Perri O'Shaughnessy - Presumption Of Death

Elizabeth, luminous in a clingy bamboo-spangled robe, answered the door promptly. Not exactly trained sociologist attire, which caused Nina to think again, she’s in danger of turning into Virginia Woolf.

She took Nina into a living room that resembled the inside of a cathedral. Gigantic, sparkling windows curved along one whole wall, pines and oaks fluttered beyond.

“Wow,” she said, starting off with some especially articulate lawyer talk.

“Thanks,” said Elizabeth. “Want to try some lapsang souchong?”

“Whatever.”

Elizabeth left Nina to admire the scenery, returning after some time with a tray loaded with teapot, honey, noncaloric sweetener, and a colorful tin tea canister.

“I’ll bet you see deer out there,” Nina said, stirring honey into the tea.

“They eat everything.” Elizabeth hadn’t sat down, but had gone to the window, looking dreamily out. “If they don’t, the gophers do. One year I planted three Japanese maple trees. The gophers ate the root balls. They just toppled over one fine day.”

“But it’s beautiful,” Nina said.

“Yes,” Elizabeth agreed. “I wanted a fortress. A nunnery of one. I found an architect who specialized in women like me.” She smiled. “He enjoyed building to the absolute limit allowed by law. The size is obscene, I know. One time the Cat Lady came up to me as I was getting into my car in the driveway and she whispered, ‘Obscenely wealthy people should have their wealth taken.’ ”

“The Twelve Points,” Nina said. “That was only one of her pillars of wisdom.”

“She was right. If you don’t use your surplus money to help others, you ought to have it taken for that purpose. I’ve given so much away, I may have to actually start working for a living.” She laughed. “But the house… it’s my security. I’m trying to decide if it’s my prison too.”

Elizabeth stirred honey into her tea, her movements as exquisite as a geisha’s. It irritated Nina, how much time she seemed to have to pay attention to small things, to be sensitive, to think about herself. She realized she felt envious of the young woman sitting in her luxurious home. She knew from the Siesta Court party that Elizabeth inspired that reaction in others too.

“So what’s on those tapes?” she said abruptly.

Elizabeth sipped. “I don’t know if you’ve studied sociology.”

Nina shook her head.

“I’m working on my Ph.D. thesis. In my branch of study, we look at group dynamics and power struggles.”

Nina said, “You taped those people as a research project?”

“Well,” Elizabeth said, “for years my sister, Debbie, talked about these get-togethers she hosted. I listened, feeling like I was listening to a weekday-afternoon soap. The characters seemed like cardboard. The conflicts between the locals and the newcomers were so aptly illustrated they almost seemed contrived, you know? When I moved here, I really thought it would be interesting to take an objective look-see. I decided to write my thesis about gentrification on Siesta Court.”

Nina said, “How does your sister feel about that?”

“Debbie doesn’t know. None of them know. It would affect their behavior and ruin the study.”

“But-you’re part of it. You affect the parties and their behavior.”

“Not really. I keep a very low profile. You’re smiling. You don’t think I’m sufficiently objective. I can compensate for these problems.” She sighed. “Actually, you’re right. I have just developed a rather significant objectivity problem.”

“And his name is Ben,” Nina said. “We ladies do have a grapevine.”

Elizabeth tensed, then smiled back. “I can find something else to write about,” she said. “I won’t find another Ben. If you know about Ben, I suppose you also know how Darryl Eubanks has been harassing me.”

“That too.”

“I’ve taken care of it.”

Nina said, “You know, Elizabeth, I’m interested in sociology and psychology, and I can’t wait to hear what you’ve discovered in connection with your thesis. But what I’d really, really like to know right now is how you’ve taken care of Darryl.”

Now they were both smiling. “I called Tory, his wife, and had a chat with her,” Elizabeth said. “I took the bull by the horns.”

“Wow,” Nina said again, impressed.

“I explained that Darryl was having a problem, and I suggested counseling.”

“How did she react?”

“She slammed the phone down in my ear. I believe she’ll calm down quickly and have a rational discussion with him and that he will stop bothering me.”

“No doubt.”

“You’re making fun of me?”

“Not at all. I just have less faith in the rule of reason than you when it comes to human beings.”

“Maybe when this is all over we could have lunch together,” Elizabeth said. “I’d like to make some friends. What do you think?”

“Sure.” They nodded at each other. Nina felt as though she had been handed an unexpected gift. She liked Elizabeth, and she also needed a friend.

“I promise not to tape you,” Elizabeth went on, and laughed.

“Speaking of tapes…”

Nina received a ten-minute lecture about the classifications Elizabeth had assigned to each of the neighbors, and her hypothesis that the newbies, though fewer in number, were winning the power struggle, not only because they had a monetary advantage, but also because they possessed what Elizabeth called a “timely” advantage.

“Different groups of people develop at different rates,” she explained. “The newbies live in the twenty-first century. The locals live in about 1960. I have surveyed both groups informally. The mores of the locals haven’t stopped developing, but the rate of development has been slower because they stayed in their enclave and didn’t experience as many upheavals as the newbies. The newbies move all the time. It speeds them up.”

“I never heard this idea before,” Nina said.

“I made it up. It explains so many things. Of course I will have numerous references to other authorities who have said something similar. But no one has put it exactly this way.”

“So never the twain shall meet? The newbies and the locals are fated to slug it out, and the locals will fade away?”

“And then the newbies will become entrenched, and slow down. And they will become locals. If they’re lucky, they will have some time before the next wave of newbies arrives.”

“What happens to this ongoing power struggle if an outside threat comes along that threatens both groups?”

“That’s exactly what happened.”

“That’s exactly what happened? You mean on Siesta Court? When the Green River development started?”

“Obviously.”

“And all this has to do with your tapes?”

“Yes. For all this time I have been quite sure that the core group issue was gentrification. The subjects aligned according to their newbie/local status as predicted.

“But then about two months ago, I noticed a change in the dynamic of the block parties. I would listen to the tapes afterward, and in the middle of the usual hanky-panky and drinking and skinned knees on the kids, I realized that a surprising new set of alliances had formed and most of the group energy had transferred there.”

Nina waited.

“Very sudden and very powerful, this shift. Different people became leaders, and some people became irrelevant. The dynamic changed utterly.”

“Go on.”

“The alliances solidified and secrets developed.”

“You’re too general,” Nina said. “This is interesting, but I know you asked me here to tell me something important about my client’s case. It’s late, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth said, leaning forward, “I’ll make it simple. The men allied. And the women allied. Across the newbie/local lines.”