Chapter 5
Saturday morning found Madeline immersed in her normal routine, but in concession to the adjective Martinez had pinned on her yesterday, she varied the times of each chore from her regular schedule. There, just let him call me regimented now! she thought smugly, thinking of how she had worked out at the gym before tackling the cleaning. She’d stopped for her usual creme-filled doughnut on the way home from the gym, though. Just because he’d correctly guessed the precise way she ordered her life didn’t mean that she needed to listen to his disparaging comments about what she ate. She enjoyed her unconventional eating habits and firmly believed that chocolate was the fifth food group. Since she was in excellent health and had weighed the same for the past ten years, she saw no reason to change those particular habits now.
When the doorbell rang she checked the peephole with her usual caution, even knowing that the visitor would be her neighbor, Ariel.
“Madeline, it’s been ages since we talked. I tried to catch you one morning this week, but I just missed you. You were already in the elevator.” She flew into the room with her usual hurry, talking nonstop. She went immediately to the kitchen area, pulled a stool up to the counter and sat with a flourish, arranging the folds of her robe neatly around her. When she finally looked at her friend, she blinked. “Aren’t you going to the gym today?” she asked. “Why aren’t you dressed for it yet?”
Madeline looked down at her jeans and T-shirt. “I’ve been already,” she answered. “I’ve just finished cleaning.”
Ariel widened her heavily made-up eyes in shock and held a hand to her heart theatrically. “You changed your schedule? You? Is the world coming to an end? This is it, isn’t it, one of the great signs in the book of Revelations that my minister is always quoting. I’m going right home to repent.”
Her neighbor rolled her eyes. “You’re surprised,” she said with masterful understatement. It was uncanny the way Ariel walked right in and cheerfully took up where Cruz had left off commenting about her life. It was also irritating. Was she really so predictable? Yes, she answered her own question. But it was a conscious choice, not a compulsion. No matter what the two busybodies in her life seemed to think.
“No, surprise doesn’t cover it,” Ariel responded. “Do you have any of those doughnuts-thanks,” she said as Madeline pushed the bag over to her. Without waiting for an invitation she went to the cupboard with an ease that spoke of long familiarity and, taking out a mug, poured herself some coffee. Returning to her seat, she continued, “Surprise is when you win the lottery, or when your mother tells you that she’s running off to Bermuda with a taxi driver to learn to samba. Surprise might even describe your feeling when you walk into the bedroom and find your date trying on your lingerie. But this…” She bit into the doughnut and closed her eyes in appreciation. “This surpasses surprise. Colossal, earthshaking, monumental, absolutely mind-blowing shock comes much closer to describing the wonder of Madeline Casey changing her schedule.” She nodded effusively to negate her friend’s grimace at her words. “Now the only question is, what would elicit such a change? Gotta be a man,” she said wisely, taking another bite from the doughnut.
“You’ve been drinking too much of that herbal tea again,” Madeline told her friend flatly. She loved Ariel dearly, but sometimes she felt like strangling her, and now was one of those times. She was really the only person Madeline knew in the condominium complex, even after living there three years. If Ariel had her sights set on getting to know someone, the person hadn’t much choice in the matter. She could be rather forceful in her neighborliness. But Madeline had grown genuinely close to her despite, or perhaps because of, their differences. Ariel was as effusive as Madeline was reserved. With her wacky style of dressing, makeup and far-out hairstyles, she was the antithesis of Madeline. She also had the unfortunate knack for acknowledging no boundaries of privacy regarding personal lives. As a result, Madeline had few secrets from her friend. Her usual aloofness couldn’t withstand the assault of Ariel’s good-natured prying. It was easier to give in and tell her what she wanted to know. But Madeline had no intention of humoring her latest flight of fancy. “Can’t a person alter her day off a little on a whim?”
Ariel had finished the doughnut and was licking her fingers with delicate greed. “Other people can, you can’t. Something had to happen to shake you out of that rigid mold you keep yourself in. So what gives? Tell Auntie Ariel all about it,” she cooed, resting her chin on folded hands and staring at Madeline with avid interest.
Madeline laughed in spite of herself. “How about if we skip talking about my life and you just go get one of your own?”
Ariel shook her head. “Been there, tried it. Failed and flopped, with a few disasters thrown in along the way. I’m resting from life, recharging before I march out there and get shot down again. That’s why I depend on you to bring me a little vicarious excitement along the way. Very little, I might add,” she finished drolly.
“I’m sorry to be such a disappointment to you,” Madeline remarked dryly. She had no doubt that her dull life was of little real interest to her friend, who lived a colored one of her own. Most of the surprises she’d mentioned a few minutes ago had actually happened to her, according to some of the hugely entertaining stories she’d recounted to Madeline. Ariel collected experiences and husbands with equal fervor, both to be regretted at later dates. At last count she’d been married four times, and proclaimed to be taking a break from the search for number five as she tried out numerous prospects.
“C’mon, Madeline, don’t make me beg. For once just come right out and tell me. Who is he?”
“What makes you think a man is involved?” Madeline asked, stalling for time. Although Cruz Martinez could be credited for her decision to vary her day a little, he was not playing the kind of role in her life that Ariel was imagining. Nor was he likely to. Madeline didn’t go out with obscenely good-looking men, men she was professionally involved with, and especially not with men who might be criminals. But she had no intention of telling Ariel all of that. Ariel would be fascinated; she would think it was exciting, for heaven’s sake.
Ariel waved her hand dismissively, as if the question didn’t even deserve an answer. “All of a woman’s important changes are brought on by a man. Men we love, men we hate, men we want to love, men we wished we hated… it’s destined. One of the realities of life. So-o-o, tell me, dear,” she said with a wicked smile, “about the man who caused these variations in your life today.”
Madeline smiled to herself. She might not agree with all of her friend’s ideas, or even with most of them, but she had to admit that listening to Ariel was amusing. “Sorry to disappoint you, but the only man in my life at the moment is my father, and it would take a high-priced analyst many years to help me figure out which of your four categories he would fit into.”
“Oh.” Ariel was instantly sympathetic. “You must have had another of your horrible dinners with him. How bad was it?”
“The usual.” Now that some time had passed, Madeline could think about the evening with a little humor. “He was condescending, I was defensive. He got high-handed, I got angry. He began giving advice, I began shouting…” She shrugged. “It kind of deteriorated from there.”
“Parents.” Ariel sighed. “They never stop trying to pull our strings.”
“It’s some kind of strange Pavlovian response. I hear his voice on the phone, and…” She snapped her fingers. “Instant immaturity.” She waited a few moments and then added nonchalantly, “I did get assigned a new case this week.”