Chapter 32 #2
“When Haven was about nine years old, she came down with a very bad case of pneumonia. Real serious. She developed febrile seizures. Maxine stayed at the hospital for days on end. Charles was no help at all. She really didn’t want to lose her job, so she tried to do as much work remotely as possible.
She started taking these herbal supplements that were supposed to provide a natural energy boost. They worked well at first. Her intention was to take them till things with Haven settled and she went back to school, but she kept taking them. ”
Gretchen said, “Did she tell you she was taking them while Haven was hospitalized?”
“Charles brought her whatever she needed from home most of the time—that was the extent of his support,” Angela rolled her eyes.
“But Maxine didn’t want to ask him to pick those up for her, so she asked me.
I figured it wasn’t my business. They were all-natural, supposedly, but a few months later, she started acting differently.
Jittery, anxious. She’d lost some weight.
I asked her if there was something going on at home or if she was still taking those supplements.
It was the supplements. She stopped taking them and things were fine, but these last four months or so, even before she got fired, I started to wonder if she was taking them again. ”
“Was she acting exactly the same as before?” Josie asked.
Angela frowned. “Not exactly. I mean, this time she was a lot more paranoid and to be honest, I wondered if she was having delusions and maybe there wasn’t anyone following her around.”
“You didn’t believe her when she told you someone was stalking her?” Gretchen asked. There was no accusation in her voice, just curiosity.
“I just think if that was true, she would have told me more. It was too vague. We told each other everything. She confided in me about Charles for years. When it became clear that she wasn’t going to leave him, I didn’t judge.
I let her vent, and we tried to come up with ways for her to stay in the marriage and try to manage him better, and her own feelings.
I never once judged her, and I kept all of her secrets. ”
“What secrets were those?” asked Josie.
Angela gave a sad smile. “I’d never give these up, you know, especially not to strangers, but since Maxi was murdered, it seems like the best thing would be to tell them.”
“Anything you can tell us would be helpful,” Gretchen agreed.
Maxine’s secrets weren’t all that scandalous.
Of the items Angela listed, taking the herbal supplements was the most troubling.
The others had to do with times she stole office supplies from work, hit a car in the grocery store parking lot and kept going, and lied to Charles to keep the peace in their house.
“If Maxi knew someone was after her, even if she didn’t want to report it, she would have told me everything there was to know about it.”
“Did you ask her if she’d started taking the supplements again?” Josie said.
Angela rubbed her temples. “Yes. She was very angry with me. Denied it, of course. Things were strained between us for a while after that.”
“When was this?” Gretchen said.
“A few weeks before the festival. I told her that I just wanted her to be happy and whole and that she’d been doing so well before that, it was heartbreaking to see her in such poor shape.”
“Doing so well?” Josie said. “What do you mean?”
“About a year ago, last summer, Haven had just gotten her driver’s license.
Charles bought her an old beat-up car to get to her part-time job, go out with her friends and to drive back and forth to school when her senior year started.
Maxi had a lot more time on her hands. For once, she started really focusing on her own needs.
Self-care. I’d been telling her for years that she needed to pay close attention to it.
Especially with a husband like Charles. I told her if she wasn’t going to leave him, then she should find her own happiness in whatever form she could.
Pamper herself. God knows, she deserved it.
I secretly hoped that if she got strong enough, maybe she would leave him. ”
“What did focusing on herself look like?” Gretchen asked.
“Eating healthier, taking up yoga and spin classes. She even started coming in to get her hair done regularly. It was great. We’d go out for a late dinner or a drink afterward.
She bought herself some new clothes. She joined a book club at the library for a couple of months but stopped because she said no one ever discussed the books at the meetings.
Instead, she started volunteering at the women’s center.
That seemed to be much more fulfilling for her and if you ask me, a great place for her to make contacts.
She was doing really well. Happier than I’d ever seen her and then, about four or five months ago, in February or March, she just started to fall apart.
At first, I thought she and Charles were fighting again.
Maybe he was coming down on her for all the money she was spending or all the time she was out of the house volunteering, but he wasn’t around much. Traveling and working late.”
In other words, he was seeing the woman he’d met.
“I thought Maxi’s downturn was a temporary thing. Everyone has bad days, bad weeks, even, but it lasted for months and it only got worse and worse.”