“When I pressed him, he said news of havey-cavey stuff would be bad for the business. That made sense, but I didn’t like the fact that as usual, Harold would pay no penalty for wrongdoing. Derek asked me if I wanted to see my son in prison. He said Harold had made a bad marriage, and all of this was Evelyn’s fault. I didn’t say anything, and he got mad at me and went over to Marlena’s place. His mistress’s apartment.”
“You knew who he was seeing?”
“Oh yes. Marlena Gray. I’m not sure it’s her real name, though.”
“You said you last saw him on Halloween?”
“Yes. Two weeks had gone by since he made that first trip to LA. He had started going through the papers here, and before long he was mad at Harold again. One morning, Derek told me he was going to go back down to LA again to tell Harold he had to rehire the accountant and kick Evelyn out. We argued over whether or not that was the best thing to do, and he told me not to wait up for him. I’d heard that plenty of times over the previous four decades. That night, I guess it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I told him maybe he should take his girlfriend with him. He said maybe he would, and maybe he wouldn’t bother coming back. He’d said that before, too. Usually I’d say something in protest, but that time, I didn’t.”
She sounded remorseful and depressed. She fell silent.
Frank waited. His dad had once told him that the ideal rookie would be an alien with excellent eyesight, giant ears, and no mouth.
Suddenly, Mrs. Sarton sat up straight in her chair. She came to her feet and marched over to a big bay window, then yanked open its largest blind. As the blind flew up, Bear’s face appeared on the other side of the glass.
Startled, Bear jumped back, then turned bright red with embarrassment. Frank, who had reflexively stood from the moment she rose, struggled mightily for self-control.
“Shame on you!” Mrs. Sarton shouted through the glass. “Shame on you!” She brushed one forefinger along the other in the time-honored gesture.
Under other circumstances, that would have made Frank lose it. But he saw that she had started crying, and lost the urge to laugh. He put an arm around her thin shoulders and turned her away from the window, and scowled at Bear-who scowled back, but slunk off toward the picket fence. Frank guided Mrs. Sarton back to her chair.
She pulled a delicate handkerchief out of one of her pockets and tried to regain her self-control as she wiped her face. For a time, she just cried harder. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she kept saying.
“I suspect you’re overdue for a good cry. Don’t worry about me. I grew up with two sisters. Tears don’t freak me out.”
She laughed at that, and sighed gustily. “Oh, thank you. I guess I did need that cry. Lord, I’m tired of living like this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Afraid. Locks and alarms and all that. I might as well have gone missing. In some ways, I have-I’ve gone missing inside this house. I’m alone too much. I know it, but I just can’t seem to make myself do anything.” She looked down at her dress. “Look at me. I used to take great care with my appearance. Now, I’m just a fright. I go nowhere, see no one. I leave boxes in the living room and I haven’t gone into my own garage in years. A mouse has more nerve than I do. I’m a frightened recluse, cowering in my own home.”
“Maybe that can change.”
She didn’t say anything for a while. He stayed quiet.
Finally she said, “To go back to that night, Halloween, Derek left here at about five. You’ve probably noticed that we’re off the beaten path for trick-or-treaters, so that night, when I unexpectedly got a call from a friend inviting me out to dinner, I accepted. I was tempted to tell her about my problems, but instead I listened to hers. It was a good distraction, but after a couple of hours I tired of it and-over her protests-I told her I was going home.
“When I got back here, it was about ten o’clock, and I was surprised to find one of the company trucks parked in the driveway, back open, ramp down, and empty. The lights were on in the garage. At first, I thought it was Derek, delivering another load of documents to the garage, but then I saw a man wearing dark clothing. It was Harold. He had one of the big fifty-five-gallon drums on a dolly. I realized that I had come home just in time to see Harold breaking into the garage. He was trying to steal things back. And Evelyn was with him. She was carrying a stack of boxes.”
“How did they respond to being caught?”
“Oh, I scared Harold half to death. He was so startled to see me, he actually gave a little scream. And he looked very shaken. I mean, he really couldn’t explain himself, could he? He moved it back in-which wasn’t all that easy, the garage was packed with Derek’s things and all the stuff he had brought home from the company. But Harold managed to do it, then he tried to tell me that he and his father had talked things out and that all was fine, and he was just going to take back all of the things his dad had brought out here.
“Evelyn has always been bold and brassy, and while I was telling him that I’d have to hear from his father before I could let them take anything, she acted as if she’d just as soon clobber me with those boxes.
“Harold stepped between us and told her to let him handle things, that she had caused enough problems. I stopped her from taking the boxes with her-she was unhappy about that. But she set the boxes down on the drum and went out to the van.
“Harold argued with me some more, then I explained to him that I separately owned most of the company and could sell it out from under him-something that seemed to surprise him, so I suppose Derek hadn’t let him in on that little detail. So he gave up. I made him lock up the garage and give me the keys he had used to get into it. I told him to leave.”
“Did he?”
“Yes, but not before he hinted threats. I told him that I had already arranged things so that if anything happened to me, the company would be sold and the proceeds donated to the United Negro College Fund, and everything in my trust would go to it as well. He was a bit of a racist, so that cooked his goose.”
“Had you made that arrangement?”
“Yes. It’s an excellent cause. Besides, you don’t think I’d lie to my own son, do you?”
“No, ma’am, I don’t. Did you ever reconcile with him?”
“Oh yes, but not immediately. In fact, at first, things got worse. When I didn’t hear from Derek after about four days, I became worried. He had stayed away a couple of days at a time, but never longer than that. I thought he was probably especially angry with me, but when he hadn’t been home in five days, I called Harold to ask if his father had been in touch. He seemed upset and said, ‘Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but he’s left you. He’s run off with Marlena Gray.’ ”
“Did you believe him?”
“Not for a minute. Impossible! It wasn’t Derek’s way. Even if he had left me, he wouldn’t leave his company. When Harold told me that he hadn’t heard from him since Halloween, I was very worried. I became quite bold. I looked up Marlena Gray in the phone book, but when I called the number, it was disconnected. There was an address listed for her in the phone book, so I drove over to her apartment. It was in a big building, but I worked up my nerve and knocked. No one answered the door. I kept knocking. Eventually the building manager came by-he was making his rounds and heard me knocking, so he came over to ask if I was interested in renting the apartment. When I told him I was looking for Miss Gray, he told me Marlena had moved.”
“When?”
“That’s what I asked. He said, ‘Halloween. No notice, so she kissed her security deposit good-bye, but I guess her rich boyfriend is going to take care of that.’ He told me that she had left so many of her belongings behind, the place could be rented furnished. Then to top everything off on a perfectly horrible day, he said, ‘Say, you aren’t her mother or anything like that, are you?’