Ellen McKenzie 04-Murder Half-Baked (29 page)

“Either way,” Gina said.

Susannah
was
having a great time playing house. Or was it something else
?
The way she
wield
ed
the bread knife
was
awkward
yet
enthusias
tic,
and I recalled
her pride in her pot roast only a couple of days ago. I watched her face when Neil came in the back door
,
the smile she gave him
—
warm, confident, welcoming
—
and something inside me lurched. I turned to look at Nathan, who was still holding the baby, and watched Marilee give him the same kind of smile.

“Makes you feel old when this happens, doesn’t it
?
” I hadn’t seen Aunt Mary
,
or maybe I was so absorbed
in my
realiz
ation that
Susannah had grown up I hadn’t noticed her.

“When what happens?”

She smiled at me and patted me on the arm. “Should we wait dinner for Dan?”

Anne appeared at the back door carrying two sacks of groceries. “Help
!
These things are heavy.”

Someone had remembered the grocery store. I held the door
. S
he set her sacks on the kitchen table and smiled broadly at all of us. “It smells wonderful in here. I brought some eggs, milk, that kind of thing. Ellen, I got your message. I can hardly believe it.”

“Did you bring butter?” Marilee was already empt
y
ing the bags. “Coffee. Good.”

“Butter? I think so.” Anne dismissed groceries with the wave of a hand. She was only interested in the new Grace House. “I’ve got so many ideas, so many things I want to do. Paint first, then we have to get rid of those dreadful rugs, and that wallpaper! ” She laughed. “Then we’ll work on getting the
daycare
up and running. We’ve needed it for so long, and now
…
finally!”

“
Daycare
?” Leona’s eyes widened. It was the first word she’d spoken in a long time. She pushed herself away from the counter, where she had been leaning staring at Nathan and the
baby, and turned her attention to Anne. Her interest sent a shiver up my spine.

Marilee took the baby from Nathan and sat on one of the kitchen chairs
,
preparing to nurse him. She threw the small blanket over her shoulder and fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. The baby disappeared under the blanket. Marilee shifted him on her lap a little before she looked at me anxiously. “How long before we can move in?”

I hesitated.
A
t least two weeks, and I doubted if we could get everything done by then. “Before Christmas.” I crossed my fingers and held them behind my back.

“Before
…
Oh.” Gina looked from Anne to Marilee to me. “I thought we were going to rent it until the escrow closed.”

“We are,” Anne said. She looked around
the room
, trying to include them all. “I know how hard this is on all of you, but we have to get some things done, inspections and things, and also permits from the city.”

“It’s a lot harder on Ellen and Chief Dunham than it is on us.” Gina frowned as she looked around. “They’ve got company coming for Christmas, a wedding a few days after that, and we’ve thrown Susannah out of her room. That’s all right for a couple of days, but I don’t think
…”

“That’s okay. Gina can keep staying with Mrs. McGill and me
,
and Marilee will get an apartment. We’re going to anyway.” Leona, who had said nothing since the subject of
daycare
had been dropped, spoke almost defiantly. The room
became
very still. Gina stopped scrubbing carrots. Susannah, who was on her way to the dining room, hands full of water glasses, stopped and looked at me. Her expression clearly said, “
H
ere we go.”
Nathan started to
speak
, but a small wave from Anne stopped him. I transferred my gaze to Marilee, who looked amazingly serene. She shifted the blanket and moved the baby to her other breast. “No. We’re not getting an apartment. I’m going to finish my GED, go to the community college, and I’m going to take that job with Central Coast Catering. Anne says we can stay at Grace House for a
while
,
and that’s where I’m going as soon as we can move in.” She looked up, directly at Leona. “I told you that. Yesterday.”

“Yeah. But I didn’t think you meant it.”

“I did.”

Marilee’s hand quivered a little as she held the baby
,
and her eyes were
lowered
, but there was a set to her jaw
line, a tightening around her mouth. Marilee wasn’t going to let her child grow up the way she had.

I glanced at Leona.
We were
all look
ing
at Leona, holding our breath
s
, waiting for her to explode. She didn’t. She stood in the middle of the kitchen, her hands clenching and unclenching, her mouth pinched. Her eyes locked onto the baby, watching as Marilee adjusted him, wrapped the blanket a little tighter, held him closer. Then she exhaled, her hands relaxed down by her side, and her shoulders dropped. “Sure. Whatever you think’s best.”

That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. Evidently it wasn’t what Aunt Mary expected either, because she looked at me and raised
an
eyebrow. I shrugged slightly, puzzled but relieved. None of us needed another of Leona’s tirades.

“So what are you going to do, Leona?” Gina’s voice was soft, thoughtful, as if she really wanted to know. But Leona didn’t take it that way.

“Wha
ddya
mean?” Her fists started to clench again.

“Are you going to stay
at
Grace House, try to get your own place, or what?”

The belligerence on Leona’s face faded to confusion. Her eyes wandered around the room, coming to rest on the baby. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

Silence greeted that statement.

“We’d all better think about it.” Gina turned back to the sink, but the carrots were scrubbed. She stared at them for a moment then walked over to where Marilee still sat, the baby now over her shoulder, sound asleep. “Especially Marilee.” She laid her hand lightly on the baby’s cheek then squeezed Marilee’s shoulder. “She’s had a rough few weeks.
She needs a little stability.”

“I’m not too sure Chief Dunham will let her go anywhere until they find Grady.”

Nathan had his hand on Marilee’s other shoulder. She looked up at him, then around the kitchen at the rest of us.

“Then they better find him fast before he does something else.”

“You think he will?” Marilee had just confirmed my worst fear.

“Count on it.”

I already was, and I didn’t like it one bit. But where were they all going to go? Especially Marilee and the baby. I couldn’t think of any place safer than right here. Unless, of course, we could
furnish
one of Dan’s cells with a nice bed and some towels
…
probably not.

“You think he’d come here?” Leona didn’t look scared, just interested.

“If he found out I was here, and he thought he could get away with it.” Marilee looked scared.

Susannah also looked scared. She put the lid back on the pot
,
where the potatoes were beginning to give off a lovely garlic smell. “Why is Grady so determined to get to you? What would he do if he found you?”

Marilee didn’t answer right away. She held the baby a little closer and let her hand run down his cheek, stroke his fuzzy head. “I don’t know.”

I didn’t buy that one for a minute. Neither did Anne or Aunt Mary. And they didn’t know about the money. I was sure that what Grady wanted was his money back, and
probably
for
a
very good reason.
I
f his hide was on the line,
that
made him
all
the more dangerous. Somehow I was going to have that talk with Marilee. But not right this minute.

Marilee tucked the baby firmly in the crook of her arm, pushed herself out of the chair, and headed for the stairs. Leona stepped in front of her, arms out.

“He need changing? I’ll do it for you. Just sit there and rest.”

Marilee clutched the baby closer, if that were possible. “Thanks, but I’ll do it.”

She pushed past Leona and walked out of the room. A red flush crept up
Leona’s
neck and onto her cheeks but immediately faded, leaving her face white and pinched. She didn’t look at any of us. Instead, she pushed through the swinging door that led into the dining room. I was afraid she was going after Marilee. Evidently Nathan did
, too
,
because
he took a couple of steps toward the door, but the clinking of silverware stopped him.

“We need more knives.” Leona appeared back in the kitchen, her face rigidly under control.

“How many?” Susannah opened the silverware drawer and handed a bunch to Leona.
Aunt Mary jumped right in. “Gina, are those carrots ready to go on? Susannah, want to try your hand with potato mashing again? I guess we’d better not wait for Dan.”

The mood in the kitchen settled down into a more or less normal hum, but an undercurrent of unease remained. Leona seemed sullen and unresponsive, but that was not abnormal. Gina seemed as if she were a million miles away.
S
ilent all through dinner
, s
he hardly noticed when Anne left
.
Everyone was silent. Aunt Mary kept trying to get a conversation going, describing the wonders of the new home and suggesting dragging out more of my Christmas decorations. Nothing worked.