Let's Play Dead

CHAPTER 5

Jason Miller was still on my mind as I walked from the station to the Society the next morning. What could have happened? Was he all right? I hadn’t heard a word from Arabella Heffernan, but we weren’t exactly close, and I doubted that she had my home number. Nor did I have hers, and even if I had, I was reluctant to call only to hear bad news. I’d had trouble erasing the image of Jason’s still form on the floor, so out of place among the bright and gaudy cartoon animals. And even if all was well, her daughter, Caitlin, had looked very distressed, and Arabella might have had her hands full comforting her.

I was knee-deep in paperwork at my desk an hour or so later when Front Desk Bob called. “There’s a Ms. Heffernan here to see you. Can I send her up?”

Arabella had come all the way here, in person? That was kind. I sighed, wishing I had that elusive assistant to send downstairs and escort Arabella up to my office, according to protocol. “Please see her to the elevator, Bob, and I’ll meet her on this end.”

“Will do,” Bob said, and hung up.

I swept the papers into a sort of neat pile, checked to make sure that my guest chair was clear, and walked down the hall to the elevator. I arrived before it had creaked its way up the two stories. When the doors opened, there was Arabella, looking far more cheerful than she had the evening before, and all but hidden behind a large basket filled with flowers and cookies. My mouth started watering immediately, even though I’d eaten breakfast.

“Nell, I wanted to bring you this as an apology for yesterday. What an awful thing! I’m so sorry you had to be there. What must you think of us!”

“Please don’t worry about me, Arabella. Is Jason all right?”

“Thank goodness, yes. That’s why I wanted to see you. I was sure you would be worried, though you were so calm yesterday!”

Arabella had done pretty well herself, taking charge and doing what had to be done. I’d been impressed: her warm and cuddly exterior hid a solid core. “Why don’t we go to my office?”

“Wonderful,” Arabella said.

I led the way, catching a few curious glances directed more at the large basket of goodies than at me. Once in my office, I set the basket on my credenza, then gestured toward the chair. “Please sit down. I was going to call you, but I didn’t want to bother you this morning.”

“Well, Jason’s going to be just fine. He woke up in the ambulance and he was talking. He wanted to go home last night, but the doctors thought he should stay overnight for observation, just in case.”

“That’s great news. Oh, where are my manners? Can I get you some coffee? It won’t be as good as your tea, though.” What I really wanted was an excuse to dig into the cookies. “Unless you have to get back to work right away?”

“Coffee would be lovely. And I’m not in a hurry. I thought I’d treat myself to a little time off, after all the stress of yesterday. And of course the electrical inspectors are back, and I’m sure they don’t want me hovering over them.”

“You didn’t think you should close the museum, at least until they had checked things out?”

“The exhibit has its own independent wiring-we added all that recently. That area’s off-limits to the public anyway, until we open the exhibit, but just in case I asked one of our staff to stay and make sure nobody strays.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Let me get you that coffee. I’ll be right back!” I ducked down the hall to the staff room, praying that there was something in the pot, and that it wasn’t sludge. For once I was lucky. I rinsed out two cups and filled them, then headed back down the hall.

By the time I returned, Arabella had already laid out some of the cookies (from a local bakery, not a package) for us on pretty matching napkins. This was one very organized lady. I set a mug of coffee in front of her, then went around the desk and sat with my own mug. “That looks lovely.”

“Thank you. Your office is quite impressive.”

“It is that. I still feel as though I don’t belong here, and someone’s going to come along and throw me out.”

“Oh, pshaw! You’ll be fine. As I’m sure you’ve discovered, this kind of position takes a strong sense of organization combined with an ability to size up people quickly and schmooze them. And I’ve seen you do those quite well. Don’t underestimate yourself.”

I laughed. “I think you’ve nailed the job description, and thank you for the kind words. How long have you been at Let’s Play?”

Arabella fluttered an airy hand. “Forever, it seems. I came up through the ranks, so to speak. I started out as a docent when my daughter, Caitlin, was young-I saw how much she and the other children loved it, and I wanted to be part of it. And things just sort of grew from there! I’ve been president for ten years now, and I still love it. And I seem to have passed my love of it on to Caitlin-she’s our exhibits coordinator. She’s been working with me at Let’s Play for a couple of years now, since she graduated from college, but the Harriet the Hedgehog exhibit is her first solo project.”

“I know how much time it takes to get things right, whether it’s fragile documents or plastic animals. She must have had to work long hours.” So Caitlin worked with her mother. I wondered how that had come about-had they avoided any whiff of nepotism?

“Oh yes, she’s spent quite a bit of time working on the exhibit. It’s a shame she lives in Camden now; I tried to get her to stay with me in the city-I’ve been in the same house since Caitlin was young, and when my husband… left”-a brief cloud passed across her face, and I wondered what the story was-“it was easiest to stay on, since she was settled in school and had friends there. And it was so convenient! Most of the time I walk to work.”

“I can see that. I live in the suburbs myself.”

“Well, that’s nice, too. So it’s just you?” Arabella nibbled at a cookie, much like a dormouse.

“It is. I own a house in Bryn Mawr, and I take the train in.”

“It’s so pretty out there!”

“I think so,” I said, sipping bad coffee and compensating for it with a good cookie. “Caitlin and Jason are engaged?”

“If Caitlin says so, I suppose they are. She hasn’t shared the details with me, but they’ve been living together for a while. I can’t run a children’s museum and broadcast that. But I like Jason-he’s a sweet boy. Actually he’s a graduate student at Penn, but he’s been moonlighting with us because we’re behind schedule with the painting, and he can use the money. I’m sure you know how that goes-nothing is ever done on time, or you find something unexpected that has to be fixed before you can move forward.”

I had to laugh. “I know exactly what you mean, especially when you’re working with an older building.”

Arabella nodded. “Anyway, he’s Caitlin’s first real boyfriend, but they’re so good together! That’s why she was still around yesterday-she was waiting so they could go home together.”

“Poor Jason-he was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m glad he’ll be all right. Caitlin seemed so upset.”

“Oh, she was. I practically had to drag her home with me last night, once we knew Jason would be fine. I volunteered to pay all his medical expenses. He’s got only minimal coverage through his graduate program.”

“Do you know what happened? Was it a wiring problem?”

“I still don’t know. I’m having the original contractor come in and check it out this morning. We’ve been very careful, you know. He couldn’t understand what had gone wrong-everything looked correct to him. I’ve also asked someone else to check it out, too, just to be sure.”

“Yes, you said you’d had all the inspections.” Which made it odd that something so obvious would short out-assuming that was what had happened. But I was far from an expert on things electrical, and I knew how often older buildings were plagued by jerry-rigged systems, especially if they’d been around for a hundred or so years. That was a problem we battled with at the Society every time we tried to install something. “Well, I hope whatever it was, it’s simple to fix, and I’m very glad that Jason’s going to be all right. Have you ever visited the Society? I’d love to show you what we’ve got. We may even have a collection of children’s books printed in Philadelphia-if I can find it.”

Arabella clapped her hands. “Ooh, I’d love to see. It’s so much fun to take a peek at what goes on behind the scenes.”

I stood up. “Then I’ll be happy to show you.”

I loved showing off our collections, although to an outsider they didn’t look like much: rows of old metal shelving holding books and documents, mainly. But once you opened a book or a file, there were all sorts of treasures. I could tell that Arabella was sincere in her appreciation, particularly when I showed her the business records for a long-gone Philadelphia manufacturer of carousel animals.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to do something with this?” she said wistfully. “Not with the original pieces, of course, but something derived from those wonderful old animals. Something that the children could actually sit on?”

“I’d love to work with you-maybe we could do a joint exhibit? We could showcase the antique images and the carousel company here, and you could do something updated at your place?” I did in fact like the idea, since it wouldn’t take much on our part-we had all the materials on hand.

“Oh, could we?” Arabella clapped her hands with excitement. “It would have to be scheduled for a year or two out, since the Harriet exhibit will be up through next year. But it would take that long to plan anyway, wouldn’t it?”

“So I gather, although exhibit planning is not my area of expertise. And it would be nice to find some funding for it. Speaking of which, I just hired a development director. Would you like to meet her?”

“I’d be delighted.”

We wrapped up the tour quickly, and I led her past Shelby’s desk. “Shelby, this is-”

She interrupted me before I could finish. “Arabella Heffernan. Of course! We used to visit Let’s Play years ago, when my daughter, Melissa, was young and we were visiting my husband John’s family. I’ve always had a soft spot for your museum.”

“Well, isn’t that nice? I take it your daughter is grown now? Any grandbabies?”

“Not yet, but she is getting married next summer, so I can hope.”

I broke in, “We were just kicking around ideas for some sort of joint exhibit on carousel animals, and were wondering about finding some grant support for it. Maybe you could do a little digging?”

“Happy to! I can see that would be a lot of fun to plan.”

“No rush, but it would be good to know what resources are available. Can I see you out, Arabella?”

“You mean you want to get some work done, dear. Of course. I’m so glad we had a chance to talk, and let’s keep in touch. Shelby, nice to meet you.”

“You, too, Arabella.”

I took Arabella back downstairs. In the elevator she turned to me. “Nell, could I ask one more favor?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“I know you must be swamped, with your new position, but would you mind talking to Caitlin? We’re short-staffed, and she’s been handling PR for Let’s Play. Jason will be fine, but I thought maybe you could walk Caitlin through how to handle… difficult situations with the press and donors.”

Because I had so much experience dealing with rather public institutional crises? Sadly it was true. “Sure, I can give her some pointers.”

“Oh, thank you! Could I send her over this afternoon? Just in case there’s any leak about Jason’s mishap, I want her to be ready.”

Apparently I wasn’t going to get much paperwork done today. “Of course, send her over.”

“I really do appreciate it, Nell, and I’m sure Caitlin will, too.”

The elevator reached the ground floor and I saw Arabella off, then wandered back to my desk. Was it lunchtime yet? Could I skip lunch and just eat those lovely cookies? I had barely settled myself when Shelby appeared and dropped into the chair in front of me. “Aren’t you going to offer me a cookie?”

“No, I want to keep them all to myself!” I smiled and offered her the basket.

“I bet you do. You didn’t happen to catch the name of the bakery, did you? These are wonderful.” Shelby munched blissfully. “What brought Arabella here?”

“There was an unfortunate incident yesterday, while I was at Let’s Play-something went wrong with one of the exhibits they’re installing, a worker got a bad shock, and they took him off to the hospital. Arabella came by to tell me he’s going to be fine. The cookies were compensation for whatever upset I might have suffered from witnessing what happened. I’m just glad it wasn’t any worse.”

“Amen to that! That was nice of her. And I like that idea for a joint project-collaborative efforts sell well to funders, don’t you think?”

“I do. And it would be an interesting alliance, given how different our audiences are. Great crossover potential. I was surprised, though, that you knew Arabella, and Let’s Play. You weren’t just being polite, were you?”

“Not at all! I do remember it, from years back. It was always a little shabby, but my daughter loved it.”

“Still true. So do your in-laws still live around here? Would I know them?”

Shelby laughed. “I doubt it-they don’t like to part with a nickel, so they wouldn’t be on your fundraising radar. So help me, they had a stick up their you-know-whats, one and all. We visited for holidays when Melissa was young, but after a while even she didn’t want to come. They retired to Florida several years ago, and I don’t see much of them these days, at least since Melissa left home. Doesn’t exactly break my heart.” Shelby helped herself to another cookie.

“Did you need me for something?” I prompted her, before she ate all my goodies.

“Oh-yes. I’ve got someone I’d like you to talk to about your assistant position.”

“That was fast. Does Melanie approve?”

“Sure does. I gave her his résumé this morning.”

“His?”

Shelby arched one eyebrow at me. “You’re not going to go all sexist about this?”

“Of course not. If he can do the job, I’ll be happy to talk to him. When can he come in?”

“Would this afternoon work for you? He’s temping at the moment, but he’s between jobs.”

“Bring him on in-I’ll make time for him.”

“OK, I’ll give him a call.” She stood up. “I’ll let you go back to work now-if you’ll bribe me with one more cookie.”

“Done.” Regretfully I handed her one, refusing to count how many-or how few-remained. “Now shoo.”