“Max? It’s Bitsy, listen, I was hoping you’d be home. You aren’t answering your cell. I wanted to talk to Nina, could you ask her to…”
I ran to Max’s nightstand and picked up the cordless, hitting the on button and I heard the noise of the answering machine beeping off.
“Bitsy?” I said into the phone.
“Oh, Nina. Hi.”
“Hi, sorry, I just got out of the shower.”
“That’s okay.” She was silent for a moment then she asked, “Is Max there?”
“No, do you want me to have him call you?”
“No, uh…” she paused then said, “really, I wanted to talk to you.”
I wasn’t sure how to react to this so I gave myself a second and walked to the railing. I looked out and saw Mom sitting outside on the front steps, her legs stretched out in front of her crossed at the ankles, her hands back behind her, body resting on her hands face tipped to the sun. It must be another warm day and the snow was fast disappearing.
Then I said, “Sure, Bitsy, what can I do for you?”
“It’s just that, uh… Harry came by. He told me about last night.”
“Oh.”
“And, uh, so did Brody. He told me about last night too.”
It must have been a busy morning for Bitsy.
“Oh. Yes, well, it was an interesting night,” I said to her.
“You should know, Shauna lied to Kami. Max never took Shauna ring shopping.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“He, well, I don’t know why he hooked up with her. She’s gorgeous, of course, and I don’t think she ever showed him her, you know, true face until, you know, they got together.”
“Bitsy,” I broke in softly, hearing her hesitation, knowing it had to be hard to talk about the woman who’d been sleeping with her husband in her bed when her husband was murdered, “you don’t have to talk about this.”
“I know,” she said softly back then she suddenly asked, “Your brother lost his legs in the army?”
This hit me hard and I sucked in breath. How she knew this, I didn’t know. Could be Max. Could be Mindy. Could be Mindy telling Brody who told Bitsy.
It didn’t matter, she knew so I said, “Yes, Bitsy, Charlie lost his legs.”
“Brody says Mindy says you looked after him.”
So it was Mindy-slash-Brody.
“Yes,” I answered.
“So, I think…” she paused then said on a rush, “you’d get me.”
“I’m sorry?”
She was quiet a moment then said softly, “No one gets me, Nina.”
I walked backwards to the bed, feeling my way with my feet and when I hit it, I plopped down.
“Bitsy, I don’t know,” I said honestly.