Drying her hands on her apron, Lynette walked calmly to the back door and checked the lock. Then grabbing the rolling pin, she marched through the house to the front door and checked that lock, too. Naturally both doors were secured. Shed always been cautious about that sort of thing, but especially since Katrina.
Moving over to the window, she looked out on the street. After a brief rainstorm earlier, the sun was back out, but Lynette wondered if another front might be brewing over the gulf. Maybe that was why she felt so uneasy.
She spotted Peggy Ann Grainger across the street sitting on Janet Tilsons front porch steps. The two women were having drinks, and she saw Peggy Ann gesture toward Lynettes house with her glass. At first, Lynette thought Peggy Ann was waving at her, but then she realized that the woman wasnt even looking her way.
They were probably talking about her, Lynette thought peevishly. For all she knew, her marital problems were already fodder for the neighborhood gossips, Janet being one of the biggest motormouths on the block. Her son, Ronnie, worked at the auto parts warehouse that Lynettes husband owned, and God only knew what Don might have let slip.
At the thought of her husband, a wave of rage washed over Lynette. How dare he treat her like this? After shed given him the best years of her life. She knew that sentiment was a cliché, but in her case it was true! She had done everything for that man. Good God, the sacrifices shed made, and for what? To suddenly be cast aside like an old coat when she was no longer needed or wanted?
Even when Don was homewhich was rare enough these daysit was as ifhe didnt even see her. And that was the worst insult of all. To look at her and not see her. He sat across from her at the dinner table and made small talk just as they had for years. Sometimes they even watched television together afterward. But something had changed. Hed changed.
Lynette didnt even know him anymore and that seemed to her like the worst betrayal of all. Hed changed while shed stayed the same. Hed moved on while she remained embedded in their old way of life. How unfair was that? Here hed gone and turned everything upside-down, and she hadnt even had a say in it. Yet she was just supposed to accept whatever he dished out without a squabble.
Lynette didnt even know him anymore and that seemed to her like the worst betrayal of all. Hed changed while shed stayed the same. Hed moved on while she remained embedded in their old way of life. How unfair was that? Here hed gone and turned everything upside-down, and she hadnt even had a say in it. Yet she was just supposed to accept whatever he dished out without a squabble.
Across the street, the two women were still chatting up a storm, and as Lynette backed away from the window so they wouldnt see her, she saw an old black Cadillac parked at the curb a few houses down. A Cadillac exactly like the one the stranger had driven away in earlier.
From this distance, Lynette couldnt tell if anyone was inside, but she still got uneasy just looking at it. She didnt like the idea of that weirdo lurking around the neighborhood. Why had he come back? If hed truly been looking for his friend, he should have been long gone by now.
But that was the same car. Lynette was sure of it.
And with that certainty, the premonition of danger swooped down on her again. She gave a little gasp of panic as she turned and rushed back to the kitchen.
The baby was still playing in his high chair, but when Lynette came bursting through the door, the noise startled him and he began to cry. She went over and picked him up, cradling him against her bosom.
Its all right, Boo. Nanas here.
She held him close until he quieted and then she reached for the phone. Lets give your granddad a call, what do you say? See if we can get him to come home early today.
Maybe she was overreacting, but seeing that car parked at the curb, along with her earlier premonition, had left her shaken. She didnt have grounds for calling the police, though, and besides, she didnt want to worry Evangeline. Don could just get his ass on home for a change and take a look around the neighborhood himself.
She was facing the glass slider to the patio, and as she punched in the number, she saw what she thought was a tree branch on the brick pavers. When she realized what it really was, she stifled a scream so as not to scare the baby again.
Lynette saw snakes all the time when she gardened. The garters didnt particularly bother her, but the snake on her patio now was at least six feet long and as thick as a mans arm. She was pretty sure it was a water moccasin and big enough that she wasnt about to go out there and try to kill the thing by herself.
Jennings Auto Parts, said a feminine voice on the other end of the phone.
Lynette had been so fascinated by the snake, shed forgotten she had the phone to her ear.
The woman who answered was Dons new secretary. New being a relative term. Shed been there for several months, but compared to Adele, her predecessor, who had worked for Don for nearly thirty years, Deanne Hendrix was still a novice.
Though you couldnt tell that by her attitude.
The woman grated on Lynettes nerves something fierce.
This is Lynette. I need to talk to Don.
There was a slight hesitation on the other end.
Im sorry, Mrs. Jennings, but hes out in the warehouse right now. May I take a message?
Last time I checked, there was a phone in the warehouse. Cant you transfer my call out there?
It would be easier if I just took a message. That way he can call you back whenever he has a free minute.
Now, look, Lynette said testily, I need to talk to my husband and I need to talk to him right now. You get him on the line. I dont care if you have to carry the phone out to the warehouse yourself.
Hold, please, the woman said coolly.
Snotty-ass bitch.
It was times like this that Lynette really missed Adele. The older woman had her faults, but shed also had the good sense and the gracious manners not to try and make the bosss wife jump through hoops every time she called the office.
Lynette kept her eye on the snake while she waited for Don to pick up. As far as she could tell, it hadnt moved so much as an inch. Maybe it wasnt even alive, but who in the world would put a dead snake on her patio?
Lynette? Whats going on? Deanne said you sounded upset about something.
I am upset and I need you to come home.
Whats wrong?
Come home and Ill tell you.
He gave a frustrated sigh. I cant just leave work. Weve still got a lot of orders to get out.
Even if your grandbabys in danger?
That stopped him cold. What are you talking about? Whats happened to J.D.?
Nothing yet. But theres something strange going on around here, and I need you to come home and help out. Quickly, she told him about her unsettling encounter earlier with the scarred man, the car shed spotted down the street a little while ago and the snake that was still stretched across the back patio.
Lynette, for Gods sakes, youve seen snakes before. They were all over the place after Katrina. If youre that worried about it, just dont take the baby outside.
And what about that strange man? she demanded. What if he tries to break in?
Hes not going to try and break in. Not in broad daylight. He was probably lost, just like he said.
But what if he wasnt? What if something happens to me or the baby? How are you going to like having that on your conscience?
Come on, Lynette.
No, you come on. If you cared a whit about either one of us, youd already be on your way home. Just forget it. Ill call Vaughn. Or Evangeline. Although you know how she feels about snakes.
All right, all right. Jesus. Ill get away as soon as I can.
How soon?
Itll take me a few minutes to wrap things up here. Is that soon enough for you?
I guess itll have to be, wont it? Lynette grumbled.
She hung up and walked over to the window with the baby. She peered around the edge of the slider until she could see the snakes head and she caught sight of the flicking tongue. Definitely not dead.
Then she saw now what she hadnt noticed before. There were two of them. The second snake was coiled at the edge of the patio, head lifted, tail quivering as if ready to strike.
Heart hammering, Lynette backed away from the glass. Two snakes on her patio. What were the chances of that?
Don took his time clearing off his desk. In spite of Lynettes call, he was in no hurry to get home. It was obvious she was trying to manipulate him and he refused to rise to the bait. If she hadnt dragged his grandson into the conversation, he would have told her flat out he wouldnt come home until he was damn good and ready.
Well, maybe he would have couched it a little more diplomatically than that, but still, Lynettes behavior was getting tiresome. After forty years, Don had had enough.
Forty years of marriage and only the first five had been good. It was a wonder hed stuck it out for as long as he had.
But for a time there, right after Vaughns birth, life had seemed pretty damn great. Lynette had been so beautiful back then, so sweet and flirty, and shed devoted herself to being the kind of wife and mother any man would be proud to call his.
But then a string of miscarriages had plunged the woman Don had married into a black abyss of despair, disappointment and bitterness. Even after Evangeline came along, Lynette had never fully recovered. It was like a part of her had withered and died with each lost pregnancy.
After a time, shed learned to put up a good front. Sometimes everything would seem so normal that Don would be fooled into thinking his old Lynette had finally found her way back to him. But then hed look into her eyes and realize all over again that the woman hed married was gone forever.
To be fair, much of their life together hadnt been as bleak as he now made it out to be when he looked back. Lynette had always kept herself fit and attractive, and hed always been proud to be seen with her. Their home was immaculate, their children well-cared for, and she had never denied him in bed. Things could have been worse.
But things could also be a whole lot better as Don had recently discovered.