Andrea
Pressing my forehead against the cool windowpane, I watched Benjamin leave in the heavy snow. Stretched past exhaustion, all I wanted was a nice cup of tea. After setting the kettle on, I sat at my kitchen table to think.
I wasn’t sure why Eugene had been a threat to Sharon or for that matter, why Carolyn had been. I suspected it had something to do with her warped version of love, like I mentioned to Benjamin when he’d asked me what I thought her motive could be. When I looked at the puzzle, that explanation was on the only piece that fit.
Sharon was savvy enough to know that Eugene would push a record button and I didn’t think she would have minded. It allowed her to set him up for a rape charge, just on the off chance her plans failed and she was caught. Being so far from home, I’m sure she felt out of her element and had a plan B to fall back on.
The kettle sang sounding like a time out whistle, reminding me I’d have to find a way to disabuse myself of such negative thinking about Sharon. Cecil would pay for Eugene’s murder and that tape had nothing to do with Carolyn, so I would let it go. A promise is a promise.
I poured hot water over my tea bag, dipped the bag a few times, then returned to my chair at the table. I took a sip and tried to lose my thoughts in the snowy scene outside my kitchen window.
I snapped alert when I heard a door opening. “Benjamin? What did you forget?”
“You bitch!” I heard Sharon yell. “You stole my tape!” With the directed swoop of a homing pigeon, she migrated to the kitchen and hovered over me.
“Who did you show my tape to? What are you going to do with it?” Her questions targeted me like bullets.
My wildly beating heart cascaded toward fear, but stopped at loathing. A cold uneasiness shimmied up my back, but I rolled my shoulders and picked up my tea to shake it off. “Hi Sharon. You didn’t tell Cecil about the first time with Eugene, did you? The part where you and he are, shall we say, blissfully engaged? Were you afraid Cecil might push the eject button on that pedestal he has you sitting on? Were you afraid you couldn’t sucker him into going to jail for the crime you committed if he knew what really happened?”
Arms folded and head cocked to the side, she looked at me with mild interest. “What are you talking about? Eugene caught me off-guard; I couldn’t believe his gall. He threatened to hurt me if I didn’t cooperate, and I don’t care if you believe me or not. That he could play me like a violin with his tongue was embarrassing, but now you and I have something special in common.”
What a putrid thought. “I saw you whisper something in Eugene’s ear. What did you tell him? ‘No matter what I say or do, don’t stop?’”
A slow smile crawled across her lips. “Why would I do that? He practically tore me apart.”
“Why didn’t you just shoot him, Sharon?”
“What do you mean? Cecil shot him.”
“No, you killed him, but for some reason you didn’t do it before the sex and you didn’t destroy that tape.”
To appear calm, I took another sip of tea when, in reality, I was anything but. “I know you now, Sharon. By the way, we aren’t allowed to shoot drug addicts because they piss us off. There are laws against that sort of thing.”
Her eyes, glistening with venom again, zeroed in on the pendant. She straightened her head and dropped her arms to her sides. “And your point?”
Setting my cup down with a clunk, I said, “This is my point. You are a cold-blooded killer.” For a second, I pitied Sharon. She’d come without a coat. Her blue cashmere sweater and black corduroy pants were stylish, but I envisioned her in a standard-issue convict uniform. “Sharon, I know you love Benjamin and Roy, but you have gone so far over the line, you may never find your way back.”
“You ingrate. You fucking ingrate!” She banged the palms of her hands down on the table shaking it. “Eugene was an asshole. He was one of those sick fucks who get off on victimizing people, just like that piece of shit who molested me.”
With her face scrunched up in a self-righteous gloat, she said, “And, let me tell you about your precious Carolyn. Carolyn was probably going to overdose or die of AIDS in the next year of her life, and you sit there on your fat ass, preaching to me about what this screwed up society deems acceptable?”
Hammer blows reshaping my cranium could not have hurt more, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of flinching.
“Some fucking Girl Scout you are, Andrea. I’m not giving up my career because of your moral certitude. You give me that damn tape, and then go straight to hell!” She swiped the teacup and sent it shattering against the wall. “Give me my tape!” she demanded, her spittle landing on my forehead.
I snatched open a napkin and wiped my forehead while taking note of the tea crying down my wall. I turned to stare into treacherous eyes that reflected the flavors of her madness.
In the next second, Sharon settled at the table like we were good friends, about to catch up on old times. “The tape proves nothing and neither does the necklace. You’ve had your fun, Scooby-Doo, now give the tape back like a good little would-be sister-in-law, and we’ll call it a day.”
I thought about pouring hot teakettle water on her and seeing if such a wicked witch would melt.
“Sharon, how did you get Carolyn’s necklace?”
“Oh, you’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?” She wore what was becoming her classic sly smile. “Here’s a thought. You give me my tape first, and I’ll tell you what you want to know after that.”
My heart squeezed with anxiety. If I gave her the tape, Cecil would never know she was a liar. He’d do the time for the murder she’d committed … but, I reminded myself again; that had nothing to do with Carolyn. Maybe Cecil knew the truth and it didn’t matter. People will go through a lot in the name of love.
“Oh, I think I hear the gears clacking in your little brain,” she said in a singsong voice, but when she spoke again, her voice was flat. “You don’t want to mess with me, Andrea. You really don’t. I have access to my stepfather’s guns.”
The threat was already clear to me, but Sharon obviously wanted to make sure I understood. She frowned in pretend sadness. “Being distraught over your sister’s death, then being a murder suspect yourself, while juggling a tenuous romantic relationship with my brother is enough to push anyone over the edge. One day, poof!” She illustrated the “poof” with her fingers springing open to make a cloud shape. “One day, poor thing just couldn’t take it anymore and killed herself.”
I looked around for a makeshift weapon, but in my heart, I knew I wasn’t a head basher. If I played along, got her to talk, maybe she’d trip up and tell me something I could use against her.
“All right. The tape is in the VCR,” I said.
“Let’s get it.”
She followed me into the living room. I turned on the VCR and reached to remove the tape.
“No,” Sharon said, “I want to make sure that’s the right one. Push play.”
Five seconds was all she needed to see. She held out her hand for me to give it to her.
I held the tape close to my chest. “I’ll give you your tape back, but only after you tell me everything.”
She gazed at the tape, and then up at me. I knew she was debating whether or not she should try to force it from me. I narrowed my eyes and summoned by best, “bring it on” expression. “You’ll have a knockdown drag out fight on your hands, so don’t even try it. I’m as motivated to kick your ass as you are to try and kick mine and I have home court advantage.”
She flopped onto the couch, slouching against the back of it. “Carolyn gave the necklace to me. Did you notice all the other stuff in the box? Those were things she asked me to send Roy. She was convinced I knew where they were.”
I slowly took my spot in the armchair. Of course. I hadn’t been able to put it together before. Carolyn loved teddy bears and Ferris wheels, and I guess she figured there wasn’t a boy on the planet who wouldn’t get a kick out of a big red truck.
Sharon shrugged her shoulders. “Since she was high all the time, I didn’t bother to remind her that Roy was a little boy and probably shouldn’t wear flower necklaces.”
I rubbed my fingertips across the daisy pendant. Our mother had given Carolyn the necklace, and Carolyn wanted Roy to have it. Roy would have it.
“I’ll give those things to Roy in time,” Sharon continued. “I want Roy to be happy. Contrary to what you think about me, Andrea, I’m not without compassion.”
I could refute that, but I wanted to make sure the noose was good and tight when she finished talking.
“What about Eugene?” I asked.
“What about him? Eugene didn’t have to die, but he fucked up, literally, as you saw in living color.” I still didn’t believe her.
“Why did you involve Cecil?”
She sat up and forward. “Get this. Flat tire. Debris from the house construction. Talk about inconvenient. Good thing my life’s work prepared me to cope with a dead body, so it wasn’t that bad. I took care of the first gun with Carolyn, and I should have taken care of the second one too, but Cecil said he’d handle it.” She let out a snort. “Men. God love them. They need to be taken care of like babies.”
That’s it. She’d just admitted to killing Eugene before Cecil got there. That’s what I had been waiting to hear, but I needed more. “Go on.”
“After I had to call Cecil, I needed a story to tell him. I kept the tape, on the off chance I needed to prove what happened. It was my fail safe. What he did to me is clear. Erasing the first part won’t be a problem, depending on what my lawyer thinks.” She smiled her Evilina smile. “But, far be it from me to tamper with evidence until my lawyer gives the go ahead.” Her fingers tapped impatiently against both knees.
Taking a deep breath, I asked the hardest question I had ever asked anyone. “And the first gun? What did you do with the first gun?”
“It’s at the bottom of the Mississippi River in a bag of rocks and haven’t you heard enough? I hope you have, because I’m through talking.” She stood.
She had shot Carolyn. My adrenalin soared. My God. I’d have to live with that knowledge the rest of my life, but there was still no way to prove it. I didn’t even bother to wipe away the warm tears that dripped onto my shirt.
“Sharon?” Benjamin spoke, appearing from nowhere. His gaze ricocheted between Sharon and me. I looked back and forth between them. Sharon’s face was a caricature of shock—eyes and mouth wide-open—and I’m sure mine wasn’t far from that. His face was a blob of features distorted with pain.
“Oh my God. You—you heard everything?” Sharon stammered. She lunged over the coffee table at me. “Bitch! You set me up!” The vase burst. The flowers on the coffee table took wings. Sharon landed on me. I landed on the armchair. The chair toppled over with me in it. The tape sailed through the air.
Sharon untangled herself and got to the tape. She ran past Benjamin, who had bent down to help me.
“Go! I’m all right.” I urged him to catch up with her, even though my legs faltered in the air like those of an upside-down insect.
As soon as I could, I gave chase. They were just beyond the patio, kneeling in the snow. The tape had ended up on the patio floor near my mother’s glider. I snatched it up, and then I watched them.
“Sharon, it’s all right,” Benjamin said. “It’s going to be okay.”
“She stole my tape, but you can’t stop loving me, Benny.” Sharon’s voice, an octave higher than normal, sounded like it belonged to a lost little girl. “I wasn’t going to let them hurt Roy.”
“I understand,” Benjamin said.
She placed her open palms on both sides of her brother’s face. “I have to finish medical school. I have to finish! Mama will be so embarrassed, Benny. The whole family—”
“The whole family will understand. It’ll be all right. I promise.” Benjamin caught her hands in his, and slowly they rose to their feet.
“But I’m smart. I can finish. What did I do wrong? Roy deserves the chance I never had. Don’t you see? Why should his drug-addicted mother get the chance to fuck up his life like our father fucked up mine? Carolyn lost that right, Benny.”
“It’s okay, Sharon,” Benjamin repeated.
“And Eugene, I was just going to talk to Eugene, I swear. And then that son of a bitch hurt me. He was a user, Benny. Just like that bastard our father handed me over to. Eugene deserved what he got. We couldn’t have scum like that coming close, threatening Roy.”
They held on to each other for dear life, then Benjamin’s eyes met mine. I turned away, it hurt too much to look at her.
I put the tape behind some canned goods in my pantry and called Detective Peck. I’d give it to him and let the police handle it. Benjamin wrapped Sharon in a blanket. She sat motionless near the fireplace. Her face, a mask of chocolate porcelain, hid whatever she was thinking.
A towel soaked up water as I collected the pieces of the broken vase. Benjamin helped clean up. He looked as desolate as I felt. The strewn daises supplied an appropriate epitaph for this evening’s events.
“It seems inadequate to say, but I’m so sorry, Andrea. She’s not well. She’s … troubled.”
“Yes, she is. You heard all of it then?”
“Most of it. I came in just as the cup hit the wall or the shit hit the fan, however you want to look at it. I–uh… I heard the part about the gun being in the river.”
A sob caught in my throat. I wondered why Benjamin was taking it so well. When I made eye contact, I saw it hadn’t sunk in. His eyes held that distant look of someone whose body was here, but his thoughts were a zillion miles away. “The police are coming.”
“Yeah, I heard you make the call. Will they send an ambulance?”
I nodded. Finished cleaning, I stuck my hands in my pockets, raising and lowering my shoulders. What made you come back?”
“I spotted her or rather spotted my car in the rearview mirror. I thought she was going to confront you about what you’d done, and I wanted to be here for you.”
“I’m glad you did.”
The three of us sat in an atmosphere so heavy, words could not lift it. Fat flakes fell outside, and the fire crackled inside, while the clock ticked on the mantel. Ten minutes passed. It was surreal. I thought if someone could make an award-winning musical with AIDS as the topic, just think what a smart producer could do with this story.
Twenty minutes passed. How long could an ambulance take to get here even in the snow? And where was Peck?
Benjamin finally spoke to me. “I saw the invitations in the car. What are you going to do with them now?”
A siren squall filled the space I might have used to answer him. Paramedics shuffled through eight inches of snow to ascertain the nature of the emergency. Sharon didn’t answer when they tried to get information from her, so Benjamin filled them in. When one guy said he’d be right back with the stretcher, she stood up. Benjamin put his coat around her shoulders. As she passed me, our eyes locked.
“You should mail the invitations,” she said. “Roy deserves two good parents. Don’t you get it? That’s all I ever wanted.”
Benjamin brought up the rear on their way to the ambulance. He halted in front of me and put my car keys in my hand, then folded his hands over mine. We exchanged soulful looks before he opened his arms, and I molded myself into him.
“It’ll be a miracle if this doesn’t destroy everything good in my life,” he whispered as he rested his lips against my forehead, and then he was gone.