Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 128, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 781 & 782, September/October 2006

Cry Before Midnight by Donald Olson

That a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly seemed a less remarkable feat of nature than the transformation of the girlhood friend Anna so fondly remembered into this willow-thin, middle-aged woman, brown as a gypsy, with a mane of strawlike hair which looked as if it had been trimmed in a windstorm with a pair of pruning shears.

“My dear, I swear to goodness I wouldn’t have known you,” declared Anna as they drove toward the lake under a brooding late-autumn sky.

She had prepared herself for a certain shock of unrecognition when she picked Maureen up at the airport. Although Maureen had dutifully kept up her end of the correspondence, unlike Anna she had never sent so much as a single snapshot to record the inevitable change in appearance over the twenty-five years since they’d last seen each other. Consequently, Anna still carried in her mind the image of a seventeen-year-old girl inclined to plumpness, with excitable brown eyes and feather-cut raisin-colored hair.

It was of their childhood days that Anna chattered all the way to the house, as if wanting to forestall the questions Maureen must have been dying to ask ever since receiving Anna’s urgently worded telegram.

“I’m impressed, girl,” said Maureen as they climbed out of the car. “You did yourself proud.”

Anna pursed her babyish lips. “A prison, that’s what it’s been.” Though undeniably an imposing one: a tree-girdled red-brick colonial, all massive chimneys, creeping ivy, and black shutters, with a sweeping stone-balustraded terrace overlooking the lake, slate-colored now under a dull metallic sky.

Anna helped Maureen with her bags. “A hatbox? Don’t tell me women wear hats in the wilds of New Mexico.”

Maureen smiled. “I don’t use it for hats.” In the foyer she unstrapped the lid and carefully lifted out a heavy receptacle. “One of my replicas of a Cochiti polychrome storage jar.” Globe-shaped, with a short tapering neck about as wide as a fist, it was decorated with a bird motif between bands of brilliant black and red. “The perforated stopper’s my own concession to modernity, so it can be used for a variety of purposes.”

Anna gushed over the workmanship but when she would have examined it more closely Maureen stopped her with a laugh. “No, no, mustn’t touch. It’s a gift for Carter.”

“For Carter?”

“Oh, I have something for you, too, but I thought Carter might be less antagonistic — if I brought him something special. You wrote about his passion for rock candy. Well, the jar’s full of rock candy.”

Anna bit her lips and looked worried. “How sweet of you, but I’m afraid Carter’s gone.”

“Gone?”

“Come into the living room. I’ll fix us drinks before you unpack. I’m dying to tell you everything.”

“Things can’t possibly be as desperate as your telegram implied.” In the other room Maureen fished the telegram from her snakeskin bag and read it aloud: “Something terrible has happened. Need you desperately. Don’t fail me. Come at once.”

An endless flow of long, intimate letters had kept the friendship alive, Anna’s far more emotionally extravagant than Maureen’s, but it was probably that difference in temperament that helped account for the youthful bond between them. After high school Anna had married well, moved to Porthaven, lost a baby in childbirth. Neurotic complications had ensued, contributing to the gradual erosion of the marriage while Anna poured out her misery and self-pity in effusively indiscreet letters to her friend across the continent.

Maureen, the loner, the artist and dreamer, had eventually settled down near one of those historic Pueblo ruins in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains south of Taos, New Mexico. There she had established her own pottery, eking out a modest legacy from a deceased aunt by selling her works in shops around Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Her descriptions of the solitary life had filled Anna with horror; she could not conceive of such an existence, without even a phone or running water, but she’d had the good taste not to express her distaste, for that flow of letters had become as essential a lifeline to her as blood transfusions to a hemophiliac. Without you I would go insane became a recurring theme in her letters to Maureen. Anna’s husband Carter, as much a victim of the doomed marriage as Anna, regarded the correspondence with sardonic disapproval, using words like “unhealthy” and “pathological.”

Now Maureen regarded the other woman with a faintly sceptical look, as if the telegram couldn’t have been dispatched by the same person who sat facing her with no sign of mental distress in her heavy-lidded, protuberant blue eyes. “You always did have a talent for hyperbole.”

“I meant every word! It was the last straw. The final crisis.”

“You’re talking about Carter.”

“Who else?” Over the years Anna’s voice had acquired an habitually carping tone.

“So why didn’t you leave him? You never did give me a straight answer in your letters. And all that rubbish about planning to kill yourself. Really, girl.”

“I meant that, too. I even changed my will, just as I told you. Everything I have goes to you.”

Maureen lifted her hand and with the fingernail of her pinky scratched delicately at the corner of her eyebrow. “There are less drastic ways of ending a marriage.”

“How could I leave Carter? At my age? What would I do? Where would I go? We had a frightful row the other night, the very worst.”

“That’s when he left?”

“Yes.” Anna’s lips quivered, her gaze falling away from Maureen’s intense scrutiny.

“So I should think your problem is solved. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? To be rid of Carter?”

“If it were only that simple.”

“You mean he’s not gone for good?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Girl, what is it you’re not telling me?”

Anna flung her hands apart. “Oh, so much. I could tell you anything in a letter, but now... I thought it would be so easy.” Indeed, pouring out her soul to the visionary Maureen, the distant mother confessor, was quite different from exposing herself to this flesh-and-blood Maureen with her piercing, cynical way of cutting through Anna’s flabby defenses. “Give me a little time,” she pleaded. “Let’s get you settled first. You must be exhausted. I’ll show you your room and you can have a rest from me while I prepare dinner.”

Back in the foyer, Maureen said: “So much for my gift for dear Carter.”

Anna looked wistfully at the painted jar. “I’m afraid candy is strictly forbidden in my case. I’ve been diabetic for years.”

“I know.”

Anna looked a bit shamefaced. “I wonder if there’s anything about me you don’t know.”

“Thanks to your letters, I could probably write the definitive biography of Anna Lyman, complete with footnotes.”

“Carter always said I didn’t know the meaning of the word restraint.”

“And such a memory. I’d all but forgotten many of the little escapades and secrets we shared.”

Anna sighed. “Such happy times. At least I had a carefree childhood. Anyway, the jar is lovely. I’ll put it in Carter’s study for now.”

“Better let me, it’s quite heavy. Just show me where.”

Over dinner, Anna continued to evade Maureen’s questions, prompting her friend to talk instead about her own experiences “in the Wild West,” and then trying to disguise her boredom as Maureen rattled on about the Pueblos and their customs, on one of which she appeared to have become an authority. Lecturing Anna on everything from the symbolic importance of the eagle and antelope in Pueblo culture to the grisly aspects of religious dances she’d witnessed in the kivas, where whipsnakes and diamondback rattlers are smothered in cornmeal by the Pueblo women and then fearlessly snatched up by feather-bedecked male dancers.

Having got more than she bargained for, Anna finally managed to interject a question relating to a matter more to her interest. “What about Prudence?”

Maureen frowned, her little fingernail raking the thick dark hairs of her eyebrow, an apparently unconscious mannerism. “What about Prudence?”

“Did you ever hear from her again?”

“Thank God, no. I’ve no idea what became of her.”

“I think it all must have disturbed you even more than you let on. Your letters seemed different somehow after that.”

“Different?”

“I don’t know — less forthcoming in a way. Poor dear, it must have been awkward for you.”

“Awkward is hardly the word, girl. Of course I should never have allowed Prudence to move in on me the way she did.”

In her letters Maureen had pictured Prudence Colefax as a loner like herself, a fugitive from conventional society in need of a temporary sanctuary. By then the pottery was flourishing and Maureen had welcomed a pair of willing and eager hands. But then apparently something had gone wrong, a conflict of personalities. The young woman had revealed a domineering streak, began making demands on Maureen, who in her letters to Anna had even implied a suspicion of mental instability in Prudence. Only when Maureen had caught the imprudent Prudence stealing money from her had she put her foot down and ordered the woman to leave.

“You sort of left me hanging after that,” recalled Anna. “Then everything seemed fine when you finally wrote again.”

Maureen nodded. “Oh, she took off meekly enough when I finally got up the gumption to boot her out.”

Over coffee, Maureen maneuvered the conversation back to Anna’s mysterious trouble. “If I’m to help you, girl, I have to know precisely what the problem is. You said in one of your letters that if it weren’t for Carter you’d pack your bags and come West, at least for a vacation. That might be a very sensible idea. We could be partners. Quite frankly, my little business could do with an infusion of fresh capital. It might be a very good investment for you.”

This unexpected proposal was accompanied by a more vigorous raking of the eyebrow. By now this mannerism had begun to provoke a vaguely uncomfortable sensation in Anna’s mind; not annoyance, but something as disturbingly elusive as the shadow of a memory that refuses to surface.

“Can you see me living in an adobe hut in the mountains?” Anna laughed.

“It’s rather more than a hut, girl. I’m not the primitive I used to be. The change would do you good.”

Anna was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate, distracted by that nagging hint of a memory, or was it only her imagination, she wondered.

“As for my investing in anything, that’s hardly feasible at the moment, everything’s in such a muddle.”

“You’re confusing me, Anna. All those hints of some earth-shaking crisis. If it’s so bad you can’t even tell me what it is, I can’t see the point of my having dropped everything to fly out here.”

“I’m sorry, Maureen. It isn’t something I can just blurt out. Oh, if only you knew how distressing it’s all been.” Anna realized she was waffling now, deliberately evading the issue, not from any faltering of resolve but because she dared not risk confiding in Maureen before she’d had a chance to pin down whatever was troubling her at the moment even more than the Carter problem.

“Have you decided you can’t trust me, is that what’s stopping you?” Maureen asked. Anna dropped her eyes, disconcerted by this seemingly clairvoyant observation.

“It’s not that at all, dear. My brain’s all topsy-turvy. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. My mother used to say, cry before midnight, you’ll laugh with the dawn. Believe me, it doesn’t work. And I know you must be tired. I promise I’ll tell you everything in the morning.”

Maureen had to settle for that, although with a visible air of dissatisfaction. As soon as they’d parted for the night and Anna was alone in her room, she rushed to the closet and pulled down the shoebox holding all the letters she’d received from Maureen over the past score of years. Unfortunately, she had no precise recollection of when she had received that particular letter; for all she knew her imagination might indeed be playing tricks on her. The idea seemed so outlandish, so implausible. At least Maureen had always typed her letters, which made the chore somewhat easier.

The downstairs clock had chimed midnight before she found the specific letter and passage she was looking for. The muscles of her throat tightened as she devoured the words.

Now that we live in this atmosphere of smoldering hostility everything about Prudence annoys me, especially that irritating little quirk she has of digging at the corner of her eyebrow with her little fingernail. It quite sets my teeth on edge...

Making an effort to suppress a swelling tide of panic, Anna carefully refolded the letter, replaced it in the shoebox, and returned the box to the closet shelf. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t uncommon for one person who has lived with another for a long period of time to adopt, perhaps unconsciously, certain physical mannerisms, just as one tends to appropriate individual turns of phrase and pungent expressions. Oh, if only Maureen had sent snapshots of herself or of Prudence Colefax. Prudence must have known Maureen never had or she would not have dared venture upon such a risky impersonation. That Maureen should have mentioned in her letters something as insignificant as one of Prudence’s minor peculiarities obviously had not occurred to her or she might have suspected it could be a dead giveaway.

But what did it mean? If Prudence had not disappeared then what had happened to Maureen? Now a fresh and sinister construction could be placed upon that discernible change in the tone of the letters after Prudence had allegedly “gone away.” Naturally, Prudence would not have dared discontinue the correspondence, not while there was a chance Anna might grow anxious, make inquiries, or even fly out to New Mexico, as she might have done.

Money. That had to be the only reason to induce Prudence — if the woman in the other bedroom was indeed Prudence — to chance coming out here. She smelled money. And what stronger inducement could there have been than Anna’s disclosure about leaving everything she owned to Maureen? What this implied about Prudence’s motives sent a convulsive shiver through Anna’s body.

Panic gave way to despair. What was she to do? Instead of only one pressing problem, what to do about the Carter situation, she now had two to worry about. Neither decision could be put off indefinitely. Anna felt more helpless and alone than ever. And frightened.

By dawn she had thought of a way to verify her suspicions. Casually, at the breakfast table, she said: “I meant to ask you in one of my letters, Maureen — oh, this must have happened the third or fourth year you were out there — you’d taken that trip to Mexico and had your lovely emerald ring stolen in that hotel. Did you ever get it back?”

The other woman worried her eyebrow, then smiled absently. “Never did. Not that I expected to.”

“Pity,” murmured Anna. “You were so fond of that ring.”

A cold lump formed in her throat. So far as she knew, Maureen had never owned an emerald ring.

The irony of her position was not lost upon Anna. Under normal circumstances all she need do was phone the police. That was unthinkable, of course. What she must do was to get rid of the woman, as quickly as possible, and the only way to do that was to scare the creature into leaving.

“Anna, the last thing on my mind right now is a lost ring. No more beating about the bush. I insist you tell me what’s put you in such a dither. Is it about Carter?”

“Why do you think that?”

“What else could it be, for Pete’s sake?”

“All right, yes, it’s about Carter. It’s just — it’s not easy to know where to start — to make you understand...”

“You were unhappy with Carter. You had a fight.”

“A dreadful row.” Anna, formulating a plan, looked toward the window facing the lake. “I always go for a stroll along the shore after breakfast. It’ll be easier to talk there, out in the open.”

The other woman rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh of exasperation. “Whatever you say.”

They carried the dishes into the kitchen. Anna said: “It’ll be chilly by the water. You’ll need a coat.”

“My shawl will suffice.”

“I think not. You can borrow one of my coats.”

Upstairs, her heart pounding, Anna flung open the solid oak closet door. “Help yourself. Pick out something warm.”

As the other woman stepped into the closet Anna shoved her forward, slammed the door shut, and turned the key in the lock, provoking a startled cry of protest.

Anna leaned heavily against the door, as if its lock might not withstand the expected assault from within; instead, that first cry was followed by a long moment of silence.

Anna cried: “You’re not Maureen. I know who you are.”

“Are you mad, Anna? What’s come over you? Let me out.”

“You’re Prudence. What did you do to Maureen?”

“Stop playing games, girl. Open this door at once.”

“Not until you tell me the truth.”

“You’re behaving like a child. I won’t tell you anything until you open this door.”

“Why did you come? To talk me into going back with you? Then what? Kill me? Bury me out there on some mountain? Is that what happened to Maureen?”

The knob rattled violently, causing Anna to press her body even more firmly against the door. “You’d better start talking before you run out of air.”

“I came here to help you, Anna.”

“Ha!”

“It’s the truth, I swear it. You’re weak, Anna. You were always a crybaby. Boo-hooing in all those letters. Caught in a trap, you said. Can’t get out. Can’t get free. Anna, I was going to set you free. I thought Carter would be here. I had a plan. I can prove it if you’ll only open this door and let me out.”

Anna’s brain was working feverishly. “I can hear you perfectly well from in there. You tell me the truth or I’ll go away and leave you in there. Nobody will come near this place. You can pound on the door till your knuckles are raw, nobody will hear you.”

A longer silence ensued, and then in a wheedling tone of entreaty: “All right, Anna, you win. I’ll tell you everything if you just open the door a crack. I won’t hurt you. You need me, Anna. We need each other. We have to plan things before Carter comes back.”

“Carter’s not coming back.”

“Then why did you send for me?”

“I sent for Maureen, not for you.”

“Maureen wouldn’t have helped you. Maureen was sick and tired of your endless bellyaching. She said so. She felt sorry for Carter. I’m not like Maureen. I’m not afraid to do what has to be done. Please, Anna, open the door.”

“Maureen’s dead, isn’t she?”

“I can explain that. Just let me out.”

“You stay put. I’ll be right back.”

Anna moved swiftly from the room and down the stairs to Carter’s study. Bellyaching, indeed. As if Maureen would ever say such a thing. But had she been overconfident in taking it for granted that Maureen would help her? Prudence, on the other hand, would have no choice. And Anna knew she couldn’t do it alone. It had been struggle enough dragging Carter’s corpulent body down into the cellar. She couldn’t possibly have hauled it back up here and out into the garden and buried it.

In the study she unlocked Carter’s desk and took out the revolver, somehow surprised that it wasn’t still warm to the touch. The sight of it brought back all too vividly the events of that awful night. Carter screaming that he was leaving her, that he’d had enough. The wave of panic and hysteria. The gun suddenly in her hand, exploding. And then the frightening sense of helplessness, the desperate need for someone to take charge, tell her what to do. Someone she loved and trusted more than anyone else in the world: Maureen.

She was not about to open that closet door without the gun to protect her. Prudence was insane, even Maureen had hinted at that. But Prudence would be obliged to help her. Anna was aware of a bitter acid taste in her mouth, a taste of bile, recalling the wave of nausea as she’d looked down at Carter’s oozing body. Her mouth was sour with that same nasty taste. As she turned to leave the room she saw the Pueblo jar on the library table by the window. A piece of candy would take that nasty taste away. One little piece of candy wouldn’t kill her.

Dropping the gun, she quickly snatched out the perforated stopper and plunged her hand deep into the bowl of the jar. She would never know which came first, the biting sting as she jerked her hand free, or that flashing glimpse of something unspeakably hideous, the lightning-swift movement of something cordlike and alive. Anna fainted.

Once the rattler’s venom enters the bloodstream, variable factors govern the progressive symptoms leading to death. By the time Anna had regained consciousness, paralysis had already invaded her limbs. Coma would ensue. From a distance the weakening sound of a fist hammering upon unyielding wood seemed to echo the faltering rhythm of those dying heartbeats.

Copyright © 2006 Donald Olson