Death In Duplicate

FOUR

CHRISSY’S WELCOME-HOME DINNER WAS NOT THE COZY, restful event Susan had planned. Unnerved by Nadine’s phone call, she had been unable to concentrate on her cooking. As a result, the roast was overcooked, the tart burned, and the potatoes lumpy. The twins didn’t help the situation either: when Rosie stopped crying, Ethan would begin. They also seemed to get hungry at the same time, needed to be burped together, and their diapers had to be changed simultaneously. They managed to keep their grandparents, parents, and the baby nurse from relaxing and getting any enjoyment from the meal. The only benefit came to the dogs that were nearly delirious with joy at the number of half-filled plates returning to the kitchen.

“Wow, those are two active little babies. Thank God, Stephen’s parents thought to hire a baby nurse. I can’t imagine how Chrissy and Stephen would manage without Shannon ’s help,” Jed commented, putting glasses into the dishwasher.

“I suppose.” Susan paused. “What do you think about Shannon, Jed?”

“She seems to be competent, energetic, and well trained. To tell the truth, I’m surprised Rhythm and Blues hired someone so… so normal. I expected a modern-day hippie.”

“She does look normal, doesn’t she?”

“Of course. Why? Did she do something that worried you?”

“No. Nothing like that. Let’s talk about it later. When we know no one will overhear us,” Susan suggested. She was reaching into the dishwasher to rearrange her husband’s work when her son-in-law walked into the room.

“Chrissy and Shannon are going to bathe the babies and when she’s done, I thought we could take the dogs around the block. I think we all need a bit of fresh air.”

“Oh, let me help with the babies and you two can take some time off,” Susan said.

Stephen grinned. “To tell the truth, I was hoping you’d say that.”

“If you trust me to finish this job without your help, you could go upstairs now, Susan. Then Stephen and Chrissy can leave immediately,” Jed suggested.

“Good idea!” Susan was dying to help with the babies, but she had another reason to be enthusiastic-she wanted to get to know Shannon. Leaving the kitchen to the men, she hurried up to the nursery.

It was a mess. Bags of baby supplies were stacked inside the door, still unpacked. The diaper pail was lying on its side on the floor. Both babies were crying in their individual cribs. Shannon was removing a damp romper from Ethan and Chrissy was patting Rosie on her back and singing quietly. Shannon looked up when Susan entered the room.

“Hello, Mrs. Henshaw-”

“Susan,” Susan corrected automatically. “Chrissy, why don’t you go downstairs and take the dogs for a walk with Stephen and I’ll help with bath time?” she suggested.

“Mother, it’s not easy to bathe the twins. Shannon and I have set up a routine.”

“Chrissy, I’d really love to do it, and I bathed you and Chad without any problems,” her mother reminded her.

“But taking care of two babies at the same time is not the same as taking care of one-”

“I can show your mother what we do,” Shannon said.

“And Rock and Roll are dying for a walk,” Susan lied. The dogs had spent the last few hours dashing in and out of the house making life miserable for Clue and, the last time Susan looked, had been lying together on the brick patio by the back door, enjoying the cool evening air. “You don’t want them to think they’re not getting enough attention now that the babies have arrived,” she reminded her daughter.

Chrissy walked slowly toward the door. “I won’t be long,” she said, looking back over her shoulder at Shannon.

“Take your time. We’ll be fine,” Shannon answered.

“The linen closet is at the end of the hallway,” Chrissy added.

“I’m sure your mother can help me find anything I need.”

“Yes, and I bought an herbal baby wash…,” Susan began.

“We brought our own,” Chrissy said, stopping in her tracks. “We’re not introducing anything new. Ethan had a slight rash on his stomach yesterday.”

“We’ll use your wash. Go on, honey, you can use the fresh air too, you know,” Susan urged.

“Well… You’ll want to feed them once more before they go to sleep, Shannon.”

“Of course.”

Chrissy finally left the room. Susan looked at the cribs. Ethan was calm now, lying in his diaper, studying the knights on the wall above him. Rosie was in her crib, lying on her stomach, still whimpering.

“Do we give them their baths together or separately?” Susan asked, putting first things first. “I bought two baby tubs, but I’m not quite sure how to arrange things. The bathroom next door is small, but the master bath is huge with lots of counter space and two sinks.”

“We had to bathe them one at a time in the apartment, but if we could manage them both together, it would sure speed things up. And it would be nice if we could find some time before Chrissy returns to put things away in here. It would give your daughter a break. She’s a wonderful mother and these are great babies, but she needs to get more sleep, to take better care of herself.” Shannon looked at Susan and smiled. “But you know all that. That’s why you’re here.”

Susan stared at Shannon for a moment and then turned around and grabbed the pink and blue tubs from the floor of the closet. “Okay. Give me two minutes and I’ll get the bathroom ready.”

She was true to her promise and, with Shannon ’s help, the two babies were splashing happily in their tubs on top of the Deer Isle granite counter in the master bath when Jed entered the room.

“Kitchen clean?” Susan asked. She had been pleased to discover that holding a wet baby in one hand and washing with the other was a skill she had not lost.

“Not quite. But I didn’t want to miss a great photo op.” Jed had celebrated the twins’ birth by buying the most high-tech electronic camera on the market and he brandished it now.

“Oh, do you think you could wait until tomorrow morning? They’re just settling down and the… the flash might get them all excited again,” Shannon said quickly. “Or maybe you could take pictures of them when they’re asleep tonight. And Chrissy and I will give them their usual baths tomorrow morning and you’ll be able to get Chrissy in the pictures, too. It’s been a long day.”

Jed frowned, but he lowered the camera and didn’t argue. “I understand. We had a saying when our kids were little. ‘If you wake the baby, you play with the baby,’ ” he explained. “And, frankly, it’s been a long day around here too, and I’m not sure I have a whole lot of energy left. I’ll finish the kitchen and take Clue for a walk.”

“Keep Chrissy and Stephen downstairs as long as you can,” Susan suggested. “They need the break and we’re doing fine up here.” She picked up a plastic cup and rinsed Ethan’s hair one last time before lifting him out of the water and placing him gently on the towel-lined counter. Shannon was already drying Rosie, but Susan could see her face in the mirror-covered wall. She looked unhappy. “You don’t like your picture taken?” she asked quietly, when Jed was no longer with them.

“I… No, I don’t,” Shannon admitted.

Now that Susan had started asking questions, she didn’t quite know how to go about it. “Have you been doing this type of thing long?” she began, but before Shannon could answer, Ethan began to gasp for air. “What? I…” Before Susan realized what was happening, Shannon had grabbed the baby, put her fingers in his mouth and pulled out a small lump of fluff the color of Susan’s new towels. Ethan, seeming as stunned as his grandmother, was silent for a minute before beginning to scream. His sister, lying comfortably in the towel-lined sink where Shannon had placed her after her bath, joined in.

“You saved his life,” Susan said, her heart slamming in her chest. “I… I couldn’t move.”

“I’m trained to respond quickly. You would have done it yourself if I hadn’t taken over.” Shannon spoke over the loud wails of the frightened baby.

“Not in time. I wouldn’t have known what to do in time. He might have suffocated. You saved his life,” Susan repeated. Then she had another thought. “What will Chrissy say when she hears about this? She’ll think I can’t take care of her children.”

“I don’t want to speak out of turn, but would you feel comfortable not telling your daughter about this?”

Ethan seemed to be calming down a bit and Susan began to relax. “Not tell Chrissy?”

Shannon nodded. “She’s a wonderful mother, concerned and competent. But she does tend to hover. Probably all new mothers do. And it doesn’t matter much if you have only one baby. But your daughter is wearing herself out fussing over these two and organizing this move at the same time. If she thinks something might happen if she leaves them alone, she won’t leave them for a second. And new mothers need time off, too.”

Susan nodded. “You’re right. We’ll just tell her everything went well.”

“And you might want to run your luxurious thick towels through the washer and dryer a few times before we use them again,” Shannon suggested, handing Ethan over to his grandmother.

Susan looked down at her grandson-he smiled up at her as though nothing had happened-and over to his sister, who was rubbing drool into her chin as though it was a beauty cream. “Yes, I will. Definitely.”

“Let’s take them back to the nursery and get them dressed in their jammies and settled down. Then you can stay with them while I go downstairs and warm their formula. I can clean up in here later.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of the bathroom… and the laundry. Oh, did you see the laundry chute in the hallway? It’s just outside the door of your room. You can just dump their clothing down and it lands right next to the washer in the basement,” Susan said.

Shannon looked over at her and smiled. “That will be a lot easier for me than running to where the Laundromat was in Philadelphia. The babies go through a lot of clothing in a twenty-four hour period.”

“No problem. And do you use regular detergent? I used Ivory Snow for Chrissy’s things, but I don’t remember if I did for Chad…”

The two women walked back to the nursery, each holding a baby, quietly going over the babies’ domestic requirements. By the time Chrissy and Stephen returned from their stroll, Susan and Shannon were settled in the rocking chairs, feeding the twins. The lights in the nursery were dimmed and there was a CD playing tunes guaranteed to send a baby to sleep. It was a peaceful picture if the viewer disregarded the three black plastic bags stuffed full of dirty diapers on the floor by the door.

“We’re almost done here if you want to take a shower or something,” Susan suggested to her daughter.

Chrissy rubbed her back and glanced over at her husband. “I think I…”

“Why don’t you go ahead and get to bed early for once?” Stephen picked up his mother-in-law’s cue immediately. “You know Ethan or Rosie will be waking up in just a few hours.”

“I’m not sure I’ll hear them crying from our room.” Chrissy sounded worried.

“I’ll keep the door open to my room and I’ll let you know if you’re needed,” Shannon said quickly.

“And I put a baby monitor in your room,” Susan said. “You can just turn it on and listen in to them if…” She stopped. She had been about to say if you don’t trust Shannon to get up, but Shannon had proved her worth in an emergency. How could she doubt her now? “If you want to,” she concluded. Then she got up and put Rosie into her crib. “I’ll be in the basement doing some laundry if anyone needs me.” Taking one last fond look at the room, she grabbed the plastic bags of garbage and headed downstairs.

She was sitting on a tall stool, staring at the piles of dirty clothing when she realized someone was walking down the basement stairs. “I’m here, Jed. In the laundry room,” she called out.

“It’s not Jed. It’s me.” Kathleen Gordon appeared in the doorway. “I was jogging and thought I’d stop in to see the babies.”

“They’re sleeping.”

“I know. Jed told me. So I thought I’d see how the new grannie is doing.” She looked at the piles on the floor. “Laundry. So I guess being a grandmother is a lot like being a mother. My kids seem to create at least as much laundry as this every week.”

“This is twenty-four hours’ worth, I’m told.”

“Susan, what’s wrong? You look… well, you don’t look happy.”

“It’s Shannon -”

“Well, I suppose you can’t expect Rhythm and Blues to hire a normal baby nurse.”

“It’s not that she’s not normal. Not exactly,” Susan said. “It’s that she was the primary suspect in the murder of three people.”

“ ‘Primary suspect.’ That means…”

“It means the cases were never solved. There wasn’t enough evidence to indict anyone. No one knows who did it. It means my grandchildren’s baby nurse could be a murderer.”