Page 36 of The Guests on South Battery
My mother put her bare hand on my arm. “Stay, Mellie. I wouldn’t normally ask you to get involved with one of my clients, but because you already have a connection with Veronica, and have met her sister, Adrienne, I think you can help.”
I gave my mother a look that I hoped she interpreted as “wait until I get you alone” and resumed my seat. “I’m not sure how I can help....” I got a whiff of the perfume again, recognizing it as the one I wore in college. Vanilla Musk by Coty. It was very popular in the late nineties when Adrienne would have been a freshman.
My mother turned back to Veronica. “You said you had something to show me, something that had belonged to your sister.”
Veronica nodded once, then reached into the pocket of her skirt and pulled out a long gold chain with some sort of pendant dangling from it. I bent closer and saw that it had been broken in the middle, the clasp still closed. It was then that I remembered my conversation with Thomas when he’d asked me if I could help him with a cold case. Something about a broken chain found in the dead sister’s trunk, discovered in the parents’ attic and opened for the first time since the girl had been killed.
I held out my hand and watched as the gold links coiled into my palm like a snake, the broken pendant lying on top. One Greek letter sat at the apex, the second two letters dangling directly beneath lying horizontally, a manufactured jagged tear showing where a matching charm might attach. “I wasn’t in a sorority, so I’m afraid this is Greek to me.” I hadn’t meant it as a joke, but my mother kicked me under the table anyway.
“It’s the intersection of Adrienne’s sorority, Omega Chi, and another Greek organization with the letter Omega. Could be a sorority or fraternity—without the rest of the charm, we can’t be sure. I have no idea where the other half might be.”
“Did her boyfriend’s fraternity have an Omega in it?” I asked.
“No. She was dating a Kappa Sig, but he had an ironclad alibi and was never considered a suspect.” Veronica cleared her throat. “This is newly discovered evidence. Sadly, it was all twenty years ago, so peoplehave moved on, gotten married, forgotten about Adrienne. Even with this pendant pointing to something completely new, Detective Riley doesn’t hold out any hope of solving the case. He’s been attempting to find and interview sorority and fraternity members from organizations with Omegas in the names from 1996, but nobody remembers Adrienne.”
I turned to my mother. “Thomas told me about this case, and I explained that I wasn’t ready to do this.”
I dropped the necklace onto the surface of the table with a solid and finalthunk. The girl was still there. I couldn’t see her in the mirror, but I felt her presence. Smelled her perfume. I shoved the necklace away from me, not wanting her to follow me home. “I’m sorry, Veronica. I truly am. I’d like to help you, I would. But I’ve got two babies at home, a career I’m trying to resurrect, a hole in my backyard, rotting windows, and a host of other issues I’m having to deal with right now. I’m afraid I just can’t get involved—”
My mother reached out with her bare hand and grabbed the necklace, her elegant fingers folding around it as her head jerked back and her eyes closed. We were completely still for a long moment, and then her head began to shake back and forth as if to sayno. And then, as if pulled from the ether, a man’s voice came from my mother’s throat, thrust from the depths along with the stench of mold.
“Don’t!” the voice screamed. “You. Don’t. Want. To. Know. The. Truth.” Spit foamed on my mother’s lips, flecks of dirt appearing on her chin.
Veronica stood so fast her chair toppled backward onto the floor with a bang.
I reached over and grabbed the chain from Ginette’s hand, and a small fizz of air left her lungs as her head slumped to the table. I stood, breathing heavily as if I’d been the one communicating with whoever orwhatever that had been. “You should go,” I said to Veronica. “We can’t help you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, picking up her chair and sliding the chain and pendant into her pocket. “I’m so sorry.”
I heard her footsteps heading toward the foyer and then the front door opening and closing as I bent to my mother to check her breathing. Her pulse was steady, but she felt clammy to the touch. I helped her stand, then led her to the couch to lie down. Her eyes remained closed as I sat next to her, listening to her breathe, her hand in mine.
“She needs us,” she said finally.
“Her sister has been dead for twenty years and we can’t bring her back. And if you do that again, it just might kill you.”
We heard my father come in and I quickly helped my mother to a sitting position. He stuck his head in the room. “I thought you were going for your walk.”
“I think Mother might be a little under the weather,” I began.
“We were just leaving,” she said with a smile as she pulled herself up from the couch.
“Really, Mother, I think you should stay home if you’re not well.”
“Not at all. I think a walk in this beautiful weather is just what I need right now.”
She gave my father a slow kiss on the lips, making me look away, then headed toward the foyer, where she paused in front of the contraption I’d spotted earlier. “Sophie said you should have one of these—she uses one to run with Blue Skye and loves it. So I bought one for you as a sort of early birthday gift.”
“I don’t run,” I said, eager to return to our previous conversation.
“I know, but it might be something you’ll enjoy doing with the children. Especially during the nice spring weather before it gets too hot.”
I frowned dubiously at the contraption on wheels. “I really don’t think I need—”
She threw open the front door and stepped outside, and I followed. She breathed in deeply and I was grateful to see the color returning to her cheeks. “Nothing like fresh air to clear the mind.”
“Mother,” I started, but she had begun walking down Legare. She moved at a slower pace than usual, but she quickly found her strength and began pumping with her arms, making it hard for me to keep up. We walked in the middle of one-way streets to avoid twisting ankles onthe uneven and ancient sidewalks, facing traffic so we’d know when to get out of the way.
“You said you needed my help with something,” she said with no apparent effort to force out the words.
