Lurleen and I drove separately to Stephanie’s house. I saw several cars in the driveway and on the street, so I wondered if Stephanie was having a party that Lurleen forgot to tell me about. I rang the doorbell, and Stephanie greeted me with a smile. The whole house seemed a lot cheerier than the last time I’d seen it. Some of that might have been because it was a sunny day, but most of it was because flowers were everywhere.
Stephanie watched me stoop to examine a vase full of peonies. “My favorite flower,” I said, “at least currently.”
“They’re from Jonathan,” Stephanie said. “All the flowers are from Jonathan. It seems he found a romantic streak when he understood how lonely I was.”
“They’re gorgeous,” I said. “Does that mean you and Jonathan are doing well? I hope that’s not too personal a question.”
“Lurleen has already grilled me about our relationship. We’re heading for the Caribbean next week, and Jonathan will be down in a few minutes, so you can see for yourself. He’s still off work and we’re enjoying our time together. Let me take your coat. Lurleen and Adeline are in the living room.”
As I entered the room, Lurleen scrambled to stuff what had to be tarot cards back in a box. Adeline handed her a few more.
“You don’t need to hide those from me,” I said. “I’ve made peace with the idea that tarot card readings are in your past and future.”
“Cute,” she said, “but these aren’t for me. These are a present for you.”
“What?”
“Don’t make that face before you’ve seen them,” Lurleen said. She handed me the box. “Take a look.”
The box had a gorgeous cover with what looked like an octopus with a chef’s hat on and a title called “The Delishiocity Deck.” Inside were tarot cards, not the kind Lurleen used and not like any I’d seen before. These were for foodies like me.
“Perfect,” I said. “It seems we can meet in the middle about this concept.”
“We can,” Lurleen said. “I have a friend who is more of a professional about tarot card readings than Crystal ever was. Crystal was an amateur and then she used her limited skills to terrify Nicole. My friend Louisa would never do that.”
“Lunch is ready,” Stephanie said, “when you are.”
Adeline, Lurleen and I followed her into the dining room. It looked a lot like mine, but while mine had deep green walls, Stephanie’s were periwinkle blue. I hadn’t noticed it before in the subdued lighting of my previous visits.
“Lovely,” I said.
“Thank you. It’s freshly painted. Lurleen encouraged me to make the whole house more cheerful with a look toward the future not the past.”
“We will talk about the past once more,” Lurleen said as if to reassure me. “Stephanie and Adeline know we have a few unanswered questions.”
We settled ourselves around her table and Stephanie brought out French onion soup, bread and salad. She offered us wine but none of us wanted that.
“The sour dough French bread is from Lurleen’s cooking school,” Stephanie said. “I’ve already signed up for a bread-baking course that starts after Christmas.”
We sat for a few minutes simply enjoying the food and the company.
“All delicious,” I said. “May I get your French onion soup recipe?”
“Absolutely,” Stephanie said. “Now, perhaps we should get to your questions.”
Lurleen nodded in my direction. “You go first, Ditie, and I’ll chime in when I need to.”
“I suppose my first question is about how you think Josephine is doing. We visited her, so we know more about why she confessed to crimes she didn’t commit.”
“Josephine is doing as well as can be expected,” Stephanie said. “She’s remaining in jail and said she didn’t want to post bond. She claimed she wanted time to think about what she’d done. I visit her as often as I can. She took care of me after my mother died, and now it’s my turn to take care of her. I’ll be at her side for whatever comes next.”
“You’ve forgiven her for what she did to your father?” I asked.
“I no longer have to shy away from the truth,” Stephanie said. “I forgive her for killing him, but I’m not sure she’ll ever forgive herself. She was consumed with grief and eager to find someone to blame for Luke’s death. I know what it’s like to feel that desperate when you think you may have lost the one person you loved most in the world.”
“And yet . . .” Lurleen said.
“I know what you’re about to say, Lurleen,” Stephanie said. “Yes, I did have a one night stand with Nate. He was there and Jonathan wasn’t. It was never meant to be anything and I’m deeply ashamed it happened. I told Jonathan about it. I had to. We’ve had too many lies between us.”
“You said lies plural,” Lurleen said. “Did Jonathan lie to you about more than what he did to Adeline?”
“No,” Stephanie said. “I think you’re wondering if he also had an affair, but the answer is no. He was wedded to his work, and I suppose in a way that led to more lies. He promised vacations that never happened. He missed a hundred dinners, but I think, I hope, we’re beyond that now.”
I turned to Adeline. “Where do you fit into this picture? We know the story of what Jonathan did to you and we know you did all you could to make his life miserable because of it. You seem to have been the uninvited witness to all their trauma.”
“I was,” Adeline said. “Now, all of that is in the past. I have a job I love and Jonathan has taken full responsibility for what he did to me. He’s apologized, and we are both ready to move on. As to what I saw in the life of the Strout family, I saw plenty. What is it you want to know, Ditie?”
“I guess I want to know what happened to Luke. Did someone actually try to harm him? Someone like Nicole?”
“I don’t think so,” Adeline said. “In a way it seemed to me the Strout family was plagued with disaster. First Mrs. Strout dies of a terrible illness. Then Luke dies from a burst appendix. Perhaps Nicole should have or could have seen how sick he was, but there were other nurses and doctors in the hospital. I think it was bad luck, and then Mr. Strout died from Josephine’s misperceptions.”
“You left out Don Strout, Junior,” Lurleen said, “who died in the skiing accident.”
“Yes,” Adeline said. “I suppose in a way his death made me want to back off from haunting this family and Jonathan in particular. They were suffering enough.” She turned to Stephanie. “I always wondered if those deaths made you turn to the occult.”
Stephanie nodded. “I think they did. My whole family was gone, and Jonathan was absent as well. I wanted some communication with those who had died. I found a wiccan group that Crystal was part of, and I joined. I hoped I could find some peace and some way to connect with the family I’d lost. I’ve broken with the group now. I can’t keep looking to the past.”
“Nor can I,” Adeline said.
We finished up our meal speaking of other things, happier things. Adeline was moving up the CDC ladder and enjoying the work she was doing. Some day it was possible she’d be Jonathan’s boss.
Jonathan must have heard that remark. He’d walked down the stairs without any of us noticing.
“I wouldn’t mind having you as my boss, Adeline. You’re very good at the administrative stuff, which I hate.”
“No worries I’d try to make you miserable?” Adeline asked.
“No, you’re more honest than I was. I suppose that’s one reason I could understand what Stephanie did. I also know what it’s like to lose your bearings when you want something so much.”
Jonathan offered to clean up when it was clear we’d finished eating.
“No more questions?” Stephanie asked. “It was Aunt Josie who wore the mask of Luke that frightened Nicole. She wore the brown wig in case anyone spotted her. She claimed she didn’t know it might make you a suspect, Adeline.”
“I’m done rehashing old hurts,” Adeline said. “Josephine is paying the price for what she did.”
“Does anyone have happier news?” Lurleen asked.
Stephanie waited until Jonathan returned from the kitchen and sat down beside her.
“We’re thinking of adopting a child,” she said.
That gave me a chance to speak about the joys of motherhood. “Of course, I have a lot of help to make it possible,” I said, “but even if it had been only me, I would have made it work. I admire those single women who actually pull it off.”
“Yes,” Stephanie said. “Aunt Josie didn’t think she could do that. She thought she had to choose between being a mother and a high-powered executive. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be a mother. I’m not too old to have a child, and Jonathan and I might try for a while, but I won’t undergo extraordinary procedures. We’ll look into adoption. And what about you, Lurleen, if that isn’t too personal a question?”
Lurleen smiled. “First things first. My tarot card reading said I was headed for a wonderful adventure with the man I love. We’ll see what happens after that.”
“I don’t know that it said all that explicitly,” I said.
“It’s all in the interpretation,” Lurleen said.
* * *
Several days later, Lurleen and I sat together watching Noah and Jason play soccer in a school game and rehashed everything we now knew. Lucie was spending the weekend at Hannah’s but only after she’d heard most of the latest details.
“So are you convinced Luke died from an unfortunate series of events?” Lurleen asked.
“It seems likely,” I said. “It happens, but it’s also possible Nicole saw signs that Luke was really sick and didn’t report them. We’ll never know.”
“One tragedy begot so many more,” Lurleen said.
“It did,” I said, “but I’m not sure Nicole would have survived no matter what happened to Luke. She made bad choices and hurt a lot of people. She seemed to thrive on manipulating people, making them believe things that weren’t true.”
“So many people did things they later regretted,” Lurleen said. “Josephine, Jonathan, even Stephanie.”
“Yes, there’s plenty of guilt to go around,” I said, “for people with a conscience. I’m not sure that applies to Nicole or Ben or Crystal.”
“No,” Lurleen said. “It makes me realize how important it is to choose one’s friends carefully.”
“I’ll drink to that.” We clunked our empty coffee mugs together. Lurleen poured us each a new cup from her thermos and I offered her my bag of freshly made soft molasses cookies.
“Why was this case so hard to solve?” Lurleen asked.
“Because it wasn’t one story,” I said. “The question of who murdered Nicole got mixed up with three other stories—-Luke’s death, Jonathan’s lie about Adeline’s work, and Stephanie’s fear of losing Jonathan’s love.”
“Was there a common theme?” Lurleen asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was about love gone wrong and revenge wrapped up together. Those motives caused a great deal of harm.”
“How are you liking the set of tarot cards I gave you?” she asked.
“I love them. There’s a game we can play when you want.”
“I might be too busy for that. I’ve been taking a beginner’s course in tarot card reading,” she said, “and the cards suggest that before I go to France for my wedding to Danny, I should brush up on the language a little in Quebec this spring. I think it sounds like a great idea. Are you in?”
“I’m in, but how could a tarot card reading be that specific?” I asked.
“Well, maybe I was influenced a little by the fact that Danny knows a wonderful French couple who live in a small town between Montreal and Quebec City on the edge of the St. Lawrence seaway. They own a bakery. He thought spring break might be the perfect time to go there, so we could take the kids.”
“Terrific,” I said. “nothing bad can happen in a sleepy little Quebec town in the springtime.”
“You do know that Louise Penny sets most of her mysteries in Three Pines, a tiny village not far from where we’ll be?”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I said.
“I’ll do a tarot card reading to make sure it’s safe for us to go,” Lurleen said.
“Is that supposed to put my mind at ease, Lurleen?”
“It should. My tarot card readings always have happy endings.”