Getting Old Is a Disaster (27 page)

  I pick up the phone and dial Denny's number. Since he is our fixer-upper, I have his number memorized. Denny answers.

  "Hi, Denny, it's Mrs. Gold." I listen. "Yes, I think Enya's much better. Thank you for asking. Just have a question. Did Abe Waller have a big problem with his kitchen sink yesterday? I heard it was flooding." I listen again. "Thanks a lot. Bye."

  When I hang up, I say, "Denny said the washer came off. It took him a minute to put it back on, and there was never any flooding."

  "Wow!" says Joe.

  Bella shakes Evvie's arm. "What does that mean? What?"

  Jack says, "It means that Abe might have taken the washer off himself and left the faucet running."

  Sophie, arms still crossed, says, "So?"

  Ida pokes her in the shoulder. "So it means he might have lied, and why do you think he might have done that?"

  Sophie says, "I have no idea. You punch me again, I'm gonna punch you back."

  Evvie says, "It could mean that he wanted to get Denny away from you so he could drive you to Hadassah."

  Bella is practically in tears. "How were we supposed to know that?"

  Ida is next. "How come it didn't make you wonder? Abe is not friendly. He never talks to anyone, except for Stanley. Have you ever seen him have anything to do with any of us?"

  Sophie says nastily, "Big deal. We needed a ride. He offered."

  Jack says gently, "Bella, Sophie, try to remember what you talked about in his car. You did have a conversation, didn't you?"

  Bella nods eagerly. She can handle that. "He wanted to know what was happening with the skeleton and we told him Gladdy was still on the case, and he said Gladdy is real smart and we said she sure is and she's at the police station right now telling Morrie what she knows. And then when we got there, he opened the door for us like a gentleman." She stops, out of breath.

  "Oh, my God," says Evvie.

  "The skeleton?" Joe says, surprised. "He wanted to know about the skeleton? And if he wanted to know about the skeleton, why didn't he ask Stanley?"

  "Precisely why he got the girls in his car," I say. "He's already asked Stanley about it too many times. He didn't dare arouse Stanley's suspicion."

  Ida mutters under her breath, "He went to the two weakest links."

  Sophie glares at her. Bella hangs her head.

  We all look at one another. The skeleton. No more coincidences. In my mind I can already connect the dots.

W
e've gone back and forth on this subject ad

      nauseam and discussion is still going strong. The noise level is high. Everyone talks at once. Lots of churning emotion in the air. To move around and stretch their cramped legs, the girls remove the breakfast dishes, but that doesn't stop conversation—they use the see-through cut in the wall between kitchen and dining room. Joe moves into the living room area and stretches out on the couch, still close enough to keep up his share of opinions.

  "You shouldn't have gone into his car," says Evvie. "Big mouths, both of you."

  Ida adds, "And then you don't tell us about it?"

  "Enough already," says Sophie, thoroughly disgusted. "You never would've cracked the case if we hadn't. So as far as we're concerned"—she puts her arm around Bella—"without us, you never would've made the skeleton connection!"

  "Yeah!" echoes Bella, "we're the heroines here."

  "Some heroines. You've put Enya and Glad in danger," Evvie says angrily.

  Joe says, "We're close. We'll watch over Enya, won't we, sugar pie?" Evvie nods in agreement.

  Ida adds, "And I'm sure Jack will take care of Gladdy."

  I glance over at her, listening for her usual sarcasm, but I don't detect any. Maybe she means what she says.

  Jack salutes Ida.

  We're spinning out of control. I rap on the dining room table. "Enough with the bickering. Let's put our thoughts in order." Jack leans back in his chair, watching me trying, yet again, to keep the girls on track.

  Evvie reaches in her purse for the notebook that's always there. "Okay, shoot. I'll get it all down."

  "First," I say, "and most important—as far as everyone outside this room is concerned, Enya did not have an . . . episode. She has the flu. All that banging was a call for help. We need a cleanup crew to put her apartment back in some order. Anyone asks questions, repairs are still from the hurricane."

  Ida comments, "Lucky you were the only ones to walk in and see the mess. Hey, what about Mary?"

  Evvie says, "We can trust her to keep quiet." She glares at Sophie and Bella. "Unlike some others."

  Joe says to her, "Don't start again."

  "Okay, okay." Evvie backs off.

  Ida paces. Everyone watches her do laps around the table. She says, "What did she say, his face was different?"

  Evvie says, "That could have been because of the beard." She starts to do stretching exercises. And of course her shadow, Joe, leaps off the couch to follow suit.

  Now Sophie moves into the living room area and jumps up and down in place. And here goes Bella, who has to copy her actions.

  Evvie adds as she does neck rolls, "And she said that he was big and heavy."

  Sophie says, puffing, "So he lost weight by the time he got here."

  By now they are all moving in different directions. "Could we all stay in one place?" I ask. "You're making me dizzy. Do you want to take a break?"

  Everyone hurries back to their seats. "No, let's keep on," Evvie says.

  However, we do take a few minutes to refill coffee cups and water glasses.

  "But Abe is Orthodox," Bella says.

  Evvie says what I guess some of us are thinking: "What more evil way for a Nazi to hide?"

  We are quiet for a few moments, imagining the horror of that.

  Jack asks, "What are your thoughts on discussing this with Stanley?"

  Again everyone talks at once.

  "He'll have a heart attack," says Bella.

  "He won't believe us," says Joe. "Not in a million years."

  "He'll go right to Abe and tell him!" Ida says. "Stanley will never forgive us."

  I hold my hands up. "Okay, table that. We don't say anything yet."

  Jack says, "Let's review our logic. The skeleton is unearthed because of the hurricane. Stanley assumes, by where the body was found, that it had to have been buried at the time the condos were built, in 1958. A worker, a guy named Johnny Blake, went missing, so it was deduced that it must be his body. First we suspect some kind of accident. The police tell us, no accident—his head was crushed— it was murder.

  "Gladdy and Stanley go to Tampa and find out Johnny Blake died six months earlier than that fateful night, right off the dock near where he lived and his body was found, and buried at a nearby church. His sister, Lucy, says she believes foul play.

  "The forensics lab reports what they discover from the bones. Their findings show that it couldn't have been Johnny Blake of Tampa, nor could it be the man posing as Johnny Blake here. However, because of Lucy's P.O. box number, we know for sure there is a definite connection. So now let's call this unknown man X."

  I add, "Lucy also tells us the ship her brother was on came from Argentina."

  Sophie jumps in. "I read that that's where the Nazis went to hide from being caught as war criminals."

  Jack continues. "Maybe X realizes somebody's stalking him in Argentina. So he stows away on the ship and picks Johnny as the one to kill to get a new identity. He throws him overboard and easily makes it off the ship with Johnny's ID. He wanders around and arrives at Fort Lauderdale, gets a job working on building these condos." Jack stops to take a drink from his glass of water.

  I continue for him. "But maybe this stalker catches up to him. It could be someone from the camps who wanted revenge for killing his family. A Jewish man named Abe Waller."

  Bella gasps. Hearing his name in this manner is chilling.

  Evvie can't wait. "X probably murdered the entire Waller family so nobody ever comes looking for the real Abe Waller."

  Jack continues. "We can imagine that in the middle of a terrible storm the two men fight to the finish. X is the stronger and he kills Abe Waller. So X has killed two men to keep himself safe."

  Ida says fervently, "All right. But why didn't X keep using Johnny Blake's ID?"

  Jack says, "My guess is, he kept track of Tampa news and found out about Johnny's body turning up. Here was a golden opportunity. He can't remain Johnny Blake, so now he becomes Abe Waller. When he leaves Johnny's stuff behind, it probably must be because he couldn't get back into his locker and he figures those old clothes would get thrown out."

  Joe says, "Which Stanley, the pack rat, never disposed of. Safe for fifty years until you, Gladdy." He tips an imaginary hat to me.

  Ida says, "But why would he do something so crazy and then move in and live where he buried the body? It doesn't make any sense."

  I say, "We can only speculate. He comes back a year later, thinner and with a beard and mustache. No one would recognize him as the guy who worked on the construction site. Maybe he decided to hang about awhile to make sure the body wasn't found. Then he just stayed on. It's amazing how utterly realistic he's been playing the part. I mean, why take on such a difficult role? Fifty years of going to temple consistently with Stanley. Not just being Jewish, but Orthodox, the most rigorous and devout form of Judaism. Why didn't he leave when he was sure he was safe?"

  Jack says, "Maybe he thought this was the ultimate disguise. No one would ever again recognize him. And he was right."

  It gets very quiet and I say, "Time for a reality check. What if we're totally wrong and our imagination made up this entire scenario? What if Enya's behavior
was
irrational and we're reading Abe's actions incorrectly? Maybe Enya, cracking up, is delusional and for some sick, sad reason, she's picked on Abe. And what if Abe's innocent? This man has lived an impeccable, faith-filled, decent life. What if our carefully built-up assumptions are just that, assumptions—and we are about to destroy a man's life?"

  "One thing's for sure," Jack says, "without knowing his real name, we have nothing to go on. We have no proof. It's all conjecture. But I have an idea . . ."

  "Well?" says Evvie, never known for her patience. "Tell us. What?"

  Jack looks at me and smiles. "We need to buy time. Glad, you're not going to like this, but we have to get people's minds off hurricanes and Enya and skeletons. Something to make Abe—if guilty—think he's safe. Only way to do that is give everyone something else to get excited about. An event that will make them happy. Now we spread the word about our engagement and upcoming wedding. And have a party to celebrate. That will give us time to come up with a plan."

  That startles me. I had no intention of having any kind of party, that's not my style. I'm not thrilled with the idea, but Jack makes sense. I dread having to give the pool gang that ammunition. There goes romance. Good-bye, privacy.

* * *

  Now that our final partner is here, we turn to Evvie, who called this meeting for eight-thirty this evening. As if we hadn't had enough discussion today. She's busily filling a second washer with a load of clothes. "Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone," she tells us.

  Ida says, "It couldn't keep 'til morning?"

  With four of us girls already crowded in this small space, there's hardly room to move an arm or leg. We all push backward to make room for Ida.

  "I had something on my mind," Evvie says, "and I wanted it settled tonight."

  I come to my sister's aid: "Ev suggested that we cast our votes for whether we believe Enya is right about her fears. Or whether we don't believe Abe is really a wolf in sheep's clothing, so to speak."

  Ida shakes her head. "But why here, now?"

  Evvie shrugs. "I didn't want to hurt Joe's feelings by telling him he didn't have the right to vote." She pushes her garments around in the tub so they fit in evenly.

  Ida tries to put her hands on her hips. There's no room, so she drops her arms.

  Bella and Sophie watch the two of them bicker. Sophie gets bored and she examines her face in the small utility mirror, looking for new wrinkles. Bella plays with the coin lever, pulling it in and out.

  "All right already, vote. My bathwater's getting cold. And what's with you and Joe anyway? Since when do you worry about his feelings?"

  "Don't ask," Evvie says, looking toward me, who understands.

  Sophie says, "My hand is ready to lift up, so let's go."

  "Ditto," says Bella, "not that I'm in a hurry to go back to Dora. She's watching the reruns of the shows she watched this morning. I have such a headache from all the TV fighting and kissing and slamming doors."

  They all turn to me as usual, their reluctant leader, so I proceed. I guess it's a good idea to see where we stand. "We heard a lot of stuff today and there was plenty to digest. If you're not sure yet, say so. Okay, who believes Enya is right about Abe being the Nazi she knew in the camps?"

  Sophie's hand shoots up first. "I believe."

  Bella is next. "I believe."

  I say, "I believe."

  Ida hesitates, and then her hand goes up, too.

  Evvie laughs as she raises her hand as well. "I believe, and now all we need is for Tinker Bell to show up."

  We all smile at that. A buzzer sounds to tell her the first load is dry.