Her red hair was pulled away from her face. “I’m all right for now. I think the hard part comes later when everyone goes home. I’ll try to catch you in a bit. I have to get back with this.”
“Have you seen Adrianne?”
“I think I saw her go out there,” she said. “Cedric would have been glad you came.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” I said, and she was gone.
I set my wine cup on the counter and pushed the kitchen screen open. Adrianne was on the back porch, sitting on the top step. I took a seat beside her, my shoulder bag between us. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. This depresses me, that’s all.”
“I have a question for you.”
“Geez, would you give it up already? This is hardly the time.”
“You can talk to me or you can talk to the cops. Take your pick.”
“Oh hell. What do you want? I’m sick of this business.”
“So am I. Unfortunately, it isn’t over.”
“It is as far as I’m concerned. So ask me and get it over with. I’m about to go home.”
“Did you know Cornell was fooling around with Charisse?”
She looked at me sharply and then she looked away. She was quiet for a long time, but I decided to wait her out. Finally, she said, “Not at first.”
“And then what?”
“Do we really have to talk about this? That was eighteen years ago.”
“I hear you were at the Tuley-Belle and walked in on them.”
“Thank you, George Baum. If you knew the answer, why’d you ask?”
“Because I wanted to hear it from you. Come on. Just tell me what happened. Like you said, it was years ago so what difference does it make?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said, with disgust. “A bunch of us had gone out there. We used to do these big scavenger hunts and play stupid games. That Friday night, it was Hide-and-Seek. Cornell and Charisse were in a room on the second floor. I stumbled in, looking for a place to hide, and there they were. I was horrified and so was he.”
She stopped. I thought that was the end of it, but she picked up again. “I guess I was naive, but I genuinely liked Charisse. I didn’t know she was using me to get to him.”
“What’d she say to you?”
“What could she say? I’d caught them in the act. Not that she was ever one to apologize for what she did. I told her she was a shit, but she shrugged it off. She didn’t care for my opinion or anyone else’s. Afterward, I begged her to stay away from him, but she was obsessed. I hated her for that. She nearly ruined his life.”
“How?”
Silence again. “Ask him. It’s really his business, not mine.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “She told him she was pregnant.”
Again, she was quiet.
“Am I right?”
“Yes. She was determined to marry him. She told me about it before she told him.”
“Why?”
“Because she thought I’d help. I told her to blow it out her butt, but she threatened to tell Mom and Dad unless I talked him into it.”
“Did anyone else know?”
“No. She was sure he’d marry her to avoid the embarrassment. Once he did that, it’d be too late for anyone else to interfere—meaning Justine, of course.”
“And he was willing to go along with this?”
“He didn’t have any choice. You know how straightlaced my parents are, especially Mom. If they found out, they’d have forced him to marry her anyway.”
“So what was the plan?”
“There wasn’t a plan. She had it all figured out. They were going to run off together. She knew a place where they could get a marriage license even if they were underage.”
“He must have been in a sweat.”
“He was really scared. I told him he was being dumb. How could he even be sure the kid was his? All he had to do was get five or six of his buddies to swear they’d screwed her too and he’d be off the hook.”
“Nice move, Adrianne. Did you come up with that yourself?”
“Well, what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t let her wreck my brother’s life! Besides, it was true. Why should he pay? He only did what every other guy was doing. Why’s that so wrong?”
“Oh sure. I can see your point. There’s only one tiny problem.”
“What.”
“She wasn’t pregnant.”