Letters in the Attic (9 page)

She shrugged a little, and her lips trembled into an uncertain smile. “I was working in the garden, and they just dropped by.”

“We thought we’d take just a minute to introduce ourselves. I know I came at a bad time the other day, but Alice and I—” Annie pulled Alice a little closer to her. “This is Alice McFarlane. She lives next door to me over on Ocean Drive. Anyway, we were just saying that—”

“Look, Mrs. Dawson. That
is
your name, right?”

Annie nodded.

“Mrs. Dawson, I told you before, my wife and I don’t do much socializing. I’m sure you and your friend mean well, but we like our privacy.” Tom Maxwell fixed his dark eyes on them. “You can understand that, can’t you?”

Annie bit her lip and nodded.

He put his arm around his wife’s slender shoulders. “We like our privacy, don’t we, honey?”

Mrs. Maxwell glanced at Annie and then looked away. “I don’t do any of that needlework stuff you were talking about, Mrs. Dawson. My garden keeps me pretty busy anyway. But thanks for stopping by.”

Her husband squeezed her closer to him. “Is there anything else we can do for you ladies?”

Annie shook her head. “We just wanted to introduce ourselves.”

“Let us know if you decide you want company.” Alice handed Mrs. Maxwell the bag of cookies. “Annie thought you might like a homemade treat.”

Mr. Maxwell took the bag from his wife, his expression more wary than appreciative.

“We’re fine on our own.”

11

It wasn’t until Annie had backed her car down the long driveway and turned into the street that she or Alice said anything.

“That was weird.” Alice’s eyes widened. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t go by yourself?”

Annie grinned. “And you didn’t even see the graveyard.”

“I can’t imagine living by a graveyard.”

“It’s only a little one.”

“Stop it.” Alice pulled her jacket a little more snugly around herself. “Besides, it wasn’t that kind of weird. Still, I don’t know about him. She seemed kind of jumpy when he showed up.”

“Yeah, obviously. He about scared the life out of me, that’s for sure. I thought Mary Beth would keep him busy with her cabinets at least for the whole day.”

“She did say that was scheduled for today, didn’t she?”

“Definitely.” Annie took a deep calming breath. “OK. No big deal. He didn’t chase us off with a shotgun or anything.”

“At least I gave her my business card. As my friend Rachel from Brooklyn says, ‘so it shouldn’t be a total loss.’ ”

“You did?”

Alice grinned. “In the bag of cookies.”

“You just had to get in some kind of sales pitch, didn’t you?”

“Seriously, I just wanted her to have some way to get in touch with us if she decides she wants to. I see what you mean about things being strange with her and her husband.”

“I did expect him to be busy all day.” Annie frowned. “At least Mary Beth could have warned us or something.” She tossed her purse to Alice. “Where is my phone? I’m surprised she didn’t call me. She has my cell number.”

“I don’t see it here.” Alice then dug through her own bag and pulled out her phone. “She might have called my phone. Uh-oh, it wasn’t on. Sorry.” She punched a few buttons and then held it to her ear. From her side of the car, Annie could hear the tinny message it played. “Alice, this is Mary Beth. I tried to reach Annie at her house, but didn’t get an answer. I hope you two haven’t gone yet. Tom Maxwell left the shop. He might be on his way home. Call me.”

“Great.” Annie sighed. “So much for the cunning plan. What did I do with my phone? I’m sure I put it in my bag.”

At the next red light, she started rummaging around under the car seat. Finally she came up with three quarters, a note reminding her to buy sunscreen, and her cell phone.

“A lot of good you did me today,” she muttered before returning it to her purse.

“At least we got to talk to Mrs. Maxwell,” Alice said, “so that much was a success. And even if things did feel sort of tense out there, she looked all right. She seemed healthy and everything.”

“She seemed scared. I hope she didn’t get into trouble for talking to us.”

“If she needed help, she would have said something before he got there.” Alice’s forehead wrinkled. “Wouldn’t she?”

“I hope she would.”

When they got back to Main Street, Annie pulled up in front of A Stitch in Time. When she and Alice came inside, Mary Beth hurried from behind the counter.

“I’m glad you’re here. I tried to call you both. Didn’t you get my message?”

Alice shrugged one shoulder. “I’m afraid I forgot to turn my phone on, and Annie’s fell out of her purse in the car. What happened, anyway? I thought it would take him a while to put those cabinets together and then install them. He’s not done already, is he?”

Mary Beth pressed her lips together, and her eyes narrowed. “He hadn’t been working down there very long before he came up to tell me that all the screws are missing from the boxes. He can’t really get started on anything until the replacements get here.”

“Can’t you just get some more from the hardware store?”

“Evidently they’re a special kind made just for this company.” Mary Beth took a deep breath and then smiled. “It would be funny if it weren’t so irritating. I don’t know how one outfit could manage to do something wrong every single time I talk to them.”

Annie patted her arm. “I’m sorry, Mary Beth.”

“Oh well. There can only be so many things that can get messed up, right? It has to all work out eventually. Good thing you two came here before you did anything else. I was afraid you would be out at the Maxwells, and Tom would find you there.”

Annie grinned ruefully. “That’s exactly what did happen.”

“Uh-oh. Is everything OK out there?”

“I’m not sure. His wife didn’t come to the door, and when I went around to the backyard, she was standing in the trees where I couldn’t see her.”

“That’s strange. She’s not, um … different, is she?” Mary Beth asked. “I mean, poor thing, maybe she just has issues.”

Annie shook her head. “No, she seemed perfectly rational to me. But she was nervous about something. Didn’t you think so, Alice?”

“Yeah. Mostly about her husband showing up.”

“That did seem to make things worse.” Annie considered for a minute. “I wonder if anybody in town is actually friends with him. Maybe I should talk to Wally, since they’ve worked together and everything.”

“That’s a good idea,” Mary Beth said. “Though you know how men are. They can be friends for years and not know a thing about each other.”

Alice made a face. “And good luck getting one of them to talk.”

Annie laughed. “Now, now, you both know that’s not fair. My Wayne wasn’t that way at all. And every time I’ve been around Ian, he’s been very nice to talk to.”

Alice and Mary Beth exchanged knowing glances, and Annie rolled her eyes.

“Cut it out, you two. You know Ian and I are just friends.”

Alice chuckled. “That’s not his fault.”

“Just stop.” Annie turned to Mary Beth. “So when are the new screws for your cabinets supposed to get here?”

Mary Beth sighed. “They don’t know. Evidently there’s a problem with them at the factory, and they have to be redesigned or something.”

“But then you’ll have Tom come back, right?”

Alice’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “You’re not going back out there!”

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to Sandy. Not really.”

“Annie …”

“You saw her. Something is worrying her.”

“Maybe that something is just none of our business. Did you ever think of that? Maybe her mother is sick, or she had an argument with her sister or something. Maybe her flower beds have grub worms, or her toilet’s stopped up.”

“Her husband would fix that.” Annie grinned. “When he had time.”

“Look, he made it very clear that they don’t like visitors. Maybe we should just respect that.”

Annie put her hands up in surrender. “OK. OK.”

For now.

****

“Mom, please be careful.”

Over the telephone, Annie could hear the concern in LeeAnn’s voice and could easily picture it on her face.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, honey. Just because Mr. Maxwell likes his privacy, that doesn’t mean he’s dangerous. It’s been three days since I went out there, and I’m still in one piece.”

“I don’t think I like you up there snooping around by yourself.”

“You just don’t like me up here at all.” Annie bit her tongue and managed a more playful tone. “The boogeyman isn’t going to get me, you know.”

“Mom.”

It was LeeAnn’s “now that Dad’s gone, you need somebody to take care of you” voice. Annie appreciated the love behind it, even if it was sometimes confining.

“Honey, I’m a big girl now. I can look after myself.”

“I know, but there are some weird people out there. You should know that better than anybody.”

“And I have a lot of good friends up here too. We all take care of each other and help when we need to. It’s only right that I try to help Mrs. Maxwell if I can.”

“If she’s in trouble, maybe you should tell the police.”

“But I don’t know that, honey. And getting somebody’s husband in trouble with the law isn’t usually the best way to make friends.”

“Mom, if they don’t want you to come around there, and you don’t think she’s actually in trouble, maybe you should just leave them alone, huh?”

Maybe LeeAnn was right, but she hadn’t seen Sandy Maxwell’s face. Behind the uneasiness, the woman had seemed hungry for a little companionship. If she and her husband had lived out there for almost a decade, keeping to themselves all that time, she must be dying to talk to someone, woman to woman, at least once in a while.

“We’ll see what happens,” Annie replied. “But you don’t need to worry about it.”

LeeAnn exhaled audibly. “OK. You’re coming home for Herb’s birthday though, right?”

“Did you get the package I sent?”

“Yeah, it came a couple of days ago.”

“You didn’t open it, did you?”

“No. What is it?”

“What it is … is a surprise!” Annie waited for a moment. “OK?”

“OK. I wasn’t going to tell him, you know. So are you coming or not? The party’s on the tenth. You could come a few days before and stay until the Monday after Thanksgiving.”

“That’s a pretty long time. I was thinking I’d come a day or two before Thanksgiving and leave a couple of days after. How’s that?”

“Herb’s going to be pretty disappointed.”

Annie laughed. “Who all is coming to the party?”

“Everybody. Herb’s family and ours, and some neighbors and a lot of the people from church and from his office.”

“It sounds like he’ll be so busy with all his guests that he won’t miss me at all.”

“But I miss you, Mom. The twins miss you.”

Annie wished she could reach out and hug her daughter right through the phone. “I know, sweetie, and I miss you all. You don’t realize how much. But I still have a lot to do up here, and it’s just not practical for me to be coming back there all the time. It would be better for me to get this done once and for all, right?”

“I suppose. It just seems like it never gets done. I mean, you did all that research to find out what happened to your friend Susan, and then the minute you know, you’re totally obsessed with these Maxwell people. I just don’t like it.”

Annie could picture the pout that went with her daughter’s tone of voice.

“I promise I’ll come for Thanksgiving, and we’ll cook up the greatest meal ever, OK?”

“OK, Mom.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of the time spoiling my grandbabies.”

LeeAnn chuckled. “You do enough of that long distance.”

“In the meantime, you make sure to tell Herb I wished him a happy birthday, and that I hope he likes the present I sent him. But he can’t have it before his birthday!”

“Don’t worry,” LeeAnn assured her. “He doesn’t even know you sent him anything yet.”

“Good. That way he won’t be nosing around for hints. Now you’d better let me go so I can get back to work.”

“All right, Mom. Talk to you later.”

“Give the twins a big hug for me.”

“I will. And Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Be careful.”

Once she had hung up, Annie sat for a moment, just staring at the telephone. LeeAnn and the kids were so far away. She missed her church and her friends in Texas too. And she missed the home she and Wayne had shared. Yes, it was painful to be there and feel so keenly his absence, but it held his memory too, and it had been her home for so long.

But Gram’s memory was here at Grey Gables along with all the memories of Annie’s childhood summers. And Alice was here, and Mary Beth and all the Hook and Needle Club ladies, and all the friends from her new church. And—

Annie felt a furry little muzzle poke itself into her hand.

“And you, Miss Boots.” She pulled the cat into a snug embrace. “For now, we’re just going to enjoy ourselves. We’re going to get the house fixed up and sort through Gram’s things and have fun with our friends. And we’re going to try our best to be friends with Sandy Maxwell, too, because everybody should have a friend.”

The thirty-year-old memory of lonely little Susan Morris standing on the beach watching the other children play came back to Annie’s mind, and she held the purring cat closer.

“Everybody should have a friend.”

The telephone beside her rang, and she put the cat down on the couch. She picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Hi, Annie. This is Clara Robbins. I just wanted to remind you about the meeting we’re having on Thursday to plan the harvest banquet. I hope you’ll be able to join us.”

“I’ll sure try, Clara.”

“Oh, and mum’s the word, but the banquet is also going to be a surprise party for Pastor Wallace’s 25th anniversary with the church. We want it to be extra special.”

Pastor Wallace. Of course!

“That’s wonderful, Clara. I’ll definitely be there. See you soon.”

Annie hung up, unable to keep from smiling. Why hadn’t she thought of Pastor Wallace before now? He might remember Susan, and he might have some good advice about what to do about Sandy Maxwell. Annie had to go into town to order some new checks, anyway, so she might as well take care of that tomorrow.

It was just a short walk from the bank to the church.