living out here with Craig and Regina, weren't you? Isn't that your stuff up there, in one of the extra bedrooms?"
Rory gave me a fleeting look: bright eyed, hard. "What we did here isn't any of your business," he told me, with some justification. "Don't speak to my wife like that," Martin said coldly. He had appeared by my side with his usual silence. "We don't care about your love life. We just want to find out where Regina is, and whose baby this is." "Whose?" Rory looked down at his feet. He didn't seem to understand what Martin meant, and I thought, That could mean two things. "Well, as long as that baby is here, anyone could claim it, couldn't they? Anyone could say anything about that baby, who's gonna say no? Nobody knows nothing except me." That was a real conversation stopper, and it got the attention of almost everyone in the room.
The silence was broken by Karl Bagosian's entrance through the kitchen porch. I was so surprised to see him, I involuntarily said, "Where'd you come from, Karl?" Then, shaking my head at my own rudeness, I said, "Excuse me! It's good to see you again so soon! Would you like some coffee or hot chocolate?" I registered the fact that Karl wasn't wearing his prosperous midwestern car-salesman clothing anymore, but some very practical cold-weather wear. Karl was looking at Rory Brown with the coldest, most assessing look I'd ever seen. If I'd been on the receiving end of it, I'd have been as silent as Rory, and just as scared.
"Hey, Mr. Bagosian," Rory said finally. "How you doing? How's Therese?" "Don't speak her name." How theatrical the words sounded, and yet none of us even thought of laughing. Karl was deadly serious. Therese? I searched around the corners of my brain, finally remembered Therese was Karl's middle daughter.
"I need to talk to you for a minute, Martin," Karl said. "In the kitchen."
Talk about your social challenges.
"Rory," I said brightly, "wouldn't you like to go upstairs and gather your things together? Then you wouldn't have to make another trip out here!" To my relief, he took the verbal shove and went up the steps. Somehow, Rory looked much more at home in the house than I did. I fetched a baggy old sweater with big pockets I'd draped over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. Karl and Martin were deep in conversation, so I didn't speak to them. I'd had the sweater on under my coat this morning when I'd gone out in the snow and seen the tracks, and the nursery monitor was still in the left-hand pocket. I glanced back through the doorway at our uninvited guests, who took the hint and began making small talk. Hayden, who'd been up for a few minutes, had been deposited in his infant seat by Martin, and of course he came in for a share of the conversation. The nightfall of snow was another hot topic, and after that, odds and ends of town gossip that were as boring to me as Lawrenceton gossip would be to any of these people. I was able to gather from the snips I caught as I refreshed mugs and fetched napkins that Margaret had once been a schoolteacher, Dennis Stinson supported the Dallas Cowboys, and more snow was expected today.
The hoot of a horn attracted my attention, and I went to the front door to see an old black pickup with an attachable sign that said U.S. MAIL sitting on the roof. The mail carrier was leaning out of the passenger window, a box and some envelopes in her hand.
"Hello," I called, and stepped out with only my sweater for warmth. The receiver for the nursery monitor, stuffed down in one of the big pockets, banged as I walked. I was glad I had my boots on. I crossed my arms over my chest as the breathtaking cold dove into my lungs.
"You the new people?" the woman asked. She was round all over and had a very misguided haircut, kind of a poorly done old-fashioned shag. She reeked of cigarette smoke.
"We're staying here temporarily. We're the owners," I said, close enough to the windows to lower my voice. The chug of the engine was loud in the snow-induced hush.
"Just wanted to check. I have a package here for the renter. You want to accept it? You want me to hold it until she comes back?" It was a box