fourteen

I stomped down the stairs, mentally cursing Ianello’s insensitive timing, and climbed into my car. I pulled a U-turn and headed up the steep hill to Geary. I was home in under ten minutes. There was just enough time to change my clothes and straighten out my desk. I aired out the apartment, put a kettle on the burner, and prepared a tray for tea. I needed to clear my head to be able to focus on my client’s reading. And speaking of my head, it still hurt. I swallowed two more aspirin and placed a cone of incense in the belly of my bronze Buddha in the hallway.

Adele’s appointment was set for noon, but she’s a very nervous and particular woman and always arrives early. I used to find this unsettling, but by now I was familiar with her habits and always made sure I was ready well ahead of time. The doorbell rang exactly at 11:45. I said a silent little prayer as I trotted down the stairs to open the door for her. I always do this—I pray that I won’t put my foot in my mouth, and that I’ll always have a positive message even if the transits are terrible, and that I’ll do my best to support and not harm.

Adele is in her seventies and had been a very successful accountant before she retired. In spite of her life experience, she was an emotional teenager in many ways. On her first visit, she confided that she’d been carrying on an affair for ten years with a man named Melvin, who was twenty years her junior and married, no less! After all that time, she still knew almost nothing about him. It takes a lot to surprise me, but Adele’s first visit caused my jaw to drop. She didn’t want to get married, but she did want her lover to leave his wife. There was just one teeny problem—his wife was his sole support. In addition, his wife was quite wealthy, and I was willing to bet anything that Melvin would never voluntarily leave her. His Sun sign was conjunct Neptune in his birth chart, so it was likely he was somewhat prone to fantasy, at worst dependent and deceptive. It was far more likely that his wife would leave him under a coming Saturn transit to her chart.

Adele wanted a companion. I’d reminded her that Melvin couldn’t possibly be a companion. He had a wife. I asked her if she wanted to live with him. She said, “No, I don’t want to live with him.”

“So you don’t want to marry him, you don’t want to live with him … you just want him to be available to you?”

“Well, yes. And I want him to leave his wife,” she replied.

I heaved a sigh, hoping that by now she’d moved on from this position. My file folder contained notes from a year before, when Adele had first come to see me, and the notations for her transits, progressions, and solar arcs were still valid for the next six months. I had pretty much covered this time period for her and I couldn’t help but wonder why she was coming back, besides the fact that she probably wanted to hear a different answer than the one I’d given before.

Right now, Adele’s progressed moon was conjuncting her natal Uranus. Perhaps she had had a change of heart. I figured she might be planning a trip, since her natal Uranus ruled her ninth house of long distance travel. I double checked the work and set her file to the side. I checked everything else—the tape recorder, tape, and a box of tissues.

I ushered her to the client chair in the office and returned with the tea tray.

“Thank you, dear. This is just what I need.” Adele seemed, if possible, a little more nervous than the last time I’d seen her.

I sat behind the desk. “Well, I see you’re planning a trip.”

“Oh, Julia, how did you know? You must be psychic.”

I laughed. “No, I’m not, believe me. It’s really very simple. Are you taking a cruise perhaps?”

“Yes, my daughter’s taking me. But I feel bad about not being able to see Melvin for three weeks.”

“Mmm,” I responded noncommittally. I was in the position of having to give the best advice I could, but quite frankly I disapproved of this little arrangement and thought Melvin was a real turd.

“Now, Adele, I’d like to make a prediction. You’re about to meet someone new.”

“What?” Adele said. “That would be wonderful. I’m so tired of this whole situation.”

“Actually, I think it will be someone who shares the same work as you—or once shared the same work—because the ruler of your sixth house, the house of daily duties, is moving by solar arc progression to conjunct your Venus in the ninth house, the house of long-distance travel. You might even meet someone on this cruise. He could possibly be a foreigner.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Julia. I have to admit I was so scared to come see you today. I’ve been so nervous about taking this trip.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t be.” I squeezed her hand. “I think you’ll have a wonderful time. Now this is what you need to think about.” Common sense advice was always the best. To myself, I prayed that when I reached the ripe old age of seventy-two I wouldn’t be quite so foolish, or I’d ask a friend to shoot me in the foot. Then, of course, I felt immediately guilty for judging my client. “You’re in your seventies. You’re healthy, and you’ll more than likely live another ten or fifteen or possibly twenty years, given the average life span of women. You need to think about what it is you want for the rest of your life.” I pitched my voice deliberately to a more soothing tone. “You’re looking for someone who will be a companion, who you can play golf with, go to the theater and concerts and plan vacations with. Someone who’s really there for you.”

“I know, Julia.”

I watched Adele’s face carefully. “I don’t mean to lecture, but you want someone dependable, not someone who isn’t providing you with much time or comfort or emotional support.”

Her eyes grew very large. “Oh, I know you’re right. That’s exactly what my daughter says.” Thank heavens the daughter was more sensible than the mother. I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother—what if she were to get involved with someone unsuitable? No, I thought. She’s way too sensible. But what if she did? After all, what did I really know about her daily life? I should pay more attention and ask questions, even if Gloria didn’t want me to. She was the only family I had, and Kuan and I were the only people who could really look out for her.

“There’s just something so exciting about Melvin. I’ve never found anyone quite like him.”

“Well … that’s not quite true. I have to point something out to you.” Adele looked at me expectantly. “There are very similar things in Melvin’s chart to the man you were married to.”

“Oh, him!” Adele grimaced.

“You realized he was a jerk because you spent so many years with him and you were required to carry the entire ball—support and raise a family. You have to remember that Melvin, like your ex-husband, has a Sun-Neptune conjunction. In that sense, they are very similar people.”

My client was quiet a moment, staring at me, and then said, “I never looked at it that way.”

“They’re both men who depend on women for their strength and support. After all, isn’t it Melvin’s wife who supports him?” I’d said these very things to Adele several times before, but nothing had really penetrated. She seemed much more open to what I was saying today than she had been previously. Maybe she’d finally turned a corner with this romance.

Ten minutes before the hour was up, I said, “Well, I think that’s it. Do you have any questions?”

Pulling out a check, Adele said, “Julia, do you really think I might meet someone new? I’d be so happy.”

“Yes, I really do.” I smiled. “There’s a very good possibility. Just keep an open mind.” I slipped her check under the big amethyst crystal on the top of my desk. Amethyst, in the world of gems, stands for humility, and I was very aware of the dangers of wanting to be right about my predictions. I always remind myself to remain nonjudgmental. Sometimes I have to mentally bang my head against the wall, but I honestly try my best to clear away my own preconceived notions. Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes not. “I look forward to seeing you again, because I’m sure there’ll be someone new in your life!”

Adele slipped her jacket on and I walked her down the stairs to the front door. I gave her a gentle hug and a brush on the cheek. “You’ll have a wonderful time. Don’t worry about that.” The door closed behind her.

As soon as my client was safely on her way, I dialed the Leary house yet again. The phone rang several times. And once again, no one answered and no machine picked up. They really must have unplugged the phone. An hour had gone by while I was with Adele. I was worried about Geneva and her mother, but hesitant to return in case the police were still there.

What were the cops searching for at Mary’s? They had Rob’s gun. A Glock. Would it be too much to hope for that Moira truly hadn’t been shot by Rob’s gun? Could they tell from the wound? Did they have the fatal bullet even though they hadn’t completed the autopsy? I assumed they’d dug the bullets that had been fired at Rob out of the garage wall. If it was obvious the bullets weren’t from a Glock, then they must be looking for another gun. If no gun was discovered in Brooke’s and Rob’s house, then someone else—someone other than the family and the wedding party—had been in the garage with Moira that night and escaped, undoubtedly with that gun. None of us had left the premises except for Dan, who hadn’t been there at the time of the shooting anyway. Well, as far as anyone knew. And of course, Brooke who left in the ambulance and returned later. And who in that group would have wished to harm Moira? Andy was angry with her, of course. But while her family had been driven to distraction, no one would have wished her death. Did the police think that one of us could have managed to spirit a gun away under those circumstances? I couldn’t think of any other reason they would be searching Geneva’s and Mary’s homes.

The rest of the day stretched in front of me. I wandered around the apartment, unsure what to do next. I gave Wizard a bit more food and poured a cup of coffee. Was there anything I could do to help Geneva? If I had the family’s birth information, perhaps it would tell me something and I could use the one skill I did have.

Work had been piling up on my desk for the past week or so. Wedding rehearsals and dress fittings and such had cut into my schedule. If I didn’t get to it soon, I’d fall behind on my astrology column for the newspaper, something I’d been hired to do about seven months before and still really enjoyed. Some weeks were slow in my private practice and I’d come to rely on the money from the column more and more. When I was first writing it, of course, the column turned into the bane of my existence—a well-meaning response on my part had led to being targeted by a fanatical religious group. Thankfully, that was behind me, and I was enjoying my AskZodia job more and more.

Plus, I was feeling guilty and anxious that I wasn’t accomplishing more on my next research project. My book on love triangles was quite thrilling, but I wanted to research parent-child astrological connections, both between biological parents and their children and adoptive parents and their children. The universe works in strange ways, and my working hypothesis was that perhaps adoptive parents have closer ties to their children than biological parents do. It was just a thought, but an area that had begun to interest me. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten past collecting data. I needed even more, and I barely had the time to do it.

I opened the first AskZodia email forwarded to me by Samantha, my contact at the Chronicle:

Dear Zodia:

I’m a single woman in my 40s. After a very early disastrous marriage, I’ve been looking for Mr. Right for almost ten years, and still no luck. I’m a fairly bright, attractive woman but just don’t understand why nothing seems to work out for me. My birthday is March 13th, 1973, at 5:30 a.m. in Syracuse, New York.

—Lost and Lonely

I groaned inwardly. Not a letter I could ignore and so many of the letters to Zodia were along the same lines. So many lonely people. I was tempted to write back and tell Lost and Lonely that if she found an answer, to please let me know. I fed her information into my program and generated a natal chart.

Dear Lost and Lonely:

You’re feeling particularly vulnerable now because of your current transits. These will pass. May I suggest that because of your natal Saturn conjunction at the fourth house cusp, you are very self-protective and fearful of connecting with others. This may be due to an unresponsive father or parent figure in early childhood. The men you are attracted to represent some aspect of this, and in turn these disappointments generate even more self-protection and fear. Please think about these things and, perhaps with professional help, delve into these childhood issues. I truly believe this is the way out of your dilemma. There is a time coming in approximately four months that indicates a major emotional epiphany. I believe if you work on these issues now, a bright future is ahead of you.

—Zodia

I’m always nervous about sending these messages into the void. I have no doubt that astrology works and will point the way if we’re just smart enough. What worries me is my concern that the messages do no harm and can help someone find their way.

I worked my way through nine more letters, five from males and four more from females with diverse ages and problems, before I felt I’d accomplished enough for the afternoon. I returned ten other letters to Samantha that I thought wouldn’t be the best for the column, asking her to provide a list of local astrologers to the readers whose letters I couldn’t answer.

It was almost six o’clock. Surely the police would be done with their search of Mary Leary’s house. I picked up the phone. No answer, again. I decided to return uninvited for the second time that day.