She was silent.
“You don’t know?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I think he might have been the artist I met at a beach party at Fort Lauderdale.”
“His name.”
“Gary … something.” She trailed off. “I don’t remember. He was an artist and going to Haiti the next day. What did it matter?”
“It matters to me.” But it obviously didn’t matter to Sandra. “So you were left alone with no money and a baby you found you didn’t really want after all. Why didn’t you just put me up for adoption?”
“I thought about it. But like you said, I didn’t have any money, and the people at the hospital said I could apply for more welfare if I had a kid.”
“Oh, yes, by all means, you had to be practical. That was in Miami. How did you end up back here in Atlanta?”
“I thought maybe my mother would come back here. I needed my money. She shouldn’t have taken it. But she wasn’t in Atlanta, and none of the people we knew had seen her. I never saw her or my father again. She meant it when she said that she was through with me. I had to get by on my own. It wasn’t easy.” She added defiantly, “I know I wasn’t what most people would call a good mother, but I did what I could. Don’t you blame me, Eve.”
“I’m not blaming you,” she said wearily. It was too late to condemn Sandra or hold her accountable. Too many years had passed, too much water under the bridge of life. This new knowledge might hurt, but she couldn’t change human nature. Sandra was what she was, and those traits and frailties had been formed by the life she had led. “I’m just trying to understand. You’ve thrown me a curve, Sandra.”
“I don’t know why. This isn’t really about you. It’s about Beth.”
And Sandra couldn’t see the domino effect learning about Beth Avery had caused in Eve’s life. “I guess that for you, that’s all it’s about.” She took a sip of coffee and tried to gather her thoughts. “Okay, let’s talk about Beth. You said she was a mental patient in Santa Barbara. How do you know? You told me that you’d signed papers giving her up, that they had total control of her.”
“And I did the right thing,” she said quickly. “When she had the accident, I would never have been able to give her the kind of care the Averys did.”
“Accident?”
“She had a skiing accident when she was seventeen and had a severe concussion that caused brain damage. That’s why they had to put her in that mental hospital to try to get her better.”
“Seventeen…” Eve was having trouble not only accepting her relationship to Beth Avery, but bringing into focus their separate pasts. “That would have been about the time I gave birth to Bonnie, wouldn’t it?”
Sandra nodded. “But I didn’t know much about her then. It was after Bonnie was killed that I decided I had to find out if my Beth was doing well.” She added in a whisper, “I missed Bonnie so much, Eve. I did love her. After I gave up Beth, I thought I’d never feel like that again, but Bonnie was special.”
“Yes, she was wonderful.” She looked out at the lake, remembering just how special and wonderful her daughter had been. “And when we lost Bonnie, you felt you had to reach out to Beth?”
Sandra nodded. “Not really reach out. It was too late. She was already in that hospital. But it made me feel kind of nice to find out things about her. Like she was really mine. I hired a detective to tell me all he could about her.”
“And what did he find out? I can’t imagine the Avery family accepting her.”
She shook her head. “They placed her with a couple, Laura and Robert Avery, who were distant cousins of Rick’s father and lived in a small town in Virginia. They were the poor relations of the family and were very grateful to be paid so well to take care of Beth. Nelda didn’t want anyone to connect Rick to her, so Laura Avery told everyone that Beth was the daughter of Nelda’s uncle who lived in Switzerland. That way they had an excuse to send her to different schools in Geneva and Rome. They didn’t want her in this country and have to answer questions about her. It was much easier to keep her in Europe as much as possible.”
“Why not all the time? Why that house in Virginia?”
“Well, after she was five, she was always at boarding school. But Rick wanted to go see her sometimes when she was little. He liked her.”
“What?”
“Why are you surprised? I told you he was a good guy. Why wouldn’t he care about my daughter?”
Eve wasn’t going to argue how that “good guy” had carelessly impregnated a girl who was little more than a child. “How do you know that was the reason?”
“He told me so. After I found out about the accident, I went to see him, and he told me all about her. I thought he’d be mad because I wasn’t supposed to get in touch with any of them after I signed those papers.” She smiled. “But he was real nice, just like I remembered him. He told me I was just as young and pretty as the day he met me.”
“And what did he tell you about Beth?”
“What I told you. He said that his mother wanted to keep her totally out of sight, but he’d fought her. She would have preferred to have Beth put out for adoption to a family halfway across the world, but Rick wouldn’t have it.” She shrugged. “So the relatives in Virginia were a compromise. He visited her whenever he could until they sent her to Switzerland, then he’d drop in at least a couple times a year wherever she was at school. Naturally, since he was in politics, he had to keep the visits low-profile, but he’d bring her presents, and he got to know her real well.” She added, “He said she was so smart. Good grades all the time. And she won trophies for skiing and swimming. She loved to ski.”
Her smile faded. “But she had that accident when she was skiing. Rick said she’d never be the same. The family sent her to that hospital in California, to some fancy psychiatrist, but she’s never gotten any better. He said that if she ever did recover, he’d let me know and take me to see her. That was years and years ago…”
And the seventeen-year-old girl who had entered that California hospital was now a little older than Eve. All the laughter and tears and experiences of those years had been smothered within the walls of an institution. She shuddered at the hideous picture that thought brought to mind.
“How did you find out that Beth had wandered away from the hospital?”
“The detective I hired told me.”
“The detective who gave you the initial report on Beth? He’s been working for you all these years?”
“Of course not. Don’t be silly. I couldn’t afford to do that. But Hermie said he’d make a couple contacts at the hospital and occasionally let me know how she was doing.” She moistened her lips. “There wasn’t much to tell me. She must be real bad. Hermie said they kept her on pretty heavy drugs. But a few days ago, he called me and told me that she might be in trouble. She’d left the hospital, and no one could find her. I gave it another twenty-four hours, but they still haven’t found her. So I came to tell Joe he had to help. He’s smart, and he’ll be able to locate her.” She let out a relieved breath. “There. I’ve told you everything. I hope you’re satisfied. Now call Joe and tell him that he has to help me.”
“I don’t have to call him. We’ll talk when he gets home. Who is this Hermie? The detective?”
She nodded. “Herman Dalker. He likes me. He said he understood how I had to give up Beth and that I was a wonderful woman to be so concerned about her even though she’s sick in the head.”
Eve flinched. “Give me his telephone number. And the name of Beth Avery’s school and anything else you can remember. Joe will need it.”
“Hermie’s number is in my purse. The school is some Catholic academy. St. Cecilia or something like that. Yes, that was it. St. Cecilia. I’ll scrawl it down when we go back inside,” Sandra added eagerly. “You’ll tell Joe to help her?”
“I don’t tell Joe anything. I ask him. You should know that by now, Sandra. Is there anything else I should know about this?”
“That’s all.” She hesitated. “I don’t really know much at all about Beth, do I? Just what Rick told me and the detective … I should probably not worry about her. The Averys have taken such good care of her. They’ve sent her to all those neat foreign places and schools. And after that accident, they spent all that money trying to get her well. I’m sure that they’ll find her and take her safely back to the hospital.”