Elliott Markson did not look at her. ‘My uncle had great respect for you, and he was a keen judge of character. I am trying to implement a lot of changes at Markson’s to streamline operations, including in your department. But I think they can wait until you are ready to return.’
Shelby could hardly believe her ears. Part of her wanted to bow to him, murmuring thanks, and back out of the room. But some things had not changed and there was no use pretending that they had. ‘This situation is still very complicated,’ she said. ‘In the coming months, years maybe, there are going to be times when my grandson will need me. He has no mother now. I’m always going to put him first.’
Elliott Markson’s expression was impassive. ‘As you must,’ he said.
Shelby left Markson’s office feeling lighter in spirit than she had in a long time. No matter how willing she was to walk away if need be, she had to admit that she did not want to lose her job. And now, it seemed, she was being allowed a respite. Her job was safe and she had even received a glimmer of understanding from an unlikely source. She felt almost happy.
She decided to stop at the hospital and look in on her son-in-law on her way back to Manayunk. She needed to evaluate for herself whether or not she could safely bring Jeremy to see his father. If Rob was still unconscious, or too frightening in appearance, she was going to have to continue making excuses.
She drove to Dillworth Memorial, and parked in the attached, multistory garage. She went up to the seventh floor and found Rob’s room. When she walked in, she saw that the bed was empty.
For a moment her heart was seized with anxiety. She turned and rushed out to the nurse’s station.
‘Excuse me,’ she said.
The nurse looked up.
‘I’m looking for Rob Kendricks. He’s not in his room.’
The nurse glanced at a chart hanging above the desk and then turned around and put her question to another nurse who was examining vials in a cart behind her.
‘Oh, they took him down to x-ray. He’ll be back up in about . . .’ The nurse glanced at her watch. ‘Half an hour.’
‘Is he conscious?’ Shelby asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘Really?’ Shelby asked. ‘That’s great.’
‘Yeah. He’s doing much better,’ said the nurse.
‘Can I wait in his room?’ Shelby asked.
The nurse grimaced. ‘It could be longer than half an hour. We’re backed up today. You can go down to the coffee shop and get some food. Try again after lunch.’
The moment she heard the words, Shelby realized how hungry she was. ‘That’s a great idea,’ she said. ‘I’ll be back a little later.’
Shelby took the elevator back down to the first floor, and entered the cheerful, cafeteria-style coffee shop. The line was long, but moved quickly. Shelby got herself a sandwich and a cup of tea, and, after paying, exited the line into the dining area. Every table seemed to be at least half-occupied. For a moment she regretted not getting something to go. She looked around the room for a table with one occupant who might not object to sharing.
All of a sudden, to her surprise, she saw a familiar face. It was Talia’s graduate assistant from the computer lab at Franklin. Shelby walked over to the table and spoke to the young woman with shaggy brown hair who was sipping at a cup of coffee and working on a computer notebook.
‘Faith?’ she said.
Talia’s assistant looked up at her. Her face lit up slightly. ‘Oh hi, Ms . . .’
‘Shelby.’
‘Right,’ said Faith self-consciously.
Shelby gestured to the empty seat across from Faith. ‘Would you mind if I sat down here,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean to interrupt your work.’
‘No, not at all,’ said Faith, clearing her jacket off the chair. ‘Please sit down.’
‘It’s just so crowded in here,’ Shelby apologized.
‘It is. I didn’t see you come in,’ said Faith. ‘I’m trying to keep up with everything.’
Shelby nodded. ‘What brings you to the hospital?’ she asked, shaking out her paper napkin and putting it in her lap.
‘I brought my mom for her physical therapy. She had a stroke years ago and she’s still not completely well. My dad usually brings her but he’s been under the weather lately, so I have to do it. Luckily, Dr Winter is really understanding about that. I know she takes care of your mother,’ Faith said.
‘Yes, she does,’ said Shelby, forcing herself not to make excuses or explanations.
Faith shook her head. ‘It’s so hard to do everything. My husband and I bought a house. Well, more like a construction site than a house. There’s so much to do,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘And we’re doing it ourselves.’
‘Whew,’ said Shelby.
‘Plus, it’s kind of a hike to get here. So I’m just lucky to have a boss like Dr Winter. And, really, I don’t mind. My parents need my help.’
Shelby thought about her sister’s dour face, the accusation in her every word. She doubted very much if Talia was understanding. She never seemed to think about other people and their lives. When Faith mentioned her parents, it probably just gave Talia an opening to describe her own martyrdom, her brother’s and sister’s indifference.
‘How about you?’ Faith asked politely.
‘What?’ Shelby asked.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘My son-in-law is here,’ said Shelby. ‘He was in an accident,’ she said.
‘That’s too bad,’ Faith murmured.
Shelby thought about trying to explain but she could see Faith’s gaze wandering back to her computer screen.
‘You go ahead,’ said Shelby. ‘Don’t let me interrupt you.’
‘I’m always playing catch-up,’ said Faith apologetically. She glanced at the clock. ‘I need to finish before my mom gets done.’
Shelby nodded and picked up her sandwich as Faith returned to tapping at her keyboard.
In a few minutes, Shelby heard a voice from over her shoulder. ‘OK, honey. I’m all done.’
Faith closed her computer and stood up. ‘Hey Mom,’ she said. ‘How’d it go?’
‘Oh they tortured me, as usual,’ the woman said with a chuckle.
Shelby turned in her chair.
‘Mom, this is Dr Winter’s sister. Mrs Sloan. Mrs Sloan, this is my mother, Peggy Ridley.’
Shelby stared at the plump, older woman with a pink, unlined face, who was leaning on a cane. A few weeks earlier, in a police station in St Thomas, this same woman had told her about Chloe’s last moments before her death.
The woman stared back at Shelby. ‘Oh my word,’ she said.
TWENTY-TWO
‘
Y
ou,’ said Shelby.
Faith looked in confusion from her mother’s amazed expression to Shelby’s grim face. ‘You two know each other?’
‘Yes. Well, I’ll be darned,’ said Peggy. ‘It’s a small world, isn’t it?’
Shelby was staring at the woman in disbelief. No, she thought. Not that small. How could it be? She did not understand it, and she could not organize the cacophony of thoughts in her head.
Peggy’s surprise seemed perfectly genuine. But her genial amazement turned to wariness in the face of Shelby’s silence and her frozen expression.
‘How do you know each other?’ Faith asked.
‘We met when Dad and I were on the cruise,’ said Peggy.
‘You were on the same cruise?’ Faith asked.
Shelby tore her gaze from Peggy’s face and blinked at Faith as if she had just awakened. ‘No. It wasn’t me who was on the cruise. My daughter was. She died on that cruise,’ she said.
‘Mrs Sloan’s daughter was the one who fell off the boat,’ Peggy confided sadly.
Faith gasped. ‘Oh my God,’ she said. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Mrs Sloan. I didn’t know. My mother told me a woman fell off the boat. I just never realized . . .’
‘Talia never said a word about it?’ Shelby cried. ‘That was her niece.’
‘No.’ Faith looked almost guilty. ‘She doesn’t really talk about personal things,’ she said.
My God, Shelby thought with a mixture of disgust and disbelief. Even for Talia, that level of indifference was difficult to imagine. In Talia’s mind, Chloe’s death had not been worth mentioning to her own assistant.
‘She did send me to the CVS to pick up a sympathy card for her,’ said Faith. ‘But that wasn’t for you, I’m sure. No, of course not.’
Yes, Shelby thought. It was. The thought of it made her furious.
‘What an amazing coincidence,’ said Peg. ‘I mean, to think that we were on that same trip where your daughter . . . Well, what are the odds?’
Shelby turned to Faith. ‘Did Talia know that your parents were on that cruise?’
‘I don’t know. Wait. As a matter of fact, I think I did tell her. I mean, I thought it was an interesting story, about my parents spending time with the woman who fell off the boat. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was your daughter,’ Faith said, grimacing apologetically. ‘And she never said anything.’
‘Maybe she didn’t put two and two together,’ Peg offered hopefully.
No, Shelby thought. That’s impossible. Even for Talia. She was used to Talia treating the circumstances of her life as insignificant. But this was no ordinary circumstance. The parents of Talia’s assistant were the last people to see Shelby’s daughter alive. You would have to be stupid not to make the connection. And whatever else she might be, Talia was not stupid.
‘Have you had any news?’ Peggy asked kindly. ‘Anything at all?’
Shelby’s gaze returned to Peggy. ‘No,’ she said.
‘We thought it was just awful the way the boat continued on after that,’ Peggy said, shaking her head. ‘We didn’t feel right about that. Virgie and I couldn’t get over it. People carrying on as if nothing had happened.’
Shelby was having difficulty forming the words for a response. All she could think about was their mutual connection to Talia. It was a coincidence that she could not reconcile. But, how could these people be involved? They seemed utterly guileless.
‘We got a card from Virgie and Don the other day. Do you remember Virgie and Don Mathers? They were the other couple . . .’
‘Yes,’ said Shelby.
Peggy sighed and shook her head. ‘Lovely people. Salt of the earth.’
Faith glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Well, Mom, we better be going. I’ve got to get back for class.’
‘You’re right,’ said Peggy. She reached out a soft, dry hand and placed it over Shelby’s. ‘I’m glad to see you again,’ she said. ‘I never stopped praying for your Chloe.’ There was something here that Shelby didn’t know. Something that she needed to know. Perhaps, she thought, she was grasping at straws, still trying to make some sense of Chloe’s death. But she couldn’t just dismiss the fact that the Ridleys provided some kind of bizarre connection between Chloe’s death and her life here at home. After all, she reminded herself, wasn’t that why she had pored over the photos of people on board the ship? She was searching for a connection and now, here it was, even thought she had no idea what it meant. Shelby had to make a quick decision. ‘Faith,’ she said. ‘I can take your mother home. Why don’t you let me drive her and you can head back to the lab. Or . . . wherever . . .’
Peggy frowned. ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘We couldn’t ask you to do that.’
‘Please, I’d like to,’ said Shelby. ‘You were so kind to me in St Thomas. It’s no trouble. Where do you live?’
‘It’s a bad neighborhood,’ said Faith apologetically.
‘You grew up there,’ Peggy chided her.
‘Still . . .’ said Faith.
‘Where is it?’ Shelby demanded. She felt shaky and unsure of herself. She did not know what, if anything, she was hoping to find by taking this woman all the way across town. At the very least, she reassured herself, it was an opportunity to spend a little more time with the people who had last seen her daughter alive. Maybe in their last conversations Chloe had said something illuminating. Something that would help Shelby to understand.
‘South Philly,’ said Faith. ‘It’s called Hector. It’s off of South Fourth Street.’
‘Sure, I know it,’ said Shelby. ‘We used to live in South Philly when my Chloe was a little girl. I know just where it is.’
Faith looked relieved. She turned to her mother. ‘I could use the extra time on this research.’
Peggy hesitated, and then nodded. ‘OK, honey. You go ahead,’ she said.
‘I’ll take good care of her,’ Shelby promised.
Faith embraced her mother. ‘Give Dad a hug for me. Tell him I’ll see him soon,’ said Faith.
Peggy held her daughter’s arms and looked at her seriously. ‘Don’t forget. You know how he is. He needs bucking up.’
‘I won’t forget.’
‘Shall we go?’ said Shelby.
It was a laborious process to get Peggy to the parking garage. Once there, Shelby instructed Peggy to wait by the elevators while she brought the car around. Shelby drove up, got out, and relieved Peggy of her cane, gently getting her situated in the front seat while she placed the cane in the back. Then she went around to the driver’s side and got in.
Peggy settled into the seat like a plump, feathery bird on her nest. She carefully put on her seat belt and folded her hands in her lap.
‘This is really very nice of you,’ said Peggy. ‘My Faith works so hard. Too hard if you ask me. She and her husband bought a house that they’re fixing up themselves. She’s trying to finish that degree. Plus, she works for Dr Winter. And she has a part-time job cleaning houses on Saturdays.’
‘That is a lot,’ said Shelby.
Peggy sighed. ‘That’s for sure. And now she’s trying to help me out as well. Bud, my husband, is not well. Do you remember Bud?’
‘Of course,’ said Shelby. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
Peggy sighed. ‘He has a very serious condition. Lou Gehrig’s disease.’
Shelby thought about the man she had met in the St Thomas police station. He had looked perfectly healthy. Rather robust even. And yet, Lou Gehrig’s disease was about as grim a prognosis as one could receive. ‘It just happened? Since you got back?’ Shelby asked.