Death In Duplicate

THIRTY-TWO

IT WAS TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT ETHAN AND ROSIE WOULD allow their grandparents to sleep through the night two days in a row. At five-thirty the next morning, Susan and Jed were sitting at their kitchen table waiting for the first drop of coffee to fall through the filter. Clue was still upstairs, probably sprawled on her back in the middle of their bed. The mastiffs had been put in the backyard a few hours earlier. Chrissy and Stephen had last been seen at four AM trudging a well-worn path between their bedroom and the nursery, yawning and exhausted. The sound of the washer being turned on in the basement proved that Shannon was busy down there.

No one expected the phone to ring.

“Who the hell would be calling at this hour?” Jed asked, reaching for the phone. “Susan, if this call has anything at all to do with another murder, I want you to promise me that you’ll ignore it.”

“Don’t let Chrissy hear you talking like that in the same house as your grandchildren,” Susan warned, moving over to the coffeepot and pouring out her first cup of the day as Jed answered the phone.

“Hi… Hey, I thought you were walking around England… Last night? Really? Well, it’s been a little busy around here… They’re wonderful and growing right before our eyes. When are you coming to see them? Anytime. Oh, of course… but I think I’d better let Susan explain…” Jed passed the phone to his wife. “Your mother.”

“Hi, Mom,” Susan began, prepared to extol the many virtues of her grandchildren for as long as her mother wanted. But she was rudely interrupted by a great-grandmother who had more on her mind than the future generation. Susan listened for a few minutes and then began her explanation. “I know you’re not… I have no intention… Of course, I don’t think… Never, I promise you… Never. You don’t have to worry about that… I… Mom?… Mom?… Mom?” She pressed the OFF button and handed the phone to her husband. “She hung up on me. I can’t believe it. She hung up on me!”

“It’s probably a little disturbing to come home after a long vacation and find letters in your mail saying that your daughter is trying to have you admitted to a nursing home,” Jed suggested.

“I didn’t realize P.I.C.C. would contact her,” Susan said. “They’re up awfully early.”

“Hon, it’s almost noon in London. They’re probably a little jet-lagged as well as acclimated to living in another time zone. Your mom will calm down as soon as she’s seen her great-grandchildren.”

“I forgot to ask her when they’re coming to visit.”

“Today. They’ll be here around dinnertime. At least that’s what I think she said,” he added, yawning. “Lord, company tonight. Do you think we’ll have time for a nap this afternoon?”

“A nap? Jed, my parents are coming. I have to clean and cook and…” Her list was interrupted as she imitated her husband’s action, yawning for so long that her eyes began to water.

“They’re coming to see Ethan and Rosie, not to check under the bed for dust or make sure you’re cooking gourmet meals these days.”

“You’re right. And we’ll go out to dinner. I wonder if the small party room at the inn is free. That way the twins won’t bother anyone else. Let’s see. How many of us are there?”

“Eight.”

“We could invite Jerry and Kathleen and their kids,” Susan said.

“Twelve.”

“And Brett and Erika and Zoe. Jed, isn’t it wonderful that they’re buying a new house and letting Chrissy and Stephen rent their place for a year?”

“Fifteen,” Jed said, still counting. “And it is wonderful. But, remember, Brett and Erika said their place was too small for them, so I doubt that a four-person family-with two humongous dogs-is going to be happy there for long.”

“But it gives me… us… them time to find something bigger in the area,” Susan said happily. “How many is that?”

“Fifteen,” he repeated. “Actually, sixteen. I assume you’re going to include Shannon?”

“Of course. She’s going to see Mike, but I’m sure she’ll be back for dinner.”

“Is this the Mike that I’ve heard so much about in the past twenty-four hours?”

“Yes, she’s meeting him for breakfast. He called last night and agreed to speak to Brett. Of course, if he had talked to the police as soon as the deaths out at P.I.C.C. were discovered to be murder, everything would have been much easier.”

“Why do you say that?” Jed said, looking a bit more awake now that he’d had some coffee.

“Mike leaving P.I.C.C. confused everything. The police assumed he was involved in the murders and didn’t investigate such things as who would benefit if multiple deaths caused P.I.C.C. to shut down. Of course, Donald knew that would happen when he encouraged Mike to take off. What Donald didn’t know is that Mike was involved with a young woman who works there and wasn’t about to go very far. And he probably didn’t know that Mike was having an affair with Sophie Kincaid as well.”

“Sounds like a very busy young man.”

“You can say that again. But he told Shannon he’d been working in a nursing home upstate-apparently not a very good one either-and he was thinking of returning to Perry Island, if they would have him.”

“And will they?”

“I don’t know, but Shannon is part owner of the place. If she wants Mike to have another chance, I suspect he’ll get it… What is that?”

“Sounds like Clue barking. What would get her so excited at this time of the morning?” Jed stood up and looked out the kitchen window as, simultaneously, the back door opened and their son appeared, with at least a week’s growth of beard on his face, his hair about three inches longer than the last time his parents had seen him, and a bulging duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Clue, pushing into the room from the opposite direction, had no difficulty recognizing the love of her life. She flung all ninety pounds of her furry self into Chad ’s arms, knocking him to the floor where the two of them wrestled happily.

Susan looked over at her husband and smiled. “How many is that?”

“Seventeen. Or maybe eighteen,” he said, as a young woman appeared in the doorway behind their son. Nervously slipping a lock of her silky long brown hair behind one ear, she licked her pale lips and smiled apprehensively. “Hi.”

“Oh, shit… sorry… Mom. Dad. This is Jennifer. She’s… we’re… well, I thought… I wanted you to meet her.”

“We’re always happy to meet friends of Chad ’s,” Jed said, pulling his robe more tightly across his chest before getting up to shake hands.

“Although they don’t always arrive in the middle of the night,” Susan said, hoping her smile looked warm rather than surprised. “Would you like some coffee? Or maybe a glass of orange juice?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Jennifer answered shyly, looking down at Chad and Clue.

“Look,” Chad began, getting up off the floor. “We’ve been camping for the past two weeks and we’re filthy and everything we own is dirty. Do you think we could just shower and do some laundry before we worry about breakfast?”

“The showers will be fine, but I think Shannon is using the washing machine,” his mother answered, still trying to adjust to the fact that her son had finally brought home a girl to meet them.

“Who’s Shannon?”

“Chrissy’s baby nurse,” his mother explained.

“Please excuse my mother’s syntax-I think she’s trying to tell us that this unknown person named Shannon is the baby nurse of my nephew and niece, Ethan and Rosie, my sister Chrissy’s twins,” Chad explained to Jennifer.

“I know exactly what your mother meant, Chad. And we’re both dying to meet the twins,” Jennifer said, looking at Susan.

“They are remarkable babies and we’ll be happy to show them to you as soon as they wake up,” Jed said.

“Which is now,” Susan added as a familiar wail wafted down the stairway, through the hall, and into the kitchen.

“Listen to the lungs on those guys,” Chad said.

“Do you think we could go see them?” Jennifer asked. “I love babies.”

“Go on up,” Susan said.

“Your mother turned the guest room into a nursery,” Jed explained.

“And…,” Susan began, but Chad and Jennifer, closely followed by Clue, had already started up the stairs. She turned to her husband. “He brought a girl home.”

“Don’t make too much of this.”

“But he’s never brought a girl home.”

“Susan-”

“And she loves babies.”

“Susan-”

“Do you think they’ll get married? Have children? Bring their kids here?”

“Susan-”

“Jed,” his wife interrupted him with his name. “Do you think we’ll ever be alone in this house again?”

And her husband reached over, put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “I don’t know about you, but I’m banking on it.”