Brian Freeman - The Burying Place

Regan's mouth twisted into a frown. Her lipstick was so dark that her lips looked purple. 'What does that have to do with me?'

'I'd like to ask you some questions.'

'Why? Do you think I swooped in and stole the baby and I'm hiding her here in my house?'

'I don't know,' Serena said. 'Did you?'

Regan didn't answer, but a ghost of a smile flitted across her ivory face. She invited Serena inside with a flick of her hand. She led the way to the living room on her right, where the bay window overlooked the yard.

'I'll be back in a minute,' Regan told her.

Serena ran her hand along a sofa that had a plush, almost velvet finish. 'This is quite the place,' she said. 'Did you win the lottery?'

Regan stopped in the doorway and folded her arms over her chest, it was my break-up box, courtesy of a corporate lawyer from Minneapolis.'

She disappeared.

Serena examined the living room. Regan liked blown glass; there were several multi-colored bowls shaped like flowers. An original oil painting, abstract with thick squiggles of color, hung over the fireplace. From somewhere inside the house, the volume of the music increased. Serena realized there were hidden speakers in the living room. She recognized the singer now; it was Duffy belting out 'Mercy'. Just as the volume went up, she thought she heard something else, like a faint echo from another room. The noise didn't recur, but she wondered if the music was meant to drown it out.

She thought she had heard a baby crying.

Serena was on the verge of investigating when Regan reappeared in the doorway with a glass of red wine. 'Do you want something to drink?' she asked.

'No.' She added, 'Did I hear a baby?'

'Only if you brought one with you,' Regan replied. 'Come on, we can talk in the library.'

Regan led her out of the living room into the foyer. Walking beside Regan, Serena finally had a chance to study the nurse up close. She wasn't as tall as Serena, and she had a gaunt but attractive face. Her skin was paper white and appeared even paler against the dark make-up on her eyes and mouth. She had a pierced lower lip, four earrings in her left ear, and three in her right. She wore a black tank top that hung straight down, barely swelled by her small breasts, and Serena saw an elaborate serpent tattoo stretching down her forearm to her bony wrist. The head of the snake poked out of Regan's shirt near her neck. Her black hair was short and spiky with strands of blue highlights. Serena guessed that she was about thirty years old.

'Do I look like a biker chick?' Regan asked, catching Serena's eye. 'Or just white trash?'

'More like a goth Kate Moss,' Serena said.

Regan smiled.

'You live out here alone?' Serena asked.

'That's right.'

'I hope you're careful.'

'I sleep with a shotgun by my bed,' Regan told her. 'I know how to use it.'

She led Serena into a small den and used a remote control to replay 'Mercy' on her iPod dock. She mouthed, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah' along with the background vocals on the song, and she did a slithery dance across the carpet and then settled into a leather recliner.

'You like Duffy?' she called over the music.

Serena nodded, but she winced at the volume. Regan pushed a button that muted the sound. The silence was startling.

'Better?'

'Thanks,' Serena said. She eyed the books on the shelves and saw a collection of homeopathic medical reference guides and cookbooks devoted to vegetarian and organic foods. The furnishings in the library, like the rest of the house, were upscale.

'I left most of the rooms the way my dickstick lawyer decorated them,' Regan explained. 'I like the idea that he and his fat wife spent years getting the house just the way she wanted it, and then he had to hand me the keys.'

'That's a pretty nice consolation prize for a busted affair,' Serena said.

'Well, if you're going to play fast and loose with your client's money, be careful who you tell. He liked to whisper secrets in my ear when he was fucking me.' She added, if you're a museum piece like Valerie Glenn, men want to make love to you. Me they like to fuck.'

'I heard you and Marcus Glenn were having an affair,' Serena said.

'That's not a secret.'

'I also heard he dumped you.'

'So what if he did?'

'Were you angry?' Serena asked.

'What do you think? I was furious. But I'm not exactly the girl you show off at the country club on Saturday nights.'

'People at the hospital call you unstable,' Serena said.

'Unstable? That's rich. His wife is the one who's unstable. Clinical depression. Meds.'

'Where did you hear that?'

'I told you, men like to tell me secrets. Marcus included.'

'You didn't look surprised to find the police on your doorstep,' Serena said.

'I'm not stupid. Exactly what is it you want to know, Ms Dial?'

'I want to know if Dr Glenn gave you a key to his house.'

Regan shrugged. 'Oh, I understand. No forced entry. No broken windows. Very suspicious. It must have been the crazy, jealous nurse.'

'The key,' Serena repeated.

'Why does it matter? I was nowhere near the Glenn mansion on Thursday night. I was working. Lots of people saw me.'

'So I hear.'

'Then why are you bothering me?' Regan asked.

'You blame Marcus for your break-up. You work with babies. A baby is missing.'

'I spend my life with moms and babies,' Regan retorted, jabbing a finger at Serena. 'I'm a nurse. A midwife. A counselor. I help women, Ms Dial.'

'Do you have children yourself?'

'I have hundreds. Every baby I've delivered or cared for is in some way mine.'

Serena leaned forward. 'That's an interesting thing to say.'

'Every nurse feels that way.'

'Were you in the ward when Valerie Glenn gave birth?' Serena asked.

'I was in the hospital that night, but I didn't assist.'

'But you were there?'

'I was there. So what?'

'Was that before or after Marcus dumped you?'

Regan's mouth made an angry slash. 'Before.'

'So was it hard for you to watch him and Valerie with their new child?' Serena asked. 'Did you know right then that he was going to give you up?'

'You don't know anything, Ms Dial. The baby didn't make any difference to Marcus.'

'Then why did he dump you?'

'Because a divorce would be too ugly. And expensive.'

'You hate Valerie Glenn, don't you?'

'She's exactly the kind of blonde rich bitch I despise. So what?'

'She convinced Marcus to drop you by the side of the highway like a bag of trash. That must have stung.'

Regan pointed a finger at the doorway. 'We're done talking.'

'You didn't tell me if you had a key to the Glenn house,' Serena said.

Regan stood up. 'OK. I did. But not anymore.'

'Where is it?'

'In a landfill. I didn't need it after Marcus and I split up. Now I'd like you to leave.'

Regan turned her back and stalked out of the library, and Serena followed. In the foyer, she yanked open the front door, and as Serena went past her, Regan grabbed her shoulder. 'Instead of interrogating me, you ought to be looking at the people who were inside the house that night, Ms Dial.'

'Meaning what?'

'Meaning you never asked me how I met Marcus. Aren't you curious?'

Serena nodded. 'How?'

'He came to me last year about that girl. The teenager in the trailer near Sago. Migdalia Vega.'

'What about her?'

'Marcus wanted me to help her. Off the books. He didn't want anyone to know.'

'Know what?' Serena asked.

'She was pregnant,' Regan told her. Then she pushed Serena out and slammed the door.

Serena sat in her Mustang in Regan Conrad's driveway. She pressed her cell phone to her ear to hear Jonny's voice through the static. The signal came and went unevenly this far north of the city. He sounded distant.