S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone 19)

It took another half a beat before she remembered who I was and then she put a hand to her mouth. “I’d forgotten you were coming. I’m so sorry. Please come in.”

“Is this an okay time?”

“Fine. I didn’t mean to cut you short yesterday, but I was halfway down the walk when I heard the phone ring.”

I stepped into a living room that was ten feet by twelve, furnished out of Pier 1 Imports with very little money but a good eye for design: wicker, plump Indonesian tan-and-black block-print pillows, a reed rug on the floor, and lots of houseplants that, on a second glance, turned out to be fakes.

“No problem. Thanks for seeing me today. Are you a chef?”

“Not with any formal training. I bake as a hobby, but I’ve been doing it for years. I make wedding cakes in the main, but just about anything else you’d want. Why don’t you have a seat?”

I took one of the white wicker chairs with sturdy canvas cushions forming both the seat and the back. “My landlord was a commercial baker in his working days. He’s retired now, but he still bakes every chance he gets. Your house smells like his-vanilla and hot sugar.”

“I’ve lived with it so long I don’t even notice it. I guess it’s like working in a brewery. Your nose eventually goes dead. My husband always thought that was just how our house smelled.”

“You’re married?”

“Not now. I’ve been divorced for six years. He owns a party rental business in town. We’re still good friends.”

“You have kids?”

“One boy,” she replied. “Kevin and his wife, Marcy, are expecting their first baby, a little girl, sometime in the next ten days unless the little bugger’s late. They’re naming her Elizabeth, after me, though they plan to call her Libby.” Her fingers moved to the silver locket, touching it as though for luck.

“You look too young to be a grandmother.”

“Thanks. I can hardly wait,” she said. “What can I help you with?”

“Daisy Sullivan’s hired me in hopes of finding her mother.”

“That’s what I heard. You talked to Kathy Cramer earlier.”

“Nice woman,” I lied, hoping God wouldn’t rip my tongue out.

She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear. “I wish you luck. I’d love to know where Violet ended up. She changed the course of my life.”

“Really. For better or for worse?”

“Oh, for better. No question. She was the first adult who ever took an interest in me. What a revelation. I’d grown up in Serena Station, which has to be one of the crappiest little places on earth. Have you seen it?”

“Daisy showed me around. It’s like a ghost town.”

“Now it is. Back then, a lot more people lived there, but everyone was so boring and conventional. Violet was like a breath of fresh air, if you’ll pardon the cliché. She didn’t give a hoot about obeying the rules and she didn’t care what other people thought about her. She was such a free spirit. She made everybody else seem stodgy and dull by comparison.”

“You’re the first person I’ve talked to who’s had anything nice to say.”

“I was her lone defender even back then. I can see now she had a self-destructive streak. She was impulsive, or maybe ‘reckless’ is the better word. People were attracted to her and repelled at the same time.”

“How so?”

“I think she reminded them of all the things they wanted but didn’t have the courage to pursue.”

“Was she happy?”

“Oh, no. Not at all. She was desperate to get away. She was sick of being poor and sick of Foley’s knocking her around.”

“So you believe she left town?”

She blinked at me. “Of course.”

“How’d she manage it?”

“The way she managed everything else. She knew what she wanted and she outfoxed anyone who got in her way.”

“Sounds ruthless.”

“Again, that’s a matter of semantics. I’d say ‘determined,’ but it sometimes amounts to the same thing. It about broke my heart that she left without saying good-bye. Then again, I had to say ‘Go and God bless.’ I wasn’t that articulate at fourteen, but that’s how I felt. I couldn’t bear it for my sake, but I was glad for her. Do you know what I mean? She saw a chance and she took it. A door flew open and she zipped right through. I admired her for that.”

“You must have missed her.”