The B Girls (6 page)

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Lucy looked through the peephole in her front door
at the stranger standing on her porch. The man was decently dressed but for the
first time in her life, Lucy was hesitant to open her door.

The reality of living in this big house alone
smacked her in the face and she realized if he were some sort of nutcase, she
was screwed.

The man glanced from side to side, no doubt
checking to see if there was any movement inside. He knocked again.

Lucy told herself to stop being ridiculous, turned
the deadbolt and opened the door with a polite smile pasted on her face.
"Yes?"

The man didn't smile back.

Before Lucy could think better of things and close
the door in his face, he asked, "Lucy Deen?"

"Yes."

"I have delivery for you," he said and
held out a thick legal sized envelope she hadn't noticed.

She took the envelope and now the man smiled.
"Have a nice day." He turned and left without waiting for a response.

Lucy closed and locked the door before opening the
envelope. Just like in the movies, she found herself staring at a set of legal
documents stapled to a piece of blue card stock.

"Petition for Divorce," she read and
blinked in disbelief.

Gary walked out yesterday and had her served with
divorce papers today? Sunday? Who the hell has legal papers served up on a
Sunday afternoon?

Apparently a man who'd been planning his departure
for some time. A man who was hoping to keep her off balance and vulnerable to
whatever dirty tricks he and his lawyer were planning.

Whatever hurt still lingered after Gary walked out
yesterday burned away in white hot anger at the utter contempt he'd just
demonstrated for her, their marriage and her feelings.

Lucy vowed to find the most vicious lawyer in all
of Metro Atlanta.

Gary Deen had just made a huge mistake.

Lucy tossed her bag into the back of Mae's van and climbed
into the front passenger seat waving the divorce papers. "The rat bastard
already filed for divorce. He had me served today."

Mae and Jane made properly horrified noises.

"You're going to make him pay aren't
you?" Jane asked.

"Oh yeah. But I don't want to talk about it
any more for now."

"I don't blame you," Mae said. "Chip
was a great big jerk about me taking off. He hinted that I might not like it if
he found out he could do without me."

"And I got fired," Jane said. "Maybe
we should find ourselves a nice beach shack on some South Pacific island. Eat
coconuts and mangoes and tan for a few months."

"Maybe Belle's mystery will be enough of a
distraction," Lucy said. "At the very least we can agree to leave our
messes behind for the next couple of days. Belle has a way of putting things
into perspective."

"So, what do you think this big mystery
is?" Jane asked from the middle seat of Mae's gold, Dodge Caravan.

Lucy looked back from her spot in the front
passenger seat. "Knowing Aunt Belle it could be anything. Although she did
say it was a family mystery. Which is a little unusual. Belle's more likely to
be searching for a lost tomb in Egypt than a lost relative in Georgia."

"Maybe she found out that you're descended
from royalty in some tiny remote country and they need you to inherit the
crown," Mae said.

"It's more likely she's discovered my parents
are really fugitives on the run from some crime committed during Vietnam
protests."

Mae slapped a hand over her mouth feigning shock.
"Lucy!"

"What can I say? I grew up on a college
campus."

"Now this is a story I haven't heard
yet," Jane said. "The way I've heard you tell it before I pictured
Dad in his tweed jacket with elbow patches, Mom with her hair in an
appropriately professorial bun while they involved you in discussions about
literature and philosophy."

"The professors identified a little more
strongly with the revolutionary side of things," Lucy said. "I spent
my middle school years in pot hazed rooms listening to intellectuals
pontificate about LBJ, Nixon and their 'fascist cronies' leading us down the
path to hell."

"Wow," Mae said. "That's different.
You grew up in a house where drugs and ideas went together and I grew up in a
house where drugs just fucked everything up."

"Believe me, from what I heard the pot didn't
do much for the quality of the ideas being tossed around."

Jane shook her head. "My parents worshipped
the almighty dollar. Their motto was 'you're blue--we sue'. Of course they
retired rich and early."

"And here we are, the poster children for
conformity. You ever feel like individuality is going the way of the
dinosaur?" Lucy said.

"I read somewhere that more and more of
America is looking the same," Mae said.

Jane looked quizzical. "How? I mean New York
doesn't look anything like Colorado."

"The suburbs and small towns," Lucy said.
"The same restaurants, stores, malls. I mean, can you even picture a city
or town of any size without at least one four-lane road lined with, Chili's,
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Old Navy, PetsMart, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Home
Depot and on and on?"

"I never thought about it," Jane said.

"Well some people are starting to think about
it. Have you ever seen
Demolition Man
with Sylvester Stallone?" Lucy said.

Jane shook her head.

"It's about the future. The politically
correct future where all the restaurants are Taco Bell but they only serve
healthy food. Smoking, foul language, the exchange of bodily fluids and
anything else that might be considered bad for you or offensive to others has
been outlawed. It's supposed to be Utopia."

"Sounds good to me," Mae said.

"It does, but the concept is taken to its
absurd extreme conclusions. The movie is a cautionary tale about political
correctness and conformity."

"How did we get on this topic?" Jane
asked. "We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves."

Lucy gave herself a shake. "You're right. We
should make a vow not to worry about anything for the next few days. Just go
with the flow."

But the seed had been planted and all three of them
were wondering what had happened to their younger, more adventurous selves. The
ones who swore when they were sixteen that they weren't going to turn into
their parents. They were going to travel, explore, learn new things and have
amazingly fulfilled lives.

They were starting to think about bringing those
younger, braver selves back to life.

The hour and a half drive from the Atlanta suburbs
up into the mountains of North Georgia was always scenic but Lucy was wishing
for the fall color that would blaze the trees in another couple of months.

Things always seemed more optimistic to her
surrounded by the color and crisp air of fall.

August was hot and humid, the bright greens of
spring having long since given way to the darker, duller greens of summer. Even
fresh cut grass didn't seem to have the same bright smell this late in the
season.

Lucy directed Mae to the last turn onto a long
gravel drive down a tunnel of trees.

The lodge came into view, walls of glass gleaming
in the afternoon sun, timber framework glowing and mellow.

"Wow," Jane said from the back seat.
"This is some place."

"Belle designed every inch. She spends a lot
of time traveling but this is where she comes to rest and recharge," Lucy
said.

"I can't imagine getting a lot of rest here.
It must take hours just to clean the windows," Mae said.

Lucy laughed. "Belle has a housekeeper. Plus
she doesn't often have young visitors with sticky fingers to leave prints on
them."

They parked in front of the cabin and immediately
knew something wasn't right.

The front door was standing wide open.

"I don't see a car," Jane said.

"The carport is around back," Lucy said.
"Belle has a BMW sedan and a Jeep Cherokee. One of them has to be
here."

"Does she leave the house unlocked when she's
away?" Mae wanted to know.

"Belle's not exactly the paranoid type. She
usually only locks up when she's out of town. But I'm sure she didn't leave the
door wide open."

"The housekeeper?" Jane said.

Lucy shook her head. "Not on Sunday."

This was not a good thing.

Lucy told the others to wait while she made a quick
check of the carport.

The Cherokee was gone.

"Burglar?" Mae said when she learned
Belle was likely gone in her car.

"Maybe," Lucy said.

"We should call for help," Mae said.

They all checked their cell phones. They had
service.

"Are you sure we should bother the
police?" Jane said. "What if it was just the wind?"

"What if it's a criminal?" Mae said.

"I think we should check it out before we call
the police," Lucy said. "Even if someone broke in they probably took
off when they heard us drive up."

"I'm going to find a big stick and go
inside," Jane said. "I'm too grouchy and tired to take any crap off
anyone."

So saying, she stomped off to comb the perimeter of
the clearing for a suitable weapon.

Lucy followed suit and found a stout three foot
length of pine. God help the burglar if he was still here.

The three of them trooped up onto the porch.

"If anyone's in there you better run out the
back door if you don't want your ass kicked!" Jane shouted.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to
antagonize the criminal?" Mae said.

"I think it's a good idea not to sneak up on
the criminal," Jane said. "He probably doesn't want to get caught any
more than we want to catch him."

They all peeked in the door.

The great room was empty of living things.

They went in and Jane repeated the yelling thing.

Still no response.

"Split up or stick together?" Jane asked.

"Stick together," Mae and Lucy chorused.

"Let's check upstairs first. That way, if he's
still here and downstairs, he'll have another chance to leave," Lucy said.

Jane and Mae thought this was a fine idea and they
headed up the stairs making lot's of noise like they were trying to scare off a
small animal.

They went through the upstairs room by room, stick
weapons at the ready and found no one.

There were a few open drawers, pillows tossed off
beds and lights on that probably should have been off. But nothing seemed to be
missing--at least nothing large or valuable.

Once they cleared the upstairs they went back down
feeling confident that they'd scared off the criminal.

The sound of a plate hitting the floor in the
kitchen dashed Lucy's hopes they'd get out of this without a confrontation.
Maybe the criminal hadn't found them so scary after all.

Or maybe he'd knocked a plate on the floor in his
headlong flight to escape three suburban badasses.

Yeah, right.

The girls spent several seconds pointing to each
other in a silent argument about who was going first.

Lucy had no idea why they were suddenly being quiet
after all the noise they'd made to this point. She started to suggest they go
back outside, lock themselves in the van and call the police, when Jane rolled
her eyes, raised her stick and stepped into the kitchen doorway.

Mae and Lucy stepped up close behind and bumped
into her back when she stopped dead on the threshold.

Mae peeked around her shoulder, squealed and jumped
back.

Dark eyes peered out from behind a black mask and a
hiss came from between bared teeth.

A large raccoon stood on the kitchen floor, the
remains of a cake spread at its furry feet, nose covered with white icing,
striped tail twitching in agitation.

Lucy rolled her eyes and wondered what else could
go wrong, then immediately sent up a prayer telling God she really didn't want
an answer to that question.

Jane went after the creature with her stick.

"Hold on! Let me get the back door open,"
Lucy said. The last thing she wanted was to chase the damn thing all over the
house.

Jane managed to restrain herself long enough for Lucy
to get the door open and take up a spot blocking the way back into the great
room.