Мэри Эндрюс - The Newcomer

“Is it really?” Isabelle asked, looking at Letty.

“Not until November,” Letty said, blinking back tears. “She, uh, really loves birthday parties.”

“Okay,” Isabelle said. She stuck out her hand. “So Maya. Would you like to hang out and have some fun with me today?”

Maya smiled, showing her dimples. “Yes.”

Isabelle wore ripped and faded jeans and a navy T-shirt with EMORY in block letters across the front. She was slender with her dark hair worn in a single braid.

Now she swept Maya off the chair and propped her on her hip. “Do you know how to swim, Maya?”

“I’m a big girl,” Maya declared. “I put my face in the water and kick my feet.”

“Me too!” Isabelle said. She consulted Letty. “Okay if I take her to the beach for a while?”

Letty hesitated.

“Isabelle worked as a lifeguard at the Treasure Island pool for the past two summers,” Ava said.

“We’ll be super careful,” Isabelle said. She tickled Maya’s belly. “Won’t we, Maya Papaya?”

“I guess that would be okay,” Letty said. “But she hasn’t had lunch yet.”

“That’s cool. I haven’t either. We could walk down the beach to Lazy Larry’s and grab a bite. They’ve got a kids’ menu,” Isabelle said.

“You’ll need money.” Letty hesitated.

“I got moneys,” Maya said excitedly. She reached into the pockets of her shorts and pulled out the ten-dollar bills Arlene had given her earlier, waving them in the air.

“Whoa, dude,” Isabelle said, laughing. “We’re rich!”

“Mrs. Finocchia insisted on tipping me for unclogging her bathtub,” Letty told Ava. “When I wouldn’t take the money, she gave it to Maya.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Ava said, patting her employee’s hand. “Arlene is always very generous. But she’s probably the only one of our regulars you’ll ever see do something like that.”

“Yeah,” Isabelle agreed. “The last time I got a tip, it was fifty cents, from Mr. Maples, after I helped him carry in, like, a thousand bags of groceries from Publix, in, like, two-hundred-degree heat.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “That’s Merwin, all right. The last of the big spenders. He used to own a company that printed those color advertising inserts you get in the mail. Sold it and made a ton of money. But I promise you, he hasn’t spent a nickel of that money since he retired. It’s like a game with him. They drive that beat-up fifteen-year-old Honda Odyssey minivan all the way down here from Poughkeepsie every winter, and after they get here, he loves to bore everybody here with what great mileage he got. He even makes poor Trudi eat dinner at four thirty when they go out, so they can get the early-bird special.”

“I was wondering about his wife,” Letty admitted. “What’s with the gloves?”

“Trudi’s got some kind of problem with her circulation. Her hands and feet don’t get blood like they ought to, so she’s always cold, which is part of why they spend winters down here.”

“It’s called Raynaud’s disease, Mom,” Isabelle said, and spelled it out. “Trudi told me all about it. She’s really nice, Letty. She doesn’t get out a lot, with the walker and all, so she watches a ton of television. Like, she’s seen every episode of Buffy, ever. We usually order Chinese takeout and watch The Bachelor together on Monday nights.”

“Because Merwin has a coupon, of course,” Ava put in.

Letty felt the now-familiar tickle of fear. Could Trudi have spotted her in one of her rare television appearances over the years? She’d adopted a stage name early in her nascent acting career, because she didn’t want to be confused with the megastar Scarlett Johansson, but it wouldn’t take much digging for a shut-in with an uncanny memory for faces to discover that Chynthia Chase was actually Scarlett Carnahan, who was wanted for questioning in New York in connection with the murder of her sister and abduction of a small, adorable little girl named Maya.

“Isabelle, let’s go to the beach!” Maya said, tugging at her babysitter’s braid. “Swimmy, swimmy, swimmy.”

Ava watched the two girls walking hand in hand toward Letty’s room so that Maya could change into her bathing suit.

“That little one about broke my heart with that picture she drew of her mama. Do you think she really understands what happened to your sister?”

Letty busied herself stacking the assembled flyers. She wanted desperately to confide in someone, and Ava seemed like a person with a genuinely good heart, but she knew she couldn’t divulge what was troubling her, especially to a woman whose son was an overly inquisitive cop.

“No,” she said finally. “I’ve told Maya the truth, or as much of it as I think she can handle. I’ve told her that her mother has gone to heaven and isn’t coming back, but she doesn’t really believe it. She keeps thinking she sees her mama, on the beach, on the television. I keep thinking it too.”

“Can I ask?” Ava said gently. “How long since your sister died? How did it happen?”

Letty shook her head. “I can’t … I’m sorry. I can’t talk about it. It’s too soon. I haven’t really processed it myself.”

“I understand,” Ava said, patting her hand.

“I wish I could say the same,” Letty whispered.

Evan arranged to meet Vikki Hill in an apartment he’d just purchased in SoHo. “Nice place,” she said, running her hand over the marble countertops in the kitchen. They were seated on chrome-and-acrylic barstools in the kitchen. “How much does a place like this rent for?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said, feeling rising irritation. He gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window.

“It’s been nine friggin’ days now.”

“Yep.”

“And yet you still can’t find her?” He turned and fixed her with a cold stare, but she was not a woman to be intimidated.

“I warned you from the beginning, these things take time,” she said.

“The police have been all over me, asking questions,” Evan snapped. “It’s total harassment and it’s affecting my business. I need this thing settled.”

“What’s the hurry?” she asked. “They haven’t said you’re a suspect, right?”

“They haven’t really told me anything. The big problem is, several of my most valuable properties were in Tanya’s name. For tax purposes, of course.”

“Ahhh,” she said. She let that hang there in the air.

Evan tugged at his ear. He did that, she noticed, when he was agitated.

“Tanya left a will,” he continued. “Her attorney drew it up, and I wasn’t even aware of it, until recently. Everything she had goes to Maya, our daughter, of course. But Letty is listed as her guardian.”

“Not you? Her domestic partner? She chose a sister who wouldn’t even speak to her for a couple years?”

“Yes.”

She bit back the sarcastic comment that came immediately to mind. “Just how much property are we talking about?”

“A lot. Several million dollars’ worth. The most valuable portion of my investment portfolio.”

“But in the eyes of the law, it’s not actually yours, right? It’s her kid’s now. And the aunt’s, by default, because the kid is a minor. Although, if this aunt is charged with murder, by law she wouldn’t be allowed to profit from her crime.”

“True,” Evan said.

“Do you think the sister is aware of this will? Of what she and the kid stand to inherit?”

He tugged at his ear again. “I don’t know.”

12

LETTY HAD ONLY HERSELF TO blame. Moving to New York had been Tanya’s idea, but Letty hadn’t exactly discouraged her. She offered the pull-out sofa in the Tribeca apartment, loaned her money and clothes, showed her how to buy a MetroCard.