Gail Bowen - The Nesting Dolls

“I’ll make him understand,” Nadine said fiercely. “I’ll make him understand that he’s a monster.”

“No one can justify what Theo did,” I said. “But Delia says that he didn’t know Abby was his child, and I believe her. Delia was in love with Theo, but he was married and their relationship ended.” I took a breath. “His wife says that there were many other women over the years and all of them bore a marked resemblance to Delia.”

“So he was drawn to Abby because she was his type.” Nadine spat out the word. “He must have been thrilled to prove his virility with the reincarnation of another young woman he seduced.”

I touched her arm. “Nadine, don’t speculate about what went on between Abby and Theo. It will tear you apart.”

“I’m already torn apart. I’ve never believed I was capable of hating another human being. But I would kill Theo Brokaw without a second’s hesitation.”

“Given his present state, that would be a kindness,” I said.

Nadine’s laugh was bitter. “In that case, he gets to live. I still want to see him, Joanne. He committed incest. He destroyed the life of the woman I loved. Even if he doesn’t understand my words, I need to make him feel the horror of what he’s done.”

“All right,” I said. “I’ll take you to him.”

I’d just started to pull out of my parking spot when my cell rang. The ringtone was a new one but it was instantly recognizable: Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” Zack had been playing with the ringtone that morning. His intent had been to make me smile, but his timing could not have been worse.

When Zack heard my voice, he was playful. “Like the new ringtone? It carries a message.”

“I picked up on that,” I said. “You must be feeling better.”

“I am. When are you going to be home, Ms. Shreve?”

“Half an hour at the outside,” I said.

“Would a martini be in order?”

“God, yes.”

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too.” I rang off. When I turned to Nadine, I saw that she had tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said.

“No need to apologize for loving and being loved,” she said, and then turned away.

We didn’t speak again until I turned into the parking space behind the Brokaws’ condo. Louise’s Mercedes was there. When I pulled the key from the ignition, Nadine seemed surprised. “You’re not coming in with me, are you?”

“I don’t like the idea of you being alone with the Brokaws.”

Nadine gave me a quarter-smile. “Neither do I,” she said.

Myra answered my buzz from the lobby, but when I announced myself she was curt. “We’re not receiving visitors.”

“If you want to keep Theo’s incestuous relationship with Abby from becoming public knowledge, you’d be wise to let me come up. I’m not alone, Myra. Abby Michaels’s partner is with me.”

The entrance door clicked open. Nadine and I rode up in the tiny elevator. When we stepped out, we could hear Louise playing Bach. She was hitting the right notes in the right order. Once, when she stumbled, she went back and began the phrase again. We were hearing Louise, not a recording. She was still sober. One small candle in the darkness.

Nadine stood for a moment with her eyes closed, listening intently. “There’s still beauty in the world, isn’t there?” she said softly. The she squared her shoulders and breathed deeply. “I have to do this, Joanne. Thank you for understanding.”

Myra opened her door as soon as I knocked, but she didn’t invite us in, so I stepped past her. Nadine followed. “We won’t stay long, Myra,” I said. “This is Nadine Perrault. She was Abby’s partner.”

Myra’s laugh was forced and unpleasant. “That’s a new wrinkle. The last of my husband’s clever girls preferred other clever girls.”

Nadine tensed. I touched her arm. “Nadine wants to see Jacob’s father,” I said. “It’s important to her, and it won’t matter to Theo.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about what matters to Theo,” Myra hissed. Then she slapped my cheek in a movement as vicious as it was sudden. “Get out,” she said.

My face was stinging, but I stood my ground. When people behave badly, they want the encounter to end quickly, and I wasn’t about to cede that advantage to Myra Brokaw. The quarrel with her was too significant to lose. My voice was surprisingly even. “Myra, you can’t continue to care for Theo alone,” I said. “It’s hurting you both. You need respite, and he needs professional help.”

Her tone was withering. “And where exactly do you think I could find a caregiver with the stomach to clean up the kind of messes that Theo makes?”

Nadine spoke for the first time. “Competent professionals know how to clean up a man who soils himself. That’s part of their job, Ms. Brokaw. If your biggest problem is your husband’s hygiene, you’re blessed.”

Myra’s eyes were icy. “There are other ways in which a man can soil himself, Ms. Perrault. The night of the blizzard I walked into this room and found my husband having sex with your lover. At one point, she had been his all-too-willing partner.”

Nadine’s intake of breath was audible. “You knew,” she said.

Myra’s voice was thick with rage. “I’ve been spared nothing. After Theo’s accident, I found their e-mails to one another. They were sickening. Theo and that woman believed their relationship was a fair exchange. She wanted a brilliant child and she got one; Theo wanted his youth, and for a few weeks he recaptured it. As it turns out, they paid in hard coin for their choices.” Myra’s smile was a rictus. “Apparently, when your lover found out the truth about her relationship with Theo, she came here to confront him. I was at the Medical Centre being treated for an injury.”

“The wrist you sprained when you slipped on the ice,” I said.

Myra corrected me. “The wrist Theo sprained when I kept him from going back to the Wainbergs’ party to see ‘his clever girl.’ My point is that I left Theo alone, and that was a mistake. The scene I walked in on when I returned was stomach-turning. My husband was clutching his new clever girl around the neck, uttering endearments. From the angle of her head, I was certain she was already dead.”

Beside me Nadine recoiled as if she’d been punched. Myra was oblivious. “I waited until Theo ejaculated because I knew that would calm him. Incidentally, he doesn’t know your lover died. He thought she was simply distressed.”

“You didn’t tell him,” I said.

“I try not to upset him.”

Nadine stifled a sob, and I pressed on. “If Abby Michaels died here, how did her body end up in her car?”

“Theo has a wife who loves him,” Myra said. “And a loving wife has a price beyond rubies.” Her attention shifted to Nadine. “That’s something you’ll never understand, clever girl. A loving wife will perform actions that a ‘competent professional’ would never consider. After I’d cleaned Theo, I searched Abby Michaels’s purse and found her Ontario driver’s licence and a receipt from a local gas station. I went downstairs, checked our parking lot, and saw a car with Ontario plates. The keys in Abby Michaels’s purse fit the lock.”

“You put Abby’s body in her car and drove it to the parking lot,” I said.

Myra’s eyes met mine. “The pain in my wrist was excruciating, but we do what we must do, and Theo certainly wasn’t capable of handling the situation. Despite my injured wrist, I dragged the body to Abby Michaels’s car. I drove until I found an appropriately remote parking lot, pulled in, shut the car door, and walked home. Ten blocks, through a blizzard. Again, Ms. Perrault, not something your ‘competent professional’ would do.”