No Place Like Home Part 13

Detective Walsh. His name sprang into my mind. "Have you ever fired a gun?" It was the kind of question you ask a person you view as a suspect, not something you'd say to an innocent woman who has just had the shock of discovering a murder victim. Was it possible that Walsh was the one who had left that phone message, and was now playing a cat-and-mouse game with me?

But even if he knows I'm Liza Barton, and how would he know?, why would he think I would kill Georgette Grove? Did Walsh imagine that I was angry enough at Georgette to kill her because she had sold Alex this house? Could Walsh possibly believe my mind is so twisted that being brought back to this house, plus the cruel reminders of the tragedy, would send me over the edge? That possibility made me sick with fear.

Even if Walsh is not the one who knows I am Liza Barton, he's still suspicious of me. I've already lied to him. And if he comes around again, I'll be forced into a continuing series of lies.

I thought about last week. Last week at this time I was in my Fifth Avenue apartment. All was right with my world. It felt like one hundred years ago.

It was time to pick up Jack. As always, his need for me is the focus of my life. I got up, went into my bathroom and washed my face, splashing it with cold water, trying to shock myself into some kind of reality. For some incongruous reason, I remembered Henry Paley pointing out the advantage of having his-and-her bathrooms in the master bedroom suite. At the time, I'd wanted to be able to tell him that my father had figured that one out.

I changed from the suit I had worn to the church service into jeans and a cotton sweater. As I got in the car, I reminded myself that I had to buy a new tape for the answering machine.

Otherwise Alex would surely ask why the one that had been there this morning was missing.

I collected Jack at St. Joe's and suggested we have lunch at the coffee shop. I realized that a new fear factor had been added to being in the house-from now on I was going to panic whenever the phone there rang.

I managed to persuade Jack to eat a grilled cheese sandwich instead of his inevitable choice of peanut b.u.t.ter and jelly. He was filled with stories about pre-K, including the fact that a girl had tried to kiss him."Did you let her kiss you?" I asked.

"No, it's stupid."

"You let me kiss you," I teased.

"That's different."

"Then you'll never let a girl in your cla.s.s kiss you?"

"Oh, sure. I let Maggie kiss me. I'm going to marry her someday."

His fourth day in cla.s.s, and his future is already settled. But for now, in this diner, over a grilled cheese sandwich, he is perfectly content with me. And I with him, of course. It's funny how my love for Jack was the root cause of my marrying Alex. I had met Alex for the first time at Larry's funeral two years ago. Larry had been one of those men whose business a.s.sociates become their primary family. I'd met a few of his relatives, but only when, as Larry put it, "We can't get out of the d.a.m.n family get-together."

Even standing at my husband's casket, I couldn't help being aware that Alex Nolan was a very attractive man. I didn't see him again until he came up and introduced himself to me at a charity dinner a year ago. We had lunch the next week, and went to dinner and the theatre a few nights later. From the beginning, it was obvious that he was interested in me, but I had no intention of getting involved with anyone at that time. I had genuinely loved Larry, but the realization of just how disturbed he had been about my past had unsettled me terribly.

Larry was the man who had told me that the happiest part of his life began the day he met me.

Larry was the man who put his arms around me and said, "My G.o.d, you poor kid," when I showed him the sensational stories of Little Lizzie. Larry was the man who shouted with joy the day I told him I was pregnant, and who did not leave me for one single minute of my long and difficult delivery. Larry was the man who, in his will, left me one third of his wealth, and made me residual heir of Jack's estate.

Larry was also the man who on his deathbed, his weakened hand clutching mine, his eyes opaque with the nearness of impending death, begged me not to disgrace his son by revealing my past.

Alex and I began to date with the understanding that this was going nowhere, that this was all platonic, a word that today I'm sure many people find amusing. "I'll be platonic as long as you want, Ceil," he would joke, "but don't for a minute believe I think platonic." Then he'd turn to Jack. "Hey, guy, we've got to work on your mother. How can I make her like me?"

We'd been in that mode for four months when one night everything changed. Jack's babysitter was late. By the time she got to the apartment, it was ten of eight, and I was expected at an eight o'clock dinner party on the West Side. The doorman was getting a cab for someone else. I saw another cab coming down Fifth and rushed out to hail it. I didn't see the limo that was just pulling out from the curb.

I woke up in the hospital two hours later, battered and bruised, and with a concussion, but basically okay. Alex was sitting by my bedside. He answered my question before I asked: "Jack's fine. Your babysitter called me when the police tried to reach someone at the apartment.

They couldn't get in touch with your mother and father in Florida."

He ran his hand across my cheek. "Ceil, you could have been killed!" Then he answered my next unasked question. "The babysitter will wait till I get there. I'll stay at your place with Jack tonight. If he wakes up, you know he'll be comfortable with me."

Alex and I were married two months later. The difference, of course, is that while we were simply seeing each other without commitment, I owed him nothing. Now that I am his wife- no, before I became his wife, I owed him the truth.

All these thoughts and memories were leaping through my mind as I watched Jack finish the last crumb of his sandwich, a hint of a smile on his lips. Was he thinking about Maggie, the four-year-old he was planning to marry?

It's strange how, in the midst of having my life dissolve into chaos, I can still find moments of peace and normalcy, like having lunch with Jack. When I signaled for the check, he told me that he had been invited for a play date the next day, and would I call his friend Billy's mom. He fished in his pocket and gave me the number.

"Isn't Billy the little boy who was crying the first day?" I asked.

"That was another Billy. He's still crying."

We started to drive home, but then I remembered I hadn't bought the new answering machine tape. We backtracked, and as a result, it was twenty of two by the time we got to the house. Sue was already there, and I rushed upstairs to trade my sneakers for boots that would work well enough for my first riding lesson.

It's funny that it didn't occur to me to cancel the lesson. I was distraught at the dual threat that somebody knew I was Liza Barton, and that Detective Walsh, even if he was not aware of my other ident.i.ty, was suspicious of me.

But every instinct in my being said that by getting to know Zach, I might learn why my mother had screamed his name that night she and Ted fought.

On the way to the Washington Valley Riding Club, I was flooded with vivid memories of my mother. I remember her impeccably outfitted in her beautifully tailored black jacket and cream-colored breeches, her smooth blond hair in a chignon, mostly hidden under her riding helmet, as my father and I watched her take the jumps at Peapack.

"Doesn't Mommy look like a princess?" I remember my father asking as she cantered by. Yes, she did. I wondered now if by then he had begun to take riding lessons.

I left the car in the parking lot of the club, went inside, and told the receptionist I had an appointment with Zach Willet. I caught her disapproval of my makeshift riding gear and made a silent promise to myself that I would be more suitably dressed in the future.

Zach Willet came into the reception room to fetch me. I judged him to be about sixty. His lined face suggested long exposure to the elements, and the broken capillaries in his cheeks and nose made me suspect that he liked his liquor. His eyebrows were bushy, and drew attention to his eyes. They were an odd shade of hazel, more green than brown, almost faded in color, as though they, too, had known long years under bright sunshine.

As he looked me over, I detected a hint of insolence in his manner. I was sure I knew what he was thinking: I was one of those people who thought it would be glamorous to learn how to ride a horse, and I probably would end up being a nervous wreck and quitting after a couple of lessons.

Introductions over, he said, "Come on back. I tacked up a horse that's used to beginners." As we walked back to the stables, he asked, "Ever ridden before, and I don't mean one pony ride when you were a kid?"

I had my answer ready for him, but now it sounded stupid: "My friend had a pony when I was little. She'd let me have rides on it."

"Uh-huh." Clearly he was unimpressed.

There were two horses saddled and tied to the hitching post. The large mare was obviously his.

A smaller, docile-looking gelding was there for me. I listened attentively to Zach's first instructions about riding: "Remember, you always mount a horse from the left side. Here, I'll boost you up. Get your foot in the stirrup, then point your heel down. That way it won't slip.

Hold the reins between these fingers and, remember, don't ever yank on them. You'll hurt his mouth His name is Biscuit, short for Sea Biscuit. That was the original owner's idea of a joke."

It had been a long time since I had sat on a horse, but I immediately felt at home. I held the reins in one hand and patted Biscuit's neck, then turned to Zach for approval. He nodded, and we started to walk the horses side by side around the ring.

I was with him for an hour, and while he was far from gregarious, I did get him to talk. He told me about working at the club from the time he was twelve, how being around horses was a lot more satisfying than being around most of the people he knew. He told me that horses were herd animals and liked each other's company, that often they will calm down a racehorse by putting a familiar stablemate near it before a race.

I remembered to make the mistakes new riders do, like letting the reins slide, letting out a squeal when Biscuit unexpectedly picked up the pace.

Of course Zach was curious about me. When he realized that I lived on Old Mill Lane, he immediately connected me with Little Lizzie's Place. "Then you're the one who found Georgette's body!"

"Yes, I am."

"Lousy experience for you. Georgette was a nice lady. I read that your husband bought that house as a birthday present. Some present! Ted Cartwright, the stepfather the kid shot that night, used to keep his horses here," Zach went on. "We're old friends. Wait till I tell him I'm giving you lessons. Have you seen any ghosts yet in that house?"

I made myself smile. "Not a single one, and I don't expect to either." Then, trying to sound casual, I said, "Didn't I hear that Liza-or Lizzie as everyone calls her-didn't I hear that her father died as a result of a riding accident somewhere around here?"

"That's right. Next time you come, I'll show you the spot. Well, not the exact spot. That's on a trail only the real experts take. n.o.body can understand why Will Barton went on it. He knew better. I was supposed to be with him that day."

"Were you?" I tried to sound casually interested. "What happened?"

"He'd had about ten lessons and could tack up his own horse. My horse had picked up a stone in its hoof and I was trying to get it out. Will said he'd start walking his horse on the trail. I think he was excited about going alone, but I tell you, that man was scared of horses and the horses knew it. Makes them nervous and jittery. But Will was bound and determined to go ahead. Anyhow, I was about five minutes behind him, and I started to get worried that I wasn't catching up with him. Never occurred to me to look for him on that trail. As I said, Will knew enough not to go on it, or so I thought.

"But I couldn't find him anywhere, and by the time I got back to the stable, the word was all over the place. He and the horse had gone over the cliff. Will was dead, and the horse had broken legs. He was finished, too."

"Why do you think he went on the trail?" "Got confused."

"Weren't there signs to warn him?"

"Sure there were, but I bet the horse got frisky, and Will was so nervous he didn't notice them.

Then when the horse chose that path and Will saw what he was up against, my bet is that he yanked on the reins and the horse reared. The dirt and rocks are loose over there. Anyhow, they both went over, and in a way I've blamed myself all these years. I should have made Will Barton wait for me."

So that was how it happened, I thought. The sequence of events began with a stone in the hoof of a horse. Knowing that story, Mother might have blamed Zach Willet for not being with my father when he rode from the stable, but why would she have screamed his name at Ted?

Unless Ted Cartwright had brought my father to Zach to take the riding lessons that had caused his death.

"We'll turn back to the stable," Willet told me. "You're okay. Stick to it and you'll make a good rider."

The answer came before I asked the question. "You know," Willet said, "you told me Georgette Grove suggested me as a teacher. She was also the one who brought Will Barton here to take lessons from me. And now you're living in his house. That's a real coincidence, or fate, or something."

On the way home, I was appalled by the thought that if Detective Walsh knows, or manages to learn that I am Liza Barton, he would have one more reason to think I hated Georgette Grove.

By suggesting Zach Willet to my father as a riding teacher, she had directly contributed to his death.

I can't answer any more of Walsh's questions, I thought. I can't be trapped by the lies I tell him. I've got to hire a criminal lawyer. But how would I explain that to my lawyer husband?

CHAPTER 36.

Dru Perry wrote a brief story about Georgette Grove's memorial service, turned it in to her boss at the Star-Ledger, and then went back to work on the "Story Behind the Story" feature. It was her favorite kind of reporting, and by now she was thoroughly intrigued with the prospect of taking a fresh look at the Liza Barton/Little Lizzie Borden case.

She had left a message on the answering machine of Benjamin Fletcher, the lawyer who had defended Liza at her trial. He finally called her back on her cell phone as she was walking up the steps of the Hilltop Church on her way to the service. They had arranged that she would come to his office in Chester at four o'clock.

She intended to ask him about Diane Wesley, Ted Cartwright's one-time girlfriend, who, as the trial began, had called the press and given an interview. She said that she'd been at dinner with Ted the night before the tragedy, and he had told her that Liza's hatred of him was the reason for the separation.

Dru had also found an interview that had come out in one of the trashy tabloids, on the second anniversary of the tragedy. In that one, a scantily clad Julie Brett, another of Ted's girlfriends, revealed that she had been subpoenaed by the defense to refute Ted's claim that he had never physically abused a woman. "I got on the witness stand in court," she had told the reporter, "and I made it clear to them that when Ted Cartwright gets drunk, he's a mean, vicious guy. He starts talking about people he hates and works himself into a fury. Then he'll get it out of his system by throwing something or by taking a swing at the nearest person. Believe me, if I'd had a gun the night he roughed me up, he wouldn't be here right now."

Too bad she didn't tell the media that at the time of the trial, Dru thought wryly, but the judge probably had a gag order on her at the time.

Benjamin Fletcher, Diane Wesley, and Julie Brett-she wanted to talk to all three of them.

After that, she intended to find people who had been friends of Audrey Barton at the Peapack Riding Club both before and after she married Will Barton.

From all the reports I've read, that marriage was very happy, Dru thought, but I've heard that song before. She thought about her close friends who had split after forty-two years of marriage. Afterward, Natalie, the wife, had confided to her, "Dru, I knew as I was walking down the aisle that I was making a mistake. It's taken me all this time to have the courage to do something about it."

At one thirty, Dru picked up a ham and cheese sandwich and a container of black coffee from the cafeteria. Having noticed that Ken Sharkey was in line ahead of her, she carried the bag with her lunch back to his desk. "Would my editor be pleased if I have lunch with him?" she asked.

"What? Oh, sure, Dru."

From Ken's expression, Dru was not convinced that he welcomed her company, but she liked to bounce ideas off Ken, and this seemed like a good time to do it. "Paul Walsh was at the service today," she began.

Ken shrugged. "I'm not surprised. He's heading up the investigation into the Grove homicide."

"Am I wrong, or do I detect a little friction between him and Jeff?" Dru asked.

Sharkey, a beanpole of a man whose quizzical expression seemed permanently etched on his features, frowned. "Of course you detected it, because it's there. Walsh is jealous of Jeff. He'd like to be the one shooting for the gubernatorial spot. Failing that, he's eligible to retire soon and wouldn't mind a nice, plush job as head of security somewhere. Obviously it would help if he grabbed some notoriety by solving a big case, and now he's got one. But whatever is going on behind the scenes, the rumors are that he and MacKingsley are close to being on the outs, and that the split is becoming fairly open."

"I'll have to have a talk with Jeff's secretary," Dru said. "She doesn't mean to gossip, but she has a way of saying things that allow me to read between the lines." She took several healthy bites of her sandwich and sipped her coffee, then continued to think out loud: "Ken, I've been keeping in touch with Marcella Williams, or maybe it's more accurate to say that she's been keeping in touch with me. She's the one who lives in the house next to the Nolans on Old Mill Lane, and had so much to say to the media when the vandalism was discovered. She told me that she saw Jeff MacKingsley drive past her place last Wednesday. Then, being Marcella, she walked up the road and saw his car parked in the Nolans' driveway. Isn't it kind of unusual for the Morris County prosecutor to get involved in a vandalism case? I mean, that was before Georgette was murdered."

"Dru, figure it out," Sharkey said. "Jeff's ambitious, and soon he's going to be beating the drums about how safe he's kept Morris County for the four years he's been prosecutor. That latest vandalism case made front-page news. That's why he was there. From what I understand, people are starting to believe that some nut who's fixated on the story of Little Lizzie defaced the house, then murdered Georgette because she was involved with it. Jeff's naturally taking a special interest in seeing that both cases are solved quickly. I hope that happens. If he does get to run for governor, I'll vote for him."

Sharkey finished his sandwich. "I don't like Paul Walsh. He's contemptuous of the media, but at the same time he'll use us to float stories about imminent arrests, just to squeeze people he thinks are hiding something. Remember the Hartford case? When Jim Hartford's wife disappeared, Walsh did everything except accuse him of being an axe murderer. Turns out the poor woman must have pulled her car off the road because she didn't feel well. Autopsy showed she died of a ma.s.sive heart attack. But until someone finally spotted that car, Hartford wasn't just dealing with his wife of forty years being missing; he was reading every day in the paper that the police suspected she had been the victim of foul play, and that he was 'a person of interest,' meaning, they thought he had killed her."

Sharkey folded up the paper his sandwich had been wrapped in and tossed it into the basket at his feet. "Walsh is a smart guy, but he doesn't play fair with anyone-not with innocent people, not with the media, and not even with his own team. If I were Jeff MacKingsley, I'd have sent him packing long ago."

Dru stood up. "Well, I'm going to send myself packing," she said. "I've got some calls to make, then, at four o'clock, I have an appointment with Benjamin Fletcher, the lawyer who defended Liza Barton at her trial."

Sharkey's face registered surprise. "That was twenty-four years ago, and from what I remember, Fletcher was in his fifties then. Is he still practicing law?"

"He's seventy-five now, and he's still practicing law, but he's no Clarence Darrow. His Web site doesn't offer his services as an expert in criminal defense."

"Keep me posted," Sharkey told her.

Dru smiled to herself as she walked across the news room. I wonder if Ken has ever said, "See you later," or "Take it easy," or "Have fun," or even "Good-bye" to anyone. I bet when he leaves his house in the morning, he kisses his wife, then says to her, "Keep me posted."

Two hours later, Dru was sitting in Benjamin Fletcher's cubbyhole office, staring at him across a desk that was a jumble of files and family pictures. She didn't know what she had expected, but it wasn't that he'd be a giant of a man, six feet three or four, and at least a hundred pounds overweight. His few remaining strands of hair were damp with perspiration, and his forehead glistened as if he were ready to break into a sweat.

His jacket was hung over the back of his chair, and he had opened the top b.u.t.ton of his shirt and pulled down his tie. Rimless gla.s.ses magnified his already wide gray-green eyes. "Do you have any idea how many times over the years some reporter has called me about the Barton case?"

he asked Dru. "Don't know what you people think you're going to find to write about that hasn't been written before. Liza thought her mother was in danger. She got her father's pistol.

She told Cartwright to let go of her mother, and the rest is history."

"I guess we all know the basic facts of the case," Dru agreed. "But I'd like to talk about your relationship with Liza."

"I was her lawyer."

"I mean, she didn't have close relatives. Did she bond with you? In those months after you were appointed by the court to defend her, how much did you see of her? Is it true that she never spoke to anyone?"

"From the time she thanked that cop for putting a blanket around her in the squad car, she didn't say a single word for at least two months. Even after that, the psychiatrists couldn't get much out of her, and what she did tell them didn't help her case any. She mentioned her father's riding teacher and got all upset. They asked her about her stepfather, and she said, 'I hate him.'"