of the chest of drawers in the second bedroom."
I understood after a second, and nodded.
Lacey hadn't registered any of this. As I closed the apartment door behind me, I saw that Lacey was staring around her as though she'd never seen her daughter's place before.
She caught my eyes. "I never came up here much," she said ruefully. "I was so used to my house being 'home,' that's where I always felt Deedra belonged. I guess a mother always thinks her child is just playing at being a grown-up."
I'd never felt so sorry for anyone. But feeling sorry for Lacey wasn't going to help her. She had plenty of pity available, if she wanted it. What she needed was practical help.
"Where did you want to start?" I asked. I could hardly march into the bedrooms to start looking for whatever Marta Schuster had wanted me to remove.
"Jerrell carried these up earlier," she said, pointing at the pile of broken-down boxes and two rolls of trash bags. Then she stood silently again.
"Do you want to keep any of Deedra's things?" I asked, trying to prod her into giving me directions. "For yourself?"
Lacey forced herself to answer. "Some of the jewelry, maybe," she said, in a fairly steady voice. "None of the clothes; she wore a size smaller than I do." Plus, Lacey Knopp wouldn't be caught dead in her daughter's just-this-side-of-tarty clothes. "Could you use any of them?"
I took a moment so I wouldn't look like I was rejecting the offer without thinking it over. "No, I'm too broad in the shoulders," I said, which was on a par with Lacey claiming the clothes would be a size small. Then I thought of my bank account and I remembered I needed a winter coat. "If there's a coat or a jacket that fits me, maybe I'd need that," I said reluctantly, and Lacey looked almost grateful. "So, where do you want the rest of the clothes to go?"
"SCC has a clothes closet for the needy," Lacey said. "I should take them there." Shakespeare Combined Church was right down the street from the apartment building. It was the busiest church in Shakespeare, at the moment, having just added a new Sunday-school wing.
"Won't that bother you?"
"Seeing some poor woman go around in Deedra's old clothes?" She hesitated. "No, I know Deedra would have wanted to help others."
I was trying to remember someone Deedra had helped (other than by relieving sexual tension) during her life when Lacey added, "All the kitchen things can go to the community relief fund. SCC doesn't keep anything but clothes." The town of Shakespeare kept a few rooms at the old community center filled with odds and ends cleaned out from people's cabinets and attics: pots and pans, dishes, sheets, blankets, utensils. The purpose of this accumulation was to re-equip families who had met with a disaster. In our part of the country, "disasters" generally translate as fires or tornadoes.
Again Lacey stood in silence for a few long moments.
"Where would you like me to begin?" I said as gently as I could.
"Her clothes, please. That would be hardest for me." And Lacey turned and went into the kitchen with one of the boxes.
I admired her courage.
I got a box of my own, reassembled it, and went into the larger bedroom.
Everything had been searched, of course. I guess the police always hope to find a piece of paper with Am meeting Joe Doe at 8:00. If evil befalls me, he is the guilty one written on it. But I was pretty sure no one had found such a note, and I didn't find it either, though I conscientiously checked the pockets of each garment and the inside of every shoe as I packed boxes.
When I was sure Lacey was busy in the kitchen, I reached under Deedra's bed and slid out a box she'd stuffed under there. I'd only cleared under the bed a couple of times before, when Deedra (actually Lacey) had paid for a spring-cleaning. Then, Deedra had had plenty of warning to conceal this carved wooden box with its tight-fitting lid. I lifted it a little to look inside. After a long, comprehensive stare at the contents I slammed it shut and wondered where I could hide it from Lacey.
It had been years since I'd thought of myself as naive. But I discovered that not only could I still be shocked, but also I could say that whole areas of my life were unsophisticated.
I peeked again.
A couple of