Innocent (11 page)

HALF AN HOUR
later, most of the money was gone from my purse. It felt lighter. I felt lighter. In its place was a small passbook, listing my name, an account number and the amount in my account: $250.00. I’d kept $24.34 out of the account. I wasn’t going to get paid for a few more days, and while there was absolutely nothing I needed to spend money on, it felt good to have a little bit with me.

I was happy to see that David and his car were still there. He opened the passenger door and gracefully bowed and gestured with one hand for me to enter. If it weren’t for the lights on the roof and the writing on the side of the vehicle, the uniform he was wearing and the gun strapped to his side, it would have been like a date. I climbed in.

“So would you like me to drive you home?” he asked.

Home—where was home? Was it back in Hope at an orphanage that was nothing more than a pile of burned timbers? Was it the guest cottage at the back of the Remington estate? Was it the little room I now slept in? No, it was someplace else.

“Can you drive me to the corner of Charles and Montreal?” I asked.

“I can drive you anywhere you want.”

We started driving. There were some staticky voices on the radio. I couldn’t really make out what was being said, but there were lots of numbers thrown in.

“Do you dance?” David asked.

“Everybody can dance.”

“Not according to my sisters. They say I have two very large left feet. I guess that isn’t the best way to convince you to go out on a date with me.”

“You’re asking me out?”

“That was the dance question. Would you be interested in accompanying me to a dance next Saturday?”

“I’ve never been to a dance before.” And the only thing I might have worn he’d now seen—plus it was ripped.

“Then this would be your chance. Just think—even if you didn’t want to go with me, you’d still be at a dance. So?”

I nodded. “I’d like that.” Maybe I’d have to buy something else after all.

“Then it’s a date! The dance starts at eight, so I’ll pick you up at seven thirty, although I can’t promise you as fancy a ride as this. My car doesn’t have a siren.”

He pulled the car over to the side of the road. “So here we are, the corner of Charles and Montreal. Why are we here? Do you want to go to church?”

On one of the four corners sat a big church. Unfortunately, that still left three corners. “Not to church. To my home.”

“I thought you lived at the Remington mansion.”

“I live there now, but I lived here before, with my mother.”

“Really? Which house?”

That was the difficult question. “I’m not sure. I was hoping it would come back to me, but it hasn’t.”

“Then allow me to help. After all, I am a police officer, so a little detective work might do the trick. First off, do you remember if your house had a lot of seats, a bell and an altar at the front?”

“Not that I recall.”

“Then we can eliminate the church. Second, was your mother well off?”

“She worked as a maid at the Remington home, just like me. So…no.”

“Then we can probably eliminate the house on the southwest corner as well, since it looks a little out of her price range—and mine for that matter. Look at the other two—does anything look familiar?”

I looked at one and then the other. “I’m not sure.”

“If you had to make a guess, which would you choose?”

I looked again. “That one. I’m not sure why—I just have a feeling.”

“Good enough for me. Let’s go see it.” He got out of the car, and before I could object, he was at my side, opening the door for me, extending a hand to help me out.

“I just wanted to see it,” I said.

“We need to get closer. That might twig some more memories. How old were you when you left here?”

“Almost four.”

“Then we better get really close.” He led and I followed, right to the front of the house and then down the walk and onto the porch.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to knock on the door and ask if you can go inside. At three, you probably spent all your time inside the house or in the backyard, so the front wouldn’t be that familiar.”

“The backyard. I think I spent time there.”

“Good. That’s where we’ll go once we have permission.”

He knocked on the door loud and hard. We waited, but there was no answer. He knocked again, even louder, but still there was no reply.

“Nobody’s home, so I guess we’ll just have to let ourselves into the backyard,” he said.

“Should we do that?”

“Why not? If somebody calls the police, I’ll already be here.”

He led me off the porch and around the side. Our way was blocked by a high wooden fence. He gave it a push. It was locked. He reached over the gate and fumbled around, and there was a click. The gate swung open.

“Ladies first.”

If going to the prison to visit my father was a mistake, this could be a bigger one.

“Come on—don’t worry,” he said.

Now it seemed like I had no choice. I walked through the gate and readied myself for some awful wave of memory to overwhelm me, but I felt nothing. It was just a yard: grass in the center and flower beds along the back, but it didn’t seem familiar to me at all. So much could have changed in thirteen years. Or maybe I’d guessed wrong, and this wasn’t even the right house. Even if it was, we hadn’t lived there long, and I had been very young.

“So does it look familiar, bring back some happy memories for you?” David asked.

“No memories—nothing. This might not be the right house.”

“Okay, let’s knock on the door of the other house.”

“No, I don’t want to put you to any more trouble. This probably is it, but I can’t remember anything—” I stopped. There, at the back of the house, was a place where the brick was chipped away, and suddenly I remembered. That’s where my mother had fallen to the ground. That’s where I was when everybody came. I closed my eyes and looked away, but the image was still in my head.

My head started spinning, and then everything went black.

I startled awake, looked around and saw David staring down at me. He looked worried. I was lying in the backseat of the police car.

“Drink this,” he said, handing me a Thermos.

“What is it?” I asked. My mouth felt like it was filled with cotton wool.

“Coffee. Take a sip.”

I didn’t like coffee, but I took a little swig. “What happened?”

“You fainted. I caught you on the way down, or you would have had more than a scraped knee.”

I tried to get up, and he put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not getting up yet. I only guarantee catching you the first time.”

“I’m fine.”

“Fainting is nature’s way of saying you’re not so fine. Have you had enough to eat today?”

“I ate breakfast. It’s not that. It’s just…just…”

“Just what?”

“That backyard. That was where my mother was… was…that’s where they found her. And me.”

He let out a big sigh. “Did you wake up today wondering how you could make this the most difficult day possible?”

“It wasn’t all bad. I bought a new dress.”

“And it’s torn.”

“I met my father.”

“In prison,” he said. “And then you visited the house where the worst thing in your entire life happened. What wasn’t so bad about today?”

“I got asked out to the first dance of my life.” I thought about what he must think of me now and added, “If you still want to take me.”

“Are you kidding? If the last hour is any indication of what life is like with you, I can’t even
imagine
the excitement that awaits me. But for now, I better get you home.”

“I can walk if it’s too much trouble,” I said.

“There was no way I was going to let you walk home
before
you fainted, so now it’s out of the question. Besides, it’s not any trouble. It’s a pleasure.”

I CARRIED THE
tray holding afternoon tea. Mrs. Remington was sitting in her favorite seat by the window in the parlor, sunshine streaming in on her. She said that she was like a cat and nothing made her happier than sitting in the sun.

Mrs. Meyers sat across from her, reading out loud. It was part of their afternoon routine. She read to her, they had tea together, and then they discussed what she’d read. Routine was very important in this house.

I’d already been out to take Richie his tea. He didn’t seem too interested though. One of his pigeons wasn’t well, and he was fretting over it, trying to nurse it back to health. He’d hardly even noticed I was there and had only said a few words about his bird, nothing else. Not even a greeting or a goodbye or a thank-you.

“Is that Lizzy?” Mrs. Remington asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I thought it had to be from the lightness of your footsteps. Other people I can tell by the noise they make, but with you it’s the noise you
don’t
make that gives you away.”

I poured a cup for both Mrs. Remington and Mrs. Meyers and then added two cubes of sugar to each. I knew that Mrs. Remington often snuck in a third cube, but she didn’t like to admit it.

“Lizzy, come and join me. Have a seat.” She patted the chair beside her, and I sat down.

“And perhaps, Mrs. Meyers, you could go and get some of those chocolate biscuits I like so much but never have with my afternoon tea.”

“I can go,” I offered.

“No. I’d like you to stay so that we can chat.”

I looked at Mrs. Meyers. She shrugged to indicate she didn’t know what was going on. Mrs. Remington waited until her footsteps had receded and then faded to nothing.

“Mrs. Meyers told me that you opened a bank account.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The largest of oaks begins with the smallest of acorns. I was also told that due to the fire you were unable to finish your school year.”

“Mrs. Hazelton is hoping to arrange for me to get my graduation diploma.”

“But so far it hasn’t arrived. And if she can’t?”

I hadn’t allowed myself to even think about that, but now the question was before me. “Then I’ll take some correspondence courses through the mail.”

“Excellent. And then?”

“I had thought before about becoming a nurse.”

“And has something happened to change your mind?” she asked.

“No, it’s just that it’s two years and a lot of money and—”

“Money is not a problem if the will is strong. There is a nursing school associated with Kingston General Hospital. It is a well-respected program, and I know the chair of the board of directors and the president of the hospital. I might have some influence.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you, ma’am.”

“You need to work hard and continue to save, and perhaps I can be of some assistance. There was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“This is more delicate. Lizzy, give me your hand.”

I reached out, and she took my hand in both of hers. What was she going to say now?

“I was told that you made a visit yesterday to your father in the penitentiary,” she said.

“Yes, I did…but how did you know?” I hadn’t told anybody except David.

“Kingston may seem like a big city to you, but in many ways it is not much different than a village, and there isn’t much that goes on that I don’t become aware of. I suppose I understand why you went. You must have been curious to lay eyes on the man who killed your mother.”

“It wasn’t something I set out to do. Richie mentioned he was there, and then I was walking by, and it was almost like an accident.”

“People get hurt in accidents, even killed. Lizzy, I want you to know that I have nothing but your best interests at heart. You need to seriously consider whether or not you want to go back.”

“You don’t think I should?” I asked. I had been struggling with my promise to return.

“It’s not my decision to make. But I think it’s better to look toward the future instead of the past. For example, you must be looking forward to going to that dance this Saturday.”

I was shocked that she knew about that as well.

“I told you there’s not much that goes on that I don’t hear about, although I just broke my promise to Mrs. Meyers that I wouldn’t say anything.”

“That may be the last bit of gossip I tell you,” Mrs. Meyers said as she returned with a plate of cookies.

“I’m sorry for breaking your confidence, my dear, but I envy our Lizzy so much. Going out dancing on a Saturday night with a handsome young man,” Mrs. Remington said.

“That would be better than playing gin rummy with Nigel and James in the kitchen,” Mrs. Meyers said.

“So that’s what you do down there,” Mrs. Remington said.

“I thought you’d know that, since you claim to know everything already.”

“Not everything but certainly a lot. In the case of Lizzy’s visit to the prison, the superintendent of the prison sings in the same church choir as the chief of police and gave him a call to mention it. He, in turn, told Edward, who called me.”

That explained how she knew. It also made it clear that if I did decide to go back, she’d know that too.

“And Lizzy, do you have the proper clothing for a dance, something to catch this young man’s eye?” Mrs. Remington asked.

“I have some new shoes and a new dress,” I said. Mrs. Meyers had already repaired the rip in my new dress so expertly that even I couldn’t tell where it had been. “Although I’m not sure it’s the proper thing for a dance.”

“Mrs. Meyers, you are a wizard with needle and thread. Is there something around here, something that hasn’t been worn for a while, that you could transform into a dress suitable for a dance?”

“I’m sure I could find a thing or two,” Mrs. Meyers said.

“Then it’s settled. Our Lizzy is going out, and we’ll promise not to ask her for too many details.” She gave my hand a big squeeze. “Even if the past is dark, the future is bright. Let’s help you move forward.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I was going to move forward, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still look over my shoulder as I moved.