“You fainted. Here, let me help you up.”
The two FBI agents stepped in to help Beth to her feet.
“It’s just such a shock,” she said.
“Are you sure you’re all right? Can we call an ambulance?”
“Oh no, I’m fine,” Beth said.
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Cecily said. “Thanks.”
“Okay then. We’ll be on our way. Just, if you hear from him—”
“Don’t worry. Believe me. I’ll call you,” Beth said.
Beth stood at the sink, watching through the window, and Cecily, who had held the kitchen door for them, continued to stand there as well, as if both of them were in a trance.
Finally, when the car had disappeared from their view, Cecily spoke.
“Okay, Beth, it’s time for you to come clean all around. Are there any other lies you’re holding back?”
“No. I told you everything. I swear. But I have a question.”
“What?”
“I know I committed fraud, but can I go to jail for it?”
“Well, I’m no Johnnie Cochran, but I think you can only be prosecuted if your mother decides to press charges. Or maybe your uncle. Do you think they’d do that?”
“I have no idea what they’ll do. Turn me over to the cops? But I know there’s going to be a whole lot of yelling before this is over. I guess I should call Woody now, huh?”
“Just get it over with before the FBI shows up at his door. Or, worse, at his office.”
“Oh God. I would rather die than go through this.”
“No you wouldn’t. We’ll get through this. Dial his number.”
Woody was thrilled to hear Beth’s voice until he heard her say, “Woody? I have something to tell you and you’re not going to like this. Max Mitchell has run off with our money and the FBI just left my house.”
“That’s impossible, right?”
“Nope. And Woody? There’s more. Remember the letter of permission from my mother?”
“Don’t tell me you faked her signature.”
“No. Worse. I added a zero.”
“WHAT?”
“I did, Woody. I am so sorry I deceived you. I am so sorry.”
“Let me understand this again. Your mother only wanted you to take ten thousand and you changed the document to read one hundred thousand by adding a zero?”
“Yeah. It was what Max wanted and I thought that I had to get it for him…Oh, Woody! I don’t know why I did it. It was so wrong! What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to be in some very deep legal trouble, but I guess you already know that.”
And just when Beth thought she didn’t have a tear left to shed, she burst into tears again. The clock struck three.
“Oh, Woody! I am in so much trouble! What am I going to do? Oh my God! I could go to jail!”
“No! No, you’re not going to jail! I’m getting in my car. I’ll be there by eight o’clock.”
“What good will that do us?”
“Oh, Beth. I don’t know, but I can’t stand to hear the fear and panic in your voice and I want to be there with you, so I’m coming. We will figure this out together. See you soon.”
He disconnected the call and Beth stood there looking at the phone, mystified.
“Well, that was a short conversation! What did he say?”
“He’s coming.”
“Why?”
“Believe it or not, to help.” Beth reached for another tissue and blew her nose for the umpteenth time. “He said he couldn’t stand to hear the panic and dread in my voice and he wants to be here. He wants to help.”
“I like this guy,” Cecily said.
“He’s wonderful, Cecily. He really is.”
“Let me give you a hand to straighten up the house and get the room ready for him. Where do you want him to sleep?”
“I’ll show you. Oh, Cecily! Thank you so much for being here! What would I do without you?”
“I can’t imagine.”
Over the next few hours, Cecily stayed to help Beth ready Woody’s room and she made a trip to the Piggly Wiggly. To make the time go faster, she and Beth put a dinner together so that when Woody walked in the door, he could sit down to a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and a salad. And Cecily bought a pie from the Piggly Wiggly’s bakery with a pint of vanilla ice cream.
“If you feed an angry man first, he is less likely to knock your teeth out. And I’ll stick around to be sure he doesn’t,” Cecily said, bringing the bags in.
“I’m sure you’re right. Here, let me help you.” She took two bags from Cecily and put them on the table. “You know what, Cecily? I was thinking while you were at the Pig, and I might have a temporary solution to keep me from getting that lethal injection.”
“What! Well, for heaven’s sake, tell me this second!” Cecily dropped the rest of her bags all at once on the kitchen counter.
“Well, it’s a long shot, but it might work. You know my Aunt Sophie, right?”
“You’re thinking she would give you one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars?”
“No, just park it in my account for a while until we can see if we can get any of our money back from Max. I mean, we might get some of the money back.”
“You’re dreaming, I hate to say it, but you’re dreaming.”
“Wait! The FBI said it was probably gone but they didn’t know that for a fact. At least they didn’t say it like it was for sure.”
“Now, tell me why your Aunt Sophie would do this for you?”
“Because she can. Look, she really loves me and she knows I’ve never done a sketchy thing in my whole life. And because she’s told me like a thousand times that she wishes she had a daughter like me and if there’s ever anything she can do for me, all I have to do is ask.”
“Okay. Ask!”
“Boy, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Woody walked in here and we could tell him we had this all set?”
“It would be a miracle.”
Beth and Cecily set the table, organized dinner, and Beth picked up the phone and called her aunts’ house. One of her aunts answered on the third ring.
“Aunt Sophie? It’s me, Beth! How are you?”
“What? I’m very busy right now and I can’t talk to you! And a storm is coming! I can see lightning! Call back tomorrow! Sorry!” And she hung up.
Beth put the phone back on the receiver and looked at Cecily.
“What happened?” Cecily said.
“She hung up on me.”
“What?”
“She said she was busy, a storm was coming, there was lightning…That’s just about the most bizarre thing she’s ever, ever done!”
“What? What are you saying?”
“Right. What’s the matter with her?”
“Maybe she was having sex?”
“Oh, please! Don’t you think I would’ve heard her moving around or something like heavy breathing?”
“I was kidding. Bad joke.”
“Oh.” Beth rolled her eyes at Cecily. “Well then, what’s wrong with her? I mean, my Aunt Sophie has never been like that. She was downright rude. Very rude, in fact.”
“Maybe it wasn’t your Aunt Sophie.”
“Maybe. But why would Aunt Allison act like that? I mean, come on! That’s just insane.”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you just wait a couple of hours and call back. Maybe she was having a fight with her boyfriend, what’s his name?”
“Geoffrey with a G.”
“That’s a stupid name to hang on a man, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I’ll call her back. Oh Lord! Cecily! What if she can’t help us?”
“Then you’re back to square one, facing the music.”
“Oh God! Isn’t there any way out of this?”
“I wish there was. I’m going to go and open the doors in the living room and get some air moving in the house.”
The next thing Beth heard was Cecily screaming f
or her to come quickly. She found Cecily in front of the mirror pointing to it.
She said, “What do butterflies mean? Look at them! They’re all over the mirror!”
There were no butterflies on the mirror, but there were hundreds of them inside the mirror.
“Oh no! It’s my Aunt Sophie!”
“What do you mean?”
“My Aunt Sophie has a butterfly tattoo on her hip. Cecily! No one in the family knows it except me!”
“Wait a minute! Maybe this is a sign from Livvie that you are supposed to get the money from her. Maybe you should go down there and ask her in person?”
“No, Cecily. This is a sign that my Aunt Sophie is dead.”
“Beth Hayes? Hush up your fool mouth right this instant! Haven’t you had enough trouble for one day? You are way, way overreacting!”
“No I’m not! I know something is dreadfully wrong with my Aunt Sophie. I can feel it in my chest!”
“Don’t say she’s dead! That’s a terrible thing to even think!”
“That’s why my Aunt Allison was so freaked out on the phone.”
“Stop!”
“I think Aunt Sophie is dead, Cecily! I think she’s dead! Why else would there be butterflies in the mirror?”
“Let’s calm down, okay? Let’s think this through. Tell me why your Aunt Allison wouldn’t tell you if something were wrong with your Aunt Sophie?”
“I don’t know! Because she’s hiding something? Why would she hide something like that?”
“You tell me. In the meanwhile I think we should stop talking about this until Woody gets here. Your brain is worn out from today. Dealing with Max and the FBI is enough. So just stop thinking about this and go say a prayer that she’s fine. Take a shower and fix yourself up so you don’t look like this when he gets here.”
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. Go!”
Beth stared at Cecily for a minute that seemed to last an hour and then she shook her head.
“You’re right. Listen to me. I’m losing it. Aunt Allison was probably jacked up on some of her wacko vitamins.”
“See? There we go! That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, isn’t it? Nobody’s dead.”
“Right. You’re probably right. I think I’ll go take a shower.”
“Good idea.”
An hour or so later, Woody had arrived and they were all seated at the table. For someone who professed not to have much of an appetite, Woody was making short order of the chicken and mashed potatoes. Cecily picked at her food while Beth barely swallowed a bite. Her concerns about Sophie had multiplied.
“Tell me about your conversation with your aunt again?” he said.
Beth recounted the conversation verbatim.
He wrinkled his brow. “That’s completely screwed up. And what’s the deal with their vitamin business?”
Beth explained that they had just launched a new line of herbal vitamins.
“But with no FDA approval, right?”
“No. Not that I know of.”
“And tell me this weird butterfly story again.”
He listened, finally pushed back from the table, and said, “You know what? Go call your aunt again. Just because we took the shaft today in a very big way, that doesn’t mean that something didn’t happen to your Aunt Sophie. Two bad things can come down in one day. Happens all the time.”
“Usually in bunches of three. He’s right, you know,” Cecily said. “But law! I hope he’s wrong.”
Beth dialed her aunts again and Cecily and Woody listened on extension telephones in other rooms.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Allison?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Beth. Your niece.”
“What do you want?”
“I’d like to speak to my Aunt Sophie.”
“She can’t come to the phone.”
“Oh. Is she at home?”
“She’s sick. I gotta go.”
Allison, no longer pretending to be Sophie on this phone call, hung up on Beth again.
Woody and Cecily came to the kitchen, where Beth was still holding the receiver in her hand.
Cecily spoke first. “I’ll watch Lola and I’ll clean up.”
“Go pack a few things,” Woody said. “We’re driving to Coral Gables tonight.”
“But it’s like nine hours from here,” Cecily said. “Wouldn’t you rather leave early in the morning?”
“No. I’m afraid that Beth’s right about her aunt, Cecily.”
“I’ll be right back,” Beth said, and ran up the stairs.
“Maybe Sophie is sick or maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation for her Aunt Allison’s behavior. But if they were my aunts? I’d be on the road. Something is very wrong with Allison for sure, and maybe Sophie too.”
“Gosh, I hope not.”
“Well, we’ll call you as soon as we know something.”
In a few minutes, Beth was there with her bag. She picked up Lola and gave her a hug and a kiss on top of her head.
“Hey, Cecily? If my mother calls? Or Aunt Maggie?”
“I’ll tell them you went to Atlanta for two days or something like that?”
“No,” Woody said. “Tell them the truth. No more lies.”
“Okay!”
Beth gave Cecily a hug and Cecily whispered in her ear.
“He’s kind of squirrelly-looking, but I like him, Beth. A lot.”
“For yourself?” she whispered back.
“No! For you!”
16
Dark Cloud, Silver Lining
[email protected] Maggie, you know what? I talked to Simon for a long time last night, as I’m sure you probably already heard. I have to get out of here. I love Paris and the museums and all the fabulous things there are to do, but I’m just too far away from y’all. I need some humidity, some sand in my shoes, and my family. Guess I’m just an old Geechee Girl and that’s all there is to it. I’m thinking in two weeks? Can y’all come home to Sullivans Island when I do? xx
[email protected] Susan, well, you old sentimental fool! Darlin’? I was surprised you wanted to go to France in the first place—those people don’t even speak English or know how to fry a decent piece of flounder. You come on home and I’ll get everyone there. Send us your flight times when you know, okay? xxx P.S. Sure do love my sister!
ALL THE WAY to Florida, eighteen-wheelers zoomed by, causing their car to wobble and shake. The trucks were too many to count, and at times they were a dangerous menace, getting right up on Woody’s bumper, flashing their high beams, scaring them out of their wits.
They stopped for coffee and gas only twice. Woody drove until he was bleary-eyed and then Beth took over so he could sleep for a few hours. When they weren’t sleeping, or pumping gas, they were talking.
“It’s inconceivable to me that a man could do something like Max did to us, well, to you, really.”
“Listen, he biopsied your wallet for a cool twenty-five thousand. That’s not nothing.”
“Biopsied my wallet. Where did you learn a term like that?”
“My mother. She has about a million funny little sayings that she says all the time. She says creative language makes people listen to you. You’ll love her.”
“I’ll bet I will. But okay, back to Max, he biopsied my wallet, as you say, but I only got scammed. He wasn’t playing with my emotions. So what are you thinking?”
“I’m over it.”
“Are you?”
“Uh, yeah! Max Mitchell, or whatever his real name is, probably cost me my credibility for the rest of my life with my entire family, if they ever speak to me again. Which they probably won’t. Unless they don’t find out. If my Aunt Sophie is okay, which I am doubting more and more, and if she is willing to help us, and if the FBI gets him, and if he didn’t already blow all the money—”
“Too many if s.”
“You said it. So, know
ing that, how could I still be—”
“In love with him?”
“Boy, Woody. Let me tell you something, if that’s what love looks like, you can keep it. You know, looking back, there were probably a thousand signs that he was a skunk and I ignored them all.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. He would do these things or say something really insensitive, things that no one should ever say to someone they cared about. But I just wrote it all off, excusing everything. I don’t know what came over me.”
“He seduced you, Beth, just like a pro. Plain and simple. I mean, here’s this guy, a good-looking devil if I ever saw one, and he comes along flashing big smiles and flattering you and all that. Pretty textbook.”
“Humph. Yeah, but his true colors were there all the time. I was the moron who chose to ignore them.”
“Now, I want to hear this because as far as I know, you don’t miss much. Not much at all.”
“Oh yes I do. Okay, remember that night when Mike got very tipsy…”
“Mike was solid in the bag.”
“I stand corrected. Anyway, I saw Max climbing in the hammock with Phoebe, who was also solid in the bag. And he denied it, I mean, he told me that I wasn’t seeing what I was seeing! I saw him in the hammock pulling Phoebe in and he said, No you didn’t see that, and I just said, Oh, okay.”
“Nice. It’s like the old joke? A woman catches her husband in bed with some other woman and he says, Are you going to believe your lying eyes, or are you going to believe what I tell you?”
“Exactly! Yeah, and one night he came to Atlanticville before he knew I worked there?”
“Okay…”
“And, he was with this half-naked old dame who was hanging all over him. She had to be easily forty or more and he said it was just business.”
“Maybe it was.”
“Right. How about monkey business? Look, first of all, he told me he was just thirty-seven and it turns out he’s forty-five or forty-six. And he was sleeping with that woman and I knew it and when he said no, I just believed him.”
“Beth? You are a lovely young woman. You’re free of guile, honest, and caring, and you have all those good qualities men love so much in women.”