Gail Bowen - The Nesting Dolls

“Abby wanted a clever child,” Nadine said. “Her criteria in choosing a father for her baby were stringent, and high intelligence was at the top of the list.”

“Do you know the father?” Mieka asked. The question grew out of the conversation so naturally that Nadine didn’t appear to find it intrusive.

She shook her head. “No. Abby felt it would be difficult if I knew who he was. She was right. It would have been incredibly painful to think of her being intimate with someone I knew. Of course, even though I never knew who the man was, I spent hours imagining what he was like. I always thought it was someone who had already proven himself in the world. Abby wouldn’t have risked going through a relationship with a man unless she was as certain as one could be that she’d give birth to the child she wanted.”

After that, we were all silent. Jacob played with his three bright bug blocks, stacking them, knocking them over, and stacking them again.

“Why don’t I get us a carafe of coffee,” Mieka said finally.

“None for me, thanks,” Nadine said. “I’m content just to watch Jacob.”

I touched her arm. “Nadine, any time now Noah Wainberg is going to meet me here to pick up Jacob, so if you’d rather not see him… ”

“I appreciate the warning,” she said. “But I’ll stay. Maybe we’ve been given a second chance.”

Noah arrived almost immediately. I introduced him to Nadine. When Jacob saw Noah’s familiar grin, he held out his arms and said, “Da.”

“He is a clever boy,” Nadine said.

“You should see him when he’s on the move.” Noah looked at Nadine. “If you have a few minutes, we could put Jacob down and let him show you his stuff.”

“I have all the time in the world,” Nadine said.

Noah shrugged off his coat, picked up one of the mats Mieka kept for babies learning to crawl, and unrolled it on the floor. Nadine put Jacob down and placed the bug blocks at the far end of the mat. When Jacob dug his fingers and toes into the mat to press himself towards the pile, Nadine clapped her hands in delight.

Mieka walked me to the door. “Score one for second chances,” she said.

When I got home there was a shiny black Lincoln in our driveway. I walked through the front door and was met by air heavy with the scent of musk. Seemingly, Darryl Colby had arrived early. As I took off my boots and greeted Willie, a man, who I deduced was Darryl Colby, came down the hall towards me.

He was tall, heavy-set, and deeply tanned; his hair, black as a raven’s wing, was freshly barbered. As he came nearer, it was clear Darryl Colby used aftershave as a weapon. He was scowling, and I didn’t blame him. Pantera was behind him, his nose lodged between the man’s legs, pushing him towards the door. Pantera rarely left Zack’s side, so the situation must have been grave.

“Leave it,” I said. Pantera stopped, withdrew his snout, and loped back down the hall to our room.

“Pantera’s protective,” I said.

“He’s a menace,” Darryl Colby said, wiping drool from his slacks. “He’s ruined this suit.”

“When you have it dry cleaned, please send us the bill,” I said. “Shall I show you to the door or can you find your way?”

“I can find my way,” he said. He jammed his feet into a pair of toe rubbers on the mat in the hall and stormed out.

I went down to our room. Zack was dressed and sitting in his wheelchair. “I take it your meeting didn’t go well,” I said.

Zack shrugged. “Could have been worse. Darryl could have kicked me in the nads.”

“Actually, Pantera may have done some damage to Darryl’s nads,” I said. “Your dog had his muzzle shoved pretty firmly into Mr. Colby’s private parts. Pantera’s never done that before. What happened?”

Zack’s smile was innocent. “Peter told me that the night Noah brought Jacob by, he taught Pantera to obey the command ‘push.’ So when Darryl stepped out of line, I gave the command.”

I laughed. “You’d better watch it,” I said. “Darryl Colby strikes me as a litigious kind of guy.”

“My favourite kind,” Zack said. “Now, could you help me get back into bed? Strategically, it was important for me to deal with Darryl from an upright position, but I’m beat.”

Zack shifted his chair so he could transfer his body from the chair to the bed. I didn’t comment when the move made him groan. I helped him ease his body into a lying position, unzipped his trousers, and pulled them off. “So the meeting did not go well?”

“Nah, just the usual shit. Darryl has lined up some people who are prepared to swear that Delia is, to put it kindly, an absent mother. I was prepared for that. I was also ready for his dark allusions to Noah’s violent past. But Darryl always surprises me.”

Zack pointed to some glossy black-and-white photos on the nightstand. “Check out the new additions to the Wainberg family photo album.”

I flipped through the photos. In all of them Noah was holding Louise Hunter in his arms. They were both laughing. Louise’s hair was tousled; her strapless gown had slipped on one side, revealing a nipple, and Noah’s hand was cupping her small breast.

I studied the photograph. “Who says pictures never lie? This looks bad, but if there’d been a photographer around the night I was putting Louise to bed, he could have snapped equally provocative pictures of us.”

“You know that, and I know that, but a family court judge wouldn’t, and Darryl assures me there are plenty more where these came from. His investigators have also dug up watchful neighbours who will testify that Noah spent the night at Louise’s on more than one occasion.”

“That’s disgusting,” I said. “Not the fact that Noah stayed with Louise, just that an act of kindness can be deliberately distorted.”

“We’re doing it, too,” Zack said. “When Nadine and Abby were estranged, Nadine took a group of students to France. There were rumours that she became involved with one of the girls.”

I helped Zack into his pyjama bottoms. “There are always rumours like that.”

“These rumours were serious enough to warrant investigation.”

“And…?”

“And nothing was proven.”

“Nadine still has her job,” I said. “She teaches at a fine school, and they’ve produced a lot of lawyers. Nadine wouldn’t be teaching if there were any questions.”

“You sound like Darryl Colby.”

“I sound like a sensible person.”

“Well, that makes you a rarity in this situation.”

“Actually, it doesn’t,” I said. “Before I came home I was at UpSlideDown with Jacob. Noah had asked me to take care of the baby because Declan needed his help with Louise. Anyway, while I was at UpSlideDown, Nadine Perrault arrived. She must have come straight from the airport. She held Jacob and she and Mieka talked. When Noah showed up, he asked Nadine if she’d like to stay and play with Jacob for a while.”

“Reassuring to know that there’s some decency in the world,” Zack said. “Every so often the Darryl Colbys and the Zack Shreves crowd out the good guys.”

“You’re a good guy,” I said. “I’m not so sure about me any more.”

My husband opened his arms, and I leaned in. “Did you get knocked around a bit today?” he asked.

“I did. My visit to the Brokaws was a disaster. When I left, Theo was sobbing and Myra was livid. On the bright side, my blundering did result in one interesting piece of information. Myra told me that Theo had had many women, and all his women were the same type as Delia: ‘clever, pale, and Semitic.’ That’s a direct quote.”

Zack shook his head. “You hear something like that and it really does make you wonder about the old chicken-and-egg question.”