Amy Maxwell & the 7 Deadly Sins (The Amy Maxwell Series Book 2) (11 page)

“Beth!” I want to shake my sister. “Does that sound like anyone you know?”

She remains quiet for a minute and I want to reach through the phone and shake her. I don’t understand why she isn’t demanding we call the police immediately. The Beth I know would be calling every state trooper in a ten state radius to find her kid. And while she definitely sounds upset, she sounds…well,
unhurried
.

“Beth, are you coming here? I can call the police for you and let them know what happened and they can meet us-”

“No!” Beth replies a little too quickly. “I mean…let’s not be hasty. I’m sure she’s somewhere safe. I just need to talk to Sherri and find out everything…”

“Beth,” I repeat in my assertive voice. “Just get over here.”

And like an obedient puppy, Beth replies, “I’ll be there in ten.”

~Nine~

“Amy Maxwell?” The man at the front door in the velvet leisure suit has slicked back hair and one hell of a cheesy smile.

“Yes?” I ask while wringing my apron. (Ok, so I don’t wear an apron, but it’s my fantasy, damn it. If I want to wear a damned tiara, I will).

“Look into the camera,” the Cheese man instructs.

“Camera? What camera?”

Suddenly my front lawn is lit up like the Fourth of July, cameras and lights and news vans all over the place. I shield my eyes from the spotlight as I ask, “What is going on?”

“You’re on Candid Camera!” the Cheese Man exclaims while clapping me on the back.

“What?” I drop my hand from my eyes and glower at him.

“Yes,” I hear Beth say as she steps out from behind the bushes, Jillian tucked safely underneath her arm. “I set this whole thing up so that you would see what an irresponsible mother you are once and for all. The one time I ask you to watch my child, you can’t even do it correctly,” Beth snorts.

My emotions are vacillating between being relieved that Jillian is okay and wanting to smash my smug sanctimonious sister in the head with the microphone boom.

Ten minutes of impatient and nervous pacing later, (which actually feels like four hours), Beth is at my door in a state in which I have never seen her. As she steps into the front foyer, she is visibly shaking and nervously twisting her hands around the strap of her new $450 Michael Kors bag. (I know that’s what it costs because I looked up the price when she posted the picture on Facebook and then proceeded to bitch to Laura about how my sister wasted money). But that’s neither here nor there right now.

What IS relevant is that my sister looks like crap and this isn’t even an appropriate time for me to gloat about it. Her hair was probably in a neat and tidy bun this morning, but now strands of hair are poking out from every which way on her head. Her expensive charcoal grey linen pantsuit is wrinkled and it looks like she forgot to button the bottom two buttons of the shirt. Her mascara is clumped and her eyeliner is visibly smudged. She doesn’t even have lipstick on, which causes me to realize that I have never even seen my sister without lipstick. I was starting to think maybe she was actually born with it permanently etched on her perfect lips along with her perpetual smile.

Right now, however, there’s no smile on those lips. Her eyes dart around furtively as she slides into the living room and she’s shaking like a junkie looking for a fix. She looks at Colt and Evan nervously. They are engrossed in Legos and Disney Junior. They have no clue she’s even in the house.

“What took you so long?” I snap. “I’m a nervous wreck over here. And where is Andrew?” Suddenly I realize that in this whole mix up, I never thought to find out where my nephew was.
Crap! I hope I wasn’t supposed to pick him up, too…no, Beth specifically asked me to pick up Jillian. That I know.

“Shhh! He’s fine. He’s at a scout dinner with Derek.” Beth presses a trembling finger to her pale lips. Now I know why she always has lipstick on. Her lips are pale, thin, dry and cracked. Like when you’re sitting out in the sun too long.

“What are we shhhing about?” I ask as she digs her nails into my arm and drags me toward the staircase. “Owww! You’re hurting me!”

“Keep your voice down,” she hisses in my ear. “I don’t want anyone to know.”

I stare at her incredulously. “You don’t want anyone to know
what
? That Jillian’s missing? There’s nobody here but the kids!” I briefly wonder where Roger is…it shouldn’t be taking him this long to get home.
Unless…maybe he’s picking up the pizza after all!

Beth ignores me and continues to drag me up the stairs toward my own bedroom. When we reach the door, she kicks it open with her foot and shoves me inside. I rub my now bruised arm as I flick on the light and stare at her, waiting for an explanation while she pushes the door closed with her backside.

For a second, Beth just gazes around my room. And finally, she speaks. “Jesus, Amy, I didn’t realize you were such a slob. It’s a mess in here. How do you live like this?” With one finger, she lifts a bra off the lamp; I had tossed it aside in a rush to get out of the house this morning.

I snatch the bra from her hand and snap, “Shouldn’t you be worried about your daughter, rather than the state of my bedroom?”

I am very confused now. Beth looks upset, looks like she had been crying. I mean, who wouldn’t be crying? Someone has her daughter and she doesn’t know who it is. I would be a wreck. Beth looks the part, but for some reason, she just isn’t acting it. Something is really off and smells fishy here. I am about to discover my sister’s role in this whole debacle. And the most appropriate deadly sin that I can assign to her is LUST.

Beth sighs and tucks a wayward strand of hair back into her bun. Then she plops down on my hope chest and I hear the air leave her lungs like a deflated balloon. She gazes up at me and for the first time in my life, I see a remorseful Beth. This is the face I longed to see as a child; Beth being the one getting reprimanded instead of me, Beth being the one who made all the mistakes instead of me. My sister’s previously unseen vulnerability is shining at me and it’s so painful to look at that I want to turn my head away. She’s going to reveal a chink in her armor; I just know it, I can
feel
it.

“I was…
am
having a, um, dalliance,” she practically whispers as she grasps my hand and pulls me down on the hope chest with her.

“What? What the hell is that?” Is this a new bikini wax that only rich women get?

Beth sighs with annoyance. “An
affair
, Amy. I’m having an affair.”

I try not to gasp.
Wow! Beth has a secret and an awful dirty one at that!

“It’s been going on for almost a year. His name is Kevin. I met him at my gym.”

She pauses and I assume she is going to go on, giving me the juicy tidbits like who and where and what and geez, anything more exciting than my boring life, until I realize she is done talking. It is apparently my turn to say something, and I don’t know what.

Do I scold her? Do I lecture her? Do I get her to spill the details so I can live vicariously through her? Ok, ok, I know that’s horrible and I have a good life with Roger and all that, but hellllloooo, this is like one of those dirty novels my Nana had stashed in her night table drawer. Ones I would never have time to read now because I have four kids and I am much too busy to read, let alone have an affair. But apparently, it’s no problem when you only have two kids and a cook and a maid.

Suddenly, I am very annoyed at my philandering sister.
And wait a minute…what does this have to do with Jillian? Jillian is still missing!

“Amy!” All my thoughts are interrupted by the front door slamming and Roger banging noisily in the foyer. “Amy! What’s for dinner? Is that your sister’s car out front? Amy, where are you?” There is a brief pause and then, “Amy, do you know that Evan is naked?”

I groan. No, Roger didn’t go pick up the pizza, obviously. Beth remarks casually, “Wow, he’s annoying.”

“Gee, ya think?” I reply as I clamor to my feet. I’m not sure if she’s talking about Roger or Evan. I swing the bedroom door open and poke my head out. “I’m in the bedroom, Roger!” I call out.

“Well hellllloooo, lucky me!” he replies and I hear him starting for the stairs. His head pops into view and I see a Wawa plastic bag in his hand. The plastic is nearly see through and I can make out the outline of a green chip bag. Now I know why it has taken him so long to get home.

“Stop where you are!” I order him. “Beth is up here with me. And we are having a
girl chat
.”

There is a deafening silence and then a grumble. Roger is not a fan of Beth and ‘
girl chat
’ to him is woman-speak for ‘
talking about your period’
.

“Ok, are we having dinner anytime soon?” he asks cautiously.

Annoyed, I reply, “I
told
you to pick up pizza, Roger. You chose to ignore me. So now you can either deal with dinner yourself, which includes actually calling up the pizzeria and ordering the food, or wait till I am done. And I warn you, that may be a very long time. So if you are hungry and your children are hungry, and I assure you they are, you should pick choice number one.”

I hear him grumble again before he turns around and stomps toward the hall. Allie chooses that moment to poke her head out of her room.

“I don’t want pizza!” she calls to Roger. “Get me a tossed salad with dressing on the side.
Light
dressing! Not the kind you got me last time! That was loaded with saturated fat! You know what saturated fat does to your heart? Not that you seem to care!”
Dieting again.

“I want mushrooms on my pizza!” I hear Lexie chirp from the living room. She must be parked in front of the TV doing her homework since I am not paying attention.

“No mushrooms on my side!” Colt wails from the kitchen. Is he back to doing his homework at the table? I faintly smell something burning. I hope he is not heating up waffles or something. “I hate mushrooms. Get me pepperoni.”

“Ick,” Evan volunteers from the living room. “Ick, ick, icky. No pepperoni!”

“I’m not a short order cook! This is not a diner-” I hear Roger argue and I close the bedroom door with a smile.
Good. Let him handle it for once.

I return my attention back to my puffy faced sister. “So what does this all have to do with Jillian? Why aren’t you more worried about Jillian and finding the woman who took her?”

Beth gulps and bites her lip. “Because I have a feeling she’s not with a stranger after all. She’s definitely with someone she knows.”

“Ok, that’s good. But still, why aren’t you trying to locate her?” I ask, my voice catching. I still don’t understand how I am more concerned over my niece’s welfare than her own mother is.

Beth inhales sharply. “The woman you described? She sounds exactly like Kevin’s wife…Claudia.”

~Ten~

“Well, Amy, I must say, you have definitely moved up in our esteem…don’t you agree, dear?” My mother is pouring two glasses of wine. She offers me the one that is fuller, while nudging my dozing father with her foot.

“Oh yes, absolutely,” my father replies obediently. I know he has not heard a word she has said.

“Why, I cannot believe your sister Beth! My goodness, who would have thought she had such a…nasty little secret! Cheating on Derek! Why Derek is scrumptious and rich and well mannered! Whatever was she thinking?”

I shrug as I sip my wine. It is the Chianti that my mother keeps exclusively for friends that she plays Mahjong with on Wednesdays. It is delicious and very expensive. She never lets any of us have any. Even precious Beth.

“Who knows what she was thinking? Maybe their marriage isn’t as perfect as she leads everyone to believe,” I remark, slightly spitefully. I am waiting for my mother to admonish me as usual.

Instead she shakes her head sadly. “Yes, I guess that’s true. One never does know what goes on behind closed doors. But so shameful for things to end up like this! And Beth’s nonsense causing Jillian to be kidnapped!” She takes a swig from her own wine glass. “I’m so glad that you’re sensible, Amy dear. You’re my good child now. I know that you would never jeopardize your marriage or children’s wellbeing for a little naughty fun, now would you?”

I, of course, shake my head. “Oh, no, Mother, never,” I reply, pushing the reoccurring dream I have of Jason out of my mind…

After tricking Roger into thinking that we are just going to pick up the pizza (he was grateful that he could sit back down in his chair and unbuckle his pants in order to make love to his bag of greasy chips), Beth and I are speeding toward her lover’s house.

Ugh, lover’s house. It sounds so dirty.
I am driving my minivan because all the color drained out of Beth’s face at the suggestion she drive. The idea of her car being seen anywhere near this Kevin’s house made her quiver.

“I don’t get it. If you are certain that this woman took her, why don’t you just call the police and have them take care of it?” I ask while Beth points out the turn.

“No police!” Beth yelps, practically ripping my arm off of the steering wheel. The cursed minivan swerves slightly, causing the driver behind me to honk, speed up to change lanes, and offer me a choice finger as he passes.

“Thanks a lot, Beth,” I mumble as I take the exit. “Now that guy thinks I’m a lousy driver.”

“You
are
a lousy driver,” Beth retorts as she rummages through her purse.

“Gee thanks,” I mutter. “Maybe I should just call the police then, help you find Jillian quicker.” I feel very juvenile and vindictive.

“No! I said no!” Beth shouts as she retrieves a compact from her bag and flips it open.

“I don’t get you. If my child was missing, I’d be going bananas. In fact, the Beth I know would be going bananas, too.” I eye her suspiciously. “Why are you not going bananas? Why don’t you want to call the police?”

“Watch the GD road, Amy!” Beth points and I see that I have gone over the yellow line and a pick-up truck is headed toward us. I swerve and the driver of the truck honks. Middle finger again.
Oopsie, my bad.

“Don’t avoid the question,” I snap as I straighten out the wheel. “Why don’t you want to go to the police?”

Beth sighs and leans her chin on her hand as she stares out the window. “I think she just did this to get my attention, to let me know that she knows about me and Kevin. She’s not going to
hurt
Jillian. She has kids of her own. Maybe she’s trying to just bait me and get me to come to the house so she can embarrass me and make me feel like I’m three feet tall or something.”

“Well, then call the police and have
them
go get Jillian so that you don’t have to confront her!” My manipulative mind is working overtime. “And then it might scare her if the police show up at her door. See? It’s perfect. You don’t have to face her and she’s the one who ends up getting punished! How dare she use Jillian as a pawn! Maybe they’ll even arrest her! Oh, could you imagine! I can see the headlines now.” I feel like an evil genius. I want to rub my hands together and cackle maniacally, except I am driving and that will cause Beth to screech like a lunatic again.

“No! Stop!” Beth yells, causing me to slam on the breaks.

“What? What is it? Did I hit something?” I cry, pulling off to the shoulder, scanning the darkened road for deer or a squirrel out for a late night nut run. I see nothing. “What the
hell
, Beth?”

“Just…no police! If the police get involved then…” she sniffs. “People will
know
. People will…
talk
.” She is nervously wringing her hands, her voice cracking with fear.

And then, it dawns on me. Ladies and gentleman, here is where we arrive at another deadly sin…this one is once again my sister’s and the most damning of all the sins that lead us to the dark place which we are now at. This one is PRIDE.

I depress the parking brake and contort my body so that I can glower at Beth. She seems to shrink back against the window, looking much smaller than I have ever seen her. Part of me wants to be sympathetic; she’s suffered great trauma today, certainly more than she is used to. But the other part reminds me that Beth has brought this upon herself. In addition, she has rarely ever been sympathetic to me and I want to let her have it.

“So let me get this straight. You’re more worried about your own damn
pride
, your good name getting dragged through the mud, than you are about your daughter’s
safety
?”

“Amy, she’s
fine
. Claudia is just doing this to shake me up. We’re going to go to her house, she’s going to make me feel like crap, and I’ll promise to stop seeing Kevin. Then, she’ll return Jillian to me and we will smile at each other in public and make idle small talk while picking the kids up from school…”

Something she says nags at my brain. “Wait a minute. I thought you said you met him at the gym?”

Even in the dark, I can sense my sister is blushing. “I did…”

“So his kid is in your kid’s class? You guys are like PTA parents together?”

“Well, Claudia and I are class parents.”

“Oh that’s low. So you make idle chit chat with her while stuffing goodie bags full of candy for the class parties, and meanwhile you’re shagging her husband?” I lean toward my sister, expecting her to shrink back some more. I must admit, I am enjoying having power over the bully who made my childhood a nightmare. Hell, who am I kidding…Beth has been bullying me for thirty six years.

Instead she pulls herself up and replies indignantly, “First of all, this is not a British soap opera. No one is
shagging
anyone. Secondly, we don’t allow goodie bags full of junk at Upton Prep. We make fruit kabobs for our class parties.”

“Oh please,” I retort with equal parts annoyance and sarcasm. “Let me enroll my kids at Uppity Prep so that they can become uptight douchebags.”

“Amy!” Beth gasps. “That’s so…” Her eyes flicker as her brain searches for the exact scathing word that she is looking for.

“Forget it.” I twist my body back behind the wheel. “We’ve got to get Jillian. That’s more important than any of this nonsense. Unless, you happen to think otherwise.” I dare her with my words, not meeting her glare.

“Of course it is,” my sister snaps indignantly. I don’t have to see her face to know I’ve shamed her. I pull the car away from the curb, but it is making jerking motions.

“What the…?” I mutter while hitting the gas. The car lurches forward and then slows as soon as I take my foot off the gas.

Great. The stupid minivan is going to break down now? Really? Just what I need! More bills.

We just had a new window put in the dining room where Colt smashed it with a hockey puck while playing in the house. Damn thing cost $2000. For glass. Who the hell knew glass was so expensive? And the week before that, Roger’s blew out a tire in the minivan. Ok, so
maybe
I had hit the curb a
couple
of times, slowly shredding the tire, and Roger was the unfortunate recipient of the actual blowout. The point is…with my own school expenses, I feel like all these little emergencies have cropped up at the absolute worse time. I just can’t win!

“Ugh! I’m going to have to call Roger and maybe get this towed…” I start to explain as I pull the car back onto the shoulder.

“Maybe you want to take the parking brake off.” Beth points at the dashboard smugly.

My face flushes. The red parking brake icon is flashing.
Oh yeah, the parking brake.

Wordlessly, I take off the brake and pull back onto the road; smoothly this time. I can tell my sister is gloating.

“Told you you’re a terrible driver,” she mutters as she stares out the window.