They had agreed he should get no phone calls, but he found a public phone nearby and began calling her every few hours. "I told him I had to go to Winona and get all Patty's documents. And I had to go out to a public phone to call the lottery office, so there wouldn't be any record on our phone. I had to get a wig so I could look like the picture on Patty's driver's license. High heels so I'd look two inches taller. I mean I had a lot to do. He knew that, but still every time he got me on the phone, he started yelling why wasn't I ever home. It was driving him bananas that I had the lottery ticket and he wasn't there to watch me.

  "By the second day he got obsessed about his car. He had to have wheels, he said, he felt trapped, I had to go to the trucking company yard and get his car and bring it to him. He was getting nuttier by the minute. Still, I thought if I could keep him quiet a couple more days, I could finish the paperwork and we'd go." Her eyes made a sneaky little trip around the edge of the ceiling and then she said, "Or I could go. Was what I was starting to think."

  "You decided to leave him there, huh? Take the money and run?"

  "It was obvious he was gonna blow wide open before long. I thought, why let him spoil it for both of us? If I could keep him out of sight a little longer—but then the crazy fool went and got his own car."

  "Is that what happened? He took it himself?"

  "Uh-huh. Went over there in the middle of the night Tuesday, got the extra key he kept under the fender, and drove it away. Just pure luck nobody saw him. For a while nobody even noticed it was gone, I guess, but then they noticed and called you, and you called me and told me it was gone. I knew right then I was gonna have more trouble with Roger.

  "Even then, I didn't give up," she said, as though she expected me to applaud her persistence. "I thought I might be able to get everything done and get out of here before you found him. But then the idiot came home."

  "He just turned up at the house?"

  "While I was at the beauty shop being fitted for the wig I'd ordered. I came home and saw that big old rear end of the Chrysler sticking out of my carport, I almost dropped my teeth."

  We were coming to the hard part. I asked her gently, "Was he asleep when you came in the house?"

  "Mmm-hmm." She raised her hands, clasped them together behind her neck, and began to rock her head gently in her cradling arms.

  "Where'd you find the gun?"

  "It was right beside him on the bed. That's the kind of a fruitcake he was turning into, the kind that keeps a loaded gun right out in plain sight. Handy, so he could threaten his wife with it probably, as soon as she came home. But he laid down to read the paper like he always did, and just like he always did when he read the paper in bed, he fell asleep."

  "So you picked up the gun—"

  "I didn't even stop to think. I was frantic with worry, he had driven me to the point where I didn't know what I was doing anymore—"

  She was already going for the diminished capacity defense. "Did you take the safety off?" She looked at me blankly. "The little lever on the slide that covers the red dot—" She had no idea what I was talking about. "Never mind," I said, "go ahead." I'd been hoping to get a confirming detail, but had only risked distracting her. I held my breath till she went on.

  "I didn't even take the paper off his face. I just picked up the gun and put it against his head and pulled the trigger, hoping the darn thing would go off. I don't know anything about guns, but I guess I must have done it right." She rocked her head a little more. "It sounded very loud. I expected people to come running from everywhere. But nobody came and Roger never moved, so after a long time standing there I put the gun in my purse and put on my coat and left. On the way out of the park I stopped and dug a little hole under Bo-Peep with a bottle opener I had on my key chain, and stuck the gun in there. I couldn't make much of a hole in the dirt but I heaped some extra snow on top of it. But of course the stupid weather had to warm up then, and everything started to melt.

  "I've never had any luck at all, from the start to the finish of this," she complained bitterly. "I worked so darn hard and did the very best I could, but I never had any luck."

  The chief got up abruptly, said, "See you a minute?" and walked into the hall.

  I followed him as far as the water fountain, where he turned and said, "Woman's work is never done, huh?"

  "Right. And husbands are no damn good. There is one positive thing coming out of all this—her statement makes it crystal clear that the ticket was Wayne Asleson's. I believe we're gonna be able to get a nice pile of money for Cathy Niemeyer."

  "Good. And you've got enough physical evidence to make this story stick, right?"

  "Like glue. And the gun's gonna give us the rest."

  "Good. Isn't this the damnedest thing? She didn't even know enough to look and see if the safety was off, but she killed her husband as neat as you please."

  "It's wonderful. Kevin's gonna shit purple when he hears the Carrs did all this destruction with two lucky shots in a row."

  He laughed. "Damn good police work anyway, tell all your crew I said so."

  "I will. Thanks." I went back to my office and told Connie we'd have a transcript of today's interview ready for her to sign Monday. Rosie put the cuffs back on her and walked her over to Women's Detention, and I took the tape out to be transcribed by the weekend support group. I rang my house and found Trudy already home and cooking lasagna. "What kind of wine shall I bring?" I asked her.

  We were debating the relative merits of Chianti and merlot when Bo appeared in my doorway. "Gotta go," I said, and hung up.

  Bo said, "I'm sorry to interrupt."

  "You're not. We're done."

  "I just got a call from Diane."

  "Oh, shit. What?"

  "She's in jail. In Austin. She's crying, asking for help. It might be a break, really."

  "Go," I said. "You can finish up reports later."

  "Sure. But I'm due to pick up Nelly in half an hour."

  "One of us can do that. Can't we? Is she afraid of strangers?"

  "I've taught her not to get in a car with somebody she doesn't know. She'd be okay with you—she's seen you a couple of times, and she likes you. I thought maybe—re you done talking to that Carr woman?"

  "Yes. I don't know anything about kids, Bo, but I'll get Nelly and take her to my house if that'll help."

  "God, it would. Rosie knows the new day care address. Thanks, Jake."

  "It's okay. You got my home number? Go then. Good luck."

  I called Trudy back and told her the evening's plans had changed a little. She told me to call on the way home if I found out what the kid liked to eat. I caught Rosie cleaning up her desk; she said, as she was looking up the baby-sitter's address, "You gonna be okay with this little girl, Jake, or you want some help?"

  "I think I'll be okay," I said. "She's too short to kick me in the crotch."

  "Just keep your gloves on," Rosie said. "The teeth can be pretty devastating."

  The house was only a few blocks from Granny Goose, actually, on a short block between the railroad tracks and the creek, in a row of modest one-family houses with large fenced yards.

  There were three small heads looking out the front window. One of them was Nelly. The door was opened, as I walked up to it, by a boy about five. He watched me carefully a moment and then yelled something I couldn't understand. A gray-haired woman straightened from buttoning a child's coat and came toward me. I had my badge out, ready to explain who I was, but as she looked up at me quizzically, I saw that she had one green eye and one brown one.

  "Maxine?" I touched her hand, unbelieving, and then the years melted away. "Maxine," I said, "It's really you, isn't it? Oh, Maxine." My arms went all the way around her now.

  EPILOGUE

  "I'm sorry I keep crying," she said. "I can't seem to stop."

  "You cry all you want to," I said, blowing my nose. "We never had time to, that day, did we?"

  "They took you away so sudden! Not even a minute to say good-bye. That woman was there, with two policemen, saying, 'Get his things.' Remember? She said, 'This boy's not staying in this house another day.' As if we all had the mange or something. I mean she was right, but—"

  "She wasn't right. She was a battle-ax. I remember you packing my clothes and saying, 'Well wait, have I got all his socks?' "

  "And I wanted so much to put Treasure Island in too, but it was a library book," she said. "We were only halfway through reading it, and you liked it so much. Afterwards I kept thinking that was the worst part: that they wouldn't let you stay until I could finish reading that book to you. Did you ever read the rest of it?"

  "I don't remember. The worst for me was the seeds."

  "Seeds?"

  "That we ordered from the catalog, remember? During a big storm, a lot like this one we just had, only later in the winter, sometime in March, wasn't it? The house was cold, so you and I and Patsy sat on the couch with a quilt over us, and picked out seeds to order from the Burpee's catalog. You said I could plant two rows, whatever I wanted. I chose string beans and bachelor's buttons." We laughed together then, holding hands. We were sitting at the kitchen table, where we always sat in Maxine's house, and it seemed to me I could never get enough of holding her hands. Nelly was eating a cookie and watching us with great curiosity.

  "That was the last week you were with me," Maxine said. "I do remember the catalog now. We were sitting on the couch in our coats and overshoes with a quilt over us, because the power company turned off the gas."

  "I guess that's right. All I remember is the beautiful pictures of flowers. Why did they turn the gas off?"

  "Because Lucas got drunk with the money I gave him to pay the bill. Why did I ever give him the money? I knew better. But he said, 'Oh, you don't trust me,' and I gave in and let him take the cash." She shook her head. "He really couldn't help himself, Jakey."

  "I know. He was always good to me."

  "To me, too. Well, if you leave out stealing and lying." We laughed again together, roaring with laughter while the tears ran down our cheeks. One of Maxine's special skills had always been making catastrophes into jokes. She'd had plenty of practice, with Lucas for a husband.

  "Listen, Maxine," I said finally, "I have to explain to Nelly what's going on here, and then I have to take her home and feed her. But we're going to get together this weekend, right? We're going to see a lot of each other from now on."

  "Oh, I hope so, Jakey. You're not gonna disappear on me, are you? I kind of feel like this is all a dream."

  "Absolutely not a dream. Real as this." I knocked on the table. "I'm gonna call you tomorrow morning and make a date for Sunday, is that all right?"

  "It certainly is. It's more than all right. It's supercalifragilistic—" She laughed, shaking her head, and said, "I always get stuck."

  "Expialidocious," I said. "Now, where's this pretty girl's coat?"

  Nelly was a little dubious about being buckled into a strange red pickup and going to a house she'd never seen, but she didn’t make a fuss. She just wanted to be sure of the facts.

  "You know my Daddy at work, huh?" she asked me, as I shortened the straps.

  "That's right. We worked together all day today."

  "But then he had to go get Mommy?" She listened carefully, to be sure I answered all the questions the same as I had before.

  "Yeah, he did. She got sick in another town where she went to do some shopping. So he had to go and help her."

  "Mommy gets sick a lot." She wasn't complaining, just reporting the news.

  "That's too bad. Anyway, your dad will probably come get you after supper. Which reminds me, I'm supposed to ask you what you like to eat?"

  "Hot dogs."

  "Anything else?"

  She hesitated, risked the tentative edge of a smile, and said, "Ice cream?"

  "Hot dogs and ice cream, that's what I like too. Hang on here while I ask the cook if she needs anything for this feast."

  Bo called a little after nine. Nelly, who'd been lured away from watching the door by an old Lassie movie on TV, was asleep on the couch.

  "You mind if I come get her?" he asked. "She gets scared if she wakes up away from home." He looked exhausted when he came in, but he said, "Diane's at Fountain Lake Treatment Center in Albert Lea for the weekend. She signed commitment papers for Mower County, starting Monday."

  "Is she okay? She's not beat up?"

  "No. Just too depressed to think straight. They've got a suicide watch on her." He said, to Trudy and me equally, "I owe you a big one."

  Trudy said, "We enjoyed talking to Nelly. She’s very well informed. And Jake got all the hot dogs and ice cream he wanted, for once."

  Bo touched her elbow and said, "You're a nice lady." In one practiced gesture, he lifted his sleeping daughter off the couch, blanket and all, and carried her to the car. Without really waking, she felt him there and snuggled contentedly into his arms.

  I stood in the doorway, watching him drive away. After he made the turn onto the highway, I locked the door and went over and leaned against the sink. Trudy was making coffee for morning.

  "Thanks for being nice about the sudden change in plans," I said.

  "You're welcome. Tell me about Maxine, now; I've been waiting all night to hear."

  "She looked much older at first. But after a few minutes she seemed the same as always."

  "Did she know you?"

  "Well, not right away. I was nine years old when she saw me last. But as soon as I started to talk, she said, ‘Jake? Is it really you, my darling boy-o?’ " I laughed. "That's what she used to call me. Hard to believe! Somewhere behind this big nose she recognized that scrubby little kid." I laughed again.

  "You're really happy to see her, aren't you?" She began handing me pans to put away on the high shelf.

  "She's the best foster mother I ever had. By a mile. While I lived with her, I felt as if I belonged someplace. Things were pretty grim sometimes, at their house, but...even when the heat had been turned off, or we didn't have anything to eat but oatmeal, Maxine would start some game or read to us, and make it all right."

  "Put that one on top of the roaster. What do you mean, us? Who else lived there?"

  "Her daughter Patsy. She was a couple years older than I was. She was blind. That's why Maxine became a foster mother, so she could stay home and take care of Patsy. This round one doesn’t seem to fit."

  "It goes inside the bigger round one. If you were doing so well with Maxine, why did you have to leave?"

  "My caseworker found out Luke was drinking up the aid money and letting us all go hungry. She asked me and I said, 'No, lookit, I'm getting fat,' and tried to puff myself up, but that asshole Lucas had hung a couple of bad checks in bars. So he went to jail, and I got scooped up and put with somebody more 'appropriate.' "

  "Ah, that terrible word." She touched my arm. "What else could she do, though?"

  "Nothing. It was one of those times when all the answers are wrong."

  "Well—" she plugged in the coffee pot and set the timer "—now that you've found Maxine, will she come to dinner? Is that the best way to start?"

  "What I'd like to do is ask her out here Sunday, maybe about noon. Could we do that? So she could stay all afternoon. The weather's gonna warm up, we can make the house pretty comfortable, don't you think?" Trudy had brought our night clothes out of the cold parlor and was laying them over the radiator to warm. "We could show her the barn and everything, and you could get to know each other. She's anxious to meet you." I put a chunk in the woodstove and turned the damper to almost closed. "I told her I live with the most beautiful woman in southeast Minnesota."

  "You did, huh?" She handed me warm long johns. "You really know how to get your way about Sundays, don't you, darling boy-o?"

 

 

  Elizabeth Gunn, Five Card Stud

 

 

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