“She introduced herself as Kellie Graham, and what's more, she wanted to get in the house so badly that she gave me a good look at her merchandise. What's in there that's so valuable?”
“Beats me, unless she's after her grandmother's good china, but that belongs to her father. I tell you, young people these days make me glad I don't have any children.”
He spat tobacco juice, careful to point it away from Nan and the produce. “That one was going to try to seduce me and to pay up if I let her in that house.”
Nan stared at him. “You go 'way from here, Jocko.”
He held up his right hand. “As the Lord is my witness.” She walked on, barely noticing her surroundings or the fruit she came to purchase. “Well, if that don't beat all!”
The question stayed with her, and then she saw Kellie get out of Hal Fayson's pickup truck one night, a truck easily recognizable because he'd painted a wildcat with its mouth open and a red tongue hanging out of it on the side of the truck. She went home and telephoned Kellie.
“It ain't my business maybe, Kellie, but I want to know what you doing in a pickup truck with Hal Fayson. I know men is scarce in Frederick, but they ain't
that
scarce. I'm surprised at you.”
“Oh, goodness, Auntie, you made an awful mistake. It wasn't me, and I can't believe Lace would hang around that fellow.”
“So you do know him!”
“Only what you just said about him.”
“That was you I saw, Kellie. Some people might mix up the two of you, but not me. I may be five feet tall, but I ain't no fool. What there is of me is very intelligent. You better watch yourself. If that man makes you pregnant, would you marry him? Would you?” Disgusted with Kellie for lying and then suggesting that it could have been Lacette, Nan hung up and called her brother.
“Marshall, would you believe I saw Kellie getting out of Hal Fayson's pickup truck right in front of Mount Airy-Hill. I tell you, I couldn't believe my eyes. What she doing in that ruffian's truck?”
“He's doing the repairs on the house Mama Carrie gave . . . Wait a minute. I can't believe she'd stoop to that.”
“To
what
?”
“She's using him to get into the house, so she can look for the brooch Mama Carrie left Lacette. I can't believe she'd go this far, and after I already punished her for breaking into the house to look for it.”
“She
what
?” Nan sat down in the chair at her kitchen table and leaned back. “You believe it. She tried seducing Jocko when he was hanging your windows, but he told me he wouldn't hold still for it. That girl had better pray. I declare. If that ain't something!”
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That evening, Friday, Marshall telephoned Lacette a few minutes after six. After speaking with her for a short time, he said, “I'd like you to meet me at the parsonage tomorrow morning at nine. I want all of us to have a discussion, and it's very important. Can you make it? I'll tell you what it's about when we're all together.” She agreed, as he'd known she would. He didn't like what was happening to Kellie, and he had to do what he could to avert her headlong plunge into disaster.
He parked in front of the parsonage at ten minutes before nine and waited for her. She arrived promptly, got out of her car and rushed to greet him.
“My, but I've never seen you looking so radiant. Things are looking good, I gather.”
“Yes. Tomorrow's the big day. Oh, Daddy, I hope I get just one inquiry, if not a customer.”
He patted her shoulder and started toward the house. “You'll do just fine.”
She rang the bell and, they waited for what seemed like ages, but according to his watch, only ten minutes had elapsed. “If they don't answer soon, I'll telephone,” he said. Then he put his finger on the bell, pushed and held it. Finally, the door opened, and Cynthia stared at them.
“Hi. You come visiting awfully early,” she said. “This is my morning to sleep late.” Cynthia didn't embrace Lacette, and it appeared to him that Lacette didn't expect it.
“Where's Kellie?” he asked her.
“In her room asleep, I guess.”
He looked at Lacette. “Would you please awaken Kellie and ask her to come down.” To Cynthia, he said. “I want to talk with the three of you this morning, and that's why I brought Lacette with me.”
Her shrug suggested that whatever he had to say would hold little interest for her. “In that case, I guess I'll make a pot of coffee. Kellie can't function until she gets her morning coffee.”
He figured that was as good an excuse as any to avoid being alone with him while Lacette went for her sister. He followed her into the kitchen. “I hear you're substitute teaching and that you'll be teaching full time next year. That's a good move.”
“I had to do something since I'm no longer a wife.”
“I didn't realize until now that leaving a career in order to take care of one's children was quid pro quo, and especially not since you didn't return to work even after they were in their thirties.”
She didn't reply, and he didn't expect her to. Deciding not to crowd her, he walked back into the dining room and leaned against the antique cupboard that was probably priceless but which he had always detested. He straightened up to his full six foot-four-inch height when her heard his daughters coming down the stairs.
“Hi, Daddy,” Kellie said, embraced him and hurried to the kitchen where he heard her ask her mother if she knew what he wanted to talk with them about.
“Haven't a clue,” Cynthia replied. She brought coffee, brioche, butter, and raspberry jam and placed the tray on the table. “Help yourselves. We might as well sit and talk right here.”
He said the grace and poured himself a cup of coffee. If there was one thing he did not miss, it was the weak coffee that Cynthia made. Taking a sheet of paper from his inside coat pocket, he handed it to Kellie. “I want you to read every word on that piece of paper. Aloud.”
She looked at the paper, saw that it was a copy of her grandmother's will and put it on the table.
“Are you refusing to do as I asked?” he said. When she didn't answer, he took the paper from her, read it aloud, folded it and put it back in his pocket. “Now, I'll tell you why I wanted this meeting. A few weeks ago, Kellie broke a back-porch window in my house, entered through the kitchen window, and left the upstairs in complete shambles after she searched for Lacette's brooch.” He ignored the gasps coming from Cynthia and Lacette. “I punished her by forcing her to put the place in perfect order while I watched, and to pay for the replacement of the window. I told her that if she went in there again looking for that brooch, I would see that she spent some time behind bars.”
“Please sit down,” he said to Cynthia. “She didn't believe me. She hasn't broken in again, because it hasn't been necessary. Instead, she has developed a liaison with Hal Fayson, who has been renovating the house, and he allows her to enter.”
“Hal Fayson?” Cynthia shrieked. “My God!”
Ignoring her outburst, Marshall continued speaking. “With his reputation, I don't have to tell you how she paid him to risk his job by letting her in that house when his boss told him that no one is to enter it except me.”
He looked at Kellie. “As of today, your lover is looking for a job.”
She shrank visibly, but he went on, mercilessly punishing her for the anger and humiliation that he felt because of her behavior. “When her lover wasn't working at the house, she tried whoever was there, including Jocko, though she knew he was a member of my church. Before Jocko, she tried to use Lawrence Bradley. He didn't say so, but what he did say and the way in which he said it, left no doubt in my mind.”
He looked directly at Kellie. “I am ashamed that you are my daughter.”
He'd always known that Kellie's temper and her passion for revenge would one day be directed at him, and when he saw her literally swelling with anger he steeled himself against whatever hurt she might inflict on him.
Kellie jumped up from her chair and pounded the table with her fist. “You're ashamed of me now for wanting sex and for using it to get what I want. Well, why didn't you pay attention when it started? Huh? No, you buried your head in your Bible and your theology books and paid no attention to what was going on right in front of your eyes. It was your home and your family, so naturally it was all perfect. You didn't notice that when I was fourteen, every time old man Moody came to our house, I'd change into a tight sweater or T-shirt and tease him right in front of you. Where do you think he went after he left your office? Down in the basement with me to yank my sweater or T-shirt off andâ”
“I don't want to hear any more,” he rasped, and closed his eyes. “Moody was the closest friend I ever had. He was like a brother to me. I trusted him with my checkbook and my bankbook. He knew practically everything about me, and he knew how I cherished my daughters.
Lord!
” In his anguish, the word ripped out of him. “The man was my spiritual advisor. We prayed together, just the two of us, and he betrayed me.”
“He couldn't have done it if you'd paid attention to what went on around you,” she said. “We'd disappear for half an hour. You didn't see him and you didn't see me, but you never considered that he might be down in the basement with me on his knees enjoying himself, did you?”
Smack! Smack!
His eyes flew open to see Cynthia's hand headed back to the side of Kellie's face. “Don't you stand in my presence and tell me you've been a slut since you were fourteen. Don't you dare.”
“Don't
you
dare,” Kellie replied. “I came by it honestly.” She turned and walked out of the dining room.
“I wish Gramma hadn't left me that brooch,” Lacette said. “It's caused a complete breakdown in my relations with my sister.”
He held up his hand as if by doing so he could halt the emergence of a false idea and wipe out the ugliness. “No such thing. Kellie's behavior caused it.” He spoke halfheartedly, remembering Kellie's words to her mother and wondering what she knew, for he'd swear that Cynthia had not given their daughters the reason for their parents' separation. He got up, walked up the stairs and knocked on Kellie's room door.
“Yes?”
“This is your father. If you steal that brooch, you're going to jail, and I'll deed my house over to Lacette as I promised you. Those are my last words on the subject. I'm sorry it's come to this, but you leave me no choice.” He started toward the stairs, turned and went back, “If you value anything about yourself, you will stay away from Hal Fayson. As it is, you're going to rue the day you ever saw him.”
He plodded down the stairs, remembering the many times he'd tripped up and down those steps, contented with his life, proud of his daughters and in love with his wife, a wife who he'd thought perfect for him in every way. How had his life changed so drastically in so short a time?
He walked into the dining room where his wife and daughter sat in silence neither touching nor looking at each other. “I'm ready to leave, Lacette. Of course, you may stay if you like. I've got some phone calls to make.”
Cynthia's head jerked up. “You're not going after Moody, I hope, and please don't have her put in jail. You could cause a terrible scandal that Kellie might never live down.”
The long and deep breath that he expelled was as much from defeat as from exasperation. He rested his knuckles on his hips. “If you hadn't shielded her, interfered when I attempted to punish her and made excuses for her all these years, she might be a different person today. It's my fault, too, because I should have stood my ground and taken her in hand. You can't possibly know how sorry I am that I didn't. I'll probably knock the breath out of Moody if I ever see him again, but the statute of limitations is the only reason why I won't have him prosecuted for carnal knowledge of a minor.”
Lacette looked as distraught as if she'd just witnessed an unbearable human tragedy. “I'll be back in a minute, Daddy. Wait for me.” She headed up the stairs.
He looked at his wife, her face as devoid of expression as it was of the heavy makeup she had begun wearing. “You see,” he said, his voice low and wan, “This is what the pattern of their relationship has always been. Kellie offends, and Lacette forgives, but Kellie is vengeful and never forgives a transgression. When it catches up with her, all of us are going to cry. It's a pity. Tell Lacette I'm waiting for her in the car.”
He managed to get into the car and sit down. His best friend and his teenaged daughter, a daughter headed for self-destruction. “Lord, forgive me, but he deserves one good blow from me, and if I can find him, he'll get it.”
Lacette opened the car door, and he forced himself to sit up straight, ignite the engine and drive off.