Miss Julia Meets Her Match (14 page)

“Hazel Marie,” I said, understanding her reasoning, but hating the thought of losing them to another round of illicit cohabitation. “Think about this carefully. Think about the kind of influence you’d have on that child, if you take up with Mr. Pickens again in open defiance of the conventions.”

“All I know, Miss Julia, is that I’d rather Lloyd grow up and
live
with a woman, than grow up and
be
one.”

I had to admit she had a point. Although I didn’t say it out loud because I didn’t want to encourage her to be a significant other rather than a wife and miss out on all the social and legal benefits of the marital state.

“Excuse me, Miss Julia, Lillian,” Hazel Marie said as she rose from the table. “I need to think about this for a while.”

She left and, as I watched her go, I felt for her, even though I thought that she had little to worry about where that child was concerned. Still, what did I know about raising children, particularly raising them in the way they ought to go?

“Miss Julia,” Lillian whispered as soon as the door closed behind Hazel Marie. “That Mr. Pickens call while you gone, and he want to talk to you. He say not to tell Miss Hazel Marie, and for you to call him soon as you can when she can’t hear you.” She frowned at me. “What you got goin’ on with Mr. Pickens?”

My spirits lifted at once, as I hoped Mr. Pickens had some good news for me. I got up and walked over to Lillian so I could whisper and not be overheard. “I’m sure it’s about that Mooney woman, Lillian. I’ve employed Mr. Pickens to look into her activities, and we don’t want Hazel Marie to know anything about it.”

“Oh,” she said, her eyes getting bigger. “I hope he run her outta town.” Then she lowered her voice even more. “You gonna tell him he ’bout to have a boy move back in with him an’ do everything he do?”

“Not for anything in the world. No, that’s between him and Hazel Marie.” I stopped and considered for a moment. “Although, I might mention the advantages he’d enjoy by having his own family, especially if it’s blessed by both the church and the state.”

“Uh-huh,” she said. “I know that mean a lot to him.”

I tiptoed through the dining room, then partway down the hall to check on Hazel Marie without alerting her. Then I crept up the stairs and into my room.

“Mr. Pickens?” I said when he answered his phone. “Julia Springer here. Hazel Marie’s in her room with the door closed, and I’m upstairs with mine closed. What do you have to report?”

“Just the basics, I’m afraid. Monique Mooney—”

“Monique! What kind of name is that?”

“Beats me. It’s just her name. I’ve checked the birth records at the courthouse, and she was born in Abbot County fifty-one years ago. Father’s name is, or probably was, Hoyt Mooney and the mother was a Lola Bennett Mooney, both from around Grovetown in the west of the county. Then I asked around—”

“Surely you didn’t tell people why you were asking.”

“Miss Julia,” he said with the air of someone about half put out. “I know my job. Anyway, seems this Monique went to a county school, dropped out in the tenth grade, then some few years later took the GED and passed. I couldn’t get a line on what she was doing before that, but sometime in the late sixties she married a William Wainright. No record on that in this county, but there is a record of a divorce. The record’s spotty, but looks like the marriage lasted about two years. She married a Carl Simpson in 1983, when he was seventy-two.”

“My word.”

“Yeah, well, he died a year later. Then she went back to her maiden name. From what I’ve been able to find out, she worked off and on as a checkout girl in a couple of supermarkets, and she was on the night shift at a convenience store for a while. That’s what people who knew her think they remember. Nothing that I could pin down, though. The only interesting thing I’ve found is that she worked as a teller in Mr. Springer’s bank for a couple of years or so in the late eighties.”

“Oh,” I moaned.

“I lose track of her in ’89, but I located somebody who worked with her in the bank. A Millie Weston, who was also a teller, and a talker too, let me tell you. She told me there were rumors at the bank about Monique and a number of local men, but she only knew Mr. Springer’s name for sure. She said everybody disliked her, because she got so much time off without being docked for it. Then it seems Monique left town in somewhat of a hurry—that’s according to Millie—and the word is that she joined up with some sort of traveling show or carnival or something. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I’ve not found anything else on her till she shows up here again with this Dooley character.”

“Can you find out who the other men were? They need to take some of the heat, too,” I said, hoping for a semblance of safety in numbers.

“No, that won’t help you,” Mr. Pickens said, infuriating me with his assumption that he knew what would help me. Before I could contradict him, he went on. “Their names aren’t relevant to whatever she had going on with Mr. Springer, which is what we’re concerned with. And I’ve pretty well confirmed that she did work in the bank, where she could’ve attracted his attention if he was so-minded.”

“Oh, believe me, Mr. Pickens, he was so-minded. And I expect she was, too.”

“Yeah,” he said, “I’ll keep looking around, asking questions and so on. This Millie Weston didn’t have a lot of good to say about her. Seemed to think that Monique was a little on the loose side.” He stopped then went on. “Well, what she said was that Monique was an out and out slut. I’m quoting her, because you know I don’t use that kind of language.”

I bit my lip, too intent on my concerns to respond to his usual inappropriate levity. I was finally able to ask the crucial question. “Mr. Pickens, I have to ask. Is there any record of her having a child?”

“No, and I should’ve told you that right off. I’ve checked county and state records and there’s nothing on her having a child. That’s not to say she never had one, because it looks like she traveled around a lot.”

“Let us hope and pray she didn’t go to another state and have one.” I cringed at the thought of that woman claiming to have Little Lloyd’s half-brother or half-sister, a state of affairs that would devastate him and divest him of his inheritance.

“Mr. Pickens? Why do you think this woman is letting rumors fly around about her lapse?”

“Her lapse?”

“You know, with Mr. Springer.”

“Oh. Well, we don’t know that she is. If there was gossip before she left, her coming back could be what’s revving it up again. That Millie Weston, for one, didn’t mind talking about her.”

“Maybe so, but the Mooney woman isn’t doing one thing to stop it. She should’ve known that coming back here would start the talk again. But it’s as if she doesn’t care about her own reputation. I tell you, Mr. Pickens, I don’t understand people.”

“Tell you what, Miss Julia, I’ll keep looking, but I also want to get in closer. I’m thinking of applying for a job out there where they’re building the theme park. Do a little undercover work.”

“Oh, my. Is that a good idea? What if they find out who you are?”

“No reason for them to. They don’t know me, and it’s the only way to see what she’s up to.”

“You are a fine man, Mr. Pickens. And I say that even though you’ve been known to try my patience many a time. But I will be forever grateful to you if you can prevent this woman from destroying Little Lloyd’s belief in his father.”

“I have a stake in this, too, you know,” Mr. Pickens said. Which was truer than he knew at the present time.

“Let me know, Mr. Pickens, because I want this over and done with as soon as possible. And I’ll tell you something else. When you get through, you’re going to have another mission, one that I know you’ll be happy about. But it will involve a
heavy
responsibility.”

“What?”

“You’ll see. You just keep one thing in mind: responsibility. In the meantime, I’ll be doing what I can to stop that woman’s ugly talk. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

He laughed. “I don’t doubt it.”

I was sitting in the living room after dinner, trying to keep my mind on the invitation list I was making out. You would think I’d be able to focus on something as important as that, but I found Rachel Claussen’s name on it in three places. I marked out two of them, then went through the listing of physicians in the phone book to see if I’d left off any of their wives.

“Miss Julia!” Hazel Marie startled me as she suddenly flew into the room. “Guess what he’s done now.”

“Who? Tony?”

“No! That J. D. Pickens, who is the most uncooperative man who ever lived. Here, he’s been begging me,
pleading
with me to move back in with him, and when I call him up and say I’m ready to do it, he’s too
busy!
” She flung her arms out and glared at me. “His
client
needs him, as if Lloyd doesn’t. I don’t understand him, I just don’t! I tell him what I’ve decided to do,
throwing
myself at him and expecting him to be over here in a flash to help me move. But what does he do? Says he’ll be busy for a few days, maybe a week, and I won’t hear from him until he’s finished working for his
client.
I tell you, I’d like to know who that client is. Just who is so blamed important that he doesn’t have time for me when I need him!”

I managed to keep my emotions from showing during this tirade. I was as much relieved to learn that he was on the job as I was fearful that Hazel Marie would find out who he was on the job for.

“Hazel Marie,” I said, “I doubt a few more days will do much damage to the child’s character. Besides, I will purely hate to see you go. I’ve grown accustomed to having you both around.”

Hazel Marie smiled and calmed herself enough to sit beside me. “Now, Miss Julia, you know you’re not going to have time to miss us. When you and Sam are married, you’ll be so happy you won’t even know we’re gone. And, I’ll tell you, it will be a relief to me to know you’ll be with someone who’ll look after you. I never told you this, but one of the reasons I left J. D. the first time was because I was worried about you being alone.”

“Oh, Hazel Marie, that is dear of you. So thoughtful. But I thought the reason you came home was because one of his ex-wives showed up.”

“That, too. What both of us ought to do, if I could get some cooperation from J. D., and Sam could get some from you, is get married. You to Sam, and me to that hard-headed horse’s behind. That would solve all our problems.”

“Don’t count on it, for I’m not marrying Sam.” Tears sprang to my eyes, in spite of myself. I blinked and looked away.

“You’re not? Oh, don’t tell me that. I thought you were right on the brink.”

“I was, but I stepped back.”

“I don’t understand. What do you have against getting married?”

“Not a thing, Hazel Marie, for you. I would like nothing better than to see you safely married. But I’ve already had that experience, and I don’t care to repeat it. Once you do it, it keeps coming back on you.” I patted her hand, deeply gratified that she had worried about me. “Now, Hazel Marie, you just let Mr. Pickens do his job, whatever it is and for whoever his client is. The fact that he’s doing what he’s committed to do shows a healthy sense of responsibility. Which is what you want to see in a man.”

“Well, I know,” she said, but without sounding as if she necessarily agreed with it. “But I’ll tell you this: J. D. Pickens may not want to be a husband, but he’s going to be a father, or he’s seen the last of me. Lloyd
needs
him.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the doorbell rang and prevented my giving her whatever pearl of wisdom I was about to impart.

“Why, LuAnne,” I said, as I opened the door and immediately tried to think of how to get rid of either her or Hazel Marie. If LuAnne had come to pass along more of what she’d heard concerning my husband and Hazel Marie’s, well, whatever he’d been to her, I had to head her off. But I did my duty as a hostess and welcomed her as warmly as I could manage. “Come in, LuAnne. Hazel Marie, don’t you have to pick up something at the cleaners?”

Hazel Marie frowned. “No’m, I don’t think so. How are you, LuAnne?”

“Hi, Julia, Hazel Marie,” LuAnne said, breezing in and handing me her jacket. “I’m glad you’re both here, because I’m about to die to tell you the latest.”

Oh, Lord, I thought, and wondered if I dared strangle her with her own coat.

“First off,” LuAnne said as she bounced down on the sofa, “can you believe it about Tony Allen? What he’s done to himself is just unheard of. Can you imagine what it’s like for Mildred, being on the cutting edge of medical science?”

I breathed out in great relief. “Mildred’s doing fine, LuAnne. Still and all, I don’t think I’d mention ‘cutting edge’ to her, if I were you. And I might as well tell you now, Hazel Marie and I are giving a reception for Tony, to sort of re-introduce her to the town. You’ll be getting an invitation in the next week or so.”

“Really?”
LuAnne’s face lit up. “Oh, Julia, that’s wonderful. I can’t wait to see what he looks like. Listen, I’ve been wondering about something, and maybe you know. I know Tony got baptized long time ago, but what about Tonya? Won’t she have to be baptized, too?”

“Oh, my goodness,” Hazel Marie said, as the full import of the theological question hit her. “You’re right, LuAnne.
His
name’s on the church roll, but hers isn’t.”

“For goodness sake, you two,” I said, not wanting to get tangled up with another sticky problem. “That’s one thing I’m willing to let the pastor straighten out on his own. Although I will be interested to see how he handles it.”

LuAnne hunched forward on the sofa. “Well, I’m going to ask him about it. Now listen, have you heard from Emma Sue?”

“Why, no,” Hazel Marie said. She glanced up at me. “Have you, Miss Julia?”

I shook my head, as I continued to wrack my brain for a quick change of subject if LuAnne started springing Monique and company on Hazel Marie.