“Was his nurse nice?”
“No, she was dreadful and Granddad Cal made her life miserable.”
Abby smiled but didn’t say anything, so Samantha continued.
“She was a horrible, bossy woman and she treated Granddad Cal as though he were a stupid child. He would have fired her, but he said that getting her back gave him a reason to live. He used to do awful things to her, such as putting salt in her shampoo so it’d sting her eyes. One day while she was outside mowing the lawn he made a big pitcher of iced tea for her, only it wasn’t iced tea. It was Long Island tea, you know, that stuff that’s all liquor. She drank three big glasses of it then passed out on the kitchen floor. While she was passed out, Granddad Cal shaved her mustache.”
Both Abby and Mike laughed.
It was at that moment that the nurse reentered the room. First she scolded Samantha for sitting on the bed and not on the chair, then she scolded Abby for making her machine fluctuate.
“They love patients who are in comas,” Abby said. “They’re the only ones who obey all the rules.”
“Now, now, Abby, you don’t mean that. Say good-bye to the nice people.”
Abby looked around the nurse’s bulk toward Samantha. “Think electrolysis,” Samantha said, and Abby grinned so hard her needle bounced. The nurse shooed them out of the room.
20
“Where are you taking me for dinner?” Samantha asked happily as they left the nursing home. “I saw an Italian restaurant, Paper Moon, on Fifty-eighth, and it looked very pretty.”
Grabbing her elbow, he said, “We’re going home for dinner,” then narrowed his eyes at her. “We’re going home and you’re going to show me the box of things your father left you.”
“But, Mike, I’m hungry.”
“You can order in, like you always do. Call up Paper Moon and order, whatever you want to do, but tonight, you’re showing me that box.”
As Mike hailed a cab, Samantha couldn’t resist a little smugness. “It doesn’t feel very good to have people keep secrets from you, does it?”
His hand on her arm, he squeezed hard. “Do you realize that the secret to why whoever tried to kill you may be in that box?”
“No…” she said slowly.
As he opened the taxi door, he asked, “What is in the box?” When she was silent, Mike gritted his teeth. “You haven’t looked inside it, have you?”
“Going through a dead person’s effects is not my idea of a good time. Maybe you’re ghoulish that way, but I’m not. I opened the box—it’s the old hatbox you carried downstairs for me—saw the photo on top, took it out, and that’s all. The box looked to be full of old clothes, clothes that belonged to someone who might have run away with a gangster.”
“A box full of things that may tell us a lot. It might tell us something that could keep someone from again attempting to kill you.”
In spite of herself, Samantha put her hand to her throat. “You don’t think I’m still in danger, do you?”
“Yes,” he said softly. “I think that with every person we talk to, you’re more in danger than you were before.” His voice lowered. “I think it’s possible that you’re in so deep now that even if you went to Maine you’d still be in danger.”
Samantha turned away, looked out the window, and took a deep breath.
Thirty minutes later they were in Mike’s house, and he had the hatbox on the breakfast table. Sam had insisted upon ordering dinner before they opened the box, and Mike had reluctantly agreed. Had she tried, Samantha wouldn’t have been able to explain her reluctance to open the box. She knew it was full of her grandmother’s possessions, and in other circumstances, she would have been curious to see what was in it, but she wasn’t at all sure that she wanted to see the contents of this box. Pandora’s box full of the world’s evils. Somehow, she was sure if they opened this box, they would start something that would have to be played through to the end.
When Mike reached out to pull the lid off the box. Samantha put her hand on the top.
Watching her. Mike waited while she took a few deep, calming, breaths. After a while, she nodded and stepped back, holding her breath while Mike lifted the lid.
Standing over it, he peered down into it, a frown on his face, until Samantha, curious, stepped forward. “What is it?” she whispered.
“I don’t believe it,” he said, his voice sounding apprehensive.
“What?” Stepping close to him, she looked down into the box. When Mike grabbed her arms and said, “Gotcha!” she jumped two feet. Her hand to her heart, her face red, she hit him on the shoulder. “You!”
Laughing, Mike reached into the box. “I don’t know what you’re afraid of, it’s just an old dress.” He pulled out a red silk dress and handed it to her.