Selena’s glance was like the warning flash of a knife. “What about what happened in the Valley?”
Even more hesitantly, Rob said: “Well, I know you were burned out, you told me that much, okay? But — look, now don’t get mad — just tell me the truth. It wasn’t — you didn’t...?”
“Didn’t what?” Selena’s tone was icy.
“You didn’t do it, did you?”
Selena sprang up, one arm flung out as if about to strike. “What a beastly thing to say!”
“Look, I’m sorry—”
“Someone died in that fire. Someone I loved. How dare you even suggest anything so vile?” Bursting into tears as easily as the most accomplished actress, Selena flung herself down again on the grass.
Rob made awkward, fumbling motions without actually stooping to touch her. “Selena, I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t understand you sometimes. You don’t seem to want to tell me anything.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re too stupid to understand, ever think of that?” Then suddenly, as if a cloudburst had passed, she regained her composure, her manner becoming sadder, reflective. “I love it here at the lake. Everything was fine for two years. Beryl and I got along okay. I know she doesn’t exactly dote on me — I’m too smart for my own good she’s always telling me — but she is my mother and she does control the trust fund. Oh yes, we got along — until Gordon came into the picture. A guy over thirty with a pigtail! Isn’t that de trop?”
“What’s that mean?”
“Too much. But I’m a woman of the world. If Beryl chooses to go gaga over some hunk, that’s her business, not mine. But marry him? No way, baby. The minute she dropped that on me I knew I had to do something to stop it. Gordon’s nothing but a gigolo, all he’s after is the money. But it won’t happen, you can count on that. I’m going to get rid of Gordon. No ding-dong wedding bells for that jerk. What happened in the Valley gave me the idea.”
“I hope you know you’re playing with fire,” said Rob with a grin.
Selena gave him a withering look. “Is that supposed to be funny? Is that your idea of wit?”
“Oh, don’t be so touchy.”
“I’ve already got him worried. I keep giving him these looks. If Beryl had any brains, she’d know I’m doing her a favor by getting rid of Gordon. She’ll thank me some day.”
“You really hate him, don’t you?”
“With a passion. I mean, a pigtail. Really! And the way he struts around in that bikini. Fancies he’s Mr. Universe or something. God, it makes me sick the way Beryl fawns over him. He deserves just what’s coming to him.” In another lightning change of mood, the fierceness evaporated into a seductive tenderness as she laid a hand on Rob’s thigh. “And you deserve what’s coming to you.”
Rob’s eyes glistened. “I wish it was a Harley, like Gordon’s.”
“Maybe some day, if you’re nice to me.” She looked around as they heard a car door slam beyond the trees. “They’re back already. Now you know what you have to do tomorrow night. And don’t jump the gun. Don’t call the fire department until you’re sure it’s hopeless. Now hide the milk jug. We’ll have our sandwiches here in the garden. I can’t bear to be at the table with him. You should see the way he eats.” She made exaggerated chopping motions with her teeth. They both started giggling.
While Beryl put the groceries away, Gordon stripped off his T-shirt and wandered out onto the deck where he braced his powerful arms against the redwood rail and proceeded to do a series of push-ups until Beryl joined him carrying two glasses. A sleek, well-groomed brunette, she was one of those women who had perfected the art of concealing her age.
“Cocktail before lunch, darling?”
Gordon leaned over the rail, staring down through the trees to the garden below. “I see lunch is already being served. Guess we’re not invited.”
Beryl came to stand beside him, one hand stroking his muscular brown back. “Sandwiches alfresco. How sweet.”
“Wonder what they’re up to now.”
“Oh, don’t start. They’re not getting into any mischief. One would think you were never a child.”
He grunted. “Selena? A child? She’s the oldest twelve-year-old I ever met.”
“An exceptionally bright child. A precocious child. I should think that dreary little Rob would bore her to tears. Cute, I grant you, but dumb as a box of rocks.”
Gordon flung an arm around her shoulders. “Cute but dumb. Like me, you mean.”
“Cute you are. Dumb you are not. Now drink your cocktail.”
Gordon’s darkly handsome face wore a speculative, brooding look. “I’m not so dumb I can’t tell when they’re up to something.”
“Will you stop? What is it you think they’re up to?”
“I wish I knew. It doesn’t seem to bother you at all, what they did to that playhouse.”
“It’s Selena’s playhouse, darling. What was I supposed to do, forbid her to paint it? It did look frightfully shabby, you know that.”
“But using the same colors as the Valley house?”
“You find that sinister? Really, my pet, Selena loved the Valley house. She still misses it.”
Gordon was not to be appeased. “Painting the same number as the Valley house on the door? Morbid, I’d call it.”
Beryl’s tone lost some of its lightness. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“Well, it bothers me — and she knows it. The way she dragged me down there the other day and told me to look in the window. She’d put her daddy’s picture on that little pine table. And another thing. I don’t think you should let her sleep down there.”
Beryl howled. “Gordon, you’re too much. There’s no harm in her sleeping in the playhouse occasionally.”
“You said she was precocious and that Rob kid is a sturdy little runt.”
“Not physically precocious, you idiot. Tell me the truth. What’s really bothering you? You’re not still imagining things, I hope.”
Gordon gave her a darkly portentous look. “Am I imagining things? Are you sure about that?”
The humor altogether faded from Beryl’s tone now. “How many times must I tell you? She was asleep that night.”
“Later, yes. You made sure of that. But earlier...”
“When she came out of her room? All she saw was a shadowy figure in the darkness.”
“She saw what I was holding. She asked you if I was the milkman, for God’s sake.”
“She was half asleep,” Beryl insisted.
“If she saw what I was carrying she could have seen my face,” he retorted, not angrily but with a stubborn persistence.
“Nonsense. She would have said something after the fire, or certainly when you and I ‘met’ — presumably for the first time — a year later.”
“If she was a normal kid, yes.”
“There’s nothing abnormal about Selena. Far from it. Honestly, Gordon, you’re letting your imagination run wild. Or is it some kind of delayed guilt trip? You didn’t mean to kill Marty. It was an accident. You weren’t supposed to show up that night. Marty wasn’t due back from Portland for another day. He heard you come in and thought you were a burglar. He had a gun, he might have killed you. And it was my idea, not yours, about the fire. How many times must I remind you of all this?”
Revealing an uncharacteristic subtlety of insight, Gordon said: “We should have gone off and got married without saying a word to Selena.”