"So get the address, and I will bring you back there after the book signing."
"Okay, one minute." He went to get the address from Fred, and while he was on the bus, his mom asked him, "Who is the woman?"
"It"s someone Jester Books sent to make sure I get to the book signing on time. Remember, I was late for my first one?"
"They sent a pretty woman to escort you to your book signing?"
"Apparently so, Mom."
"Perhaps I should go with you to this book signing?"
"You mean, to keep an eye on me?"
"That"s what Janice said, "Keep an eye on Travis! Don"t let some British woman steal him away"!"
"Mom, if Janice really said that, I"m sure she was joking. But if you don"t think so, then come on, the car"s waiting. We"ll be there until six this evening. It might get a little boring for you."
"And," Mrs. Parker added, "If you go, you"ll miss seeing Canterbury Cathedral, where Thomas Beckett was murdered by soldiers sent by the king!"
"I don"t want to miss seeing that."
"Besides, Travis is all grown up now, and he will be all right on his own." Mrs. Parker said this, winking at Travis.
"You behave yourself, Travis."
"Okay Mom." He got the address from Fred, and returned to the car with Angel.
"Was there a problem?" she asked.
"Yes, my mom wanted to know, who is the beautiful woman taking me to the book signing?"
"Did you tell her I am your British lover?"
"No, I wouldn"t tell her something like that, even as a joke, because she would take me seriously. I have two strikes against me already. One more and I"m out."
"Sometime you should tell me all about these strikes against you."
"All misunderstandings, I a.s.sure you. That, plus my mom is always suspicious of her kids" behavior. If she suspected that one of us had done something that we shouldn"t have, then we might as well have done it, because in her mind, we were guilty as charged."
"So, Mr. Lee, may I take that as an offer?"
"No, you may not. Let"s roll."
"They are watching us, right?"
"Yeah, my mom is doing her best to read our lips."
"Then perhaps I should lean over and give you a sloppy kiss!"
"Don"t you dare! I have never killed a woman before, but you would be the first!"
"Oh pooh! You are such a kill-joy!"
"Drive, or we will be late."
"Have you had lunch?"
"No."
"Then let"s eat a bite, then go on to the book store. I know of a lovely place near the book store."
They ate lunch, then Travis endured the drudgery of another long book signing, while his fellow travelers were having a fun-filled day in Canterbury.
While Travis was at his last book signing in Dover, Miranda was getting up to check the level of her pool. It still wasn"t full, but it would be before the day was out.
She could only wonder what the police might have found at Lennie"s house. The police tape was still up, though the cars were gone. She watched the morning news to see if there was mention of Judge Rosewood. Nothing yet. She knew that something should happen soon, because the police had to have found Leon"s wallet in Lennie"s pocket. That alone should raise questions about the Judge, and should get someone looking for him, if for no other reason, than to return his wallet.
Again today, she expected the police to knock on her door just any time. She was sure they had her under surveillance, to see if she was behaving strangely. Now would not be a good time to do something stupid. (As though any time was a good time.) What she couldn"t believe, was the fact that there had been no news. Not even a mention that Lennie had been hit and killed. Didn"t things like that usually make the news? Neither the Tuscaloosa, nor the Birmingham local news stations mentioned anything about it. She bought a copy of the Tuscaloosa News, and found a small, one paragraph article in the "Around the County" section. It read, "KELLERMAN RESIDENT DIES". It was simple and to the point. It said, "Lifelong Kellerman resident, Lennie Kellerman, was struck and killed by a pick-up truck Wednesday evening. No charges were filed." No other details were given. Miranda had to know more, so she called the Tuscaloosa County police department to ask about Lennie. She was told that no one had come by to claim the body, so the county would bury him on Sat.u.r.day morning at the Tuscaloosa City Cemetery, where the man"s parents were buried. A local pastor would conduct a simple ceremony for the lonely man. Miranda felt that the least she could do was be there. She ordered a nice spread of flowers for his funeral.
She knew that by doing this, she could be noticed by the police, and could be questioned as to why she took such an interest in an otherwise friendless man. She would point out the fact that he was a neighbor, and even a social outcast deserved to have a mourner at his funeral.
If Travis had been there, he probably would have advised her against it, but the fact was, he wasn"t there.
She didn"t even have a black dress to wear to the funeral, so she left the water running in the pool, and went to town. She stayed in town and ate lunch, and also watched to see if she was being tailed by police detectives, but she saw no one. She saw no life at Lennie"s house, but the police "do not cross" tape was still up.
She returned home in the afternoon, and found the pool full, and turned off the water. As she rolled up the hose, she noticed what a hot day it was, and how inviting that pool full of clean, clear water appeared. Well, it"s MY pool, I should be the first one to use it! She went to the bathroom to put on her one piece bathing suit. She stopped to admire herself in the full length mirror. Oh yes! You still have it, Girl! And now I have a POOL to go along with this incredible body! Until now, she had been so engrossed in other things, that she had not let that little fact sink in. She had a new pool, of her very own! To her, that was a status symbol that she had arrived! Her lottery winnings had changed her life in a lot of ways. She no longer had to make decisions based on whether or not she could afford something. Now she just did it.
And to think that she had almost blown all that, by messing with the Judge, who was a married man! She knew that he was married from the very start, so why did she do it? She thought she could trust him to be there for her. Granted, the heart attack was entirely unforeseen, and she could hardly blame him for that. But she blamed herself, for dealing with it the way she did. She had millions of dollars, but what good would it do her, if she went to prison, for what the police would have construed as murder? True, she had not killed Leon, but Travis was right when he told her that by covering it up, she would seem to be a murderer, because realistically, why would someone cut up a body and hide it, if they hadn"t murdered him? Stupid, stupid, stupid! Yes, even stupid Lennie had called it right, when he said that it was "just plain stupid not to call the police" right after this happened. Now it was clear. Now she got it. She had a way of not thinking clearly in a panicked state. And having Leon drop dead, while she was naked and hand-cuffed to his wife"s headboard, was not a position she wanted to be in. Her reckless behavior, and bad decisions were not to cover a murder, but to cover her embarra.s.sment over getting caught in that position. But now that it seemed to be over, she was thinking more clearly. Seemed to be over, was not the same thing as being over, she knew that all too well, but at least right now she had some breathing room, and was starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The real test was going to be when Mrs. Rosewood got home, and she missed her husband. As Travis so colorfully put it, that was when the "s.h.i.t was going to hit the fan".
Looking back, Leon seemed to be the perfect fella for her, except that he was married. But he had told her that he was planning to leave his wife anyway, and that seemed to make it all right in her mind. What a fool she had been! He told her that he had bought a nice hacienda near Rio, and he hinted that when he left his wife, he was going to fly to Brazil to live, if he could find a soul mate to go with him. He never actually said it, but he hinted in dozens of ways that he was considering her to be that person. And from the way their relationship had been going, she was sure that he was going to make that pitch to her very soon, probably while they were gone out west. Their "spontaneous fling" to the casinos of Mississippi, and Las Vegas, would be where he would probably make the proposition to her.
But she knew how men could change in their att.i.tudes, and treatment of women, once they had a commitment. Like the way Gene Austin had changed, after she agreed to marry him, she knew that Leon could change the same way, especially after they got out of the country, where she would be less capable of getting away from him if she wanted to. Half of her was saying that this would be a good move for her, but the other half was saying to go slow, and make no commitments that she couldn"t back out of. She knew that when the chips were down, she would probably say "no" to his proposition. And it would be for the same reason that Lennie gave for not wanting to leave the country. This was her home. She had traveled extensively, and enjoyed seeing exotic places, but she could never consider a foreign country to be "home". Her rejection of marriage to Gene Austin had been mainly for that reason. She did not want to live in Colombia, or in Rio. Temporarily maybe, but not to live permanently. But the two or three week fling out west with Leon would have been fun.
Unfortunately, it had started out badly for both of them. Leon dropping dead from a heart attack (probably brought on by the v.i.a.g.r.a), and for her, finding herself helplessly naked and hand-cuffed to the headboard. But it could have been worse. Looking back at the tragic incident, it was fortunate for her that it had happened at home, and not on the road somewhere, say in Biloxi, or Vegas. If it had happened on the road, who would she have called? Certainly not Travis. It was fortunate for her, that Travis was available and willing to help her. As she gazed into the clean blue depths of her new pool, she sighed deeply. Why did he have to be married? That is just my luck.
She stepped down on the first step inside her pool, and felt how cool and inviting the water was, so she stepped down into the waist-deep shallow end. She held her breath and went under, to wet her hair, then took a deep breath and went down and pushed off the side, swimming underwater to the far end. She came up for air, thrilled with how good it felt.
She blew out all her air and pushed down to the bottom of the deepest part of the pool. When she touched bottom, she opened her eyes and looked up, seeing the sun sparkling through the clean water. She looked down beside her feet, and saw a b.l.o.o.d.y, headless torso suspended in the water beside her, the lifeless arms reaching upward, in seeming supplication to G.o.d.
She gasped, she couldn"t help it, sucking in water instead of air, and made a desperate scramble to push back to the surface. But then, the dead arms came to life, and tried to grab her! The icy dead fingers tried to close around her ankles, but she kicked them away, as she thrashed and struggled to reach the surface! She finally popped up, coughing and hacking to get the water out of her lungs. Her arms and legs were thrashing and she scrambling to get out of the pool, where that thing was! She was finally able to hoist herself out, and flopped over on the new concrete and expensive tile, as she continued coughing up water out of her lungs. She hacked and gagged so hard that she almost blacked out. She had to open her eyes to see if what she was hacking up was water or blood. She lay on her side and recovered, but had only one thought.
How did it happen?
How did Leon"s torso get through that concrete and reinforcement rods?
How did he get into the pool? And then she had another thought: He almost drowned me! He DELIBERATELY tried to drown me!
She raised up on her knees, wanting to look into the pool, but she was afraid to. Afraid that the torso would pop to the surface. She got to her feet, still hacking deeply, and backed away from the pool. She finally mustered up the courage to creep to the edge of the pool and peer in.
Nothing there.
Just clean, clear water.
She could easily see everything in the bottom of the pool. The drain grate, the nozzles that circulated the water. She could even see the grouted joints between the tiles, but there was nothing else in the water. Nothing at all.
She broke out into a hysterical laugh, which quickly turned to tears. It wasn"t real, she knew that. It was just a figment of her tormented mind. Those deftly floating, dead arms had been pointing a guilty finger at her, but even that had been her imagination too, because there was nothing in the pool now. She had scratches on her ankles, which were bleeding, but she refused to believe that they were fingernail marks. That was absurd. They had to be from where she had sc.r.a.ped them on the new concrete. She would have to convince herself of that.
She got a cold shiver down her spine, and went to get her towel. She would not be getting back into that pool any time soon. Probably never again. She would probably never get into any pool again, after this.
Travis was glad to be done with his last English book signing. It was gratifying to meet and talk to the fans of his work, many who said they were eagerly waiting for his next book. But the week had been exhausting, and he hardly felt like he had been on vacation. As they left the book store, Angel asked, "What is your schedule for tomorrow? You are leaving for America tomorrow, are you not?"
"Yes, leaving for home. I think our flight is at 2 in the afternoon. We leave from Dover in the morning, and drive to the airport, seeing a few sites along the way, getting to the airport just in time to catch our flight."
As she unlocked her car door, she said, "So I guess I should meet you at the airport, no later than noon, to get you your copy of the contract. Father did not have it ready this morning when I left for Dover. Either that, or you can ride back to London with me tonight, and pick it up personally."
Travis knew what she had planned, and he didn"t want to do something as absurd and as reckless Donna had done the day before, so he shook his head. "No, tonight we have our farewell dinner, and I need to be there with my family. In less than an hour, in fact. I didn"t realize it was so late. I need to get there in time to catch the bus to wherever they are going to eat."
"And if you get there too late?"
"I have no idea where to meet them."
"Well, that doesn"t give me much incentive to get you there on time, does it? The alternative is, you will have to spend the evening with me!"
"Angel, I really need to get there on time."
"And you shall. Hop in."
She drove him to the Bed and Breakfast, arriving just as everyone was loading the bus to go out to the restaurant. "Darn! I got you here in time! I was hoping they would already be gone!"
"I bet you were. Thanks for the ride. So I will see you at the airport about noon?"
"Yes, I will be there."
She seemed disappointed as she drove away.
It was a festive evening in Dover. Fred uncorked his bottle of mead and pa.s.sed it around, but it was only a small part of the liquor consumed by the college kids. Even Steve seemed to loosen up on heir last night in England. Fred secretly filled Travis in on what happened at lunch, when Steve found out that Donna was back with the group. It was an ugly scene, but it was over now. Steve finally conceded that he was just glad that she was back and okay. "He seems to be well on his way to getting drunk tonight," Travis noted.
"Yes, that might be the best thing for him. When he gets drunk, he mellows out."
"Then my recommendation is that he stay drunk the rest of his life."
"I think I will suggest that at our next faculty meeting. He may not like the idea, but everyone else will love it! A drunk Steve is a happy Steve!"
Lois was not much of a drinker, but she enjoyed watching everyone else having fun. At some point she leaned over to Travis and said, "I have had a real good time! How about you?"
I feel like I have been on a one week, whirlwind book signing tour. I haven"t been able to enjoy the trip itself. But I did get to see most of the sites I wanted to see. But remember, this was supposed to be Drew"s trip anyway."
"Do you think he had a good time?"
"See for yourself. He seems to be having a good time. He especially liked the Tubes, . . . the subway. I think he and Audrey rode every inch of it."
"I think he is really fond of Audrey."
"I think so too."
"Is she his first girlfriend?"
"As far as I know."
"You never had any girlfriends in high school, did you Travis?"
"None that you knew of, Mom."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that you didn"t know everything that went on with your kids, as much as you like to think that you did. But no, I wasn"t that interested in girls in high school. I wanted to see the world, so I joined Uncle Sam"s Overseas Adventure Club, otherwise known as the U.S. Army."
"I know I never asked you this before, but have you ever regretted that choice?"
"Mom, I regretted the choice as soon as I got to Boot Camp! And every time I felt a bullet zing through my hair, and every time I was laid up in the hospital with gaping wounds, I regretted it. That was four years of my life that I wish I could do over, but what is past, is past. I am glad I came through the Vietnam war, but I sure wouldn"t do it again. Know why it took me so long to get through security at the airport? Because I still have so many pieces of steel shrapnel in me! Every time I pa.s.s the refrigerator at home, some of Janice"s" magnets stick to me."
"Oh, you"re just exaggerating now!"
"Nope. Ask Janice. I used to entertain the kids by sticking a magnet to my leg. According to x-rays, I have a chunk of Chinese iron above my knee the size of a silver dollar."
"Couldn"t they remove it?"
"Didn"t know it was there until years later, then they said trying to remove it would cause nerve damage. Besides, it provides my body with its daily recommended dosages of iron and magnesium. No mineral supplements for me!"
"I never know when to believe you, Travis!"
"I"m not kidding about the shrapnel, but in answer to your question, yes, I do regret going into the Army. I wonder sometimes what direction my life would have taken if I hadn"t."
"That"s one of those questions that we were never meant to know the answers to. Life can be a wonderful ride, whatever road you take. But you have to enjoy the sights along the way, because your final destination might be a disappointment." She didn"t elaborate, and Travis let it rest.
The next morning they got up and boarded the bus back to London. There were a few sites left on the agenda to see en route, but basically the trip was winding down. After a light lunch, they arrived at Heathrow Airport at 12:30, for their 2:00 departure. Angel was waiting in the ticket terminal with a manila envelope in hand. He left the group to go see her.
"Good to see you one last time before you leave, Travis! Here is Father"s contract. Inside you will find a self addressed envelope with which to return the signed contract. Or if you are not pleased with the contract, there is an e-mail, and phone number you may use to contact us directly, to negotiate possible changes. It is my hope that you will come on board with Jester Books, because I think we can sell tons of books for you!"
"Are you done with the obligatory sales pitch?"
"Yes I am. I also hope you sign with us, because on a personal level, I would like to see you, and work with you again. You will find the number to reach me as well in the envelope. Please feel free to call me. I find you a very stimulating man."