Summerland: A Novel (41 page)

“Honey,” Lynne said. “You have to calm down.”

But Demeter was a volcano intent on erupting. She hadn’t emoted nearly this much after the accident or after Penny’s funeral, which was probably why she was such a mess now. All of that difficult stuff was surfacing.

“Actually, maybe Demeter should wait outside,” Kerry said.

Was that a good idea? Lynne wondered. At this point, she knew, Demeter was a flight risk. If she was left unsupervised, she might just get into her car and drive away. She might do something stupid.

“Jeanne will keep an eye on her,” Kerry said.

“Okay,” Lynne said. Jeanne, Kerry’s right-hand woman, had grown up in Brockton, where, she liked to tell people, she had earned her doctorate in badass.

As soon as Jeanne took Demeter by the arm and led her from the room, it was much quieter.

Lynne said, “Maybe you should start again at the beginning.”

“Demeter was caught trying to steal two bottles of vodka from a client’s house,” Kerry said. “She had a bottle in each hand; she
was hurrying for the side door. The clients weren’t home, but a member of their staff caught her.”

“A member of the staff?” Lynne said.

“I have to tell you this in extreme confidence,” Kerry said. “The clients were the Allencasts.”

Lynne thought she might vomit in her lap.

“And the person who caught Demeter was their personal chef, Zoe Alistair.”

“We know Zoe,” Al said. “We’re close friends.”

“I realize that,” Kerry said. “And Zoe handled the situation sensitively. She called me right away. She said she had taken the bottles from Demeter and decided that she wasn’t going to tell the Allencasts. She said she would let the three of us handle it.”

Lynne thought about the phone call from Zoe. She had been calling to warn Lynne of what was coming. To let her know that
her
daughter—the girl who had survived—was a thief.

“Anybody else would probably have alerted the owners,” Kerry said. “And called the police.”

“Of course,” Al said.

“Now,” Kerry said, “I have more bad news.”

“Oh God,” Lynne said. The room was quiet for a second, and they could all hear Demeter sobbing on the other side of the door.

“I’ve had three separate complaints about missing bottles of alcohol from clients, which I dismissed because my crews never go inside the houses. However, when I spoke with Demeter’s crew members, they indicated that she enters clients’ homes all the time—most frequently to ‘use the facilities.’ My employee Nell, who worked closely with Demeter, told me that Demeter used the bathroom only when the clients weren’t home. I cross-checked the names of the clients who complained against the assignments of Demeter’s crew, and they all matched up.”

“So now you’re accusing my daughter of… what?” Lynne said.

“Honey,” Al said.

“I don’t think this stealing today was a onetime thing,” Kerry said. “I think it’s possible she’s been doing it all summer.”

“Stealing
alcohol?
” Lynne said. “But what
for?
I just don’t get it. What for? We don’t drink at home. Not a drop.”

“I think you’ll have to ask Demeter that,” Kerry said. “And I’m going to let you do that privately, because I know you’re good people and good parents. Demeter is finished working here, however, and I won’t be able to give her a reference.”

Kerry stood up and cleared his throat. He was wearing the standard-issue green Frog and Toad Landscaping T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. He was sunburned, and his hair was bleached-out blond. Lynne had always liked Kerry. She and Al sometimes saw him surfing at the South Shore after work. But what Lynne felt for Kerry now was anger and hatred, which was backward, she knew: she should be grateful that he wasn’t calling Ed Kapenash. Demeter had been
stealing.
She had been entering people’s homes as an employee of Frog and Toad and burgling them.

“I know Demeter has been through a lot,” Kerry said. “And you two as well.”

There was something that Lynne could agree with. “Yes,” she said. “Thank you.”

When they got home, all of them, at two o’clock that Tuesday afternoon, Lynne listened to the message from Zoe.

“Hi, Lynne, it’s Zoe. Listen, something happened at work just now, and I have to speak with you about it as soon as possible. Call me, please. On my cell.”

Lynne listened to the message again, then a third time. The first thing that struck her was that it was Zoe’s voice, and that she’d missed her. The second thing she noticed was that while the voice held urgency, it didn’t sound either angry or vindictive. This episode was
not
something Zoe had dreamed up to prove that Demeter was a bad person. To prove that the wrong girl had died.

Demeter was headed straight for her room, but Al stopped her. “Oh no, young lady,” he said. “You are going to sit right here”—he pointed to her usual seat at the dining room table—“and tell us what the hell this is all about.”

Lynne was glad for this. She needed Al’s help, even though she thought his tone sounded too harsh.

Demeter sat in the chair and dropped her face into her hands and bawled. Lynne fixed her a glass of ice water and, as a little treat, added a wheel of lime.

Lynne set the glass down on the table next to Demeter, and Al glowered at her. Demeter lifted her head and sucked the water down to the bottom, and Lynne realized that because of the lime, the drink looked like a cocktail. The roiling, nauseated feeling returned to Lynne’s stomach. She went over and turned up the air-conditioning a little, then sat down next to Demeter.

“Let’s start with the accident,” Al said. “Did you have a bottle of Jim Beam with you that night?”

“No,” Demeter said.

“Honey,” Lynne said. “We know the police found a nearly empty bottle of Jim Beam in your purse.”

“It was in my bag,” Demeter said, “but it wasn’t mine.”

“Whose was it?” Lynne asked.

“I don’t know,” Demeter said. “Some kid at the party gave it to me. I had a sip of it, and so did Jake and Hobby, but it wasn’t mine. I just ended up with it somehow. It was in my bag because I had a bag to put it in.”

“So you’re saying some kid at the party gave it to you,” Al said. “Some kid you didn’t
know?
”

“A kid from off-island,” Demeter said.

“So either you’re lying to us now or you lied that night to the police,” Al said. “Because you told Ed Kapenash that the bottle was yours and that you had bought it off-island.”

Really? Lynne thought. This was a detail that Al hadn’t shared
with her. Bastard bastard bastard. Al and Ed and all those other bastards were part of this men’s club that discussed confidential matters and then decided how very little to pass along to their wives.

“I was lying to the police,” Demeter said. “I said I’d bought it so that I wouldn’t get anyone else in trouble.”

“This other kid from off-island, you mean?” Al said. “The one you didn’t even
know?
You lied to Ed Kapenash, Chief of the Nantucket Police, in order to protect some stranger from off-island?”

“I was in shock,” Demeter said.

“That is
bullshit!
” Al roared. It seemed to Lynne that the walls of the castle were quaking; she had never seen Al this angry. “You tell us the truth
right now!
” he demanded.

“I
am
telling you the truth,” Demeter said. She had shrunk, Lynne thought. She was losing weight; her face was getting back its beautiful contours. She was deeply tanned, and the blond streak in her hair was as light as Lynne had ever seen it. It seemed unfair that Demeter should appear so pretty, so genuinely pretty, on the very day that she was being revealed as a liar, and a thief, and possibly something even worse.

Al paced around the dining room table like a wild animal waiting to be fed. Who knew he could
be
like this?

“Why did you take two bottles of vodka from the Allencasts’ house?”

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me!”

“I don’t
know!
” Demeter cried. “I went in to use the bathroom, I saw the vodka in the bar and I just…
took
it. I guess I wanted to… I don’t know… act out.”

“ ‘Act out,’ ” Al said. “
Act out?
Did you know that Zoe was in the house? Did you think if she saw you, she’d let you get
away
with it?”

“No!” Demeter said. “I had no idea Zoe was there, obviously, or I never would have…”

“Say it.”

“Taken the vodka.”

“
Stolen
the vodka,” Al said. “You
stole
it, Demeter. You are a thief. A criminal.”

“Al,” Lynne said.

“Zoe Alistair is one of our oldest, dearest friends,” Al said. “Do you have any idea how mortifying it is for us that
she
was the one who caught you? She lost a child. Penny is dead. You, my dear, are alive. You got a second chance. And what have you done with it?”

“I didn’t know Zoe was there. I didn’t even know it was the Allencasts’ house. I’m sorry I embarrassed you.” She took a gulping breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t die in the accident instead of Penny.”

“Demeter!” Lynne said.

“No, it’s okay,” Demeter said, in a voice that was all of a sudden nearly serene. “I know that’s what people wish would have happened—that it was me instead of her.”

“No one wishes that, sweetheart,” Lynne said.

“Zoe does.”

“Not even Zoe.”

“Hobby and Jake do.”

“Demeter.”

“What were you going to do with the vodka once you took it?” Al asked. “Were you going to drink it?”

“No,” Demeter said.

“But you drank the night of the graduation party?”

“That night, yes, a little bit.”

“ ‘A little bit,’ ” Al repeated. “Your blood alcohol content was point one-four. That’s more than ‘a little bit,’ my dear.”

Really? Lynne thought. Another piece of secret information that Al and Ed Kapenash had kept from her!

“I drank that night because it was graduation,” Demeter said. “Everyone was drinking.”

“But not Penny?” Lynne said.

“No. Not Penny.”

“Kerry said he had complaints from three other clients about missing alcohol. He said he discounted them because his crews don’t go inside the homes. Then Nell, from your crew, informed him today that
you,
Demeter,
do
go inside, on a regular basis, when the clients aren’t at home, in order to ‘use the facilities.’ Is this true?”

“I’ve had problems with my stomach,” Demeter said. “What am I supposed to do? Take a shit on somebody’s beautifully manicured lawn?”

“Have you done this before?” Al asked. “Have you taken bottles of alcohol from houses before today?”

“No,” Demeter said. “This was the only time.” She started to cry. Lynne rose to fetch a box of tissues. “And I don’t know what came over me. It was like I was temporarily insane. I saw those two bottles, and I just… wanted them. I’ve been trying
so hard
to hold it together this summer. I mean, I could have spent all summer in my room, but I made a promise to Kerry, and I wanted to honor it. You guys have spent God knows how many thousands of dollars supporting me, and I wanted to earn some money on my own. I didn’t want to do the predictable thing and fall into a depression, but the fact of the matter is, I do think about the accident just about every second of every day, and I do think everyone would have been better off if I had died instead of Penny.” Demeter plucked a tissue out of the box and blotted her eyes. “I’m sorry about the vodka. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“So just to be clear, you’re telling me that you didn’t take bottles from any other homes?”

“No.”

“And you weren’t going to drink the vodka you stole? What the hell, Demeter? What were you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know,” Demeter said. “Give it away.”

“ ‘Give it away’?” Al said.

“Other kids drink, Dad,” Demeter said. “I guess I might have given it to Anders Peashway or Luke Browning or David Marcy. And then those guys would have been… I don’t know… grateful. They would have liked me a little better. Hung out with me, maybe.”

Lynne and Al were silent as Demeter sniffled. Lynne thought, She’s lonely. She’s so desperately lonely that she did this awful thing.

Al said, “Go to your room.”

Demeter rose.

Al said, “You’ve lost your job and your chance of ever procuring a reference from Kerry for another job. So starting tomorrow you’re coming to the dealership with me, and you’re going to do filing all day. You’ve lost your car, your phone, and your computer until the start of school. Is that understood?”

Demeter nodded. Lynne wondered if it was wise to cut her off socially when it was her loneliness that was the cause of this mess. But Lynne wasn’t brave enough to undermine Al’s authority.

Demeter said, “Can I still babysit for the Kingsleys if they call?”

Al pursed his lips. “Fine,” he said. “But your mother or I will drive you.”

“Okay,” Demeter said. Her eyes lit up with hope for a second, and Lynne thought, The Kingsleys? She would have guessed that Demeter would be finished with the Kingsleys after the last time. What was it she’d said? “It was goddamned fucking awful, if you must know.”

Demeter ascended the stairs to her room, and Al placed his two hands on Lynne’s shoulders, and Lynne felt grateful for that. The
Castles were known for their solid marriage. For their united front, no matter the circumstances.

Al said, “I’m taking the rest of the day off. Let’s go for that swim.”

“Do you think it’s safe?” Lynne said. “Shouldn’t one of us stay here and keep an eye on her?” That, of course, was the problem with grounding your kids: you were essentially grounding
yourself
too.

“It’ll be fine,” Al said. “I have both sets of her car keys.”

“What about her phone? What about her computer?”

“I’ll collect them when we get back. Come on, I could really use it.”

Yes, Lynne could really use it as well. She would go change into her suit. She had the nagging feeling that there was something she had to do, something unpleasant. What was it? And then she remembered: she had to call Zoe. Call now to grovel and apologize and thank her. Lynne stood up, and her joints complained. She would call Zoe back tomorrow, she decided. When her head was clearer.