He twisted the metal cap from the liquor bottle and toasted the distant sky, which was barely visible through the thick, waxy leaves. “To our mutual suffering,” he said.
The first taste was harsh and welcoming. The second was merely welcoming.
CHAPTER SIX
Renee cradled the phone against her ear. She’d chipped her fingernail polish opening a can of Tab. Sitting in an apartment she wasn’t paying for, talking of money, made her lightheaded. Despite the wealth Jacob had accumulated early in their marriage, this money seemed unreal, almost sickening. “It’s two million dollars, Kim.”
“Holy crud,” came her best friend’s voice from the speaker. Kim worked as a technician at the hospital, testing blood samples. The sound of hospital business occasionally came through in the background, doctors being paged, carts rattling by, the ringing of nurses’ bells.
“That doesn’t make up for it. Not a bit.”
“I know, honey. We’ve been through that. You don’t have any more tears left to cry.”
“I was the beneficiary. Jacob set it up that way. After Christine died, he insured the three of us for a million dollars each. Said that’s how his father always did it.”
“And you let him?”
“Well, it’s the kind of thing you don’t think about much. You can’t let it weigh on you, that tragedy might strike again. I figured we’d used up more than our share with Christine.”
“I know you guys are movers and shakers, but a million is a million, even with inflation. What are you guys going to do with the money?”
“That’s just it. He’s hiding from all this.”
“Forget about him for a minute. What do you want?”
Renee looked at the urn on the mantel. She didn’t want the ashes around as a constant reminder of The Tragedy. She carried around enough reminders inside her.
She’d hoped Jacob would pull himself together and get through his grieving process, decide with her what they should do with the ashes. It had been over two months and he still refused to have any contact with her. “I want Jake to be happy. That’s all that’s left for me, Kim.”
“Your parents gone?”
“Yeah, they left last week. Dad’s not doing too well. Said now he didn’t have any grandchildren to spoil. Mom helped, but I can’t talk to her about the heavy stuff.”
“Well, I’m here whenever you need me.”
Renee’s throat caught and the tears welled up without warning. She stuck a finger behind her glasses and brushed at her eyelashes. “I can’t do this much longer. I want Jake.”
“Didn’t he get weird after Christine?”
Renee’s chest clenched around her heart. “Yeah. He went AWOL, but I was so focused on Mattie that I hardly noticed.”
“He’ll work it out in time. He’ll see how much he needs you. You know what I’ve always said about men.”
Renee barked a half-sob, half-laugh. “‘They can’t see the light because their heads are up their butts.’”
“In the meantime, you need to invest that money. What’s done is done but you still have to live.”
“I guess so.”
“It’s what Mattie would want.”
“Sure.”
“And, if worse comes to worse, you can always ditch Jacob and move in with me.”
“You’re not my type. You’re too emotionally stable and your place is too messy.”
“Yeah, that’s always been my problem.”
A shadow broke the sunlight that slanted through the curtains. Someone was outside her door. Her apartment, like all the others at Ivy Terrace, had a private entrance. The top stories were accessed by a shared set of stairs, but each had its own deck. She waited for a knock but none came. It must have been an errant courier.
“I’d better be getting back to work,” Kim said, tugging Renee back to the phone.
“Things crazy at the lab?”
“You know how blood is. People just can’t seem to live without it.”
“Okay, thanks for letting me whine.”
“Renee?”
“Yeah?”
“I hate to say this, but you made a million the hard way.”
“I’d pay a hundred times that to have Mattie back.”
“I know. It just seems a little strange, that’s all. Like a silver lining in a black-as-hell cloud.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t want to start crying again. “Oh, there was one thing I wanted to ask you, since you’ve been here awhile. Do you know anything about Joshua Wells?”
“Jacob’s brother? I’ve only been here a few years longer than you. I heard some stories, but apparently he left town years ago.”
“What kind of stories?”
“The usual, troubled-rich-kid stuff. Vandalism, shoplifting, drugs, soliciting hookers. What, Jacob never told you?”
“I guess he was ashamed. He’s always going on about living up to the Wells name.”
“Get that man some help. Get both of you some help. Now I’ve really got to run. I have some Type O that’s just crying out to be HIV-negative.”
“Bye, Kim.” She hung up and looked at the window again.
The shadow was back. The deck planking squeaked with footsteps. She wondered if Davidson was snooping around. She was about to go to the door when the phone rang.
She looked from the door to the phone. Ivy Terrace was upscale, safe. And she had locked the door. She always locked the door. It was Jake who was careless about such things, like leaving the sliding glass door open on the night of the fire—
She picked up the phone. “Hello?”
The line hissed with empty electronics. Four seconds passed.
“Kim?” she said.
“It’s me.”
“Jake! I’ve been worried sick. Where are you?”
“The place I said I’d never go.”
“What? You sound terrible. Do you have a cold?”
“I got another present for you.”
“I don’t want a present. I want you to talk to me.”
Jacob’s voice grew fainter. “Special delivery.”
He added something she couldn’t hear because a car with a busted muffler roared through the parking lot outside.
“Jake, we need some counseling. We need to work things out. About the money and about us.”
“Mattie,” he said.
“Yes, that, too. We need to return her to the dirt. It’s something we should do together, no matter how you feel about me.”
“My daughter.”
“Mine, too.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Jake, are you okay? Please don’t tell me you’re still drinking. You know what stress does to you.”
“The door,” he said, and the line went dead.
Was he the one who’d been outside her door? The phone signal had been clear and steady, not fluctuating the way most wireless signals did in the mountains. There was a pay phone in the apartment’s laundry room, but whoever was at the door wouldn’t have reached it in the interim between her seeing the shadow and answering the phone.
Renee brushed her hair and grabbed her purse. After what Kim had said about Joshua Wells, she planned to go to the Kingsboro police department and check on his criminal record. She’d heard long-time residents mention him once in a while, but she knew little about him other than that he’d moved out of town shortly after his mother’s death. Joshua hadn’t even shown up at the reading of Warren Wells’ will. Of course, Jacob had already been guaranteed the money, so she couldn’t blame him.
She opened the door and was reaching for her sunglasses when the package flopped at her feet. It must have been leaning against the door. It was in plain cardboard about the size of a saltines box. She went to the edge of the deck and peered over the side, expecting to see a UPS or FedEx van. The parking lot was nearly empty, the tenants off to day jobs and errands.