Good Graces - Lesley Kagen [104]
Troo, who is playing with her cat’s cradle, says, “Who took her away?”
Mother yanks the bakery string outta her hand.
“Dave?” my sister asks with a sliver of a grin.
“No. It was that horse’s ass, Joe Riordan,” Mother says. “Couldn’t he have waited until after the wedding?”
She doesn’t mean she would’ve liked it more if Detective Riordan waited to take Ethel over to the station house to ask her questions about how Mrs. Galecki got into a coma until after the wedding. What’s bothering Mother is that Detective Riordan, who was going to be Dave’s best man, dumped Aunt Betty, who was supposed to be Mother’s best lady, and that screwed up her marriage plans beyond belief.
I ask, “But how could they . . . what proof . . . Ethel—” I get an even worse thought. “Did Mrs. Galecki . . . did she—?”
“Kick the bucket?” Troo says.
“Watch your mouth.” Mother brings up her left hand and gives what she calls a love tap to Troo’s cheek. “And another thing . . . I understand you’ve been skipping your meetings with Father Mickey.” She reaches into her big square dress pocket, takes out a cigarette and says even more disgusted, “He’s been taking time to teach you enough decency that you can go back to school in September and you can’t be bothered to show up.” She picks a piece of tobacco off her tongue. “I wouldn’t give you a second chance.” No, she wouldn’t. “But Mickey—I mean, Father—despite the fact that he’s exhausted from sitting by Mrs. Galecki’s hospital bedside, he called to tell me that he’d be willing to see you tomorrow night after the fish fry to continue your studies.”
I am desperate to tell her that Father is probably not sitting up at St. Joe’s. That he’s circling Mrs. Galecki’s hospital bed like a buzzard, so the second she’s dead he can fly over to see Mr. Cooper the lawyer to get his hands on her inheritance to save his own life. I really should say that out loud, but Mother . . . well. What’s the use?
My sister perks up and says, “Father wants to see me up at the rectory tomorrow night? That’d be great!”
Mother looks like she’s going to give Troo another love pat because she thinks my sister is being a wisenheimer, but I know she isn’t. My sister looks excited, like she does when she drops in the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Getting up to the rectory must be part of the revenge plan that she’s gonna finally reveal to us tonight over at the Latours’.
“If I hear back from Father Mickey that you gave him one bit of grief, mark my words, Margaret O’Malley, you won’t be able to sit down until Christmas,” Mother says, getting up and bustling back into the house like she just remembered something really important.
Troo laughs and says, “Goddamn Helen doesn’t know her own strength.” She doesn’t rub her cheek where Mother smacked her to make it feel better, she never would. “You look a little peaked.” That’s something my good friend says to me if she thinks I look under the weather. “You okay?”
“No.” Not even a little. I’m so worried. About Ethel, who is over at the precinct house getting grilled for something she didn’t do, and Mrs. Galecki, who is holding on to life by her fingernails, but most of all I’m worried about Troo, who I’m supposed to be keeping safe. “You can’t go over to the rectory tomorrow night,” I tell her. “I’m beggin’ you. That could be so dangerous.”
Both of us know that Father Mickey is not having her over to give her some religious instruction the way he told Mother. I bet he’s been looking and looking for Mr. Galecki’s emerald necklace, wondering what the heck happened to it. He must’ve finally figured out that Troo had to be the one who took it from behind those books in his office.
“Are you off your rocker?” Troo tells me. “A course I’m goin’ up there tomorrow night.” She gives me her most blinding smile. “This is the moment I’ve been waitin’ for. It’s a sign from God.” When I don’t jump up and clap my hands, she says, “You’ll get why this works out so perfectly when I tell you the plan tonight.”
She doesn’t understand. Not really. She