Ray’s face was screwed up like a child’s. “You can’t be saying my mother would do a thing like that.”
“She did, Ray. She would have killed me. I’ve thought and thought about it.”
“But why? Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Then I tried to think. I wanted to call you. I wanted your arms around me and the safety of our house, but we had fought-I thought you never wanted to see me again. And I felt like-like it would kill you to hear this. Look at you now!”
Kat said, “Take it easy, Ray. Just listen for now, okay?”
“I hate having to talk to you like this. I know how much you love her. I have rehearsed many ways of telling you over the past days, but I can’t make it easier.” She began to sob.
“It’s okay,” Kat told her. She reached across the table to hold Leigh’s cold, trembling hand for a moment. “Just tell us what happened.”
“Well, after the clinic, I-was still feeling very shocked and pretty battered. I needed to think and the cabin at Idyllwild seemed like a logical place to rest and take some painkillers. I drove up there and collapsed. The next day, even though I was still in some pain, I got worried you might think of the cabin and follow me there, so I moved on. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight, but I thought you didn’t love me anymore. I thought I had lost your trust forever. And still, I didn’t want to hurt you any more than I already had.”
Ray said, “Leigh, you have it all wrong. Martin was right about one thing. I drove you away from me. Ever since you started talking about having a child-I got so scared. I drove you to him. You needed to be loved and I took my love away. And then I wanted to blame you for everything! I could see myself-hurting you back. Hurting you more.” Ray closed his eyes and shook his head. “I wanted you to go. I’m afraid you felt that.”
She nodded. “That’s why you called your mother and told her about Martin and me. I can only imagine what you said. And she-she got so angry at the hurt I caused you, she wanted me to die.”
“No! No! I didn’t call her! I wouldn’t do that! She didn’t know until Sunday!”
“Are you sure?” Leigh said. “It’s all right, I don’t blame you.”
“I didn’t! She didn’t know until after that night! You’re all messed up! None of this is true!”
“Wait,” Kat said. “Keep your voice down, Ray. Sssh. Ray, think about the shirt we found.”
Ray put his face in his hands.
“Leigh, go back, just explain again. You left the Topanga house. Why would you drive to Whittier?”
“I was going to my parents’ house,” Leigh said. “But just as I got to town I saw Esmé’s inhaler lying there on the car seat, you know, the one she needs for her asthma. I saw that and thought, oh, damn. She’s running out.”
“She used one while I was there on Sunday. Must have been the same one,” Ray said.
Kat asked, “But why did you have the inhaler, Leigh?”
“Esmé called the house on Friday morning, but Ray had gone in to work early, so I got the call. Her local pharmacy had run out and wouldn’t get any until Monday. She asked me to ask Ray to pick it up in L.A. and bring it on Sunday, during our regular dinner. I offered to bring it over instead.
“I just thought I’d drop it off. It was only a few more miles, and then I’d go stay with my folks. I got to Close Street, but I couldn’t raise her. She didn’t answer the door, so I went in the kitchen because I know she leaves that door unlocked sometimes when she takes out the trash. I called out-getting more worried. Then I saw the basement door open.”
“She keeps it locked.”
“Right. I thought maybe she had an asthma attack down there, or slipped down those steep steps. So I went in and ran down the stairs. It was so weird.” She paused, narrowing her eyes, remembering.
“What, Leigh?” Kat said.
“Well, I came down fast. She whirled around, and there was an instant there when I’d swear she was deciding this was exactly the right thing to do, then she stabbed me with the chisel. I dropped the inhaler, which was still in my hand in a bag, and I stumbled back up the steps. She followed me, but I guess the situation got her worked up. I could hear her wheezing, trying to catch me.”
Ray had kept his hurt, shocked eyes on Leigh. “A chisel?” he interrupted. “Why would she be in the basement with a chisel?”
“I don’t know,” Leigh answered. “Trying to get something open? Do you know what she keeps down there? I mean, it looked empty to me.”
“Working on the pipes?” Ray said. “You know, the sink was leaking upstairs. Probably the water had drizzled down there. I warned her about that. It could weaken the walls or even flood the place.”
“Old people have a lot of problems that might change their personalities,” Kat said, straining for a reasonable explanation.
“She really did this to you? Really?”
Leigh broke down again. “It’s true.”
“She isn’t old. She isn’t senile or crazy,” Ray said. “My mother knows how to control herself. Oh, she sure does. But hang on. That was true up to a few days ago. But she has been drinking over the past few days, a lot I think, like binge drinking, and it started very suddenly. Was she drunk?”
“She was stone cold sober,” Leigh said.
“Do you think she-is she taking drugs? Methamphetamine? Cocaine? PCP?” Kat said.
“My first thought was, yeah, she’s on something. She ran toward me like a ghastly character in a movie. I could almost hear the music.”
“She hates drugs,” Ray said. “She hates having to use the inhaler sometimes for her asthma. She won’t even take an aspirin.”
Kat bit her lip and looked at him. He was back with them, but the expression on his face was so sad she could hardly stand it.
“Ray,” she said, “your mother must have known about your fight with Leigh. It’s the only explanation for her attack on Leigh, and it’s wild enough.”
“I didn’t call her, Leigh,” Ray said. “I swear to you, I didn’t.”
Kat said, “Could she have been-eavesdropping at your house?”
“But I drove straight to Whittier like a bat out of hell and there she was,” Leigh said. “She couldn’t have beat me.” She looked at the table. “Then why? She must be mentally ill. But-”
“I ate dinner with her that Sunday, after you had been gone two days. She was just like always. She seemed sorry you had left.”
Leigh said, “I suppose I should have gone to my dad. But imagine. He would have had your mother arrested. I was so confused. I-I didn’t want to hurt you any more.”
Ray took it in.
She pulled up her shirt and lifted her body a little. “Look.”
Three angry red welts with stitch marks, about four inches long, scored through her pale skin just above the navel.
“Jesus,” Ray said. He touched his wife’s skin and Kat could see any remaining doubt had melted away.
“You poor thing,” Kat told Leigh, staring at it. Then a second wave of feeling overtook her, sadness for Ray.
In finding his wife, had he lost his mother?
Leigh pulled down her shirt, dropping back into her seat. For a few moments nobody spoke.
“We need to talk to her. Let’s go to Whittier,” Ray said.
“Let’s not and say we did,” Kat said. “You’re kidding, right?”
“We should just call the police,” Leigh said imperatively. “I’m not afraid of her, with the two of you with me, and I want to know why she did this to me. But we need to stay safe.”
“She attacked Leigh,” Kat said. “She’s violent.”