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“But I don’t think she appreciates it. Complains about everything. His cooking, his driving, his snoring. They’ve always had a complicated relationship.”
Which relationship isn’t? thought Maura, looking around the table. Angela, raised Catholic, was now on the verge of divorce. Barry and Alice had only recently pulled their marriage out of the fire after Alice’s affair with a law school classmate.And then there’s Daniel and me.Perhaps the most complicated relationship of all.
“So Mrs. R,” said Frost. “Whatever happened to that girl who went missing from the neighborhood?”
Angela brightened. “I’m so glad you asked.”
“I’m not,” said Jane.
“To answer your question, Barry, that particular mystery has been solved. I saw Tricia at the supermarket. She’s alive and well.”
“As I knew she would be,” said Jane. “She just ran away from home. Again.”
“Doesn’t that deserve further investigation?” said Alice, offering her unasked-for opinion. “Is something going on in that house? Is it the father? You know that twenty-five percent of sexual abusers are fathers.” Alice looked around the table, ready to argue with anyone who challenged her.
No one did. No one ever wanted to argue with Alice Frost about anything.
“But now we’ve got another mystery that needs to be addressed,” said Angela. “The Greens.”
“Who are the Greens?” asked Alice.
“Those odd people across the street.”
“Why are they odd?”
“They’re hiding something,” said Angela. She dropped hervoice, as if the secret mustn’t go beyond this room. “And he has agun.”
Gabriel, who’d been wiping Regina’s greasy hands, glanced up. “You actually saw his weapon?”
“Didn’t Jane tell you? I saw it strapped to his hip when he bent over. It was tucked under his shirt, which makes it a concealed weapon, right? And he looks like the kind of man who knows exactly how to use it.”
“Where did you see him when he had the gun?”
“He was up on the balcony. In his backyard.”
There was a silence as everyone around the table processed that detail.
“Ma, you werespyingon him,” said Jane.
“No, I happened to be in Jonas’s backyard when I heard all this hammering next door. I just had a little peek over the fence to see what was going on.”
“One has the expectation of privacy in one’s own backyard,” said Alice. It was true, of course, but no one wanted to hear it when it came from Alice the lawyer.
“What were you doing in Jonas’s backyard?” said Jane.
“I’ve lived on this street for forty years and I try to keep an eye on it, that’s all. You can’t prevent bad things from happening if no one even notices those things.”
“She does have a point,” said Frost.
Angela looked at Jane. “Did you ever find out if he has a concealed weapons permit?”
“I haven’t gotten around to it, Ma.”
“Because the whole thing’s very suspicious.”
“Appearingsuspicious isn’t a crime, thank god,” said Alice, unable to stop herself from sharing her lawyerly perspective.
“Come on, all of you. Let me show you their house,” saidAngela. She tossed her napkin onto the table and heaved herself to her feet. “Then maybe you’ll understand what I’m talking about.”
