Vanishing Point

by Marcia Muller

  Odd way of putting it. I wrote down the word “fate” and circled it.

  Anna Yardley squinted at the legal pad. Before she could ask what I’d written, I said, “What about you-have you made your peace?”

  “Well, certainly. It’s been nearly a quarter of a century.”

  “Tell me-what kind of a person was Laurel?”

  Anna Yardley’s thin lips curved downward. “A very impractical woman. A dreamer. Always reading. Painting. Dabbling in those silly greeting cards.”

  “I had the impression that she was a successful businesswoman, and the greeting card business looked promising.”

  “I admit that the cards were beginning to sell, and she was making a small profit. But she could have earned much more if she’d kept up with her nursing.”

  “Laurel had a nursing degree from San Jose State, right?”

  “Yes. She worked at a hospital in Los Angeles for a few years while Roy studied dentistry at USC. But after they moved back here and the girls were born, she gave it up. Frankly, I was surprised that she chose to have children; Laurel possessed no more maternal instinct than I.”

  “Her daughters remember her as a good mother.”

  “No doubt she was. She had the children, and they deserved a proper raising. It was her responsibility to provide that. We Yardley women live up to our responsibilities.”

  “But in the end Laurel didn’t live up to it.”

  “She would have, had she not died.”

  “You’re convinced she’s dead?”

  “What else? Laurel must have been a victim of random violence; that’s the only possibility. She never would have left her girls. Until she disappeared she was never separated from them for more than a night or two, except when Cousin Josie was dying of cancer. Then she went to stay in San Francisco for a while, but she called home twice a day, sometimes more often.”

  I made a couple of notes, then asked, “What about the Greenwoods’ marriage? Was it a good one?”

  “Of course. They had the girls, and Roy had his dental practice. They were active in their church and had a nice group of friends. There was no trouble in that marriage.”

  Interesting that she thought I was implying there had been trouble; the way she’d jutted out her chin when she spoke raised a red flag for me. I hesitated, framing my next words carefully.

  “But every marriage has its strains from time to time, when one partner is unhappy for reasons unrelated to the other. Or when there’s a difference of opinion about something major.”

  “Well, I’ve never married, so I wouldn’t know about that, now would I?”

  “You were close to the family; you might’ve picked up on something-”

  “I was not all that close to them before my sister disappeared. Laurel was nearly ten years younger than I, and she’d spent years away from home. When she returned to Paso Robles, her time was devoted to her children, and I was busy with a highly demanding career. My parents and I got together with them for the holidays and family birthdays, but I didn’t really know Laurel or Roy or the children. After my mother and father passed away I saw even less of them.” Anna Yardley’s mouth pulled taut. “Of course, that changed afterwards. Roy needed me to help raise Jennifer and Terry. I wasn’t happy about the responsibility, but it was my duty. No one else was going to do it.”

  No, warm and fuzzy wasn’t Aunt Anna’s thing.

  I said, “Jennifer tells me you might have some of Laurel’s belongings.”

  “A few, yes. Some mementos, her postcard collection, some letters. I took them when Roy… started getting rid of her things. I’ve never looked at any of them, but I thought the girls might want them someday. They’ve never asked, though.”

  “You say Roy started getting rid of Laurel’s things. I understand from Jennifer that he burned her paintings only days after she disappeared.”

  “… Well, yes, he did. The man was distraught, not himself at all. Afterward, he regretted his actions.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  “Not in so many words. As I said, we weren’t close. But I could sense his regret.”

  “Do you have any idea why he destroyed the paintings so soon after Laurel’s disappearance? What might have triggered it?”

  “Roy had been… drinking a good deal that day. I suppose in his inebriated state he resented the paintings. After all, it was Laurel’s going off to paint that proved to be her undoing.”

  “I wonder if I might see the items you saved.”

  “They’re in the attic. I’ll have to hunt for them. If I drag them down, they’re not going back; you can take them to Jennifer and let her dispose of them if she wants.”

  “I’m sure she’d like to have them.”

  “Well, I can’t get to it today. How long will you be here?”

  “At least till tomorrow night. Why don’t I call you?”

  Anna Yardley nodded and stood, looking pointedly toward the front door. The interview was over.

  Three hours later I was sitting on the balcony of my room at the Oaks Lodge, a newish, rambling resort hotel at the north end of town, with a main building containing a bar and restaurant and several guest wings set on large, lushly landscaped grounds. The temperature was still in the high eighties, and I’d changed to shorts and a tee and had a glass of cool white wine at hand. Spread on the small table in front of me were the notes I’d taken after playing the tapes of my interviews with Laurel Greenwood’s pastor and the man who had printed her greeting cards, as well as Roy Greenwood’s former dental assistant. They’d added little to the picture I’d already formed of Laurel.

  The pastor, Bill Price of St. John’s Lutheran Church, had spoken of Laurel with enthusiasm undimmed by the passage of time. He remembered that she had contributed much of her time and energy to the church’s youth committees and had done the artwork for posters for various fund-raising events. “She no longer practiced nursing,” he told me, “but she often made herself available to accompany our older members to medical appointments and aided them in communicating with their doctors. It was a great tragedy when we lost her.” What did he think had happened to Laurel? “I suspect she is in God’s hands.”

  Dean Sherman, owner of Sherman’s Printing, had enjoyed working with Laurel. Her illustrations were top quality, and she was open to technical suggestions about printing the cards. “She wasn’t like most artists; didn’t have a temperamental bone in her body. Had a nice little business going, and if she hadn’t died, it would’ve continued to grow. She wasn’t going to be another Hallmark, but she’d’ve made a nice living.” So he thought she was dead? “Of course. I know there were a lot of theories going around after she disappeared, but that’s all they were-theories.”

  Lana Overland, the former dental assistant, had liked Laurel. “I liked her a lot, in fact. In some professional offices, you get these wives who’re always calling up, always dropping by to check on things. Not Laurel. She had her own career, was very self-sufficient. Didn’t bother Roy with the little stuff, like problems at home or with the kids.” How had Roy dealt with Laurel’s disappearance? “He was very sad for a long time. Angry, too. You can understand that; he’d had this great life, and all of a sudden it was taken from him. After a while he kind of evened out, but then he was like this empty shell, and nothing could fill it, ever.” What did she think had happened to Laurel? “Foul play, most definitely, and a shame it happened to such a great wife and mother.”

  Impossibly perfect, that was the consensus on Laurel. But hadn’t she ever been derelict in her duties for the church? Missed a committee meeting? Forgotten some elderly parishioner who needed a ride to the medical clinic? Hadn’t she ever argued with the printer about the weight of the card stock or the quality of the ink? Failed to pay her bill on time? Hadn’t she ever interrupted one of Roy’s surgeries to tell him the washing machine was broken? Called at an awkward time to ask him to bring home a quart of milk? Apparently not.

  But then, memories are c
olored by the passage of time, especially if someone has met with a tragedy. Little annoyances fade, quarrels are forgotten, minor lapses are forgiven. The last three people I’d spoken with were really very peripheral to Laurel’s life; perhaps her best friend, Sally Timmerman, whom I was later meeting for dinner at the lodge’s restaurant, could reveal more of the woman behind the perfect facade.

  “Laurel a saint? You’re kidding, of course,” Sally Timmerman said.

  “That’s more or less how most people I’ve talked with have described her.”

  “I guess an untimely demise confers a sort of sanctity upon one, although I’ve never known why.”

  Timmerman was a short, plump woman in her mid-fifties, with close-cropped white-blonde hair and a round, smooth-skinned face that belied her years. From my background information on her, I knew that she was an English teacher at Paso Robles High School and had known Laurel Greenwood nearly her whole life. The two had met in second grade when Sally’s family had moved south from Salinas, and had quickly become inseparable. Together they’d gone off to college at San Jose State, and when Laurel married Roy upon graduation, Sally was her maid of honor. Two years later, Laurel stood up for Sally at her marriage to her high school sweetheart, Jim Timmerman. The couples socialized frequently, and Sally and Laurel apparently had remained close until the day Laurel disappeared.

  I waited as our server poured a Zinfandel from a local winery that Timmerman had recommended, then said, “How would you describe her, since you knew her better than anyone?”

  “Human. Clever. Generous. And she had her wild side.” Someone caught Sally’s eye from across the inn’s spacious dining room, and she waved before turning her attention back to me. “The parents of one of my students,” she explained. “You can’t go anywhere in this town without running into someone you know. Now, where was I?”

  “Laurel had her wild side.”

  “I’ll say she did. But Josie and I did, too.”

  “Josie-that was her cousin?”

  “Yes, Josie Smith. The three of us were best buddies in high school and college. The Terrible Three, they used to call us, because of all the trouble we’d get into. Sneaking out at night to meet boys, parties when the folks weren’t home, smoking dope behind the gym. Then we went off to San Jose State-Laurel and Josie to study nursing and me to get my teaching certificate-and really partied hearty. We rented this dilapidated house together, and there was a little old Airstream trailer that somebody had abandoned in the backyard. We called it our ‘bordello’ because that’s where we’d take guys when we wanted privacy.”

  Timmerman smiled wryly. “We thought we were really something, spearheading the sexual revolution, but it all seems so tame compared to what the kids are doing now. And, of course, we eventually settled down. Laurel fell in love with Roy. I reconnected with my high school boyfriend. Josie dropped out to marry her first husband and moved to San Francisco.”

  “But the three of you remained close?”

  “Laurel and I did. I kind of lost touch with Josie except for Christmas cards and what Laurel told me about her life. But they still saw each other frequently. Laurel helped Josie survive both of her divorces, and she was with her when she died. Brain cancer, at thirty-four. So young.” Sally shook her head.

  “When the two of them got together, was it here or in San Francisco?”

  “There, usually. Roy didn’t approve of Josie; he thought she was a bad influence on Laurel.”

  “Because of their wild past?”

  “Right.”

  “But he approved of you.”

  “Because by the time he and Laurel moved back here from L.A. I was a respectable wife, mother, and teacher. It also helped that I’d put on so much weight I wasn’t exactly turning heads anymore. But Josie was a divorcée, drop-dead gorgeous with all that bright red hair. Roy didn’t want his wife around somebody like that.”

  “Did he try to stop Laurel from seeing Josie?”

  “Well, they had a lot of disagreements about it, but she went anyway.” Sally grinned. “I’ve always suspected that while Laurel was visiting she and Josie lived it up some. Not,” she added quickly, “that she was ever unfaithful to Roy. But she liked a good time, and Roy wasn’t exactly a live wire.”

  “Anna Yardley claims Laurel was seldom away from her children for more than one or two nights, except for when Josie died.”

  Timmerman rolled her eyes. “What would Anna know about Laurel’s life? She was hardly ever around till she disappeared. But it’s true that Laurel kept her visits and her painting trips short.”

  “Anna also said she was surprised that Laurel had the children, that she wasn’t the maternal type.”

  “Now, there her instincts are correct. Laurel never wanted kids. In fact, she had an abortion during our junior year of college. It was Roy who wanted a family, and she finally caved in to the pressure. But once she had the girls she loved them and became a very good parent.”

  The waiter arrived with our dinners-prime rib; how could either of us resist the Thursday night special?-and we turned our attention to them for a few minutes. When I got back to my line of questioning, I said, “What about the Greenwoods’ marriage? Was it a good one?”

  “… As marriages between very different types of people go, I suppose it was. They made their accomodations. Roy was kind of rigid and very traditional; Laurel was easygoing and a free spirit. He could be overbearing and demanding, and her way of coping was to stand pat on the things that were important to her, while bending on the things that didn’t matter so much.”

  “Obviously her visits to Josie were one of the important things. What else?”

  “Her mental health days, as she called them. The religion the girls were raised in; Roy was Catholic, but she insisted they attend the Lutheran church.”

  “And the things she gave in on?”

  Sally considered. “Well, where they went on their vacations. She would’ve preferred to go to a resort, but Roy liked to camp, so they went camping. Where they lived; she wanted to be in the country, but he wanted to be in town near the clinic. One time, a couple of years before she disappeared, she got into this Arts in Correction program at the California Men’s Colony, the prison down at San Luis Obispo. They had local artists come in and teach the inmates all sorts of stuff, from filmmaking to painting to fiction writing. Laurel was really excited about it, taught there for maybe six months, but then Roy pressured her into quitting. Said it was taking too much of her time away from the family, but I think he really didn’t want her associating with the criminal element. She was disappointed, but she turned around and devoted more time to the greeting card business instead.”

  Now, that was interesting. Nowhere in my files had there been a mention of Laurel teaching at the prison.

  “Was Laurel friendly with any of the inmates she taught?”

  “She was a friendly person. But if you mean, did she have any contact with any of them outside the classes, I’d guess not.”

  “And she never mentioned having trouble with any of them?”

  “All she ever said was that they were a well-motivated group, and that a couple showed real talent. She would’ve liked to’ve gone on teaching, but she wanted to keep peace in her marriage.”

  The marriage didn’t sound very good to me. Although Hy and I had been married less than a week, we’d been together for years; neither of us had ever told the other what to do or not to do, and in our disagreements we’d always been straightforward. The Greenwoods’ relationship, on the other hand, seemed both controlling and manipulative. But was the situation sufficiently difficult to make Laurel walk away from her husband and children? That wasn’t a move a woman who took her responsibilities seriously could easily make. There would have had to be some sort of trigger…

  “Sally,” I said, “this may sound like a strange question, but do you know what kind of perfume Laurel wore?”

  “Why on earth do you ask that?”

  “Someon
e said something to me about her perfume. It probably doesn’t have any bearing on her disappearance, but I’m curious.”

  “Well, I do happen to know because we both wore it. Passionelle. They stopped making it around the time Laurel disappeared.”

  “Speaking of that time, did anything unusual happen to Laurel in, say, the six months before she disappeared?”

  Timmerman frowned, looking down and swirling the wine in her glass. “Things were pretty much on an even keel, at least as far as I know. I’d say the most unusual thing was Josie’s death, but that was a full year before.”

  “You were at the house when Jennifer and Terry came home from school the day after Laurel disappeared. Did Roy ask you to come over?”

  “Actually, Bruce Collingsworth, the police chief, suggested it. He was sending a couple of officers over to talk with Roy, and he thought I might have some insight into where Laurel had gone.”

  “Did you tell the police your impressions of the Greenwoods’ marriage?”

  “No. They didn’t ask, and I didn’t think it was my place to volunteer.”

  “Anna Yardley was there that day, too. Did Roy call her?”

  “I assumed so. Although it struck me as strange at the time. I mean, Anna was hardly ever there. She and Laurel didn’t get along.”

  “How come?”

  “Have you met Anna?”

  “Yes, earlier today.”

  “Then you know what she’s like-cold, disapproving. Laurel didn’t want her negativity influencing the girls. It’s a shame that afterwards she took such a hand in their upbringing. Laurel would not have wanted that. In fact, it was a role she’d asked me to assume if anything ever happened to her.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Roy made it plain I wasn’t welcome to. Oh, he didn’t come right out and say ‘You’re not wanted here,’ but he did say things like, ‘You have enough to do raising your own kids,’ and, ‘After all, Anna is their flesh and blood.’ It hurt me to be pushed out of their lives that way, but what could I do? The agreement between Laurel and me was only a verbal one.”