was a rhetorical question asked in anger. Knowing she needed to get it out, I stayed quiet and let her rant.

  “He’s not my ‘dad’. He never was. He left my mom and me to fend for ourselves when I was barely four. She divorced him by mail after trying for years and years to even find him.”

  “Said he’s been back in town for a while and wanted to contact us but he was afraid of what I might think of him. Ha! He got that right! Paying his respects, my ass!” She smacked a hand down on the table. “Where was all that ‘respect’ before?”

  With that, she seemed to run out of steam. She exhaled loudly and dropped her head down.

  “He left Janet. He’s gone,” I told her as I let go of her shoulders and took the chair adjacent to her.

  “Only because Aunt Leslie got in his face and made sure he knew he wasn’t welcome here.”

  “And hopefully,” I said, “that will be enough to make him realize that he needs to give you plenty of time and space. It’s your decision going forward whether to see him or not and only yours. And, frankly, it’s not one you need to make now or any time soon.”

  “I don’t even need to think about it at all, Dana. I’m not interested in getting to know him now or ever. He’s a sperm donor, nothing more.”

  “Okay.” I nodded at her. “That’s fine.” I didn’t necessarily agree with her rash decision but I again found myself in a position of it not being the time or the place for my own opinions or questions. “Just push all of that out of your mind for now. There are other things we need to try and focus on today.”

  She sighed. “I know. You’re right. I just need to pull myself together and get back out there for my mom and for my aunt.”

  I didn’t bother to correct her. I knew she was thinking only of Leslie and not about her Aunt Rhoda.

  When I got back to the pew, Barb was sitting next to Mel. She scooted down a little so I could sit between them. I gave her a little smile and she returned it but her focus turned quickly away from me as Janet re-entered the sanctuary.

  For her part, Janet didn’t even look around. She went right to Leslie and Rhoda who were receiving the last of the mourners up front. Shortly afterward the three of them took seats in the front pew and the pastor of the church began the memorial service.

  Janet never turned around at all during the next thirty minutes or so. She sat nearly completely still through the entire service. Meanwhile, Barb spent most of the service staring at the back of her head.

  Ethel Mason’s three surviving family members and their spouses left the church with the casket for a private graveside service while the rest of us trundled downstairs to the fellowship hall for the wake. There, the somberness of the service upstairs was replaced with a mountain of food, conversation and laughter.

  Mel, Barb and I each took loaded plates from the buffet line staffed by church members and found seats at one end of a long row of tables. Mel and I, as is typical of the two of us when we can manage it, given our backgrounds, chose positions at one end of the room facing the most used entry and exit door. Barb sat across from us with her back to it.

  The conversations swirling all around quieted enough to be noticeable to Barb when Janet and her aunts and uncles returned to the church and entered the hall. She turned and locked eyes with Janet. Both women held their gaze for only a second or so and then broke off, Barb by turning back to us and Janet by looking at her feet.

  As the group of five took plates and were served food, their backs to the room, I caught Barb stealing glances toward them again.

  Something happened between these two, something they can’t or won’t face kept running through my head. When Mel asked Barb a question and she didn’t respond because she was lost, off in her own thoughts, I decided now was better than later to do a little damage control. I just had to figure out how to get Barb alone and do a proper intervention.

  In a marvelous stroke of luck, Shane Harding, Mel’s other detective in the department, walked into the fellowship hall, found Janet and offered his condolences. He was introduced around and then directed to the serving line after which, Mel waved him over to our table.

  “I didn’t think I was going to make it over here at all,” he told his boss as he took the offered seat. I got called out on a hit and run. I’d really wanted to be here at least for the viewing.”

  “Hit and run
?” Barb asked him. “Everyone’s okay, I hope?”

  Shane shook his head. “No, unfortunately, but alive and likely to survive it.”

  I shuddered and played it up a bit. “Ouch. On that, I just need to step out for a minute and I’m sure Mel wants to quiz you a little more,” I said to Shane.

  Mel shrugged but I pressed on, “Barb, I’d love it if you’d join me.”

  “Hmm.” I looked Barb up and down. We were outside where the air was cool but not cold. I hadn’t grabbed my coat but I was comfortable.

  “Hmm what? Something I should know?”

  “I’m trying to decide between the direct approach or the circular one we use in interrogations.”

  “About what?” Her tone was more cautious than curious.

  “Okay, direct it is. What’s the problem between you two?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Between you and Janet.”

  “What are you talking about? There’s no problem. We’re friends.” Her tone wasn’t very convincing.

  “Just friends?”

  Barb nodded but her rising color told me what I really needed to know. I paused for a few beats then switched to the circular approach.

  “You look very nice today. I love the necklace.”

  “Really? Thanks.” She touched the colored stone hanging at the base of her neck. “I’ve had it for ages, I just haven’t felt like wearing jewelry in a while.” She seemed relieved that I’d dropped the earlier line of questioning. “Funny, I didn’t take you for a jewelry type.”

  “I’m not,” I said, “but you look stunning today with it. Not that you don’t always look nice but I don’t recall that I’ve ever seen you wear much if any makeup either.”

  The color made it all the way to her cheeks now. “It’s…it’s sort of a formal occasion.”

  I nodded. “True, true.” It was like manipulating a school girl instead of a 36-year-old woman.

  I feigned feeling the pockets of my own suit jacket. “Crap! I left my cell phone inside. Do you have the time?” I knew she always wore a wrist watch. Cops and bar owners; they could all be counted on to know the exact time.

  She raised her left arm and, after slipping her jacket and blouse sleeves back slightly to check, she reported, “It’s 2:36.”

  Catching her arm before she could lower it again, I looked pointedly at her left hand. “No wedding band today though?”

  Barb tried to pull her hand away but I held it and rubbed it gently.

  “I don’t know what happened between the two of you Tuesday night but I can guess. Are you okay?” My concern was genuine and I hoped it showed.

  She nodded and stopped fighting my grasp.

  “And how is Janet?”

  “I think she regrets all of it.”

  “But you don’t know that for sure?”

  “I can feel it.”

  “Odd, because I’m getting a completely different vibe from her.” I bounced our linked hands a couple of times. “Sweetie, look, you’ve obviously progressed far enough through the grieving process over Lisa that you’re starting to heal and to take at least a little interest in living again. That’s okay. You’re allowed to come out the other end of all of that and enjoy life again.”

  She sucked in a deep breath and let it out real slow but she didn’t say a word. I turned to face her and took her other hand up as well.

  “It’s also okay to let another woman into your heart that you obviously have feelings for.”

  “I’m scared Dana.” She looked away, over my shoulder.

  “I know; it’s natural, but you can do this.”

  “It’s not that…well, it’s a little bit of that but even more: I’m not so sure what Janet wants or needs. She’s in pain right now and I don’t want to push her into something that’s just a balm for that.”

  Chapter 27

  Dana Rossi-Crane

  3:12 PM, Saturday, March 14th 2016

  “You were quiet the whole way home. What’s going through that devious mind of yours?”

  I swatted lightly at Mel’s shoulder as she peeled her jacket off and then hung it on the back of a kitchen chair. “That’s so wrong. You can’t just go around making accusations like that.”

  “It was a question and, yes I can and I did.” She opened the fridge, reached in and took out a diet Pepsi and held it out to me. I took it and waited while she got another one for herself.

  “Barb and Janet slept together Tuesday night.”

  Mel jammed her thumb down into her can as she tried to pop the top of her soda. “Oww!”

  “Sorry. Did you get cut?”

  She removed the thumb carefully and flexed it. “No, but are there any more bombshells you want to drop before I try to do anything else?”

  “I’m being serious. I told you it was tense when we were there Wednesday morning. They’re not sure where they stand with each other but neither one of them wants to tell the other what she’s feeling.”

  “They told you this?” She tossed that over her shoulder as she headed for the living room and her big leather recliner.

  “Well, not both of them,” I said following behind her. “Barb actually did but Janet’s just an open book. Her feelings for Barb are written all over her face except Barb’s the only one that can’t see them. She thinks Janet’s just grieving.”

  “She is; for her mother.”

  “Which is way different than for a lost love.”

  “Baby, we don’t know what other kind of baggage she’s dragging around.”

  “True. Could you talk to her? I mean, you’re a lot closer to her than I am.” I looked at my wife hopefully.

  “Are you out of your mind? She’s my employee. I’m not going to have a conversation with her about anything of the sort.”

  “I don’t know what to do then. Those two belong together.” I stared at her from my perch on the edge of the couch but she didn’t flinch. You seriously won’t help me get them together?”

  “I didn’t say that but…Dana, seriously, we should just let nature take its course. We both have a million other things to do and they’re grown women. If they’re meant to be together it’ll happen.”

  “There’s an obvious attraction there; a connection. I felt the electricity between them that night they met in Barb’s bar. It’s been simmering long enough; sometimes nature just needs a little help.”

  “Does it really matter what I say? You’re going to plot something out anyway and, though I absolutely hate to admit it, it’ll probably work.”

  I glossed over her dig about what she says not mattering to me and moved on to the greater point, “Yes, I’m going to make it my mission to get them together. If you won’t help me then I’ll just have to pull Mama in. She loves Barb so I know she’ll help.”

  Mel laughed. “Well, we all know what will happen when you add the steamroller known as Chloe to the equation.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing derogatory Dana, it’s just that your Mama won’t stop at anything she starts until she gets what she wants.”

  I could only nod. I had to agree with that.

  Mel turned the TV on and started flipping channels. Meanwhile I started flipping through things in my mind, trying to formulate a plan.

  While she watched a sitcom, I pretended interest but I was really plotting out a way to get my two friends together.

  At a commercial break, when I felt Mel’s eyes on me, I knew she was onto me. Instead of playing it off I just came right out and asked, “Just between you and me, “What’s Janet’s schedule looking like over the next week or so?”

  Mel smirked. “I can’t tell you that. Its confidential information.”

  “Oh, is that right? Mel Crane, do I have to beat it out of you?”

  She let out a loud laugh “As if!” she replied but then her expression softened. “She’s still on paid bereavement leave all this week, you know? I Imagine she’ll need a few more days beyond today. She’
s got a lot she’s got to do as the immediate next of kin. Leslie mentioned that Janet was thinking about selling that house. She doesn’t like being right in Zanesville.”

  Hmm, interesting, I thought. To Mel I said, “Thank you. Was that so hard?”

  ###

  Mel fell asleep in her chair.

  Seeing my chance to act without any ribbing from the sidelines, I grabbed my wallet and my keys and headed over to the general store my parents ran in the village. I figured Mama and Dad would both be there since it wasn’t a particularly nice March day. Dad would have no excuse to go off fishing with Mel’s dad.

  I was right. Mama was waiting on a customer at the register and Dad was sitting on the bench inside the store under one of the front windows, shooting the breeze with the man while he waited to be rung out.

  There wasn’t anyone else in the little store so I waited until their only customer was gone and then I asked, “Slow day?”

  “Very; for a Saturday,” Mama said. “This darn weather. A couple of hours ago it wasn’t bad out now it’s getting windy and chilly. Oh, but I’m sure you didn’t come over here to talk about the weather. Did you go to that funeral?”

  “Yeah, Mel and me both. So sad.” I shook my head for effect.

  “How’s she doing; Janet, is it?”

  “Yes. She’s taking it all about as well as can be expected but she’s sort of the reason I came to see you. I, uh, need a little help with something.”

  “Oh boy, I know that tone,” my dad said. “Should I leave the room?”

  “Oh Marco!” Mama swatted a hand in his general direction. “She could be about to ask about anything at all for goodness sake.”

  He laughed as Mel had before him. “Not likely. I’ll just go to the back. Holler if you need me.” With that he retreated into the office and closed the door.

  “I’m afraid your father thinks he knows everything.”

  “In this case Mama, he’s right. I need your help with a little plan to get two people together.”