Pecked to Death (10 page)

“What was her state of mind the last few times you saw her?” she asked.

“Normal, a little withdrawn, maybe.”

“What was the talk in the neighborhood? Was anyone saying anything about her?”

Luke squinted, trying to remember. “Now that you mention it, I do sort of remember hearing chatter that Aunt Abby was losing it, but I can’t remember who said it or why.”

“I need to talk to the neighbors.”

“You need to let this go. You talked to Doc, you satisfied yourself that she went peacefully and didn’t die alone. Let it go, Sadie.”

“I can’t, not until I feel like I have closure.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, good, go with your feelings because that’s always worked out so well for you before.”

She reached over and pinched his bicep, smiling. “Just a little while longer, tiger, and you and your Russian robot will have the world to yourselves again. How long is her warranty good for, by the way? Because I heard those taller models don’t last as long as the smaller ones. And how long have you been dating?”

“We’ve been dating a few months, we’re happy, and I’m not talking about her with you. What about you? I’m surprised one of your hard bodies hasn’t swooped to your rescue by now.”

“First of all, never say hard bodies again. I just threw up a little in my mouth. Second, I’m single. Happily,” she added even as her heart thought of Rick and tore a little more. Had he moved on by now? Maybe he was dating Celia Raker, the cow who usurped Sadie’s position at the television station. Maybe Sadie should send a congratulatory note telling her to enjoy the leftovers.

“Whoa, Sadie Cooper is single. That happens, what, once every decade or so? Should I call my friend at NASA and ask him to look for atmospheric anomalies, too?”

“Whoa, Luke Sawyer making a joke. That happens, what, never?” She shoved his arm.

“I am funny,” he said, shoving her arm in return.

“Do you say that to yourself every morning in the mirror in the hope that it will come true?” she asked.

“Vaslilssa thinks I’m hilarious,” he said.

“She’s the one who doesn’t speak English, right?” Sadie countered.

“We communicate just fine,” he said.

Sadie closed her eyes and held up her hands. “Don’t put images of you and women in my head. I just got rid of the ones of you trying to play baseball.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” Luke argued.

“You broke your arm standing in the outfield,” she said.

“Who lets their dog dig a hole in the middle of the outfield? Not my fault I fell.”

“That might have been a plausible excuse if you were running to catch a ball, but it happened during a timeout,” Sadie said.

“Fine, I will admit I’m not an athlete, but I
am
funny.”

“Prove it; make me laugh.”

“I can’t work on command.”

“A funny man would.”

“I will make you laugh when you least expect it,” he promised.

“That’s all the time,” she said.

“Wow, that brutal honesty is so refreshing. Tell me again why you’re single.”

“Because I’m saving up for a Russian. Remind me how much they cost.”

“Well, she’s getting her PhD, so kind of a lot, much more than you can afford on the chicken scratch you make.”

Sadie laughed and slapped her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe you actually made a joke that was funny.”

“And it was at your expense—it’s a win-win for all of us.”

 
They were slouched low on the couch together, their feet touching on the ottoman. For some reason, Sadie’s mind flashed to Abby and the Doctor. How many times had they sat on the couch like this, talking and laughing? And yet they could never get it together and overcome whatever held them back from being a couple. Instead they had both remained single all their lives, devoted to each other in friendship. She couldn’t decide if that was sad or happy. Wasn’t it better to remain friends and not be anchored in a miserable marriage? Of course, she had only seen matrimony as a misery, both in her parents’ lives and in her own brief marriage. Luke’s parents were happy and always had been. Was he optimistic about love?

“Luke, are you going to marry your Russian?” she asked.

“Um, when did we make the rapid transition to my personal life?”

“Just answer the question,” Sadie pushed.

“I don’t know. We’ve only been dating a few months, but everyone wants to get married someday, don’t they?”

Sadie didn’t answer because she didn’t know. She tried to picture Luke married, but the image wouldn’t form. Maybe because she pictured him more with the homely teacher type instead of the Russian supermodel he was dating. They stared at the same point in space, lost in their own deep thoughts. The sun was slipping low on the horizon when Sadie roused herself out of her stupor. Her head dipped to the right as she studied Luke’s profile. He was still staring into space; she wondered what he was thinking about.

“Luke.”

His head dipped toward hers. “Hmm.” Somehow they had shifted until they were face to face, only a few centimeters apart.

“Promise me something,” she said.

He took in her gold ringlets, baby blue eyes, and rosy cheeks and was suddenly afraid of what she might ask, and even more afraid that he would say yes no matter what it was. “What?”

“Promise me that when you get married, it will be with someone you know, love, and respect. Promise me it will be real and you’ll live happily ever after.”

“Isn’t that how everyone goes into marriage, Sadie?”

Sadie smiled and touched her fingertips to the stubble on his cheeks. That was new. The Luke she knew couldn’t grow facial hair. “I’ve missed your idealism. Good to know I didn’t kill it completely.” Abruptly, she dropped her hand and stood. “I should go. I’ve deprived Gideon of the chance to yell at me for too long.” More people had taken her picture during work, this time with the chicken head off. The paper was sure to run with that, and Gideon would be furious. Sadie tried and failed to feel any remorse over that.

She let herself out while Luke stared at her with a furrow between his eyebrows. What had that last part been about? Was she trying to tell him that she hadn’t gone into her marriage with any of those feelings? For the first time in a long time, Luke didn’t feel anger when he thought of Sadie’s hasty nuptials. In place of the anger was curiosity and a little bit of pity. Why had she done it, and why hadn’t it lasted? Something in her tone made him wonder if she had been the victim rather than the perpetrator, and he found himself feeling angry all over again, this time at her husband. What had he done to her? Had he hurt her?

He shook his head and stared at the door, more confused than he had ever been. It was happening again; Sadie was bewitching him with her charms and making him forget everything that had passed between them. Not this time, not again. He had watched her befuddle countless men over the years. It had happened to him once, and that was enough to learn his lesson. As confirmation of his vow not to fall prey to Sadie, he picked up the phone and had a long conversation with Vaslilssa. Even though he couldn’t understand most of what she said, he felt better when he hung up the phone. He had a girlfriend, a new house, and he was starting his doctorate in a few weeks. Life was finally on track, just the way he wanted it, and he wouldn’t let hurricane Sadie ruin it again.

Sadie decided her next order of business should be a good old-fashioned gossip session with the neighbors. Luke had said he thought someone mentioned Abby acting strange. The best place to learn more information was to go straight to the source—the rumor mill. News flew around the neighborhood like head lice at summer camp. If anyone knew anything about Abby, it was the neighbors. But Sadie couldn’t show up empty-handed, and that was why she spent the rest of her evening baking a few dozen cookies, much to her father’s chagrin.

“Where did you even find that stuff?” he groused. “No one has baked here since your mother died.”

How well Sadie knew. Her mother loved to bake. Though Sadie hadn’t shared her sweet tooth or enthusiasm for the hobby, walking into a house that smelled like browned butter and melted chocolate was one of her dearest memories. And she had enjoyed the time spent with her mother in the kitchen. It had been a safe place, far from the judgmental and competitive worlds of pageants and cheerleading. They could have normal mother-daughter bonding time without her mother trying to convince her to get hair extensions or smear petroleum jelly on her teeth to make her smile sparkle.

Few men that Sadie dated ever realized she could cook and bake. That was a secret she only let out after she trusted a man. Men who saw her as a trophy didn’t like it because it didn’t fit with their image of her. They wanted to pretend she was vapid and only knew how to order takeout, a lesson she learned the hard way from her erstwhile husband. Sadie could still remember the one and only time she cooked for him and the ensuing disaster in which she ended up wearing most of it. The hot food had soaked through her clothes, sending her to the school’s medical clinic with second degree burns. The doctor had bought her excuse that she tripped and spilled the food on herself. She remembered how he had laughed and made a dumb blond joke as he applied medication to her many wounds.

Rick knew that she could cook, and he had loved it about her, or so he said.
My Sadie is full of surprises
, he had commented when she shyly presented him with a homemade pie. “And so was my Rick,” she muttered. She was angry that she hadn’t seen their breakup coming. How could she have been so stupid to trust someone so completely?

“What did you say?” Gideon asked. Sadie jumped and tried to cover. The skill of tuning him out was such a part of her life that she forgot he was still in the kitchen with her.

“Nothing,” she said. “Just thinking out loud.”

Her father eyed her through narrowed eyes. “Who’s Rick?”

“Just another of my men, Dad,” Sadie said and quickly retreated to her own inner world again when he sighed expressively and rustled his paper. Her father could say so much without saying anything at all.

The cookies were finally done, and Sadie could once again escape her father’s house. She loaded up a plate, covered it with plastic wrap, and set off for Maddie and Tom Sawyer’s house.

“Sadie, what a pleasant surprise! Come in, sweetie.” Maddie welcomed her inside with a hug before taking the proffered cookies. “Is this your mom’s recipe?”

“Sure thing,” Sadie said.

“Come into the kitchen while I pour some milk to go along with these,” Maddie said.

“None for me, thanks. I’ll just have coffee.” The Sawyers always had coffee available because Tom had a raging caffeine addiction.

“Tom switched to decaf, I hope that’s okay,” Maddie said.

“What?” Sadie exclaimed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I know, who would’ve ever thought? But he started having trouble sleeping at night, and the doctor said it was time to cut back. It’s a terrible thing to get old, honey.”

“I’ll make sure it never happens to me,” Sadie said.

Maddie chuckled. “You’re so funny, Sadie.”

Sadie supposed that, compared to Luke, the statement was probably true. She poured herself a cup of coffee and added artificial sweetener while Maddie poured herself a glass of milk and set some cookies on a smaller plate. “So, Maddie, what’s going on? We didn’t have a chance to talk the other night.”

“Well, Luke got accepted into his doctoral program. Did he tell you?”

Maddie suffered under the delusion that Sadie and Luke were still best friends forever. “No, he didn’t mention it,” Sadie said. “Although I did meet his girlfriend, Vanilla Sky.”

Maddie laughed and choked on a cookie.

“What’s she like? Do you approve?”

“Those are two very good questions,” Maddie said carefully. Sadie leaned closer; this was going to be good. “As far as knowing what she’s like, she’s very beautiful, isn’t she?” Sadie nodded her agreement. The Russian was undeniably beautiful. She was impatient to hear the
but
that she sensed in the works.

“That’s it?” Sadie said when Maddie didn’t continue. “What about her personality?”

“Can I tell you a secret, Sadie?”

Sadie nodded.
Yes, please!

“I can’t understand a single word that woman says. And her accent is so harsh that I always think she’s angry at me. To be truthful, I’m a little bit afraid of her.”

“So you don’t approve,” Sadie said.

“Luke is a grown man, or so I keep telling myself. It’s not a matter of whether or not I approve of his choices; it’s a matter of whether or not he’s making good choices. Except for the fact that I might as well be speaking to a gerbil for all the communication we have with her, I can’t seem to find anything wrong with her. Luke says she smart, warm, and funny.”

“Yes, well, Luke’s pretty stupid when it comes to women,” Sadie said.
Case in point: me.

“Unfortunately, I can’t disagree with you. Why is it that men can be so book smart and so people dumb? There was this lovely girl in college, but it didn’t work out.” She sighed.

Sadie squirmed in her chair and cleared her throat. “When was that?”

“Oh, they dated for a couple of years, until around the time that your mom passed.”

“And you don’t know what happened?” Sadie pressed.

Maddie shook her head. “One day Luke said he was going to marry her, and the next thing you know they had broken up.” She paused, toying with her milk cup. “If you want the honest truth, I think he took your marriage pretty hard.”

“So did I,” Sadie said.

Maddie smiled again, but it was sad this time. “I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you.”

“I was very young and very stupid,” Sadie said.

“And very lost,” Maddie added.

Sadie reached out and clutched her hand. “Maddie, you’ve always shown me far more grace than I deserve. What would I do without you?”

Maddie returned the pressure of her hand and gave her a wink. “I always hoped that you and Luke…Well, foolish dreams that moms have. I talked about it with your mom once.” Her smile faded.

“Let me guess: mom wasn’t gung ho on the idea.”

“Not so much,” Maddie said in her kind way that was probably covering for a whole lot of hurt feelings. After all, what mother wouldn’t be hurt if another woman thought your son wasn’t good enough for her daughter?

“Mom wanted me to go away, be famous, marry a millionaire, and live the life she never got to. She loved Luke, you know that, but she didn’t want me to end up like her—stuck in our tiny hometown and resenting every minute of it.”

“I know,” Maddie said. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle of that. It was too much pressure for one so little. I wish I had done more to help, but hindsight is so much clearer.”

“Maddie, you’ve done more for me than I could ever imagine. You’ve always been a soft place to fall and a good friend. And you’ve never judged me for my mistakes.”

“I wish I could say the same for my son,” Maddie admitted.

“Luke has his reasons to hate me, and they’re valid,” Sadie admitted.

“Maybe so, but his unforgiveness is ugly; it’s not the way Tom and I raised him.”

Sadie couldn’t help but smile. The fact that his mother was on Sadie’s side was an added factor in Luke’s lingering resentment. Sadie thought it was a good idea to change the subject. “So tell me about Abby. What was going on with her in her final weeks? Did you have any clue that she was sick?”

“No, you can’t believe our shock. We saw her every day, or thereabouts. She seemed as healthy as always.”

“Physically, mentally, or both?”

“What do you mean?” Maddie asked. She snatched another cookie from the plate and dunked it in her milk.

“You said she didn’t seem sick. What was her mental state like toward the end? Any confusion, memory loss?”

“Do you think Abby had dementia?”

“I’m trying to get a clear picture of her last days,” Sadie said.

“Let me think,” Maddie said. She took another bite of cookie and chewed. She swallowed and spoke. “I didn’t sense any confusion, but now that you mention it, she seemed agitated and a bit reserved.”

“Reserved? Abby?”

Maddie nodded. “Standoffish, like maybe she had something on her mind and didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Agitated, can you explain that?”

“It wasn’t as if she were angry, it was more like I said, like she had something on her mind and it was bothering her. You know when you have a problem that’s weighing on you and you want to find alone time to think of a solution in peace? That’s how she was.”

“Do you have any idea what it might have been?”

“Who knows? With Abby, it could have been anything. You know how it was; she got riled up about things.”

“Was she riled up about anything in particular lately?” Sadie asked.

“Her hair salon increased their prices. She threatened to find a new stylist. The grocery store started selling liquor on Sundays. She wrote a letter to our senator about restoring the old blue laws.”

Although the description of Abby sounded like more of an angry old lady than Sadie liked to admit, it didn’t smack of dementia. “Anything else?”

“Just Shady Acres, but she had been angry about that place for years.”

Sadie’s ears perked up because it was the second time in one day that the place was mentioned. “Why was she angry about it?”

“Because she said old people were sent there by families who didn’t want them and left to rot. She called it a prison for seniors.”

“I can see why she would be angry at the families who did that to their loved ones, but why would she be angry at the nursing home?” Sadie mused.

Maddie shrugged. “Abby wasn’t always an easy one to figure.”

“Maddie, do you have any idea why Abby said she was murdered?”

“No, Sadie, I don’t have any idea why she would say such a thing.”

“Then you don’t think it’s true.”

She shook her head. “You know I loved Abby, but I just don’t see any way it could be true. Who would do such a thing?”

Sadie decided not to confess her suspicions about Doctor Jones. Maddie was trustworthy, but things had a way of slipping out sometimes without permission. Better not to rock the neighborhood boat with baseless speculation.

“Thanks for the talk,” Sadie said.

Now it was Maddie’s turn to squirm. “Sadie, there’s one more thing, and I think you should hear it from me before you hear it from anyone else. There was something strange that happened a couple of weeks before Abby died.”

“What is it?” Sadie asked, a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

“She had a huge, raging fight. With Gideon.”

“Dad and Abby fought?” Sadie said. “About what?” she asked, although she already suspected the answer.

“You. Maybe Abby knew the end was near and wanted to make sure you were taken care of after. Whatever the reason, I think all the things that had been building between them for years finally overflowed. It was ugly, and it was public.”

“Public, what do you mean by public?”