Susannah's Garden (14 page)

S
unday morning, Susannah, Chrissie and Vivian attended the second service at Colville Christian Church, where Susannah had gone from early childhood. Several people greeted Susannah and Chrissie and offered Vivian warm hugs.

During the sermon, her mother held her Bible in her lap. She appeared to be following intently, running her finger down a page in the Book of John. Pastor Nichols was preaching from the second chapter of James, but Susannah didn’t have the heart to correct her.

Chrissie fidgeted throughout the service. As soon as the organist played the closing benediction, she hurried toward the door. She was waiting impatiently by the car when Susannah and her mother got to the parking lot.

Susannah drove her mother back to Altamira, and led Vivian into the dining room for lunch. The fact that her mother was joining the other residents for meals was
progress. Until Saturday, Vivian had insisted on eating in her room. Susannah wasn’t sure what had convinced her mother to reconsider but she suspected it had something to do with the fees charged to deliver meals.

Once they were back in the car, Chrissie glanced anxiously at Susannah. “You wouldn’t mind if I took the rest of the day off, would you?”

Before Susannah could say anything, her daughter added, “Troy and a bunch of his friends are going to Lake Roosevelt to ride Jet Skis. He invited me along.”

“Ah…”

“It’s Sunday. You weren’t planning on packing today, were you?”

As a matter of fact, Susannah had decided she could use a day off. Their morning had gotten off to a late start with church. Her mother would probably rest for most of the afternoon.

Susannah hoped to spend time with Vivian later to discuss some of the decisions that had to be made. Vivian’s mental capabilities were clearly diminished, but Susannah felt the need to talk everything over with her, although it usually turned out to be a token effort.

“You don’t mind, do you, Mom?” Chrissie pressed.

“I suppose that would be all right.” She didn’t bother to disguise her displeasure that Chrissie was seeing Troy Nance again.

“You don’t like Troy, do you? You don’t even know him, but you’ve already judged him.”

“Chrissie…”

“I’m almost twenty years old, for heaven’s sake! I’m going to the lake this afternoon, whether you like it or not. Troy’s picking me up in twenty minutes.”

Chrissie’s mind was already made up and Susannah
wondered why her daughter had bothered to ask in the first place. The struggle between approval and independence seemed to be a difficult one for her.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Troy drove up to the house. He climbed out of his truck as Chrissie dashed out the front door and down the front steps to join him.

Susannah stood at the living room window, her mouth pursed with disapproval. She watched Troy grab Chrissie around the waist, then drag her to his side as if staking claim to her sleek, young body. Troy’s older pickup truck was scratched and dented, but the sound system seemed to be top of the line. It was loud enough to rattle the living room windows.

The couple disappeared, leaving a trail of exhaust in their wake. Her instincts told her he was trouble. Where that trouble would lead her daughter, Susannah was afraid to guess.

With Chrissie gone, the house seemed unnaturally quiet. Susannah figured she had maybe two hours during which to work or relax before returning to Altamira. She roamed around the house, looking for an unchallenging task, something that would help pass the time. She would’ve called Joe, but he and Brian had gone salmon fishing for the weekend. Joe said he felt it was important that he bond with his son, in the same way Chrissie and Susannah were doing.

Some bond. Despite Susannah’s best efforts, most of her and Chrissie’s conversations since Friday afternoon had revolved around Troy. And most of that was Chrissie defending him.

Walking down the hallway, Susannah paused in the doorway to her father’s office. The old mahogany desk with the filing cabinet in one corner still needed to be
cleared out. Her father had been dead for seven months now and other than the drawer she’d emptied, that desk was exactly as she’d seen it the day of his funeral.

Susannah sighed wearily. There seemed to be no better time to tackle his desk than now. She sank down in the chair where her father had routinely sat to pay bills. Opening the top drawer, she scooped up the first group of file folders. They turned out to be for the various utilities, in alphabetical order, followed by a file for the bank. It was filled with mortgage statements.

The house had been paid off long ago, but every statement could be easily located had anyone asked. She couldn’t imagine where he’d kept the last forty years of cancelled checks and knew without a doubt that she’d stumble on them sooner or later. When she did, they’d be categorized by day, month and year.

The desk would take her about two hours, she estimated, prepared to assume the task. With the shredder, a Christmas gift from her and Joe several years earlier, to one side, she sorted through each file.

There seemed no good reason to hold on to all this paperwork. She flipped through the folders, giving them a cursory inspection, then shredded the contents. It was when she reached the last files in the top drawer that she discovered one marked Colville Natural Gas.

That gave her pause, since her parents’ house wasn’t heated by natural gas.

Sensing that she wouldn’t like what she found, she opened it to examine the contents. The first sheet appeared to be a letter of some kind, dated January 1973. Susannah’s gaze slid to the bottom of the page. She gasped.

She quickly scanned the text, and her outrage exploded
when she realized what she was reading. She vaulted to her feet.

Her father had paid Allan Presley to leave Washington State—with Jake. In exchange for five thousand dollars cash, Mr. Presley had agreed to move a minimum of five hundred miles from Colville. Allan Presley had accepted this cash with the understanding that he and Jake would not only leave Colville, but never return.

Even with the evidence in her hands she couldn’t accept that her father would commit such an act of betrayal. She knew Jake’s father needed money. As young as she’d been at the time, Susannah remembered Jake’s concerns about his father’s financial problems. Knowing Allan’s hand-to-mouth existence and his weakness for the bottle, her father had offered him money. He’d paid the Presleys to get Jake out of Susannah’s life. Because his father had agreed to this blackmail—and that was precisely what it was—Jake had honored his father’s word. Although he loved her—and Susannah believed that with all her heart—he’d walked away.

Susannah crushed the sheet of paper in her fist as she fought to control her emotions. She’d
known.
A part of her had always known it would be something like this. Her father had been desperate to keep Jake out of her life, desperate enough to send her to Europe. Desperate enough to manipulate Jake’s life, Allan Presley’s life and that of his only daughter. It was maddening. No, it was more than that—it was wrong.

Unable to keep this to herself a minute longer, Susannah grabbed her purse and headed out of the house, taking the signed contract with her. She’d smoothed out the crumpled paper, which was now neatly folded in her purse.

Her irritation had settled down but her stomach contin
ued to roil as she found a parking space in front of Altamira. She hoped her mother had managed to rest, because Susannah needed answers and she needed them now. This letter wasn’t the only thing she’d uncovered. There’d been some odd withdrawals from his bank account, too.

To her surprise, Vivian’s door was open when she arrived. She walked in to see another woman visiting her mother.

“Susannah,” Vivian said, her eyes smiling with happiness. “Look who’s come to see me.”

“Hello,” Susannah said, entering the small apartment. Whoever this woman was, she didn’t recognize her. She could only hope it wasn’t another “friend” like Eve. “I’m Susannah Nelson, Vivian’s daughter.”

“Sally Mansfield,” the woman said. She was about the same age as her mother, but seemed more…alert. More aware.

“I’m a friend of your mother’s cousin Judy from California. Lloyd and I were passing through the area twelve or thirteen years ago in our motor home and we went to see your parents. We’d had such a good visit with them when they drove out to California several years earlier.”

“That was the year…” Whatever was on Vivian’s mind didn’t quite make it to her tongue.

“You had a grandson born that year,” Sally prompted.

“Yes, yes, the year Brian was born. Remember? Dad and I took a road trip to California that summer.”

Susannah did recall a summer excursion, but she’d been busy at the time, with a toddler underfoot and a new baby. Her parents so rarely traveled that whenever they did, it was memorable.

“At any rate, Lloyd and I liked this area so much when we visited that we sold everything in California and moved
to Washington. We bought property about twenty miles west of here.” Her mouth turned down for a moment. “I’m afraid we got so involved with our place and our traveling that we just sort of…lost touch with your parents.”

“Oh.”

“Lloyd died five years ago and I’ve been alone ever since. I moved into Altamira two years back. I was absolutely delighted to learn that your mother’s living here now.”

“I think the world of Sally,” Vivian said, grinning shyly at the other woman. “I can’t tell you how pleased I am that we’ve met up again.”

“No more pleased than I am.” Sally gently squeezed Vivian’s hand. “I hope you’re coming down to the fireplace room for the ice-cream social this evening.”

Vivian nodded eagerly. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

This was exactly what Susannah had prayed would happen. She’d wanted her mother to find a friend so she wouldn’t feel isolated. Here was Sally, and already Susannah noticed a crack in her mother’s defenses.

The three chatted amiably for several minutes before Sally yawned and announced it was long past her naptime.

“I haven’t had my nap yet, either,” Vivian echoed.

Susannah walked Sally to the door and whispered her gratitude. “I’m so glad you sought out my mom. She needs a special friend.”

Sally’s tired eyes shone with humor. “We all do. Now, don’t you worry about your mother. I’ll keep an eye on her for you.”

“Thank you,” Susannah said fervently. “Oh, thank you.”

By the time she returned, her mother was in her favorite chair, feet propped up, her head resting against the cushion. She’d closed her eyes.

“I’ll leave soon, Mom, but I have a question first.”

Her mother’s eyes slowly opened. “What is it, dear?”

“Do you know anything about this?” She handed her mother the creased letter.

Her mother read it quickly and frowned. “I don’t understand. What is this?”

“It’s an agreement between Allan Presley and Dad,” Susannah said.

“That singer again?”

“No, Mom. Allan Presley is Jake Presley’s father. Remember, Jake was my high school boyfriend?”

Her mother nodded, but didn’t look convinced.

“Dad paid Mr. Presley five thousand dollars to move Jake out of Colville.”

Vivian shook her head. “Your father would never do anything like that.”

“Mom!” Susannah cried and because she was so upset and restless, she started pacing. “You’re holding the evidence. Look at that sheet of paper and you’ll see Dad’s signature and Mr. Presley’s.”

“That was a lot of money in—” she glanced at the date “—1973.” Her mother’s frown deepened. “Where would your father get that kind of money?”

“I don’t know.”

Her mother sighed. “He was very good with money. He was such an intelligent man.”

Susannah was in no frame of mind to think positive thoughts about her father. “It was underhanded and cruel…. I could hate Dad for this.”

“Now, Susannah…”

The distress in her voice must have broken through to her mother. Vivian eased her legs from the ottoman and leaned toward her. She stretched out her hand. “You’re upset.”

“Yes. I’m very upset.”

“But everything worked out for the best. You married Joe and you have two beautiful children. You and Joe have done so well.”

“Yes, I know, but I could’ve had a good life with Jake, too. I loved him, Mom, and it kills me to find out how my own father manipulated us.” She struggled to make her mother understand why this was important. Yes, she did have a husband and family—a husband and family she loved—but she’d never know what she might have had with Jake. She’d taken the path that led to Joe because the path she would have chosen, Jake’s path, had been closed to her. By her father.

“Oh, dear, do you think I was involved?” Vivian asked and then answered her own question. “I don’t know, I might’ve been, but I have to say it doesn’t sound the least bit familiar. That was a lot of years ago.”

Susannah felt sick to her stomach.

“I’ll tell you what, dear,” her mother said with the utmost sincerity. “I’ll speak to your father about this the next time he visits.”

“Mom…”

“George will remember. He was always good with details. He’ll remember and when he tells me, I’ll let you know.”

Susannah wanted to weep.

A
t nine Chrissie still wasn’t back, and Susannah was growing increasingly worried. She phoned home, but Joe and Brian hadn’t returned from their fishing trip yet. Not that Joe would’ve been able to do anything even if he
had
been there. The longer she paced and fretted, the more irritated she became. This date of Chrissie’s was supposed to be an afternoon outing.

Still, Chrissie was almost an adult and Susannah had no choice but to allow her to make her own decisions. Nevertheless, Susannah had a bad feeling about this.

At nine-thirty, she phoned Carolyn. It wasn’t only Chrissie on her mind. The letter she’d discovered in her father’s filing cabinet that afternoon continued to bother her. She needed a friend, someone who’d listen and sympathize.

Carolyn answered before the second ring.

“Are you busy?” Susannah asked.

“Not particularly, why?”

“Want to meet at He’s Not Here? I need to talk.”

“Sure.”

Susannah was grateful for a friend willing to meet her at a moment’s notice. As soon as she hung up the phone, she grabbed her purse and car keys. If Chrissie returned while she was out, fine. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to let her daughter worry about
her
for a change.

The parking lot outside the tavern was almost empty. Susannah chose a booth and ordered a Diet Coke while she waited for Carolyn, who showed up a few minutes later. She slid into the seat across from Susannah.

“What’s up?” she asked, getting directly to the point.

Susannah pulled the letter out of her purse, and in as few words as possible, told her what it was about. Then she added, “I went to Mom to see if she knew anything.”

“Did she?”

Susannah sighed. “Well, if she ever did, she’s forgotten it now.” More and more Susannah realized that her mother had slipped into a fantasy world and had trouble identifying what was real and what wasn’t.

“Do you honestly think your mother would tell you even if she did know?”

Susannah couldn’t be sure and made a dismissive gesture. “She promised to ask my father the next time he visits.”

Carolyn gave her a worried look. “Oh, dear.”

“Oh, yes.” She rested her chin on her hand. “I said that was a good idea and that I’d be eager to hear what Dad had to tell her. What else could I say? Sometimes, it’s like my own mother is a stranger to me.”

Carolyn nodded and ordered a glass of merlot when the waitress swung by. “I imagine there are days when Vivian’s a stranger to herself.”

Susannah suspected that was true. Her mother didn’t understand what had changed or why. At least some of the time, she recognized that her husband of nearly sixty years was dead, but at other times—because she needed him, because it comforted her—she brought him back to life.

“I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating and painful it is to learn that my father would do something like this,” Susannah cried, brandishing the letter. Her voice shook with emotion; she felt betrayed and sad and wronged all at once. “I didn’t think he could hurt me anymore after he died, but…he did.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” Carolyn asked.

“Do? What
can
I do? That was over thirty years ago. It isn’t like I can turn back the clock.”

“True, but…”

Susannah’s eyes widened as the possibilities came to her. In her excitement she half rose from her sitting position. “I could find Jake,” she whispered. She’d been toying with the idea for weeks and hadn’t acted on it because…because she was afraid. Now she saw that she had the perfect justification, a real reason to seek him out.

Carolyn didn’t immediately endorse the idea. “You’re married,” her friend reminded her. “Jake probably is, too. Are you sure this is a box you want to open?”

Susannah recalled the ancient Greek story about Pandora and her box of troubles—as Carolyn had no doubt meant her to. “I don’t know….”

“Why is it so important to find Jake?” Carolyn asked next. “Think about it, Susannah.”

“Because we were both betrayed by our parents,” she said. “His father sold him out and my father offered Mr. Presley the one thing he couldn’t refuse. Can you imagine how much money five thousand dollars would’ve been to
a man like Allan Presley?” It hurt to
know,
to have proof, that every bad thought she’d ever had about her father had turned out to be true. He was cunning, devious, heartless. “That wasn’t the only large check he wrote, either,” she blurted out.

“What do you mean?”

Susannah slouched down in the booth. She hadn’t intended to say anything, but now that she had, she felt relieved. “As I was going over Dad’s bank statements, I found that he’d withdrawn several large sums of money through the years. All the checks were made out to cash, so there’s no way of tracing what he did with the money.”

“Investments?” Carolyn suggested.

“If so, I didn’t find any evidence of it.”

“What about vacations?”

Susannah shook her head. “My parents rarely traveled.” In fact, she didn’t think her mother had flown more than a couple of times in her entire life. That driving trip to California was probably the only long vacation they’d ever taken.

Carolyn was very quiet. “There might be another reason.”

“What?” Susannah had been angry and upset with her father all day. His reasons for withdrawing so much money and doing it in such secrecy were incomprehensible to her. Susannah knew that, until recently, her mother had hardly ever written a check. She had no knowledge of managing finances or how her husband spent their money. She hadn’t considered it her sphere of duty; it was his, while she handled household routines and entertaining.

Carolyn hesitated, and when she spoke her voice was low. “I mentioned that my father asked to talk to me before I moved back to Colville, didn’t I?”

“You said he wanted you to take over the business.”

“He did, but there was another reason. An equally important one.” She straightened, avoiding Susannah’s eyes. “You might have guessed that my parents’ marriage wasn’t a good one.”

Susannah had wondered about it. She made a noncommittal sound, encouraging Carolyn to continue.

“Mom never adjusted to life in Colville. She hated it here and felt trapped, but almost everyone she loved had been killed in the war. My dad couldn’t leave her. He wouldn’t do that, so he made the best of it until…until I left home and then, well, he fell in love with someone else.”

“Your father had an affair?”

Carolyn nodded. “Lily was his secretary for twenty years and his lover, too.”

Susannah couldn’t imagine why her friend would be telling her something so painful and so private. Unless…“You think my father…had a mistress?”

“I don’t know, but it might explain where the money was going.”

“Thousands upon thousands of dollars,” Susannah whispered, shocked as she considered the possibility.

“Dad genuinely loved Lily,” Carolyn said. “When he knew he was dying, he called me home. He wanted me to look after her when he was gone.”

Susannah was appalled. “I can’t believe he’d ask that of you.”

“It wasn’t easy for me, but I did it because I loved my father. I’m fairly certain Mom never knew. Or if she did find out, she never let on.”

“What happened to Lily?”

Uncharacteristic tears clouded her friend’s eyes. “She
died last year. When I got to know her, I loved her, too. She was more of a mother to me than my own. I buried her next to my father. It was what he would’ve wanted.”

“And your mother?”

“She’s on his other side.”

The idea of her father having another woman was inconceivable to Susannah. But then, she was quickly learning that she really didn’t know him. Not once had she suspected that he’d paid off Jake’s father. Just thinking about it made the anger race through her again.

“I’m going to find Jake,” she insisted. “I refuse to let my father get away with this. I don’t care if he had a mistress. I don’t want to know. But I do care about finding Jake. I’m going to put his name in the computer and see what comes up.” There had to be Web sites that let you search for missing people.

“What about Joe?” Carolyn asked.

For a moment, she’d conveniently pushed all thought of her husband and his likely reaction from her mind. It was easy to do, easy to pretend he wouldn’t disapprove. He was in Seattle and she was here in Colville, and they had never seemed so far apart.

“He’ll understand,” Susannah said. Then, she added, “I won’t tell Joe, not unless I actually find Jake.” Why upset him for no reason?

“Do you want my opinion?” Carolyn asked.

Susannah contemplated the question. She was interested in what her friend had to say, and at the same time she feared that Carolyn would tell her to drop this before she got in too deep. That would be good advice; unfortunately it wasn’t what Susannah wanted to hear.

“You’re going to tell me to let go of this.” Susannah wished she could. But she
had
to talk to Jake, if for no
other reason than to apologize for her family’s mistreatment of him.

“Not necessarily. What I want you to remember,” Carolyn said, leaning back and sipping her wine, “is that time in France.”

“You think I can forget? That year everything changed for me.”

“I recall how you waited and waited for a letter from Jake. For weeks on end you defended him, made excuses for why he didn’t write and then after a while you didn’t talk about him anymore. It seemed like you no longer cared.”

“Of course I still cared, but I had other things to think about!”

Carolyn agreed with a nod. “Doug.”

“I’d lost my brother and not hearing from Jake didn’t seem important after that—but I did ask about him when I got home. With no success, and now we know why.”

Carolyn grew quiet again, then shook her head briskly, as if to chase unhappy memories away. “We’re both reacting to the discussion we had with Sandy, Yvette and Lisa the other night.”

“Both?” Susannah raised her eyebrows.

“I…I decided to extend my flower beds at the house.” Her friend blushed as she said it.

“And you requested that landscaping guy,” Susannah finished.

Carolyn gazed down at her wine. “He’s going to stop by tomorrow afternoon to give me an estimate. I know I’m being obvious, but, Susannah, I can’t stop thinking about him. It all started with that silly conversation and now I’m wondering where it’ll end—for you
and
for me.”

Susannah wondered, too. “All I know is that Jake’s been
on my mind for weeks, even before I learned what my dad had done. I’m determined to find him, only…only…”

“What?”

Susannah sighed morosely. “I don’t have a computer here.”

“I do,” Carolyn said, as if it was understood that she’d help. “Come back to the house with me. I’ll log on to a couple of search engines and see what we can come up with.”

A surge of energy shot through Susannah. She hadn’t slept well the night before and was emotionally drained after confronting her mother this afternoon. Her concern for Chrissie wasn’t doing anything for her peace of mind, either.

“You want to do that now?”

“I don’t see why not,” Carolyn said. “I’m pretty much a night person, anyway.”

After paying the tab, Susannah followed Carolyn down the narrow country road. The night was dark, with moon and stars obscured by clouds. The porch light cast a friendly, welcoming glow.

When they arrived, Carolyn unlocked the door and turned off the alarm. She led Susannah into the house, to one of the back bedrooms, which she’d converted into a home office. As soon as she flicked on the light, she settled into the desk chair and reached for her mouse. Within minutes she was logged on to the Internet and making her way through search engines with the confidence of someone who used computers regularly.

Although Susannah had access to a computer at school and at home, she was rarely online. There was only one computer in the house, and Brian hogged it most evenings. For her, the computer was a tool, and she didn’t have the leisure time to explore its research or recreational potential.

Susannah got a second chair, pulled it close to the desk and sat down, more than happy to let Carolyn do the work.

After several minutes, Carolyn leaned back with a satisfied grin. “Bingo.”

“You found him?” It couldn’t possibly be this easy.

“I can’t be sure, but didn’t you say his father’s name was Allan?”

Susannah nodded.

“Here’s a Jacob Allan Presley. That sounds promising, doesn’t it?”

“Very promising.” Susannah couldn’t remember Jake’s middle name, but it made sense that he’d share his father’s.

Carolyn’s smile was contagious. “There’s only one way to find out. Phone him and see.”

“Now?”

“You might want to wait until morning,” she suggested, smiling.

Susannah was too excited to sit still. After all these years, all this wondering and regretting, it had taken nothing more than a few strokes of the computer keys to locate Jake.