Page 64 of The Lady on Esplanade
I contemplated my little sister, who was the spitting image of our dad and like a younger version of myself but who’d inherited Melanie’s psychic abilities and wasn’t afraid to use them.I credited Melanie for instilling in Sarah a certain pride in this unique gift and teaching her a way to discern when and where to display it.
“I’m not sure.Beau’s naturally distracted right now, so I would appreciate your help, but there’s a very negative energy in the house and I don’t want you messing with it.I’m pretty sure that it was the entity I saw in the backseat when the brakes stopped working and I crashed.I doubt Melanie would sanction your involvement.”
“Well, we wouldn’t have to tell her, would we?”
Before I could respond, Jolene and Camille entered the room with two trays full of steaming soup bowls, sandwiches, and freshly baked cookies—which Jolene had brought with her from her endless freezer supply—and set them on the coffee table.
“I hope you’re hungry,” Camille said.
“Nola’s always hungry,” Jolene said as she placed a tray in front of us and gave us each a napkin rolled expertly around cutlery.Then she carefully slid the coffee table closer to the couch and placed my pills on my sandwich plate.“So watch your fingers.I’ve got scars all over my hands from feeding her.”
“Funny,” I said, my mouth watering at the smell of the tomato soup.“And please tell me that’s your pimento cheese on the sandwich.”
“It is,” Camille admitted.“And Mimi made the soup.I stay out of the kitchen as much as possible.I’m a terrible cook, as Henry keeps reminding me.”
She settled herself in one of the chairs opposite the couch.“Aren’t you going to eat anything?”I asked.
Camille shook her head.“Henry says I’m getting a little broad in the beam, so I’m skipping breakfast and lunch and just eating dinner.I did sneak a saltine in the kitchen, but don’t tell him.”
It didn’t look as if she was joking, so I didn’t say anything.
“Nice guy,” Sarah said under her breath before turning her attention to the food.
“Have you heard from Mimi or Beau?”Camille asked.“They said it would be a brief meeting and that they’d be home within two hours.”
I wondered about her impatience, but then I remembered that Adele had been her best friend, and that until Camille had read the newspaper article about Sunny’s return she had been living with the assumption that Adele was alive and well.It must have been devastating for her to learn that her friend had been missing all this time and was now presumed dead.As if reading my mind, she said, “I just need to know if I should be grieving or searching for Adele.Or if there is any clue if Buddy…” She stopped.
“If Buddy what?”I asked, a bite of sandwich suddenly sticking to the roof of my mouth.
She shook her head.“I don’t want to speculate.At least not before we know anything for sure.”
I put my soup spoon down, my appetite gone.“Speculate about what?”
She closed her mouth and looked down at her feet, which were no longer swinging under the edge of the chair.“Nothing.I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“But you did, and I’m curious.What did you mean?”
Sarah pretended to be texting on her phone, while Jolene busied herself with tidying around the room.
Still looking down, Camille said, “It’s just…well, if Adele is dead and has been found in New Orleans, then why hasn’t Buddy been found?Or come forward?”Her eyes met mine.“Why is he hiding?I don’t want to think it, because I loved Buddy like a brother, but what if…” Her narrow shoulders lifted inside her baggy sweater.“What if he hurt her?Whether or not he meant to.I mean, they could get into loud arguments, but I never saw him hit her.That’s not tosay it didn’t happen, just that I never saw it happen.But wouldn’t that explain everything?”
“No.”I wanted to stand up and stomp around the room, the fact that I couldn’t making me doubly aggravated.“It wouldn’t.And I hope you haven’t mentioned this to anyone besides me.Because…” I shook my head, not wanting to even try to imagine what it would do to Mimi and Beau.And Felicity.Learning that a beloved family member had been killed during historic flooding following a major storm was one thing.Learning that the family member had been murdered was quite another.
“No.Of course not.”Camille’s voice had shrunk to the volume she usually used in Henry’s presence, and I felt bad that I had caused her stress.She continued.“I haven’t even said anything out loud.Until now.You seem…safe.”
“Good.And I promise that I won’t be repeating this to anyone.There’s absolutely no evidence, and nothing that I’ve learned about Buddy and Adele that would lead me to believe that Buddy had anything to do with Adele’s death.”
She held up her hands palms out, as if in surrender.“I know.That’s exactly how I feel.It’s just that, well…” Her voice disappeared.
“There are a million possible explanations as to what happened, none of them involving Buddy doing harm to Adele.I don’t believe we should speculate until we have the facts.I think Mimi and Beau have accepted that they might never know what happened.And I’d like to leave it at that until we know more—for their sakes.”
“Of course,” Camille said, her head dipped low like a scolded child’s.Her demeanor made me want to apologize, but I couldn’t imagine what I needed to be sorry for.“Excuse me,” she said.“I’m going to go tidy up the kitchen.”She left the room before I could think of something to say.
Sarah’s phone rang with the theme song fromGhostbusters.“It’s Mom,” she announced as she hit the red End Call button on her screen.She waited a moment before receiving the ding of anincoming text.After she read it, her fingers quickly tapped on the screen before she replaced the phone on her lap with a satisfied smile.“There.All good.Mom wanted to know if I’d given Jolene’s mother the sweetgrass basket she sent as a hostess gift, and I told her I hadn’t delivered it yet because Jolene had stuff to do, so we were still in New Orleans—which is all true, so she won’t yell at me later for lying.”
“Now, Sarah,” Jolene said, “either you or Nola has to tell Melanie what’s happened.”
“I will,” I said.“Promise.I’m just waiting for the right time.”
