Doris spent an hour on the phone talking to a college classmate who'd called a few weeks earlier. Doris hadn't gotten a chance to return the call till now, which gave her the perfect opportunity to be in the second den, the smaller one, that her mother used as an office.
As Doris and her friend Amy went through the latest on divorces, births, re-marriages and promotions, Doris carefully examined everything on the green felt desk pad, and then began working her way through the desk drawers.
She wanted to find something with the man's name on it. Runyon.
'And did you hear about Sally Wasserman?'
'No,' Doris said, trying to stay alert as she talked and searched. 'But she's such a decent person, I hope it's good news.'
'New breasts.'
'Sally Wasserman? That must be just a rumor.'
'No rumor. I've seen them with my own eyes.'
'Maybe she's just wearing padded bras.'
Amy chuckled. 'No bra's this padded, believe me. Plus, they sit straight out.'
'Maybe I should look into it myself.'
'You? You've got great charlies, Doris.'
'"Charlies?"' Doris laughed. 'God, where did you hear that?'
'That's what my ten-year-old calls them when he thinks I'm not listening to him talk to his totally sexist little friends. I think we're raising a generation of male chauvinist pigs.'
'Well, is there anybody we haven't worked over?' Much as Doris had always liked Amy, she always felt slightly degraded after talking to the woman. They had a tendency to make uncharitable remarks about other people and that wasn't exactly the image Doris wanted of herself. Living at home with a dominating mother didn't exactly make her an ideal person herself, so she shouldn't criticize others for the way they chose to live their lives.
Amy said, 'And how about Robert Fitz'
But before Amy could launch into a job on hapless fat Robert Fitzgerald, Doris said, 'Did you hear about Helen?'
'McGiver?'
'Uh-huh.'
'No, what? Her husband dump her?'
'No. She got promoted to chief of staff at her hospital in Florida.'
'And that's it?'
Doris laughed. 'Oh, right, I guess I forgot to add that she's figured out a way to have sex while she's operating on a patient. She's sleeping with all these sexy young interns and'
Runyon!
Name, address, telephone number neatly typed on a sheet of letterhead.
But that wasn't the most surprising thing.
It was who the letterhead belonged to that shocked Doris.
Third desk drawer, left side.
'You all right?'
'Fine.'
'You sure, Doris?'
Doris tried to recover. 'I just looked up at the clock.'
'You have to go?'
'I'm afraid so. I just remembered that I promised my mother I'd help her with something.'
Pause. 'How is your mother?' Amy's voice always got very tight whenever she mentioned Mrs. Tappley.
Doris knew that whenever Amy discussed her, she clucked about Evelyn. Old shrew. Keeping her daughter a prisoner like that. So selfish. That was the funny thing. Doris knew that Amy really liked her. They'd always been something like best friends, and yet Amy completely disapproved of how Doris let Evelyn control her life.
'Oh, she's fine. Getting older. You know.'
But for once Amy didn't deliver a cryptic speech about how much a prisoner Doris was in her own house.
'It's sad, isn't it?' Amy said. 'Seeing your folks get old. I looked at my mother the other day, and I suddenly realized she's becoming this little old lady. It really scared me, how vulnerable she looked. I wanted to hide her somewhere, so Death couldn't find her. You know?'
'I know exactly.'
'Oh hon, I'm sorry I run people down all the time. I know how much of a gossip I am, and I know how much that bothers you.'
'I don't hang up, do I?' Doris said. 'And I gossip just as much as you do.'
'Thanks for saying that, hon, even though you know it's not true.'
'This time, I owe you the call.'
'Take care of yourself.'
'You, too, Amy.'
Doris sat back and stared at the letterhead. Two other names were typed on it, further down the page:
ADAM MORROW
RICK CORDAY
The names were followed by the same Chicago address and phone number.
But it was the name on the letterhead that held Doris's attention.
ARTHUR K. HALLIWELL
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Arthur Halliwell was one of the most successful attorneys in Chicago, and had been the family's personal lawyer since the days that Doris' father had selected him to guard and administer the Tappley fortune.
Arthur Halliwell was one of the most respected men in the state. And the wisest. And the most conservative.
Doris couldn't imagine him ever helping her mother do something as illegal as get Jill Coffey into some sort of trouble…
'She'll get her comeuppance,' her mother had said earlier.
Still so bitter. Still so angry.
Doris could easily picture her mother contriving some kind of plan to ensnare Jill but Arthur Halliwell helping her…?
Doris slid the letterhead back into the drawer and closed it quietly.
She wanted to see her mother pass on with as much grace as possible. She did not want Evelyn to waste her remaining years pursuing some insane dream of vengeance.
Of his own free will, her brother Peter had crossed the state line into Indiana where, on three different occasionsand perhaps more that nobody knew abouthe'd murdered and eviscerated three young women. And the state of Indiana had put him to death.
Jill Coffey had had nothing to do with any of it.
It was time Evelyn was made to understand that.
And understand it once and for all.
She left the den, climbing the grand staircase to the second floor and her mother's room.