Chapter 31 #2
“Well, because they are sisters too,” Lulu said.
“Not now,” Julie said. “The thing before. The disappearing friends. Talking to the air, no one there. It was bad and sad, your mother died, and . . .”
“Look how you’ve upset Julie,” Scotty snapped at Isabel. She put her hands on Julie’s shoulders and led her into the house, closing the door behind her. For a second, Kate thought she wanted to stop Julie from saying more. But when Scotty came out, she kept railing at Isabel.
“For God’s sake, do you know what you’ve done?” Scotty demanded.
“Scotty,” Nick said, “take it down a notch. We’ll deal with it.”
“Don’t shush me!” Scotty said, slapping his hand. “She’s drunk. She’s made a mockery of our family, acting this way. I’m ashamed.”
“Mom, sorry,” Isabel said.
“You should be. I’m disgusted!” Her voice was shaking, and her face was red. She turned to Kate, pulled her and Lulu away from Nick and the kids. “Hey, did that cop ask you about tea parties in Beth’s room?”
“What?” Kate asked. She had expected Scotty would want to talk about how to handle the girls and felt shocked by the change of course.
“Yeah, he asked me,” Lulu said. “He’s just ruling out fingerprints. He found all of ours in her room.”
“I found it offensive,” Scotty said, looking at Kate. “Didn’t you?”
“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it,” Kate said, feeling off balance, still thinking about Sam and Isabel.
“We were all best friends,” Lulu said. “Her room does have the best view in the house, and we did sometimes drink tea there.”
“Especially in the winter . . . ,” Kate said, remembering. “It was so cozy by her fireplace. She loved that.”
“Well I think it was outrageous,” Scotty said. “He made me feel like we went creeping through there after she died, to pick at her jewelry or something! I really feel like saying something to his superior. Find Beth’s killer—arrest Pete, if that’s who it is! They’re just wasting all our time.”
“Well, the investigation takes time,” Lulu said.
“They’re doing the best they can,” Kate said.
Scotty exhaled, eyes red with tears, sputtering as if she was the only person who really loved Beth, who wanted to see her killer brought to justice.
Then she took a deep breath and hugged Kate.
“I’m so sorry for overreacting. I’m just a wreck.
Thanks for getting Isabel home. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? ”
“Okay,” Kate said, exchanging a wow, that was intense glance with Lulu.
She said goodbye to Nick, gave Isabel a quick kiss.
She had wanted a minute alone with Scotty—to get a mother’s advice on how to deal with the girls’ drinking and defacing the rocks—but Scotty was clearly not in a place to give it.
She, Lulu, and Sam walked to the parking lot. Sam seemed steady, as if the alcohol hadn’t affected her as much as it had Isabel. They drove to Pete and Beth’s house, but there were no lights on.
“Where’s your father?” Kate asked.
“Three guesses, and if one of them is with Nicola, you’re right,” Sam said.
“He went to Mathilda’s?” Kate asked, upset at the idea of Nicola letting him be there after Kate had gone out on a limb for her.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Then you’re coming home with me,” she said, trying to contain her out-of-control feelings.
On the way to New London, they didn’t talk at all.
Lulu tuned the radio to a nineties station with Smashing Pumpkins singing “1979.” I-95 was crowded, and they hit a traffic jam that lasted from Niantic through Waterford.
Back on Bank Street, Lulu stopped before getting into her Range Rover. Kate watched her press her forehead against Sam’s.
“Don’t do that again,” Lulu said. “Any of it. You have to take care of yourself and be strong. And I don’t want you making your aunt worry.”
“Sorry,” Sam mumbled.
Lulu and Kate hugged.
“What was that with Scotty?” Lulu whispered.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Kate said.
“She’s drinking more than ever. Is it Beth? Her way of dealing with losing her?”
“I guess,” Kate said. “Or maybe something with Nick?”
“All of the above,” Lulu said. “Remind me never to get married.”
“If you’ll remind me.”
“Later.”
“Yep, later for sure.”
Lulu got into her Range Rover and drove away. Kate disarmed the alarm, and she and Sam climbed the stairs.
“Sam,” she said. “How many times have you done it? Painted those things on the rocks?”
“A couple,” Sam said.
“You and your friends ruined something wonderful. Don’t you care about that?”
Sam shrugged. Kate gritted her teeth. How much of a cry for help was this, and what could Kate do about it?
“Your mother loved Little Beach,” Kate said. “How do you think she’d feel about what you did?”
Sam swallowed hard, looking away, as if she couldn’t meet Kate’s eyes.
“Call your father and tell him you’re staying with me tonight,” Kate said when they’d entered the loft. Popcorn came bounding over, barking to be fed and taken out.
“Can we clean it up?” Sam asked, watching Kate clip the leash onto Popcorn’s collar.
Kate looked at her.
“The paint?” Sam asked. “Can we try to get it off the rocks?”
“I don’t know if it will come off. I don’t know if the chemicals it would take would be bad for the sea.”
“Can we try?” Sam asked, her voice breaking. “For Mom?”
Kate stood still for a minute. If defacing the rocks had been Sam’s way of getting attention, then maybe this was the way she had to ask for help.
“Yes, we can do that,” Kate said. She put her arms around her niece, felt her shoulders shaking. “Come on now, call your dad so he’ll know where you are.”
“He won’t care,” Sam said.
“He will.”
“He won’t, and it doesn’t matter. Nothing does.”
“Sam, yes it does. I promise,” Kate said.
“I want my mom,” Sam said, her voice thinning out and rising to a shriek.
“Oh, Sam,” Kate said, dropping Popcorn’s leash and pulling her niece close.
“I want my mom,” Sam wailed. And she started to pull her own hair, scratch her own face, and even though Kate was grabbing her, holding her, trying to soothe her, Sam wouldn’t stop.