“And you left your shirt? Why? ”
“It was ruined—it was just a T-shirt.”
As for Ted, his conversation with Eddie was a little different.
“What did she mean—she has ‘the whole day’ Friday?” Ted asked. “Does she expect me to spend the whole day with her?”
“I don’t know,” the sixteen-year-old said.
“Why did she think you’d looked at the drawings?” Ted asked. “ Did you—did you look at them?”
“No,” Eddie lied.
“Christ, of course you did,” Ted said.
“She exposed herself to me,” Eddie told him.
“Jesus! She did what ?”
“She didn’t mean to,” Eddie admitted, “but she exposed herself. It was the wind—it blew her robe open.”
“Jesus Christ . . .” Ted said.
“She locked herself out of her house, because of you,” Eddie told him. “She said you wanted all the doors locked, and that you didn’t like the gardener to be around.”
“She told you that?”
“I had to break into her house—I smashed in the French doors with a part of the birdbath. I had to carry her through the broken glass,” E
ddie complained. “I lost my shirt.”
“Who cares about your shirt ?” Ted shouted. “I can’t spend the whole day with her Friday! I’ll have you drop me off there the first thing Friday morning, but you must come back to get me in forty-five minutes. Forget that—in half an hour! I couldn’t possibly spend forty-five minutes with that crazy woman.”
“You just have to trust me, Eddie,” Marion told him. “I’m going to tell you what we’re going to do.”
“Okay,” Eddie said. He couldn’t stop thinking about the worst of the drawings. He wanted to tell Marion about Mrs. Vaughn’s smell, but he couldn’t describe it.
“On Friday morning you’re going to leave him at Mrs. Vaughn’s,” Marion began.
“I know!” the boy said. “For half an hour.”
“No, not for half an hour,” Marion informed the sixteen-year-old. “You’re going to leave him with her and not come back to pick him up. It will take him most of the day to get home by himself without a car. I’ll bet you anything that Mrs. Vaughn won’t offer to drive him.”
“But what will he do ?” Eddie asked.
“You mustn’t be afraid of Ted,” Marion reminded him. “What will he do ? It will probably occur to him that the only person he knows in Southampton is Dr. Leonardis.” (Dave Leonardis was one of Ted’s regular squash opponents.) “It will take Ted half an hour or forty-five minutes just to walk to Dr. Leonardis’s office,” Marion continued. “And then what will he do? He’ll have to wait all day, until all of Leonardis’s patients have gone home, before he can get a ride home with the doctor—unless one of Leonardis’s patients is someone Ted knows, or someone who happens to be driving in the direction of Sagaponack.”
“Ted’s going to be furious,” Eddie warned her.
“You just have to trust me, Eddie.”
“Okay.”
“After you drive Ted to Mrs. Vaughn’s, you’re going to come back here and get Ruth,” Marion went on. “Then you’re going to take Ruth to her doctor to get her stitches out. Then I want you to take Ruth to the beach. Let her get wet—let her celebrate having her stitches out.”
“Excuse me,” Eddie interrupted. “Why doesn’t one of the nannies take Ruth to the beach?”
“There will be no nannies on Friday,” Marion informed him. “I need the day, or as much of the day as you can give me, to be alone here.”