A Cry In the Night (23 page)

For a moment Jenny thought she would laugh. “They shock easily. Kevin kissed me when I left. I didn't kiss him.”

“Perhaps I should ask it this way, Mrs. Krueger. Weren't you pretty upset about your ex-husband showing up? Wasn't he a threat to your marriage?”

“What do you mean?”

“Initially you gave out to Mr. Krueger that you were a widow. Mr. Krueger's a wealthy man. He's adopting your kids. MacPartland coulda ruined your pretty setup.”

Jenny looked at Erich. She was about to say that the adoption papers would show that Kevin had signed
them, that Erich knew about Kevin before their marriage. But what point? This was hard enough on Erich without having his friends and neighbors know that he had deliberately lied to them. She evaded the direct question.

“My husband and I were in complete agreement. We did not want Kevin to come to the house and upset the children.”

“But the waitress heard him tell you that he wasn't giving up, that he wasn't letting the adoption go through. She heard you say, ‘I warn you, Kevin.' So he was a threat to your marriage, wasn't he, Mrs. Krueger?”

Why didn't Erich help her? She looked at him and watched his face darken with anger. “Sheriff, I think this has gone far enough,” he said firmly. “Nothing could ever upset our marriage, certainly not Kevin MacPartland, alive or dead. We all know Rooney is mentally ill. My wife denies being in that car. Are you prepared to press charges? If not I demand that you stop harassing her.”

The sheriff nodded. “Okay, Erich. But I have to warn you. There's a possibility the inquest will be reopened.”

“If it is, we'll face it.”

To a degree he had defended her. Jenny realized she was surprised at his matter-of-fact attitude. Was he becoming resigned to notoriety?

“I'm not saying it
will
be. Whether or not Rooney's testimony would change anything, I'm not sure. Until Mrs. Krueger starts remembering exactly what happened, we're not much further along than we were up till now. I don't think there was much doubt in any juror's mind that she was in that car at some point.”

Erich walked the sheriff to his car. They stood for a few minutes deep in conversation.

Mark lingered behind them. “Jenny, I'd like to make an appointment for you with a doctor.”

There was deep concern in his face. Was it for her or for Erich? “A shrink, I suppose?”

“No, a good old-fashioned family doctor. I know one in Waverly. You don't look well. This certainly has been a strain for you.”

“I'll hold off a bit, I think, but thanks.”

She had to get out of the house. The girls were playing in their room. She went upstairs and got them. “Let's go for a walk.”

It was springlike outside. “Can we ride?” Tina asked.

“Not now,” Beth said positively. “Daddy said he'll take us.”

“I want to give Tinker Bell sugar.”

“Sure, let's go to the stable,” Jenny agreed. For a moment she allowed herself to daydream. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Erich were saddling Baron and she were on Fire Maid and they could go riding together on a beautiful day like this? They'd planned that, looked forward to it.

A somber-faced Joe was in the stable. Since she'd become aware that Erich was angry and jealous about her friendship with Joe, she'd made it a point to avoid him as much as possible. “How's Randy the second?” she asked.

“He's fine. He and I live in town now with my uncle. We've got a place over the post office. You'll have to come and see him there.”

“You left your mother?”

“You bet I did.”

“Joe, tell me. Why did you move out of your mother's place?”

“Because she's a troublemaker. I'm just sick, Mrs. Krueger,
Jenny,
about the things she said to you. I told
her if you say you didn't see that fellow Kevin that night, it's because it was necessary for you to say it. I told her you been so good to me, I'd a lost my job when Baron got away ‘cept for you. If Maw'd minded her business, you wouldn't a had all that awful talk round here. That ain't the first time a car went off that road down the riverbank. People woulda said ‘That's a shame' and somebody woulda said we need a better sign. Instead everybody in this county is snickering about you and Mr. Krueger and saying shows what happens when you get your head turned by a gold digger from New York.”

“Joe, please.” Jenny put her hand on his arm. “I've caused enough trouble here. Your mother must be upset. Joe, please move back home.”

“No way. And, Mrs. Krueger, if you want a ride anywhere or if the girls want to see Randy, I'll be happy to bring you on my own time. You just say the word.”

“Sshh, Joe, that kind of talk doesn't help.” She gestured toward the open doors. “Please, someone might hear you.”

“I don't care who hears me.” The anger died from his face. “Jenny, I'd do anything to help you.”

“Mommy, let's go now.” Beth pulled at her. But what was it Joe had said that was nagging at her?

She remembered. “Joe, whatever you said to your mother about it being necessary for me to say I wasn't in the car? Joe, why did you put it that way?”

His face flamed red. Awkwardly he thrust his hands in his pocket, half-turned from her. When he spoke, his voice was a near-whisper. “Jenny, you don't have to pretend with me. I was there. I was worried that maybe I hadn't locked Baron's stall door tight. I was just cutting across the orchard when I saw Rooney. She was almost at the big house. I stopped ‘cause I
didn't want to get stuck talking to her. Then the car pulled up, that white Buick, and the front door opened and you ran out of the house. I saw you get in the car, Jenny, but I swear to God I'll never tell anyone. I . . . I love you, Jenny.” Tentatively he took his hand from his pocket and closed it over her arm.

E
rich came in just as the sun began to send slanting rays across the fields. Jenny had decided that no matter what, it was time to tell him about the baby.

He made it unexpectedly easy. He had brought canvases from the cabin, the ones he was planning to exhibit in San Francisco.

“What do you think of them?” he asked her. There was nothing in his voice or manner to suggest that the exchange with Sheriff Gunderson had taken place this morning.

“They're wonderful, Erich.”
Shall I tell him what Joe said? Should I wait? When I go to a doctor, maybe I can find out if amnesia spells can happen to pregnant women.

Erich was looking at her curiously.

“Do you want to come to San Francisco with me, Jenny?”

“Let's talk about it later.”

He put his arms around her. “Don't be afraid,
darling. I‘ll take care of you. Today when Gunderson was badgering you I realized that no matter what happened that night, you're my whole life. I need you.”

“Erich, I'm so confused.”

“Why is that, darling?”

“Erich, I don't remember going out with Kevin but Rooney wouldn't lie.”

“Don't worry. She's not a reliable witness. It's a good thing. Gunderson told me that he'd reopen the inquest in a shot if she were.”

“You mean if someone else came forward and claimed to have seen me get in that car, they'd reopen the inquest and maybe charge me with a crime?”

“There's no need to talk about it. There's no other witness.”

Oh, yes, there is, Jenny thought. Could anyone have overheard Joe today? His voice was loud. Joe's mother was starting to worry that Joe, like his uncle, had a tendency to drink. Suppose sometime in a bar he confided that he'd seen her get in the car with Kevin?

“Could I have forgotten that I went out?” she asked Erich.

He put his arms around her. His hands stroked her hair. “It would have been a shocking experience. Your coat was off. He had the key in his hand when he was found. Maybe, as I suggested to you, Kevin made a pass at you, grabbed the key. Maybe you resisted him. The car started to roll. You got out before it went over the bank.”

“I don't know,” Jenny said. “I can't believe it.”

Later when it was time to go upstairs, Erich said, “Wear the aqua gown, darling.”

“I can't.”

“Can't? Why not?”

“It's too small for me. I'm going to have a baby.”

Kevin had responded with dismay the first time she told him she thought she was pregnant. “Hell, Jen, we can't afford it. Get rid of it.”

Now Erich shouted with joy. “My darling! Oh, Jen, that's the reason you've been looking so ill. Oh, my sweet. Will it be a boy?”

“I'm sure it is.” Jenny laughed, savoring the momentary release from anxiety. He's already given me a harder time in three months than both girls did in nine.”

“We'll have to get you right to a good doctor. My
son.
Do you mind if we call him Erich? It's the family tradition.”

“I want it that way.”

With her wrapped in his arms on the couch, all the mistrust between them was forgotten. “Jen, we've had a rotten break. We'll put all this misery behind us. We'll have a big party when I come back from San Francisco. You shouldn't travel now, should you, not if you haven't been feeling well? We'll face this community down. We'll be a real family. The adoption will be complete by the summer. I'm sorry for MacPartland, but at least he's not a threat anymore. Oh, Jen. . . .”

Not a threat, Jenny thought. Should she tell Erich about Joe? No, this was the baby's night.

Finally they went upstairs. Erich was already in bed when she came out of the bathroom. “I've missed sleeping with you, Jen,” he said. “I've been so lonely.”

“I've been so lonely too.” The intense physical relationship between them, heightened and fired by separation, helped her forget the weeks of suffering. “I love you, Jenny. I love you so.”

“Erich, I thought I'd go crazy, feeling so estranged from you. . . .”

“I know.”

“Jen?”

“Yes, darling.”

“I'm anxious to see whom the baby looks like.”

“Mmm, I hope like you.... Just like you.”

“How much I hope that too.” His breathing became even.

She began to drift off to sleep, then felt that she'd been slapped with ice water. Oh, God, Erich couldn't doubt that he was the baby's father, could he? Of course not. It was just that her nerves were so shot. Everything upset her. But it was the way he'd put it. . .

In the morning, he said, “I heard you crying in your sleep last night, darling.”

“I wasn't aware of it.”

“I love you, Jenny.”

“Love is trust, Erich. Please, darling, remember love and trust go hand in hand.”

Three days later he took her to an obstetrician in Granite Place. When she met Dr. Elmendorf she liked him instantly. He was anywhere between fifty and sixty-five, small and bald with knowing eyes.

“You've been spotting, Mrs. Krueger?”

“Yes, but that happened both times before and I was fine.”

“Did you lose so much weight at the beginning of your first two pregnancies?”

“No.”

“Were you always anemic?”

“No.”

“Were there any complications about your own birth?”

“I don't know. I was adopted. My grandmother never mentioned anything. I was born in New York City. That's about all I know of my background.”

“I see. We've got to build you up. I'm aware you've been under a great strain.”

What a delicate way of putting it, Jenny thought.

“I'll want to start you on vitamins. Also no lifting, no pushing or hauling. Get a great deal of rest.”

Erich was sitting beside her. He reached for her hand and stroked it. “I'll take good care of her, Doctor.”

The eyes rested on Erich speculatively. “I think it would be well if you abstain from marital relations for the next month at least and possibly through the pregnancy if the spotting continues. Will that be too much of a problem?”

“Nothing is too much of a problem if it means that Jenny will have a healthy child.”

The doctor nodded approvingly.

But it is a problem, Jenny thought, dismayed. You see, Doctor, our marital relations give us the one area where we are simply two people who love and want each other and we manage to close the door on jealousy and suspicion and outside pressures.