If Nate was plying Della with drink to find out something, did that mean he was interested in Terri?
That hope made Frank play the next set with such enthusiasm that people stopped dancing and cheered him. The oldies weren’t the only ones who were good on the strings.
* * *
When Della began weaving from too much to drink, Nate volunteered to drive her home, and helped her into his car. Her house was small and ordinary, the grounds around it neatly kept. Inside, it was packed with furniture that was part antique, part just old, and floor-to-ceiling shelves full of ornaments. It looked like Della’s hobby was haunting auction houses and estate sales. It was all clean and tidy, but the close-knit clutter of it made Nate’s skin crawl.
She was hardly in the door before she turned to him. “So what is it you want me to tell you?”
He was pleased that she knew why they were there. “I want to know about Billy Thorndyke.”
“Billy?” Della gave a sly smile. “Shouldn’t you be asking about Bob Alderson?”
“I know about him. Who I don’t know about is Thorndyke.”
“You’re like me, aren’t you? You want to know everything about everyone.”
“We all rationalize what we do,” Nate said under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Tell me about Thorndyke.”
“Is it him or Terri you want to know about?” Again, that sly look came back.
“I guess I’ll go back to the party,” Nate said. “I’m sure you’ll be all right here alone.” He didn’t get one step closer to the door before Della called him back.
“I think I’m going to need some help tonight,” she said. “When you get to be in your fifties as I am, life is harder for you.”
Before he turned back toward her, Nate rolled his eyes. She hadn’t seen fifty in a decade.
“I’ll just slip into something more comfortable.”
When she stepped behind an old-fashioned screen, Nate walked around the room, looking at what was on the shelves. He’d learned that silence often made people talk. And it was only wanting to know that made him stay there. When he saw some items that he knew were valuable, he was almost distracted from his purpose.
“Billy was a big guy, like you, and that’s Terri’s type,” she said from behind the screen. “The only other man I’ve ever seen her with was an NFL football player who came here for a couple of weeks. You know, I think I should warn you that you’d better be careful. If Terri decides she wants you, she may put on a tight dress and try to take you away from dear little Stacy Hartman. I guess you know that her father is the mayor.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“But maybe Terri won’t try anything. She’s a nice girl now, but she used to be just like her mother.”
“Her mother?” Nate had heard nothing about the mother except that she’d died when Terri was two.
“Oh yes. She had a job in a store in Summer Hill, and when she met Brody, she went after him. She put on a tiny bikini and her short shorts and Brody never had a chance. Leslie always got what she wanted.”
At the name “Leslie,” Nate’s eyes widened. It was the name Kit had texted to him. Nate waited for her to continue.
“Everybody here at the lake hoped Terri wouldn’t turn out to be like her mother. But she did. In high school Terri was a real femme fatale—if you know what I mean.” Della stepped out from behind the screen. She had on a negligee that looked to be about thirty pounds of pink silk and white lace. She could have played a courtesan from the 1890s. As she sat down on an overstuffed blue couch, she fluttered her lashes at Nate.
“Terri?” he encouraged as he took a chair a few feet away.
An involuntary sigh of exhaustion escaped her, but her love of gossip made her go on. “Terri began wearing makeup when she was quite young. You wouldn’t know it to look at her now, but she can be a real knockout. Put her in a slinky dress and wow! Back then she wore a lot of things that were tight and revealing. But then, she only had her dad, and Brody was overwhelmed with everything. He had no idea how to handle a beautiful teenage daughter. If he’d just had a wife... Or if he’d allowed me to help him, I could have...” She trailed off.
Nate could see that the drink was catching up with her and she wouldn’t stay awake much longer. He wanted to get her back on track. “Billy Thorndyke?”
“Oh, poor, poor Billy. He had no resistance against Leslie’s daughter. He was so in love with Terri—and truthfully, we thought she was with him.” Della leaned toward Nate. “You have to understand that Billy Thorndyke was from a very good family in Summer Hill. They’d been in the town from when it was settled, so it was a huge step up for Terri Rayburn. Not that there’s a class system in this country, but...”
“I understand.” Only years of training in diplomacy enabled Nate to keep what he felt off his face.