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“Oh, Christ, I wasn’t talking about you, Amanda,” Matt said, finally realizing how what he had said had been interpreted.
“I know you weren’t,” Amanda said.
“I didn’t see you out there,” Matt said.
“I didn’t want you to,” Amanda said simply.
“Penny and Amanda were very close,” Daffy said.
“No, we weren’t,” Amanda corrected her. “We knew each other at Bennington. That’s all.”
Good for you, Matt thought. Cut the bullshit.
Chad Nesbitt gave her a strange look.
“Shall we go in?” he said, taking his wife’s arm.
Baxley, the Detweiler butler, opened the door to them. He was a man in his fifties, and wearing a morning coat with a horizontally striped vest.
“Mr. Detweiler’s been expecting you, Doctor,” he said.
The translation of which is that Mother D is about to lose control. Or has already lost it, Matt thought.
“I’ll go up,” Amy said. “Thank you, Baxley.”
“Coffee has been laid in the library,” Baxley said. “Miss Penny is in the sitting room.”
“Thank you, Baxley,” Chad Nesbitt said. He put his hand on Matt’s arm.
“Take care of him, Chad,” Amy said. “I’ll go see Aunt Grace.”
“I will,” Chad said. “Coffee first, Matt?”
“Yeah.”
As they walked across the foyer, Matt glanced through the open door of the sitting room. He could see the foot of a glistening mahogany casket, surrounded by flowers.
Shit, I didn’t even think about flowers.
Mother certainly sent some in my name, knowing that I wouldn’t do it myself.
Heads turned as the four of them went into the library. There were perhaps twenty-five people in the room, most of whom Matt knew by sight. A long table had been set with silver coffee services and trays of pastry. A man in a gray jacket and two maids stood behind the table. A small table behind them held bottles of whiskey and cognac.
Chad propelled Matt to the table.
“I need a little liquid courage myself to face up to going in there,” Chad said, indicating to the manservant to produce a bottle of cognac. “Straight up, Matt? Or do you want something to cut it with?”
I don’t want any at all, strangely enough. I don’t need any liquid courage to go in there and look at Penny’s body. For one thing, it’s not Penny. Just a body. And I’m used to bodies. Just the other day, I saw two of them, both with their brains blown all over the room. If that didn’t bother me, this certainly won’t. I am not anywhere close to the near-state of emotional collapse that everyone seems to think I’m in.
“It’s a little early for me, Chad,” Matt said. “Maybe later.”
“Suit yourself,” Chad said, taking the cognac bottle from the man behind the table, pouring half an inch of it into a snifter, and tossing it down.
“I wish I could have one of those,” Daffy said.
“Baby, you can’t,” Chad said sympathetically.
“If it’s a girl, I want to name her Penelope,” Daffy said.
