“If I don't get anywhere in the next day or two, I'll throw in the towel. The guy lives behind too many walls."
"That's Stewart," Laurie said, explaining everything. “I wish I could have been more helpful."
Ashleigh gave me a rueful smile. "We spent most of dinner trading dreadful husband tales."
She had intended to pump her target's estranged wife, and the estranged wife was more than willing to talk. The next exchange between the women brought another clarification.
"Laurie, you won't be in any trouble, will you?"
Laurie shrugged. “I don't care if Stewart knows we had dinner together. Grennie can't hurt me."
"Grenville Milton?"
"The one and only Groin Vile," Laurie said. "And his wife, your mother's old friend. Plus two other people who think I'm a terrible person. They left about five minutes before you got here."
“Is Groin Vile a big old bald-headed character in a bow tie and a green linen jacket who thinks he owns the world?"
"You encountered our Grennie," Laurie said. “I hope he didn'tsay anything to you."
"He told me that I probably wanted to act like a big shot and tipwaiters wild hundred-dollar bills. Then he advised me to visit the men's room and spruce up."
Laurie groaned. "Grenville felt good about it. His state of mind improved no end."
“It took a turn for the worse when I called him an overbearing small-town shithead." Laurie laughed, and Ashleigh opened her mouth in a disbelieving half smile. Julian, whom I had not seen approaching, placed my salad before me with only a trace of his former vivacity and retreated. “I must be on a roll," I said.
"Julian has high moral standards," Laurie said. "Everyone in Edgerton has high moral standards, except me. If I'd heard you call Grennie a shithead, I would have brightened up immediately. I gather he's getting ready to dump Rachel. She's been leaving sad little messages on my answering machine."
She gave me an apologetic look. "When I married Stewart, Rachel Milton took me under her wing and helped me with the kinds of things she cares about, like finding a good hairdresser and the right caterer. She looked at me and saw herself."
"Herself?" I said. "Oh, I get it. A younger woman, an outsider . . ."
Laurie Hatch's dazzling face opened into beautifully ironic assent. "Rachel was too busy identifying to see that ambition had nothing to do with my marrying Stewart."
"Ned, let me put your dinner on my bill, will you?" Ashleigh said. “It's on the state of Kentucky. Laurie, thanks for a nice evening. I'll call you soon."
She signed the check. Julian asked if I would like a second glass of wine. Laurie Hatch asked for another, too. Ashleigh pushed her chair away from the table.
I said, “I'll walk you to the elevator."
The other patrons watched us wind through the tables.
“I wish Laurie had suggested another restaurant."
"Didn't you get what you wanted?"
She smiled. “I called Laurie to see if she could confirm some details. I thought we'd do the whole thing on the telephone, but she said she was free for the evening. Basically, we spent the entire time complaining about our husbands."
"Better than being alone."
She tucked in her chin with a sharp little nod and pushed the elevator button. “It must be nice, having a woman like Laurie Hatch waiting for you."
“I don't think Laurie has any special plans for me."
"Don't he so sure."
"Ashleigh, when dinner is over, I'm going to walk around for awhile. That's it."
"You could come back here. I'm in room 554."
I put my arms around her. “I need some time alone."
Ashleigh bumped her head against my chest and pulled away. “I'msorry about your mother."
The elevator opened onto mahogany and dark mirrors. Throughthe half inch of space before the doors closed, I saw her sag against the rear of the car.
• 32
• Vinnie glided a hand toward the far side of the room. I didn't fool him for a second, but he had to admit I had good moves.
Laurie Hatch looked at me with a relaxed, self-possessed amusement imbued with the innate consciousness that seemed to radiate from her. Julian snapped the cover from my plate and executed an about-face and a formal departure.
"Remember the old Julian? Remember the pixie?"
Laurie's flickering glance informed me that I had missed the point. "Julian has to wait on Grennie and Rachel at least once a week. He puts up with more innuendos about masculinity than you'll hear if you live to be a thousand."
It was like having my windows cleaned, like putting on new eyeglasses. I said, "Ah. Uh-huh," and cut into the steak.
Her smile changed. “I wish I'd been able to do more for Ashleigh. She's so smart and dedicated. You two get on very well together."For a hitchhiker and the person who gave him a ride.
"Ashleigh's easy to get on with. She wanted to hear more about my mother."
“I know how it feels to lose your mother. How is your father doing?"
“I wonder." I smiled at her chagrin. “I never knew my father."
"Do you know where he is?"
“I didn't even know his name until yesterday, when my mother toldit to me. I thought I might see what I can find out about him. My family isn't too happy about that."
"They don't understand it? Or are they afraid of what you could find out?"
The question startled me. "They act like I'm being outrageous. They won't talk about things I know they remember."
"What could they be afraid of?"
"God knows. My family is ... let's say, eccentric."
I had a memory-flash of Aunt Joy leaning forward and aiming a scrawny forefinger across the room to send Clarence's wheelchair rolling a yard forward, a yard back. She squinted. The wheelchair floated four feet off the ground and swung from side to side while Clarence pushed his tongue in and out of his mouth in babyish pleasure.
That's all I can do, now most of my strength is gone. At least I can get him in and out of the bath, because how else is an old lady like me supposed to handle a full-grown man? Wasn't supposed to end up like this, Neddie. We used to be like royalty in this town.
“I loved Aunt Nettie," Laurie said, delivering me from the river-bottom and back to Le Madrigal.
"You can have her. Aunt May, too. Once you have May in your family, you never have to pay for anything again. May just picks it up for you. She's a kind of magician."
"What do you mean? She's a kleptomaniac?"
"May's beyond kleptomania. It's like Zen, like a mystical kleptomania."
Laurie appeared to contemplate the existence of a mystical kleptomania. "But you still want to do it, don't you? You're not afraid."
A tingle of fear threaded my spine. “I want to find out whatever I can."
I heard Joy saying,Sylvan moved the family out of town, and he and Ethel had a hatch of kids, but some of those children, my daddy said, they didn't look human at all. The word for that in French is "epouvante." I was always superior to my sisters in my command of the French language.
"What was your father's name?"
Speaking his name in public seemed a violation of my privacy, or of some ancient code. I said it anyhow. "Edward Rinehart." It brought back the other name my mother had spoken, Robert. Who wasRobert?