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. I didn t know Wolverhamptoncarried them. He just started this year.Emily will be thrilled to findthat there s a source so close; she and I were talking about Vanish with the Rose 305them the other night.I m afraid we got a little carried away, Diana admitted. They have such beautiful names AdmiredMiranda, Fair Bianca, Cressida, Mary Rose, Proud Tita-nia. So you got one of each. Walt s face had softened into thelook he usually reserved for Emily. It was a nice thought.But I still don t know where I m supposed to put them. Andy cleared his throat. At the bottom of the steps.Be-low the terrace wall. Over supper they discussed the latest developments, such asthey were.Mary Jo had heard from Andy about their talkwith Bellows, but Walt had not; he insisted on having theconversation repeated word for word. It doesn t makesense, he declared. Is that the only explanation he couldcome up with that Larry s not too bright? I don t buy it.Why would Larry take the risk of coming here to leavesomething that connects him to a crime nobody s even ac-cused him of committing? And how did he get by thedogs? Forget the dogs; they aren t even here most of the time, Andy answered. He may have waited till they took off, oroffered them food to distract them.As for the other ques-tion, I have a couple of theories. Walt leaned back and folded his arms. Some farfetchedpiece of psychological crap, I suppose.Guilt is preying onthe poor guy s mind? Unconsciously he yearns to confessand be at peace with himself? Andy flushed angrily. He may be a lout, but he s a humanbeing, with the rudiments at least of human feelings.I m nottrying to defend the bastard, I m trying to understand him,and I m convinced that if he did kill Brad, it was in the heatof anger, when he was drunk.It could even have been an ac-cident, during a fight.Sure, he feels guilt.Some part of him,part of the time. He s good at guilt. Mary Jo s voice was cold as ice andflat as a tabletop. After he beat me up he d cry and tell mehow sorry he was. 306 Barbara MichaelsWalt s fingers dug white-rimmed pits in the flesh of hisarms. If you d told me You d have beat him up? Helluva lot of help that wouldhave been. Her voice was gentler, however. Nobody canhelp a woman who s being battered until she decides shedeserves help.That s the trap people lock you into thatfeeling that you deserve what he s doing to you, that in somecrazy way it s your fault.Don t tell me about guilt, I m anexpert. No one spoke, but Mary Jo must have felt their silent sym-pathy and outrage; it was as palpable as a hot wind.Shedrew a long breath. Don t know what came over me.WhatI started to say was that Andy could be right.Seems to me,though, that Larry s more likely scared than sorry.It couldbe that leaving the watch is his way of proposing a deal. That was my other theory, Andy said. By this time hecould have learned who Diana is.He has Brad s death onhis conscience oh, all right, damn it, so he doesn t have aconscience on his mind and here s Brad s sister, hot onthe trail.He s not so dumb that he hasn t heard of copping aplea. Now that s starting to make sense, Walt said intently. There s another thing.Is it only a coincidence that he deliv-ered the watch last night, after we d had a visit from Brad sfather? Jeez, I hope so, Andy said fervently. He couldn t knowabout that unless he was watching us from someplace tooclose for comfort.No, I don t buy that, Walt.How would herecognize Mr.Randall? Walt was too enamored of this theory to abandon it.Heproposed several explanations, all plausible and all unprov-able.They continued to discuss the matter without arrivingat any conclusions, except the one Andy grimly reiteratedthat it might be a good idea to stay away from lighted win-dows.No one proposed a certain third theory.Diana felt sure itmust have occurred to at least one of them; Andy s imagina-tion was too fertile to have overlooked it.She knew why hehad not said anything.She tried not even to think it.Uncer- Vanish with the Rose 307tainty was not the worst thing after all.Hopes that wereraised and then shattered were the worst even a hope asforlorn and unlikely as the one that had crept into her mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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. I didn t know Wolverhamptoncarried them. He just started this year.Emily will be thrilled to findthat there s a source so close; she and I were talking about Vanish with the Rose 305them the other night.I m afraid we got a little carried away, Diana admitted. They have such beautiful names AdmiredMiranda, Fair Bianca, Cressida, Mary Rose, Proud Tita-nia. So you got one of each. Walt s face had softened into thelook he usually reserved for Emily. It was a nice thought.But I still don t know where I m supposed to put them. Andy cleared his throat. At the bottom of the steps.Be-low the terrace wall. Over supper they discussed the latest developments, such asthey were.Mary Jo had heard from Andy about their talkwith Bellows, but Walt had not; he insisted on having theconversation repeated word for word. It doesn t makesense, he declared. Is that the only explanation he couldcome up with that Larry s not too bright? I don t buy it.Why would Larry take the risk of coming here to leavesomething that connects him to a crime nobody s even ac-cused him of committing? And how did he get by thedogs? Forget the dogs; they aren t even here most of the time, Andy answered. He may have waited till they took off, oroffered them food to distract them.As for the other ques-tion, I have a couple of theories. Walt leaned back and folded his arms. Some farfetchedpiece of psychological crap, I suppose.Guilt is preying onthe poor guy s mind? Unconsciously he yearns to confessand be at peace with himself? Andy flushed angrily. He may be a lout, but he s a humanbeing, with the rudiments at least of human feelings.I m nottrying to defend the bastard, I m trying to understand him,and I m convinced that if he did kill Brad, it was in the heatof anger, when he was drunk.It could even have been an ac-cident, during a fight.Sure, he feels guilt.Some part of him,part of the time. He s good at guilt. Mary Jo s voice was cold as ice andflat as a tabletop. After he beat me up he d cry and tell mehow sorry he was. 306 Barbara MichaelsWalt s fingers dug white-rimmed pits in the flesh of hisarms. If you d told me You d have beat him up? Helluva lot of help that wouldhave been. Her voice was gentler, however. Nobody canhelp a woman who s being battered until she decides shedeserves help.That s the trap people lock you into thatfeeling that you deserve what he s doing to you, that in somecrazy way it s your fault.Don t tell me about guilt, I m anexpert. No one spoke, but Mary Jo must have felt their silent sym-pathy and outrage; it was as palpable as a hot wind.Shedrew a long breath. Don t know what came over me.WhatI started to say was that Andy could be right.Seems to me,though, that Larry s more likely scared than sorry.It couldbe that leaving the watch is his way of proposing a deal. That was my other theory, Andy said. By this time hecould have learned who Diana is.He has Brad s death onhis conscience oh, all right, damn it, so he doesn t have aconscience on his mind and here s Brad s sister, hot onthe trail.He s not so dumb that he hasn t heard of copping aplea. Now that s starting to make sense, Walt said intently. There s another thing.Is it only a coincidence that he deliv-ered the watch last night, after we d had a visit from Brad sfather? Jeez, I hope so, Andy said fervently. He couldn t knowabout that unless he was watching us from someplace tooclose for comfort.No, I don t buy that, Walt.How would herecognize Mr.Randall? Walt was too enamored of this theory to abandon it.Heproposed several explanations, all plausible and all unprov-able.They continued to discuss the matter without arrivingat any conclusions, except the one Andy grimly reiteratedthat it might be a good idea to stay away from lighted win-dows.No one proposed a certain third theory.Diana felt sure itmust have occurred to at least one of them; Andy s imagina-tion was too fertile to have overlooked it.She knew why hehad not said anything.She tried not even to think it.Uncer- Vanish with the Rose 307tainty was not the worst thing after all.Hopes that wereraised and then shattered were the worst even a hope asforlorn and unlikely as the one that had crept into her mind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]