Getting Old Is Criminal (24 page)

“You’re beautiful, too.”

“Even the band is beautiful.”

She laughs, knowing the reference.
“Cabaret.”

“Life is a cabaret, dearest Evelyn. And we shall
live it to the fullest.”

He lays her down on the bed and lowers his
body onto hers.

THIRTY-SIX

THE SHOWDOWN

Ihad dozed off on Evvie’s couch. I’m wakened by the sound of the key turning in her lock. I glance at my watch. It’s four a.m. I stand and face the door as it opens. Evvie is startled to see me. Her face is blotchy, her hair and makeup a mess. For a moment neither one of us speaks.

Evvie drops the small overnight bag she’s carrying. “Run out of sugar?”

Uh-oh, she’s on the defensive. “More like run out of patience.”

She walks past me into her kitchen and puts some water in the kettle.

I follow her. “You might want to know that Millie nearly died last night.”

She has the decency to look upset. “Is she all right?”

G e t t i n g O l d I s C r i m i n a l • 2 3 9

“That’s a long conversation for another time, but I will say she’s never coming home again.”

She pales. I can see that Evvie is trying not to react. She seems determined to deal only with right now. Evvie puts cups out for both of us. “Join me in a cup of tea?”

“Whatever. You’ve avoided me long enough.

We have to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“You can look me in the eye and say that?

Evvie, your behavior with Philip has destroyed any possibility of keeping you on this case.” God, how stuffy I sound.

The kettle whistles. She pours the tea and looks straight at me. “See? I’m looking you in the eye. I don’t give a damn about this case. Call Ferguson and tell him: case solved. Phil is no murderer!”

“And how do you know this for sure?”

Her hand shakes as she lifts the cup. “Because I know how wonderful he is. Because I love him!”

I sigh. “Oh, Evvie.” I feel myself trembling. I didn’t expect this. “What happened to playing a role and getting at the truth?”

Now Evvie drops all pretense of wanting tea.

Her eyes open wide. If she could breathe fire, she would. “I am telling you the truth. And don’t you

‘oh, Evvie’ me. Don’t you use that condescending tone. What do you think—you have a monopoly on falling in love?”

“You actually believe you fell in love at first sight?”

2 4 0 • R i t a L a k i n

She mimics me. “Yes, I actually did. I fell madly in love with him the moment I saw him. And he fell for me as well.”

“Please let’s sit down and discuss this.” I can’t stop sounding stiff and formal, but this is an Evvie I don’t know anymore. I thought I knew my sister, but this throws me. All our years of closeness and I could read her as well as she could read me. All this time, I thought she was playacting. How could I have been so blind?

“No, I don’t want to. Your disappointment is like a black cloud fouling the room. I’m happy and I won’t have you raining on my parade.”

I try to say something but she won’t let me.

“And don’t give me this bull about our case. I don’t give a damn about it.” She takes a sip of her tea, grimaces, and then pours it down the sink.

“You know how many years I’ve waited for the right man to come along? Only all my life. I thought I might get a second chance after Joe dumped me.

But what was out there? Drips.” She laughs.

“
Drips
—there’s an out-of-date word. How about losers. Deadbeats. Schmucks. I told myself it would never happen. All the good men were taken.

Not that I had the right man in the first place. Joe was a dud. I fell in love with a soldier’s uniform and the romance of war. I married him because he came back alive. But he was never the one, Gladdy.

You know that. You’ve seen me through all the pain of that marriage. Once the kids had come, the trap was sprung. No way out.”

G e t t i n g O l d I s C r i m i n a l • 2 4 1

I try to say something but she stops me with her hand. There’s a hell of a lot she’s got to get off her chest. I listen. What else can I do?

“Then you come down here to live near me and I think, this is good, we have each other. We’ll grow old together, we don’t really need men, and that’s that. But, no, you get to meet Jack. And both of you fall in love. You’d already had a great marriage the first time. Now you get a chance for another happy marriage. I will never have what you had twice. What will happen to me? I get to shrivel up all alone.”

All these sad years, I think. I thought we were close, but she never talked about this before. She kept it all in. And my happy marriage? The one that lasted eleven years before my husband was murdered and my life ruined. What’s happened to her sensitivity about that? “Evvie. We see a pattern in Philip. He goes from one retirement community to another and picks a woman—”

“Shut up! He’s a good man. He was kind to Esther Ferguson. He knew she’d die soon and he gave her comfort. He let her think it was love. He explained that to me.”

I hate to say it, but I have to. “He thinks
you’re
going to die soon. You told him that because you knew that would attract him.”

For a moment, Evvie stares at me. I feel the white heat of her rage. “You dare to think this is pity? This is different!”

“How is it different? He thinks you’re rich. He 2 4 2 • R i t a L a k i n

thinks you’ll die. He will comfort you, too. He’s out to get something from you. We don’t know what it is yet . . .”

“How little faith you have in me. How arrogant of you. You think you’re the only one who would recognize a good man? Well, Philip
is
a good man.

You’re wrong about him. He’s kind and loving.

The man I deserve to have.”

“Yes. He’s a saint.”

She runs out of the kitchen, toward her bedroom, shouting at me. “Get out of here. You just stay away from him!” With that, she shuts herself in.

I walk to her bedroom and stand there talking to a closed door. “Please, Evvie, don’t do this.”

She flings the door open. I haven’t seen her like this since she was a child having tantrums. Her face is livid. “You’re just jealous. You’ve lost Jack because of your stupid stubbornness. You won’t even sleep with him! You think I didn’t know what was going on? Or should I say what wasn’t going on? Well, I’m not making your mistake, sister dear.

I know how to please a man even if you don’t! I am having the best and only good sex I’ve ever had in my entire life and I’m not going to let you spoil it for me. Now, get out of my apartment!”

I drag my weary way through our adjoining doors back to my own apartment. For a moment I stand unmoving, as if I’ve lost my bearings.

My sister hates me. I no longer have a sister.

*

*

*

G e t t i n g O l d I s C r i m i n a l • 2 4 3

Philip is almost asleep when he hears the frantic
knocking. He opens the door slightly so as not to
reveal his nakedness.

Evvie stands in the hallway, sobbing. He pulls
her inside. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I had a fight. A terrible fight.”

“With whom? Where did you meet someone at
this hour to fight with?”

Evvie’s eyes widen and she steps back from him.

“It was my next-door neighbor. She saw me coming in late, looking disheveled. She called me
names—”

“Who is it? I’ll go now.” He reaches for his
robe.

She grabs his arms. “It’s not important.” Evvie
suddenly realizes he has nothing on. She stops,
startled. Sober now.

He pulls her close to him. She trembles from the
bareness of his skin against her.

“Stay with me. All night.”

“I shouldn’t.”

“Of course you should. I’ll protect you.”

He wraps her arms around his nude body. “Stay
with me forever. Evelyn, I’ve waited for you all my
life, dearest love.”

His skin feels hot to her touch. Yet she shivers.

“When was the last time you felt like this?”

She moans. “Never.”

He lifts her up and carries her to the bed. Evvie
feels as if she were sinking into a golden pool of
quicksand.

THIRTY-SEVEN

AFTERMATH

Ihear noise coming from somewhere close. It wakes me. My head aches. Another dreadful night. I didn’t drop off until about seven a.m. I am beginning to feel sleep-deprived. I lift my head and look at the clock. Eleven-thirty a.m. Dragging my sluggish self out of bed, I get into the shower and pour water, as hot as I can stand it, over my aching body.

Evvie’s words have reverberated in my head all night. In her hurt, my sister called me a failure. My fault that Jack left me. Those words said in anger will hurt forever. She says she’s in love, so why does she have so much rage? Because she doesn’t want me to spoil her happiness? But she knows I would always want her to be happy. Because an-G e t t i n g O l d I s C r i m i n a l • 2 4 5

other part of her knows she is wrong? And she is in denial?

Or am I wrong? I am no longer sure of what I feel or what I think. My head spins and I feel a throbbing headache coming on.

I get dressed to go downstairs. But what for?

What’s the point of my being here now? Should I call Alvin Ferguson and give up the case? It’s tainted now.

As I walk out into the hall, I see Evvie’s front door is open. People are moving about inside. This is odd. Usually there is only the one daily maid. I glance in and see Evvie’s suitcase on a trolley.

Along with clothes on hangers on a rack. A porter is about to wheel everything out.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

The porter reaches me. “Mrs. Markowitz will be residing in another apartment. She has given up this apartment.” I can see by his smirk that he’s up on the gossip, too.

I’m stunned. She’s moving in with Philip. So fast? Because of our fight? Things are happening too quickly. She musn’t move in with him. What if he is a killer! Is there any way to stop this?

But how?

I am going back to Lanai Gardens. I have to tell the girls what’s happening. Oh, how I wish Jack was here. I need his level head.

When I reach the main lobby I see the backs of a large group of people. They’re laughing at something. I walk over, curious.

2 4 6 • R i t a L a k i n

Evvie and Philip are standing in front of this large assembly of avid listeners. Evvie is reading as Philip, at her side, gazes adoringly at her. What is she saying? I move closer. Feeling like an idiot, I use the large palm trees as cover and I listen in.

Then I realize what she’s doing. Evvie is reading her new review of the movie they played here,
Adam’s Rib.

“And so the lines are drawn. Kate Hepburn has taken on Judy Holliday’s case. And Spencer defends the ugly husband. And every night they fight over it and always nearby is that silly neighbor. I can still hear that song he writes for Kate, called

‘Farewell, Amanda.’ He is always trying to break up their love, but love always conquers all. This is a romance and romance is always wonderful.”

Here she glows at Philip. “And, of course, they live happily ever after.”

Evvie bows and all the new sycophants applaud.

Evvie has transferred her role as Lanai Gardens’

resident critic into her fantasy life. She and Philip are the new god and goddess. I back away and head for the door. Let me out of here.

Not only is my sister under the spell of this lothario, her review is awful.

*

*

*

The girls stare at me, distressed, as I tell them of Evvie’s enchantment. “I don’t know what to do,” I admit to them.

We are in my apartment, shades drawn. I feel G e t t i n g O l d I s C r i m i n a l • 2 4 7

like I’m in mourning. Nobody has even asked for something to eat; it is that serious.

Bella shakes her head. “I can’t believe she was so mean to you. She loves you.”