The Wedding Party (25 page)

This was a big moment, and despite the attempt at levity surrounding Peaches's choice of conservator, they all knew there was no going back from this. Not only would this remain in effect till the last breath Peaches took, but she was not going to get better. The best they could hope for was that she wouldn't get worse quickly.

Here they were, the three women of this family, charging out of denial on bulls and into the truth. Together.

C
harlene was very grateful to Stephanie for offering to take Lois out to lunch and then home. She knew that Pam was holding the flood of legal work at bay, trying to make it seem manageable, with all the tenacity of the Little Dutch Boy. She could see the stress building behind her assistant's eyes. But now that Lois had been thoroughly examined and was on medication, and the reconstruction in her house was well under way, Charlene could spend a little more time in the office and a little less time running errands.

There was no mistaking the relief that flooded Pam's features when she walked in. “Hello!” she beamed. “How are we doing today?”

“Pretty good, thanks,” Charlene said, and accepted a frighteningly thick stack of messages.

“It's not as bad as it looks,” Pam said. “Five of them are from Dennis.”

“Dennis? Well, why didn't—” She stopped mid-sentence and reached into her purse for her phone. She took it out, looked at it and turned it on, feeling ridiculous. “I think I'm the one getting Alzheimer's. I was in a meeting, turned off the phone and forgot to turn it back on.” On the small face it said, “5 missed
calls.” “I wonder what's so urgent. Will you see if you can get him on the line for me?”

“You bet.”

The minute Charlene was inside her office, she was shaken by a feeling of being
home.
This week of so many family chores was not done begrudgingly. She was devoted to Lois, but it was here that she thrived and did the life's work that made her soar, that mattered most to her. It was here that she prepared to win battles for people who could not win them for themselves. For women and children who had no other champion; for families who couldn't resolve painful issues for themselves. For couples who couldn't keep it together anymore, and the kids, who, without some dignified conclusion to their parents' crisis, would flounder into confused adults who would only repeat the cycle.

This was the work that defined her.

Her intercom buzzed. Pam said, “I have Dennis on the line, and Maxie just called to say she's on her way in.” She felt her pulse pick up speed as she wondered what Maxie had learned. It had been weeks of getting nowhere on the Jersynski custody matter. Then her eyes caught the stack of folders in her in box—all open cases. With that distraction, she took Dennis's call. “Hi, Dennis. I'm sorry, I was in a meeting and forgot to turn my phone back on. I'm forgetting a lot of things lately.”

“You have a lot on your mind. Can you get away for lunch?”

“I can't. I just walked into the office, and if you
could see the relief on Pam's face, you wouldn't leave her either.”

“I haven't seen you in days….”

“I've been so busy….”

“The only time I saw you last week was at Jasper's house, with Peaches and Stephanie. We haven't had a private conversation in…Jesus, Charlene, I don't even know how long.”

“What can I say? It's not deliberate. And things should lighten up soon, now that we have Peaches stabilized and the work on her house has begun.” Charlene heard Maxie's voice in the outer office, but she couldn't hear what she was saying. Then her voice was joined by another familiar one, that of Jake. And Dennis was saying, “…really need to talk, Charlene. It's important.”

“I know, Dennis, I know. The wedding. And we will, I promise. But right now there are people waiting to see me, a pile of work that could sink a battleship on my desk, and I'm simply exhausted. Can I call you back?”

“This is very important.”

“I agree. And the very second I get a minute to call my own, it's yours. All right?”

Her intercom was buzzing and she said, “Send them in.” Suddenly Dennis was no longer on the line and she wasn't sure whether or not she'd even said goodbye. But the thought went away quickly as she went back into action, ready to champion a young woman trying to hang on to her kids.

The personal importance of this case to Charlene
was evident purely in her acceptance of this impromptu meeting. Ordinarily she was too busy to condone this sort of interruption, and too well organized to suffer the consequences of a schedule breach. But all of her organizational skills were becoming lax along with her memory, right at the time she needed both the most.

“I trust this means you have some earthshaking information,” she said to Maxie, giving Jake an informal nod of hello. “Have the two of you met?”

“We run into each other from time to time,” Maxie said.

“We tried to arrest Maxie here for solicitation once, as a matter of fact. Turns out she was working all right…but not as a hooker. I'll have to tell you about it sometime.”

“It was one of my highlights,” Maxie said without humor. She took a seat and addressed Charlene. “What I have is a lot of very interesting innuendo and no conclusion.”

“Shoot.”

“Okay, first of all, there's nothing on the ex-husband. He's clean. You know I have no respect for a man who abandons a child and its mother. However, it appears that's the only truly bad thing he's done. He's not a perv, a felon or an abuser. And here's another thing you don't hear from me very often. If he slugged Meredith in the face, I bet she provoked the hell out of him.”

Jake whistled. Both women glared at him and he looked over his shoulder as though he couldn't pos
sibly be the guilty party. He decided it was time to take a seat and try to be quiet.

“I'm not saying I'd blame her. She'd have to be mad as hell at the guy, knocking her up at sixteen, abandoning her to the streets of Sacramento with a baby, then coming back around a dozen years later to pick up the kid. I'd have a few choice words for him if I were her. He'd wanna belt me after a few minutes, too.

“Now, here's what I know about the custody thing. The kid he has with the second wife is nine, and she didn't just have a sick day from school—she has cancer. Childhood leukemia. She's been very, very sick and spends a lot of time in Texas at a big cancer hospital called M.D. Anderson. Rick Jersynski said he just wanted his daughters to meet. He said he would have waited, but the sick child said it was her wish to have a sister. And guess what? Rick came up with one.

“It was the mother, the second wife, who hired an investigator to get the goods on Meredith and convince her husband that they would be a better family for the girl. Whether or not that's the case, it's the mother I worry about and I'll tell you why. I found out from a source in the hospital that they've failed to find a match for a bone marrow transplant in the family. I think the mother has ulterior motives.”

“And not the father?”

Maxie shrugged. “This illness has really broken him down. He seems oblivious. The mother, however, seems angry. Motivated. She's the one who hired the detective, called the lawyer.”

“I talked to the lawyer,” Charlene said. “He's sticking to the case on its merits. Which is exactly what I would do. Did you get any information about the shooting?”

“Nothing,” Maxie said. “Jake?”

“We're not pursuing it. I want to, but unless we have something substantial to take to the prosecutor, there isn't even a felony here.”

“Someone tried to kill her, right?”

He shrugged. “Someone fired a gun inside city limits, but there doesn't seem to be a witness who saw a gun pointed at Merrie's car. In short, we can't say for sure that any attempt was made on her life.”

“Well, for Chr—”

“I have a question,” Maxie said. “Has anyone talked to the daughter of Meredith and Rick?”

“About…?”

“About whether she'd like to meet her dying sister?”

Charlene didn't answer right away. Finally she said, “Given the fact that he wants to take her away from her mother, there seems to be substantial risk in putting her in that household, even for a visit.”

“What if all he wants is a bone marrow transplant?” Again Maxie was answered with silence. “I'd be real careful about giving up vital organs, but I hear a bone marrow transplant isn't that big of a deal. You have sore hips for a few days…up to a week. But more to the point, if that's all they want from the girl, this could all be over with a simple blood test. Apparently they've had zero luck with matches.”

“You know,” Charlene said, “there are ways to do that without even exposing Meredith's daughter. We could get a blood sample from the cancer patient and take it to the potential donor, instead of the reverse. Meredith could learn whether her daughter is a match. We wouldn't even have to tell Rick Jersynski. If they sued in civil action for the results, they'd be exposing their motivation.” Charlene smiled impishly. “Wanting to give your daughter a good home is one thing. Wanting to give your daughter a good home in exchange for her cells is quite another.”

“Well, that's all I got,” Maxie said, standing. “Finding cheating husbands and laundered money is a whole lot easier than this stuff.”

“Thanks, Maxie. You're brilliant.”

She winked and dazzled them both with her smile. “Yeah, I know.”

When Maxie was well out of earshot, Jake whistled. “She expensive?”

“Does she look expensive?” Charlene asked.

“I'll split it with you,” Jake offered.

“My treat,” Charlene said. “If it turns out Jersynski just wanted his oldest daughter's bone marrow, he's going to pay for the whole case. And I probably won't even have to ask twice.”

 

Stephanie drove Peaches back to Fair Oaks. It was not difficult to see that the older woman was sulky and depleted. “You know what I learned today?” Peaches asked. “There's nothing quite so exhausting
as signing a paper that says you're okay about not making any more of your own decisions.”

“It's not really like that, Peaches. I mean, I certainly don't intend to step in and make decisions for you. I can hardly make decisions for myself.”

Peaches patted her granddaughter's thigh as they drove. “I think you do a fine job. I'm very proud of you. And this—taking on this responsibility. It's very grown-up of you.”

That's my grandma, she thought. Never plays the pity card. “It's just a formality, Peaches. It's there if we need it, and we don't need it right now.”

“Still…”

“Where would you like to have lunch? What would taste good?”

“I'm not very hungry….”

“Let's stop for some caffeine. Some perk-up. Maybe a muffin. How about it? My treat?”

“Only if we can put sugar and chocolate in with the caffeine.”

“Hey, I didn't know it came any other way.”

The weather was perfect; a lush and velvety springtime in northern California. It would soon be May. Summer was nearly upon them. They sat at a small table under a tree; Stephanie cleaned the bird droppings off their chairs first. “Looks like this could be a little war zone.”

“I'd rather deal with a little bird-shit than be stuck inside,” Peaches said, drawing a sharp laugh out of her granddaughter. There was no mistaking it; Peaches's language was getting a little more daring.
“You know, it's not that I don't trust your mother,” she continued.

“I know.”

“She's very smart. About these things especially.”

“I know, Peaches.”

“You should listen to her, you know. When it's time for decisions about things, ask your mother. Listen to what she says.”

“Why didn't you just let her be the guardian?” Stephanie asked.

“Because she would try to be perfect and she would drive me crazy. She needs less to control, not more. I did her a favor.”

“Peaches, do you like it at Mr. Conklin's house?”

“It's okay. It's fine for now.”

“You wouldn't consider staying there for a long period of time, would you?”

She sighed deeply, her knuckled hands wrapped around her coffee mug. “If I have to stay somewhere and have a round-the-clock keeper, I'd rather it be one of those assisted-living places. I'm doing this more for him than me. I recognize I need the guest room, but…”

“He's talking about going professional,” Stephanie said. “Taking in a few people who need companion care. He has two more bedrooms in that little house.”

“I know. Sheesh. What some people do.”

“Kind of bizarre.”

“Some people are needy. Some people like to be needed.”

“Peaches…Grant and me…we're not together anymore.”

Peaches snapped to attention, and stopped her reaction short of a gasp. She was speechless.

“It happened a couple of weeks ago, right after the fire. We'd been doing a lot of fighting. About everything. It wasn't working out. So, he left.” She shrugged and her eyes got a little glassy, but she didn't break down. “It's been very hard.”

Peaches squeezed her granddaughter's hand. “Is that why you haven't been yourself lately? Why you've been upset?”