Let's Play Dead

CHAPTER 28

I really wasn’t happy making this trip. I still wasn’t convinced that there was any real problem here; that Caitlin hadn’t just gotten caught up in some new excitement about the exhibit and not bothered to tell anyone where she was. Why she wanted Arabella to meet her at Hadley’s was an open question, but chances were still good that it was legitimately work related.

But even Arabella thought there was something odd about the situation, and I didn’t like what I was hearing. Caitlin had been a troubled girl, although to all appearances she had moved past that. But maybe the stresses of her recent responsibilities for the exhibit, coupled with the unfortunate accident, had triggered something?

The weather had definitely taken a turn for the worse. It was already dark, even though it was barely five, and the temperature was dropping. I had to scrape a thin layer of ice off my windshield. The same ice coated the streets, although the early rush hour traffic wore it away quickly. I was pretty sure that the ice would be worse outside of the city. I hated driving in winter.

I arrived at Let’s Play without mishap. When I pulled up at the front door, Arabella, Nolan, and Jason were waiting just inside and hurried out quickly. Nolan opened the front door for Arabella, then climbed into my rather messy backseat. I pointed us toward Gladwyne. Unfortunately the most direct route required taking the Schuylkill Expressway, known affectionately as the Surekill. Predictably, some idiot, or maybe several idiots, had tried to drive as though there wasn’t any ice, and managed to slam into each other, blocking all but one lane. The flashing lights of the police cruisers and the multiple tow trucks reflected off the wet surfaces-further distracting and slowing the other impatient drivers. Worse, the wind had picked up, blowing the icy rain sideways, and straight into my windshield. I should have had the brains to check the weather report this morning before I’d decided to drive into the city, but it was too late now.

There was no alternate route. We just had to wait it out, a slow and slippery mile at a time. “Why don’t you try Caitlin again, Arabella?”

“I have been, every five minutes. The phone goes straight to voice mail.”

“Have you or Caitlin ever been to Hadley’s house before?” I tried to picture the three of them socializing and failed, but I held out some hope that Arabella might be able to navigate the lanes of Gladwyne.

No such luck. “No, Hadley’s always come into the city. We aren’t exactly friends, you know. Just between us, that lady is a royal pain in the ass,” Arabella said. Nolan snorted from the backseat.

Traffic inched forward again. Particles of sleet slid down my windshield, driven by the wind.

Arabella started talking softly. “I was so happy when Caitlin told me she wanted to work for me-there was a job opening at Let’s Play, and I truly believed she could handle it. She’d been doing so well, at Bishop’s Gate, and then at college. She could have found a job somewhere else-she has the skills-but I was so pleased when she came to me, I guess I didn’t ask too many questions. I thought maybe we could move past the early problems and maybe even be friends, if that’s possible for a mother and daughter.”

“And it’s been, what-two years now?”

“Going on three,” Arabella said proudly. “It may sound horrible of me, but her Asperger’s is actually an asset. She doesn’t usually have to work with people, but she’s very good with organizing things and following through. She’s terrific at keeping track of details. I had no qualms about letting her manage the exhibit process. I’m proud of her. Of course I kept an eye on her, but I didn’t interfere, and everything has gone smoothly.”

“I know she’s been really happy there,” Jason volunteered from the backseat, “especially since she’s been working on this exhibit.”

Arabella turned in her seat to look at him. “Thank you, Jason. I’m glad to hear that.”

“What about handling Hadley?” I asked.

Arabella gave a grim laugh. “After I’d met Hadley, I realized that nobody could manage her-people skills were irrelevant. Hadley is so absorbed in Hadley that she wouldn’t notice anyway. So, to the best of my knowledge, Caitlin had no problem dealing with her. At least, Hadley never complained, and I’m sure she would have if she could have found a reason.”

We all fell silent; the others were lost in their thoughts, and I was using all my attention to focus on the increasingly slippery road. After inching along at a snail’s pace for half an hour, the Gladwyne exit was finally approaching. I turned with a sigh of relief-and promptly slid down the ramp, managing to stop at the stop sign at the bottom of the slope only by pumping my brakes carefully for half its length. Luckily there were few other cars taking this exit, and few on the street in front of us. “Which way now?”

“Oh, that’s right-I have the instructions.” Arabella fished in her purse and pulled out a sheet of paper, squinting to read it. “Left, I think. Yes, left.”

I turned left, fishtailing only slightly. The two-lane road was poorly lit and slippery. “How far?” I asked, wrestling with the wheel and moving no faster than twenty miles an hour.

“It looks like two miles, and then you’ll turn right.”

It was definitely white-knuckle driving. We passed a road sign that showed a horse and rider, another clue that this was an upscale community. Probably a horse would be moving faster than I was at the moment. Still, I was in no hurry, and I saw no need to risk life and limb in order to find out what beef Hadley and Caitlin were hashing out.

The turn loomed on the right, and I slid into it, past a “Dead End” sign. If anything, the new road we were on was narrower and darker than the one we’d left, flanked by looming old-growth trees tossing in the wind. “How much farther?”

“About a half mile. The house should be on the right, if these instructions are accurate. The number’s 78.”

We crept along, peering through the bleared windows, looking at mailboxes and, in some cases, massive pillars flanking a drive. The houses were set back from the street, and based on the number of windows I could make out through the gloom, substantial in size. Nice neighborhood, or it would be if I could see it, but I was too busy trying to avoid hitting a tree.

“There!” Arabella pointed toward a mailbox. I pulled into the winding driveway-slick as glass-and crept along it until we reached what seemed to be the front of the house. From the look of it, every light in the place was on. There were two cars parked along the driveway. “That’s Caitlin’s,” Arabella said, pointing.

I parked behind it, turned off the motor, and sighed in relief. We’d made it this far. How we’d get back again, I refused to contemplate. Maybe Hadley would put us all up for the night. I had to suppress a hysterical giggle at that thought; I was pretty sure that Hadley would not be a willing hostess.

I carefully turned off the lights and removed the key. “Well, let’s go see what’s going on.”

We formed a rather shaky procession toward the door. No one had sanded the front steps-handsome slabs of stone, now coated with a thin, glistening sheet of ice. At least the front light was on, so we could see where to put our feet. Arabella and I inched up, each of us clinging to a rail on either side of the steps. Nolan and Jason brought up the rear. When we reached the top, Arabella pushed the doorbell, and somewhere inside the house we could hear a pompous bong-bong-bong echoing.

Arabella and I exchanged glances, and then she pounded on the door. “Hadley? Caitlin? Anybody home?”

“It’s open,” Caitlin answered from somewhere deep in the house. “We’re in the living room.”

I let Arabella go first. After all, this was her daughter and her problem; I was just the chauffeur. Nolan and Jason followed. We had to guess which way the living room lay-the house was long but shallow, presenting an impressive front to the driveway, but with little going on behind. Ersatz Tudor, probably early 1920s, I thought, as we navigated through a surfeit of exposed dark beams and roughtextured plaster, punctuated by heavy but dim wrought-iron light fixtures. The living room proved to be at the far end on the right side. We were guided in part by a holiday tree still set up against one wall, blazing with hundreds of small white lights, shining like a beacon down the dark hallway. As we came closer, I saw what I assumed were little animal ornaments dangling from the tree. When we came even closer, I realized that they were all tiny figures from the Harriet series. Maybe it was a permanent installation. I suppressed a shiver; it was supposed to be cute, but the figures actually made it look as though the tree was infested by vermin. Dead vermin, all hanging by their little necks.

When we reached the arched doorway to the room, I bumped into Arabella, who had stopped suddenly. I looked beyond to see Hadley and Caitlin, standing maybe five feet apart. But what was most noteworthy was that Caitlin was holding what I guessed was a Taser, not that I’d ever seen one up close before, and it was pointed at Hadley.

Then there was a loud crack, followed several seconds later by a thud that I could feel through the soles of my feet, and all the lights went out.