The retirement home smelled like a prison to Diane. She didn’t like it. She walked beside Hanks as Christina Wanamaker led them down a long hallway. Several wheelchairs were in the hall with elderly men and women asleep in them. No one was attending to them. Diane noticed a few visitors, but most of the residents were alone.
The walls of the facility were painted the same pale yellow as the outside of the building. The floors were a green tile. Bad elevator music was piped in from somewhere. The place was clean, but Lillian was right; it was dreary. It made Diane realize that the hardest thing in the world to be is old, poor, and alone. Time to find her inner objectivity. It wouldn’t do to break down and cry here in the hallway.
Ms. Wanamaker led them to a large sunroom. One wall was painted with tropical plants, flowers, and birds. It was the cheeriest thing Diane had seen in the place. Gauthier’s work, thought Diane, was still very good. At the far end of the room a woman, dark against the waning light, sat near a large picture window.
“Miss Gauthier,” said the retirement home director, “you have visitors.”
“Visitors,” came a rough, halting voice. “I? Visitors? I don’t believe I’ve ever had visitors before.”
They approached the woman, their shoes clicking and echoing on the tile floor. Diane set her box and folder down on a nearby table and grabbed a couple of chairs. Harte helped her. They placed them near the woman. The director adjusted the window blinds to reduce the sunlight coming through. Now there was just the ambient light from the fixtures in the room, a harsher light. Diane, Vanessa, Lillian, and Hanks sat down in a semicircle in front of the woman. Harte sat back a little behind Lillian.
Maybelle Agnes Gauthier was a lanky woman. Even at her advanced age she did not look shrunken, but large boned and tall. Her hair, fine white wisps over the crown of her head, was thin and showing a pinkish scalp. Her face was crisscrossed with lines. Her lips had all but disappeared, they were so thin and lined. She wore a pink housedress, a gray bulky sweater, leggings, and house slippers. But most noticeable about her were her eyes. Diane had never seen eyes their color. They were a dark bluish color with flecks of yellow and light blue, almost like copper ore. The eyes followed each one of them as they arranged their chairs. They had a sheen to them as they moved, as if she had had cataract surgery.
“Maybelle,” said Lillian, “it’s been a very long time. The last time I saw you was at one of Rosewood’s cotillions and we were young women dressed in white gowns and gloves.”
“Cotillion. I haven’t heard that word in a long time. Who are you? I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m Lillian Chapman. I used to be Lillian Egan.”
“Lillian Egan? I don’t remember. You say we knew each other? I didn’t know many people.”
“We did not know each other well,” said Lillian, “but our paths crossed on occasion. My father owned the railroad that ran through Rosewood.”
“I remember the railroad. I think my father probably hated your father.” She gave a throaty chuckle. “He hated a lot of people.”
“We would like to know about your life,” said Detective Hanks.
“My life? You would like to know about my life? Why?” she said.
“We think it would be interesting,” he said.
“Do you?” she said. “All of you people have come here thinking my life is interesting? Why is that?”
“You are a famous artist, for starters,” said Hanks.
Gauthier was far more clearheaded than Diane thought she would be. It frankly surprised her. She knew Lillian had a keen mind, but she came from a long line of people who aged slowly.
“And we have been digging in your backyard,” said Hanks slowly.
She looked startled, almost confused. Then she said, “Young man, I don’t have a backyard.”
“You did a long time ago,” he said. “Didn’t you?”
“A long time ago, yes. That was so very long ago. Before… before…”
She let the sentence fade away without finishing it. She seemed to have withdrawn into herself.
“May we record our conversation?” said Hanks.
Silence.
He turned on the recorder anyway.
“You know, Maybelle, at our age,” said Lillian, “there isn’t much that can hurt us anymore. Sometimes it’s good to tell people about our lives before everything is gone. I remember your mother and her large hats.”
Maybelle smiled. “Those hats. As a little girl, I used to traipse around the house in those hats.” She frowned. “Until Father came home. He was opposed to traipsing. My mother is dead. So is my father.”
“We are very old,” said Lillian.
“Yes. Very old,” she repeated. “Why have you come?” she asked again.
“You asked us to,” said Diane. “You said if you ever disappeared, come find you. You wrote it on the bottom of a desk drawer. It took a long time, but we are here.”
She didn’t say anything for a long time, just stared at Diane.
“I did, didn’t I? I had forgotten. It was so long ago.”
“Why did you leave your note on the bottom of a drawer?” asked Hanks.
“I didn’t want my father to find it. He wouldn’t know to look there. I thought Mother would.”
“How did you come to be here?” asked Diane. “Why aren’t you living in Pigeon Ridge? You did live there, didn’t you?”
“Yes. My mother gave the house in Pigeon Ridge to me. It was hers to give. I came to be here because my father put me away. Mother came to see me, but she couldn’t rescue me like I thought she would. I have a brother somewhere. I don’t think he knows where I am. He was a good brother. He must be dead too. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you my story after all.” She turned her head away, dismissing them.
“We know your brother,” said Diane.
Gauthier jerked her head back around and looked at Diane.
“Your younger brother, Everett. Isn’t that his name?” said Diane.
“You know him?” she said. “Does he know where I am?”
“We found you,” said Diane. “He could have too. You would be proud of him. He has several businesses. He married and has a son. He has a grandson. His son is a doctor and is going to run for Congress. His grandson is a law student at the University of Georgia. He’s going to be a lawyer.”
Diane stopped and let it sink in. It didn’t take long. She saw the change come over her eyes. Gauthier had been indigent, living in dingy retirement homes for almost sixty years, and her brother had prospered. The whole family had prospered.
“Is that the truth?” Gauthier said.
Diane had found a photo on the Internet for the occasion. It was an award banquet for Everett’s son, Gordon Walters. The whole family was there, sitting around the table. Thank God for the Internet. She went over to Gauthier and handed her the photo.
“This is your brother here. Beside him is your nephew, Gordon Walters, his wife, Wendy, and your grandnephew, Tyler Walters,” said Diane.
“Walters?” said Maybelle Gauthier. “Why is his name Walters?”
“Your father left Rosewood and changed his name,” Diane said.
“Everett looks like Father,” she said. “He looks like Father.”
“Does he?” said Diane.
“He left me here and never looked for me.” She looked up at Diane and her eyes were hard, like jet coal. “You came here for my story. Okay, I’ll tell it. I’ll tell you my story, all of it. There’s not much they can do to me now.”