A Cry In the Night (31 page)

“The idea for that painting came to me that first night on Second Avenue, when I came on you carrying the girls,” Erich said. “You had a purposeful look on your face and you could just tell you were anxious to get the kids home and fed.”

His tone was affectionate. He put his arm around her. “How do you like it?”

“It's beautiful.”

The one time she was not nervous with Erich was when she studied his work. This was the man with whom she had fallen in love, the artist whose wondrous talent at once could capture the simplicity of daily life and the complicated emotions that attended that simplicity.

The trees in the background. She recognized the line of Norwegian pines that grew near the graveyard. “Erich, you just finished this painting?”

“Yes, darling.”

She pointed. “But that tree is gone. You had most of the elms near the cemetery taken down because of the Dutch elm disease last spring.”

“I started a painting using that tree in the background but couldn't make it express what I wanted to say. Then one day I saw a bird flying with food for its young and thought of you. You inspire everything I do, Jenny.”

In the beginning, a statement like that would have melted her heart. Now it only caused her fear. Invariably it was followed by a remark that would reduce her to trembling nerves for the rest of the day.

The remark wasn't long in coming. Erich covered the painting. “I'm sending thirty canvases. The shippers will pick them up in the morning. Will you be here to make sure they take them all?”

“Of course I'll be here. Where else would I be?”

“Don't be edgy, Jenny. I thought Mark might try to see you before he goes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Luke had a heart attack just after he got back to Florida. But that doesn't give him the right to try to break up our marriage.”

“Erich, what are you talking about?”

“Luke called me last Thursday. He's out of the hospital. He suggested that you and the girls visit him in Florida. Mark is leaving today to spend a week with him. Luke had the nerve to think I'd let you travel down there with Mark.”

“How kind of him.” Jenny knew the offer had been refused.

“It wasn't kind of him. Luke just wanted to get you down there away from me. I told him so.”

“Erich!”

“Don't be surprised, Jenny. Why do you think Mark and Emily have stopped seeing each other?”

“Have they stopped?”

“Jenny, why are you always so blind? Mark told Emily he realized he wasn't interested in getting married and that it wasn't fair to take her time.”

“I didn't know that.”

“A man doesn't do that unless he has some other woman in mind.”

“Not necessarily.”

“Mark's crazy about you, Jenny. If it weren't for him the sheriff would have ordered an inquest into the baby's death. You know that, don't you?”

“No, I don't.” All the hard-won calm of the hospital
was deserting her. Her mouth was dry; her hands were sweaty. She felt herself trembling. “Erich, what are you saying?”

“I'm saying that there was a bruise near the baby's right nostril. The coroner said that it probably preceded death. Mark insisted that he was rough when he was trying to resuscitate the baby.”

The memory of Mark holding the tiny form flashed through her mind.

Erich was standing next to her now, his lips against her ear. “Mark knows. You know. I know. The baby was bruised, Jenny.”

“What are you telling me?”

“Nothing, darling. I'm just warning you. We both know how delicate the baby's skin was. That last night the way he was flailing his fists. He probably bruised himself. But Mark lied. He's just like his father. Everyone knew the way Luke felt about Caroline. Even now whenever he's here he sits in the wing chair so he can see her portrait. He was driving Caroline to the airport that last day. All she had to do was snap her fingers and he was there.

“And now Mark thinks he can pull the same thing. Well he can't. I called Lars Ivanson, the veterinarian from Hennepin Grove. He'll start caring for my animals. Mark Garrett will never set foot on this farm again.”

“Erich, you can't mean that.”

“Oh, but I can. I know you didn't mean it but you encouraged him, Jenny. I saw it. How many times did he come to the hospital?”

“He came twice. Once to tell me that the baby was back in his grave. Once to bring fruit Luke had ordered for me from Florida. Erich, don't you see? You read so much into the simplest, most innocent situation. Where does it end?”

She did not wait for a reply. She walked out of the room and opened the door onto the west porch. The last of the sun was slipping behind the woods. The evening wind was making Caroline's swing rock. No wonder Caroline had sat out here. She had been driven from the house too.

That night Erich came into the bedroom shortly after her. She held herself rigid, not wanting to be close to him. But he simply turned on his side and went to sleep. She felt her body go limp with relief.

She would not see Mark again. By the time he returned from Florida she would be in New Jersey. Was Erich right? Had she been sending out some kind of signal to Mark? Or was it simply that he and Emily had decided they weren't right for each other and Erich, always suspicious, was reading more into it?

For once, she thought, Erich may be right.

•   •   •

The next morning she prepared a list of odds and ends she needed for the trip. She expected Erich to argue about her requesting the car but he was unexpectedly indifferent. “But leave the girls with Elsa,” he told her.

After he left for the cabin she circled a jewelry store listed in the classified ad section that advertised
HIGHEST PRICES PAID FOR YOUR GOLD
. It was in a shopping center two towns away. She called and described Nana's locket. Yes, they'd be interested in buying it. Immediately she phoned Fran. Fran wasn't home but her recorder was on. She left a message. “We'll be in New York on the seventh or eighth. Don't phone here.”

While the children napped she rushed to the jewelry store.

She was offered eight hundred dollars for the locket. It wasn't enough but she had no choice.

She bought makeup and underwear and panty hose with the credit card Erich had given her. She made a point of showing the things to him.

•   •   •

Their first wedding anniversary was February third. “Why don't we celebrate in Houston, darling?” Erich asked. “I'll give you your present there.”

“That will be fine.” She wasn't a good enough actress to keep up the farce of celebrating this marriage. But, oh, God, soon, soon it would be over. The anticipation put a sparkle in her eye that had not been there in months. Tina and Beth responded to it. They had become so quiet. Now they brightened as she chatted with them. “Do you remember when we were on the plane and had that lovely ride? We're going on a plane again to a big city.”

Erich came in. “What are you talking about?”

“I'm telling them about our trip to Houston, what fun it will be.”

“You're smiling, Jenny. Do you know how long it's been since you looked happy?”

“Too long.”

“Tina, Beth, come on with Daddy to the store. I'll buy you ice cream.”

Beth put her hand on Jenny's arm. “I want to stay with Mommy.”

“I do too,” Tina said positively.

“Then I won't go,” Erich said.

He seemed unwilling to leave her alone with the children.

On the night of the fifth she packed. She only took what would appear reasonable for three days. “What fur should I take, my coat or jacket?” she asked Erich. “What's the weather like in Houston?”

“The jacket would be enough, I think. Why are you so nervous, Jenny?”

“I'm not nervous. It's just that I'm out of the habit of traveling. Will I need a long dress?”

“Maybe one. That taffeta skirt and blouse would do. Wear your locket with it.”

Was there an edge in his voice; was he toying with her? She tried to sound natural. “That's a good idea.”

They had a two o'clock flight from Minneapolis. “I've asked Joe to drive us to the airport,” Erich said.

“Joe!”

“Yes, he's able to start working again. I'm going to rehire him.”

“But, Erich, after all that happened.”

“Jenny, we've put all that behind us.”

“Erich, after all the gossip you propose to rehire him!” She bit her lip. What difference who was here?

Rooney would be coming back from the hospital around the fourteenth. They had persuaded Clyde to let her stay a full six weeks. Jenny wished she could say good-bye to her. Maybe she could write and have Fran mail the letter for her from some city on one of her flights. There was nothing else she could do.

At last it was time to go. The girls were dressed in their velvet coats and matching hats. Jenny's heart surged. I'm going to take them to the Village for linguine the night we get to New York, she decided.

From the bedroom window she could barely see a corner of the cemetery. After breakfast she'd slipped over to the baby's grave to say good-bye.

Erich had packed the car. “I'll get Joe,” he told her.

“Come with me, girls. Give Mommy a chance to finish dressing.”

“I am finished,” she said. “Hold a minute. I'll go with you.”

He seemed not to have heard. “Hurry up, Mommy,” Beth called as she and Tina clattered down the stairs behind Erich. Jenny shrugged. Just as well to
have five minutes to be sure she had everything. The locket money was in the inside jacket pocket of the suit she had packed.

On her way downstairs she glanced into the girls' room. Elsa had made the beds and straightened the room. Now it seemed inordinately neat, with a quality of emptiness as though it sensed that the girls would not be returning.

Had Erich sensed the same thing?

Suddenly troubled, Jenny ran down the stairs, pulling on her jacket. Erich should be back any minute.

Ten minutes later, she went out on the porch. She was getting so warm. Surely he'd be along any second now? He always left so much time to get to the airport. She stared at the road, straining to see the first sign of the car coming.

At the end of half an hour, she phoned the Ekers'. Her fingers fumbled with the dial. Twice she had to break the connection and start again.

Maude answered. “What do you mean have they left yet? I saw Erich drive past here over forty minutes ago with the girls in the car . . . Joe? Joe wasn't driving them to the airport. Where did you get that idea?”

Erich had gone without her. Taken the girls and gone without her. The money was in the luggage he'd taken. Somehow he had guessed her plans.

She called the hotel in Houston. “I want to leave a message for Erich Krueger. Tell him to call his wife as soon as he arrives.”

The reservation clerk's hearty Texan voice: “There must be a misunderstanding. Those reservations were canceled nearly two weeks ago.”

•   •   •

At two o'clock Elsa came in to her. “Good-bye, Mrs. Krueger.”

Jenny was sitting in the parlor, studying Caroline's painting. She did not turn her head. “Good-bye, Elsa.”

Elsa did not go at once. Her long frame hovered in the doorway. “I'm sorry to leave you.”

“Leave me?” Yanked from lethargy, Jenny jumped up. “What do you mean?”

“Mr. Krueger said that he and the girls would be going away. He said he'd let me know when to come back.”

“When did he tell you that, Elsa?”

“This morning, when he was getting in the car. Are you staying here alone?”

There was a curious mixture of emotion in the stolid face. Ever since the baby's death Jenny had felt a compassion in Elsa she would not have expected. “I guess I am,” she said quietly.

For hours after Elsa left, she sat in the parlor waiting. Waiting for what? A phone call. Erich would phone. She was certain of that.

How would she handle the call? Admit she'd been planning to leave him? He already knew that. She was sure of it. Promise to stay with him? He wouldn't trust the promise.

Where had he taken the girls?

The room grew dark. She should turn on some lamps. But somehow the effort was too great. The moon came up. It shone in through the lace of the curtains, throwing a weblike beam on the painting.

Finally Jenny went into the kitchen, made coffee, sat by the telephone. At nine o'clock it began to ring. Her hand trembled so she could barely pick up the receiver. “Hello.” Her voice was so low she wondered if it could be heard.

“Mommy!” Beth sounded so far away. “Why didn't you want to come with us today? You promised.”

“Bethie, where are you?”

The sound of the phone being moved.

Beth's voice changing to a protest. “I want to talk to Mommy.”

Tina interrupted. “Mommy, we didn't go for a plane ride and you said we would.”

“Tina, where are you?”

“Hello, darling.” Erich's voice was warmly solicitous. Tina and Beth were wailing in the background.

“Erich, where are you? Why did you do this?”

“Why did I do what, darling? Prevent you from taking my children from me? Keep them from danger?”

“Danger? What are you talking about?”

“Jenny, I told you I'd take care of you. I mean it. But I'll never let you leave me and take my girls away.”

“I won't, Erich. Bring them home.”

“That's not good enough. Jenny, go over to the desk. Get writing paper and a pen. I'll hold on.”

The girls were still crying. But she could hear something else. Road sounds. A truck in gear. He must be calling from a phone booth on a highway.
“Erich, where are you?”

“I said get paper and pen. I'll dictate. You write. Hurry up, Jenny.”