“Fielding’s new wife? How the hell did she come into it?”
“She was worried about Fielding getting into trouble and phoned Daisy from Los Angeles.”
“What’s it all about anyway?”
“I was hoping that you’d tell me.”
Jim shook his head. “I can’t. I have no idea how Fielding got involved in this thing, if he is involved. As for his wife, I didn’t know of her existence until Daisy informed me this week. I’m at a complete loss, I tell you.”
“You tell me, yes.”
“Your tone suggests disbelief.”
“Let’s put it this way. It’s better to lie to your wife than to your lawyer.”
“I play it safe,” Jim said, “by not lying to either.”
“What about the girl?”
“I told Daisy all about that when it happened — names and everything — and she took it very calmly. She seems to have forgotten now, and that’s not my fault. I told her.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because it was the reasonable, the honorable, thing to do.”
“It may have been honorable as all get-out,” Adam said with a cryptic little smile. “But reasonable, no.”
“She’d have found out sooner or later anyway.”
“Your logic reminds me of the first time I took my brother-in-law sailing. It was a brisk day, we were going along at a nice clip with just the right angle of heel, but Tom was so afraid we’d tip that he jumped overboard and swam to shore. I know you don’t enjoy sailing much, so you probably think Tom did the sensible thing. It wasn’t, though. It was both silly and dangerous. He almost didn’t make it to shore, and of course, the boat didn’t tip.”
“She’d have found out eventually,” Jim repeated.
“How? The girl left town and remarried. She’d have nothing to gain by talking. As for the mother, all arrangements were made by me. You were never brought into it except as a name. I don’t want to pry” — he leaned over to remove a pebble caught in the tread of his sneakers — “but I’ve often wondered why you didn’t let me take the case into court, especially since you never intended to keep it secret from Daisy.”
“I couldn’t afford the scandal.”
“But I’m sure we could have won it.”
“The scandal would still be there. Besides, the child was — and is — mine. Would you ask me to perjure myself?”
“Of course not. But the girl’s reputation alone would certainly have cast doubt on the legitimacy of her claim.”
“In other words, I should have stayed on the boat until it tipped?”
“It didn’t tip,” Adam said.
“Well, this one would have.”
“You didn’t wait around to find out. You jumped overboard.”
“Oh, stop it, Adam. It happened. It happened a long time ago. Why go into it all over again now?”
“Do you remember exactly how long ago it happened?”
“No. I try not to think about it.”
“It was four years ago. To be precise, it was on December 2, 1955, that I made the first payment to Mrs. Rosario in my office. I looked it up before I left.” He pulled the hood of his sea jacket over his head. “You’d better go home and have a talk with Daisy.”
“Yes, I guess so.”
“Well, I’ll see you later. I want to stay down and make sure everything’s tight and tidy on the sloop. I don’t like the size of those swells. Sorry we missed our sail, by the way.”
“I’m not. I didn’t want to go anyway.”
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t want to ask you, either.”
“So Daisy arranged it.”
“Yes.”
“Daisy’s getting to be quite an arranger.” Jim turned abruptly and walked toward the parking lot.
But he was not thinking of Daisy as he climbed into his car. He was thinking of the boat that hadn’t tipped, and of the man who’d jumped overboard and almost hadn’t made it to shore. A silly and dangerous thing, Adam had called it. Sometimes, though, silly and dangerous things were necessary. Sometimes people didn’t jump; they were pushed.
She pretended, in case any of the fishermen or the dockhands were observing her, that she was standing against the wall of the harbormaster’s office for shelter from the wind. She made a show of being cold — shivering, pulling up her coat collar, rubbing her hands together — until, as time passed, the show became real and the coldness penetrated every tissue of her body.
She watched the two of them talking on the seawall fifty yards away. They looked as though they might have been discussing the weather, but Daisy knew it couldn’t have been the weather when Jim suddenly turned and walked away in a peculiarly abrupt manner, as if he and Adam had been quarreling. She waited until Jim got into his car. Then she started running toward Adam, who was going down the floating ramp to the mooring slips.
“Adam.”
He turned and came back up the ramp to the guardrail, swaying with the movement of the waves. “Hello, Daisy. You missed Jim by a couple of minutes. He just left.”
“That’s too bad.” There was nothing in her voice to indicate how long she had waited for Jim to leave.
“I may be able to catch him for you.”
“Oh no, don’t bother.”
“He told me he was going home.”
“I’ll see him there, then,” Daisy said. “You didn’t stay out very long, did you?”
“We didn’t get out at all. The storm warnings are up.”
“That’s a pity.”
“Jim didn’t seem to mind,” Adam said dryly. “By the way, next time you arrange a sailing partner for me, make it someone who likes water, will you?”
“I’ll try.” Daisy leaned against the guardrail and looked down at the crabs scuttling around the rocks as if they were trying to find the biggest and safest one to weather out the storm. “Since you couldn’t sail, what did you and Jim do?”
“We talked.”
“About me?”
“Certainly. We always talk about you. I ask Jim how you are, and he tells me.”
“Well, how am I? I’d like Jim’s version of the state of my health, mental and otherwise.”
Adam’s smile was imperturbable. “Obviously, you’re a little cranky today. That’s my version, not Jim’s.”
“Did he tell you his plans for our anniversary?”
“We discussed a great many—”
“He’s made some lovely plans, only I’m not supposed to know about them.”
“Only you do.”
“Oh yes. Word gets around. I must say you’ve kept the secret from me very well, considering the fact that you must have been the first to know.”
“Keeping secrets,” Adam said coolly, “is part of my job.”
“How large is it going to be, my surprise, I mean?”
“Large enough but not too large.”
“And the style?”
“The style will be stylish. Naturally.”
“And you haven’t the faintest notion what I am talking about, have you?”
He took her arm. “Come on, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee at the Yacht Club.”
“No.”
“You don’t have to snap at me. What’s the matter with you today?”
“I’m glad you asked. I intended to tell you anyway. I found some check stubs this afternoon in Jim’s desk. They indicate that he’s been paying you $200 a month for some time.”
“Well?”
“I asked my mother about it, and she claimed the money was for some acreage Jim was buying from you to build a mountain cabin on. I gather she was lying?”
“She may have been lying,” Adam said with a shrug. “Or she may actually believe it’s the truth.”
“It isn’t, of course.”
“No.”
“What was that money for, Adam?”
“To pay for the support of Jim’s child by another woman.” He deliberately looked away from her as he spoke because he didn’t want to see the pain and shock in her face. “You were told about it at the time, Daisy. Don’t you remember?”