Chapter 34 #2
“Oh yes. Too well, for my liking,” she said.
She crossed her legs and bobbed her foot.
Not like a woman full of pep, but a fretfulness.
“None of us knew what happened to the Chambers, but I assumed the worst while hoping they wouldn’t come back.
That’s awful, I know, but I hated them. I hope you’re not offended.
If you’re a private cop investing Theo and Piper, that means you weren’t close to the family? ”
“Duane tried to have me killed a handful of times,” I said.
She laugh-snorted and covered her mouth, embarrassed at the noise. “Oh no. Is that true?”
“It’s true. I can’t talk about it, but trust me, they aren’t coming back.”
“Oh myyyyyy goodness, Mackenzie. I’m dying to know more. Years ago? How do you know?” she said.
Mackenzie August, master of bonding, sharing secrets with the nice woman.
“Duane’s illegal enterprise brought him into my orbit. We clashed. He and Emile died in Italy. I was there.”
“In Italy! I always wondered. Why were they in Italy? And why were you?”
“Cindy.” I gave her my winningest smile and she nearly fainted. “That’s such a long and sordid story, it would take us the rest of our lives to figure it out. I was part of a group that took them and others out of commission.”
“So the Chambers are dead? You are certain?”
“So dead.”
“How did it happen?” she said, her hand still over her mouth.
“Hoisted by their own petard. You were right not to trust him.”
“I never once did. No matter how chummy my innocent, oblivious husband was with him. They moved in a few years after us, and Richie just had to go meet the new neighbors. They came to the beach every few months, and Richie invited them over for dinner. I begged him not to, but neighbors are neighbors, he would say, and we’re supposed to love our neighbors.
Duane was resistant at first, but less so when he learned Richie had money and connections.
Duane told us he was in construction but I saw through it.
Mackenzie, I saw right through him to the dirty soul.
I can’t believe this, I wish Richie was here.
That’d be one big, hah I told you so! Are you sure you don’t want tea? Why are you here now?”
“Are you close with Theo and Piper?”
“Absolutely not. I have similar feelings about Theo as I did about his sister Emile. I keep hoping they’ll sell that house to someone decent and kind. They visit several times a year and Theo always acts so oddly.”
“Odd as heck. Although they’re, ah, unsavory, they aren’t in the same league as Duane. Mostly they’re inept at everything, but I still have strong concerns.”
“Boy, you and me both.”
“What should I know about them, Cindy?” I said.
“Well.” She looked toward one of her walls, thinking. “Are they in legal trouble?”
“No. More like, common sense trouble. Perhaps financial trouble soon.”
“That breaks my heart, but I don’t doubt it. I have a vested interest in them. I…” She stood and walked uncertainly to her collection of family photos, like she was having second thoughts each step. She brought me a photo of a young woman. “That’s Mary. One of mine, taken eight years ago.”
“She’s lovely.”
“She lives in upstate New York with a nice man now. She’s happy.
For a while, though, in her youth, it was touch and go.
She insisted on travel instead of college, and she came home in love with a deadbeat Spanish man who wanted to smoke weed and have sex and wander America.
He took several years from her and left her heartbroken and penniless at age twenty-three.
She moved home with us. Here. Listless and lost. As a mother, I was a mess, countless awful futures for her in my mind.
Against my will, she spent time with the Chambers when they visited.
She and Emile struck up a pseudo friendship.
During those lost years, Emile convinced her to be a surrogate mother. She carried Sophia.”
Oh wow. Bingo.
I remained calm.
“Theo told me his sister used a surrogate,” I said.
“It was my Mary. Impregnated with their embryo. She carried baby Sophia, and delivered her naturally, no complications. They paid her well. When they visited, Mary would babysit Sophia. She didn’t have motherly instincts toward the baby, more like a fascination.
Pride in her work. It helped Mary grow up, the awareness that she’d created something beautiful.
She held Sophia Chambers and could picture a better future for herself.
Could picture being a mother. Does that make sense? It sounds like whimsy.”
“Was it difficult for you?”
She rubbed at her cheek, like she could still feel a little hand touching her.
“At first I thought it was monstrous. I knew Emile only wanted to keep her bikini figure, wanted to buy the convenience. And it was hard socially, explaining the arrangement to people. No one understood and I didn’t blame them.
Richie never knew what to think, poor man, how to help.
Eventually though it seemed like a miracle.
The beautiful child, and my Mary so fulfilled.
I was fond of baby Sophia, like a great aunt would be, I suppose.
A great aunt knowing her baby niece is doomed by her parents.
Mary and I both said yes when Emile asked us to keep Sophia during their trip.
They said they’d be gone for two weeks for work, but that was all they told us.
They never returned. Now I know it was to Italy, where they died. Mary…”
Her voice caught. She stood and walked into the kitchen and poured water into an electric kettle.
She blew her nose and cleared her throat.
While the water heated, she set out a teacup and a bag of Earl Gray.
The teacup rattled against the counter because her fingers shook.
When the water boiled, she poured it over the bag and brought it back to where we’d been sitting.
“I apologize,” she said. Her eyes were faraway. “I didn’t realize how much it would sting.”
I nodded.
“The days and the weeks passed. Duane and Emile just— Poof, gone. They vanished with no word. On one hand, good riddance, on the other…” She stirred the tea, little spoon clinking against the porcelain.
“Mary had carried Sophia, delivered her, and now had babysat her for weeks. You can see how she started to think of the child as her own. Eventually Richie reported the missing parents to the police. Social Services asked us if we’d keep the child while it was investigated.
Soon, though, Emile’s brother was found.
Of course Theo and Piper wanted Sophia. Or I should say, of course they wanted Duane’s estate, which included Sophia.
Mary was distraught. Cried for days, after the worker took Sophia away.
” She blew on her tea. “That story has a happy ending. Mary has her own gorgeous daughter now, with another on the way. It has healed wounds for us all.”
I set the photograph of Mary onto the little table beside me. On the wall, I spotted a more recent photo of her, holding her own infant and beaming. The pain had helped young Mary grow and heal. I wondered what the sudden wealth would have done to her, if she’d been given Sophia.
“Thank you for telling me,” I said. “That was a chunk of the story I didn’t know.”
“Poor Sophia. Her new parents are a bit of a mess, aren’t they.”
“Duane’s money has been unkind to Theo and Piper,” I said. “It short-circuited the maturation process.”
“I worried about that. Though after I found out about Margaret, I didn’t begrudge them. In that respect, Sophia might’ve been a godsend.” She sipped from the cup.
“Margaret?” I said. “I don’t know that name.”
“Really? I’m surprised.”
“I never said I was good at my job,” I said.
She laughed and set the teacup down. “I like you, Mr. August. You seem bright. You would’ve discovered her eventually.”
“Who is Margaret?”
“Margaret Cardot. The biological daughter of Theo and Piper. Born only a few weeks before Sophia.”