about that ring, I always felt like some royal sucker gave it to Carla thinking she would cherish it, like it would mean something to her, and then she up and gave it to Dickey just to stir up the pot. She was like that . . . one of them evil cooks.”
“What happened after Carla gave him the ring?”
“Dickey admired it, slipped it on and they started kissing again so I told Jimmy to get me the hell out of there. He threw it in reverse and we bugged out. He drove me around for awhile then drove me back home right around the time my original flight would have gotten in.”
I was suddenly filled with more questions. This was getting good. “Is there any way that Hetty could have known about that morning at your house?”
“Had to. She was sleeping up in the guestroom at the back of the house.”
“What? But wouldn’t the loving couple have known that?”
She shrugged. “That’s the thing of it. Hetty phoned me the night before I came home, crying about something I couldn’t understand. She lived here in Sonoma at the time and asked if she could drive up to talk to me. I told her when I’d be home, but she didn’t want to wait. Dickey was supposed to be in Napa looking at some land, so I told her to drive on over and wait for me at the house. And that’s just what she did. But when I went looking for her later that morning, she’d already left.”
“How do you know she was actually there?”
“The bed looked slept in and the doll left her best shoes in the closet. We’ve never talked about it, though. I know how hard it must have been for her. Poor thing. I think that’s why she’s a little off, ya know what I mean?”
I somehow didn’t think Hetty’s quirks were a direct result of Dickey and Carla’s affair. The woman was born strange, but who was I to argue with Babe?
“What if I told you that Dickey never had sex with Carla? That it was all a hoax just like Jade and Dickey pretended to be engaged. Jade told me that Carla refused to have sex until she was married.”
I could see the disbelief on Babe’s face. She pushed herself away from the table, as if she was trying to step away from the truth. “What? That can’t be. I saw them out on that stoop.”
A strange thought hit me, one that made perfect sense, but one that Aunt Babe might never have considered. “You saw them kissing, and you assumed they’d spent the night together, but maybe they hadn’t. Maybe she’d just arrived, and Hetty had actually spent the night with him. The reason he kissed Carla for so long out on the stoop was because he didn’t want to invite her in with Hetty hiding under his bed.”
A long couple of minutes passed before Babe leaned back in.
Lisa opened her eyes. “Babe, I think you’ve been had.”
It seemed as if Lisa had been listening the whole time pretending to nap so Babe would feel more like talking. I had to give Lisa credit. The woman knew when to keep her mouth shut and when to speak up.
With Lisa’s words I remembered Hetty coming out of my mom’s house the night of the party with her blouse undone, and Dickey slicking back his messy hair, and wiping his face, especially his mouth with his white handkerchief. No wonder Hetty had been so huggy. She and Dickey had been getting it on and I had disturbed them.
I was beginning to think Hetty’s heart wasn’t as kind as Babe would like to think it was.
“That two-timing . . . I’ll be damned.” And she lit up another cigarette.
“One more thing,” Lisa asked. “When did all this take place? How close to Carla’s murder?”
Babe sat back in her chair, took a long satisfying drag and said, “Carla’s housekeeper found her lying under an overturned coffee table, shot in the head, that very afternoon.”
SIXTEEN
You Look Just Like Your Papa
I awoke several hours later on my aunts’ sofa, alone, covered in a pink fluffy blanket, still wearing the vintage nightgown from the previous night, with Dickey’s pinky ring tucked safely into my left shoe. Aunt Babe had given it to me right before she’d slipped up to bed to grab a couple hours of sleep.
I figured if I took charge of the ring I might be able to