Daughter of Deceit

Chapter 1

Monday

Bara Holcomb Weidenauer was on a mission to save her life. She sped through Buckhead on a hot August Monday, headed for the storage unit where she had sent her father’s things after he died. Winnie had had a habit of tucking stray fifties and hundreds into desk and dresser drawers until he needed them. She desperately hoped she could find a few. Her husband had frozen her bank accounts and credit cards, and her cash was almost gone.

She groped for her father’s silver flask in the glove compartment of her navy Jaguar. A little something to steady my nerves, she explained. She unscrewed the top with one hand in a practiced motion and held the flask up, waiting for objections.

She got none.

She was alone in the car.

In fact, Bara was alone on the street—a rarity at that hour in Buckhead. Mornings in that privileged Atlanta community, where massive houses sit on acres of tree-shaded lawns, usually feature a parade of maids and lawn service trucks, delivery vans, and women heading to aerobics, meetings, and children’s activities.

Taking her privacy as a sign—for Bara seldom took a drink when someone else could see her—she gulped down two big swigs of Wild Turkey’s Rare Breed. That’s what her husband kept under his bathroom sink. She felt no guilt about stealing Foley’s bourbon. He owed her.

She didn’t really like the taste of alcohol, but had learned young to appreciate the way it relaxed strictures her mother had imprinted on her brain: Be sweet, now. Pull down your skirt. Wear a hat, honey—your skin turns so dark in the sun. Don’t let profanity pass your lips. Don’t stride so—ladies glide like swans. Don’t be rowdy—nobody wants to marry a tomboy.

Bara lifted the flask to toast the invisible presence who hovered at her shoulder, as impossible to please in death as in life. "I was a tomboy, Mama, but two people still wanted to marry me. Foul-mouthed losers, both of them, but they asked to marry me. Fool that I was, I let them."

Linking Ray Branwell and Foley Weidenauer in one thought required a large, fortifying gulp. The whiskey blazed down her throat but settled like a water balloon in her stomach. It never landed as easy as it went down. Her mother’s disapproval accompanied every swallow.

She kept one eye on the rearview mirror as she drove out what she thought of as the back door to Buckhead. West on West Pace’s Ferry Road where the governor’s mansion, up near Peachtree, was by no means the largest house on the street. Left onto Moore’s Mill and past several miles of houses that were smaller, but still beyond the means of most Atlanta residents. Across a railroad bridge far too short to prepare one for the sudden change to seedy strip malls, light industry, and a sewage treatment plant. Foley had no idea where Bara was hiding Winnie’s papers. Bara had no intention of letting him find out.

She pulled into the parking lot, took one more short swallow, and continued her defense to an invisible jury. I need a pick-me-up this morning. If I don’t find some money, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

She left the flask in the glove compartment. Bara didn’t carry whiskey in her purse. She was no drunk.

Heat rose in waves from the parking lot asphalt. Atlanta’s morning temperature was eighty-five and rising. Why did I put on long sleeves and silk? she muttered, pulling her shirt from her body to let in some air. Because she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She hadn’t been thinking clearly since Winnie died.

As she unlocked the door to her unit, she protested, I know it’s been four months, Mama. I know I need to go through all this. I would have, if Foley hadn’t demanded that divorce almost immediately. Fighting him has taken every bit of strength I’ve got.

She stepped into the dim, chilly unit separated from others by thick concrete walls. A sob caught in her throat as she saw the big leather chair and desk Winnie had used at home. A whiff of his scent glossed the musty air. He could have simply stepped out for a moment. His mahogany bedroom chest stood with its back to a wall, still full of clothes she could not bear to discard. Shoulder-high stacks of boxes contained the contents of his library: books, awards, trophies, and knickknacks. Other boxes held files from his downtown office—files without which Foley couldn’t carry out all of his diabolical plan. Had Bara had a premonition of what he was going to do? Was that why she had seized and hidden all Winnie’s files immediately after his death? She was pleased to think she had been at least that smart.

Pass ‘GO’ and collect two hundred dollars, she muttered hopefully as she sank into Winnie’s chair. To appease her mother’s pious spirit, she added, Fervently do we hope, devoutly do we pray.

As she pulled out the bottom drawer, she had to overcome a surge of guilt. Her father’s desks had been off-limits when she and her brother, Art, were small. I need groceries, she whispered to Winnie’s memory. I will not beg Foley for milk money.

An old manila envelope lay on top. Bulky, it was faded to a dull gold—the kind of place Winnie might have stuffed cash and forgotten it. When she shook it, it rattled. The tape that once sealed the flap was brittle, provided no resistance when she slid a finger under it. Inside, she felt plastic, paper, and round hard disks. She sank into Winnie’s chair and dumped the contents onto the top of the desk. Out fell old driver’s licenses, political campaign buttons, and masses of yellowed newspaper clippings. Among them were all her report cards and letters to Winnie.

No money.

Disappointed, she was about to shove everything back in when she felt something hard lodged in the bottom. She shook the envelope again. Out tumbled a chain holding a thick silver locket shaped like a heart. She held it to her breast, trying to capture a memory. She had been small, and it had thumped heavy against her dress. Had she worn it, or merely held it against her? She could not remember.

Had it been Nettie’s? Had her mother ever been sentimental enough to carry her husband’s picture around her neck? Bara would like to open it, but her gnawed nails were too short to slip between the halves, and she had no thin blade with her. She put it back in the envelope with the rest of the junk, to examine at home.

She returned to the drawer and flipped through three ledgers that had been under the envelope. She found nothing. She set them aside and took out a wooden cigar box. Had she finally hit pay dirt?

Instead, a pile of beribboned medals brought back a memory of startling clarity:

She was sitting on her daddy’s lap with her legs dangling down his while he opened the wooden box. She could feel the soft/hard place where his artificial leg connected to the stump. The smell of sweet tobacco filled her nostrils as Winnie lifted the medals out one by one. She clapped with delight as he held them to catch the sun. She reached for one bright star.

The memory ended, as many of her childhood memories did, with unhappiness. Her mother had caught them poring over the medals and put a stop to their game. Bara, come wash your hands. It’s almost time for lunch. Winston, put those things out of the reach of small hands and curious minds. Nettie Payne Holcomb had a genius for taking light and laughter out of life.

Not like Winnie, who loved to laugh. He had whooped when Bara had stomped her small foot at the president of the C&S Bank and insisted, He is Winston Arthur Holcomb Senior. He is not Winnie. Winnie is a stuffed bear!

Her daddy had laughed and thrown her high in the air, then he’d explained, My friends call me Winnie, for Winston.

May I call you Winnie too?

Sure. Call me Winnie.

Her mother hadn’t liked it. Nettie always called him Winston. But she had failed to make Bara call him Daddy after that. By the time Bara was ten, she was also calling her mother Nettie—but only in the privacy of her own thoughts and with selected friends.

The next time Bara had asked about the ribbons and stars, though, Winnie had said, Your mother asked me to put them away. She had never seen them again. Wherever he had kept them while she was growing up, he must have put them back in his desk drawer when he moved into a condo two years before he died.

In the dusty storage unit she rocked gently in the butter-soft chair that smelled of Winnie and sifted through the medals, her pleasure mingled with regret. There was the gold star she remembered, Purple Hearts she had thought cute—having no idea of what it cost to earn one.

She wished Winnie had told her what his medals were for. He had been a hero in World War II, had returned from Italy with one leg. Why had he always refused to talk about what he’d done in the war?

In addition to Winnie’s medals, she found a Bronze Star with her brother’s name on it, sent by the U.S. Army after it was too late for Art to wear it. Her big brother had not always been kind, and their mother clearly preferred him, but Bara had loved him. She deeply regretted that his remains lay in an unidentified grave somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam.

She lifted the tail of her shirt and polished the star before replacing it in the box. Then she rummaged all the way to the bottom of the cigar box, hoping Winnie had stashed money there. She unearthed a small envelope, blank and sealed.

It was heavy. Coins? Winnie never saved coins. He emptied his pockets into any handy receptacle when he changed clothes. Her mother endlessly complained, You are putting temptation into the way of the maids.

He would drop the coins into used coffee cups or empty vases and retort, They are welcome to any change they find. I will not walk around with that weight.

Maids. The thought of maids made Bara tremble with rage. She wouldn’t be in the mess she was in except for a maid named Carlene.

From the beginning Bara had not liked her. She was not only blond, curvy, and sly, she was sullen and insubordinate to Bara and Deva, Bara’s housekeeper. When Deva had reported that Carlene was more apt to stroke the silver than polish it, Bara had said, So fire her.

I did, but she complained to Mr. Foley. He told me to give her another chance.

Bara had shrugged. One more month. She had kicked herself a thousand times since.

When Deva had caught Carlene trying on Bara’s clothes, she had fetched Bara. Carlene saw her mistress in the mirror and smirked. Your shoes are too big for me.

Bara had fired her at once.

That led to a huge row with Foley. Six months later, Carlene was wearing sapphires and spending time with Foley in downtown bars. Bara was searching frantically for cash in a concrete storage unit.

She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. She would not cry. She made it a matter of pride. She might kill Foley, but he would not make her cry.

What was in the blank envelope?

She opened it and dumped another Purple Heart and a set of dog tags onto her palm. Her eyes blurred as she read the name: WINSTON ARTHUR BRANWELL. Her son’s tags and medal, sealed away and shoved down under all the other medals as if they were too much for Winnie to bear.

Pain burrowed deep and clutched her. Oh, Win! Tears she would not shed for Foley fell for Win. They spotted her red silk shirt like drops of blood. She had known Win was too fragile to make a good soldier, had begged him not to listen when Foley called him a sissy and taunted him with the heroism of his uncle and grandfather. But one day Foley’s taunts goaded Win into a rage so fierce that he had enlisted before he’d cooled down. Bara would never forgive Foley for that. Never.

Win had been killed in Baghdad the week before Christmas. His loss was still a raw gash in his mother’s soul. When the news had come, she’d had to be sedated for weeks. Winnie must have intercepted the medals and stored them with his own. Oh, Win! Winnie!

She had borne too much that year. Clutching Win’s medals close to her heart, she flung her head down on her bony knees and had a major meltdown.

A thump somewhere in the building reminded her she was not alone. She inhaled deeply through her nostrils and pressed her lips together, the way her mother had taught her. A lady never cries in public. She dried her tears, then replaced Win’s medals in the cigar box and set it beside her on the floor. Desperately she shook each ledger. Finally she had her reward: a couple of fifties fluttered onto her lap. That was enough for the moment. She had lost her zest for the search.

She powdered her face to remove traces of tears, and dabbed on lipstick with a shaky hand. She replaced the ledgers in the desk drawer, but carried the cigar box and old envelope to the car with her. She might as well run by a grocery store while she was out and had a little change in her pocket.

She entered the Publix warily. Bara had never bought groceries until two months ago, when Foley had fired their staff. She had never realized how many choices buying food entailed. Bewildered, she roamed the store amid towers of stuff she didn’t want or need. She couldn’t make even minor decisions. Bananas or cantaloupe? Pork chops or chicken? In frustration, she piled her cart with everything.

What a relief to finally reach the aisle for beer and wine. She didn’t like wine, but put three bottles of cheap red in her cart. Red wine was supposed to be good for your heart—or was it your stomach? It was healthy, anyway. Probably full of vitamins.

At the register, she found she had more than depleted her newfound wealth. Flushed with shame, she randomly selected items to abandon and fled to her car. She headed home with more food than one woman needed, almost nothing in her purse, and a barbed wire of grief piercing her heart.

Chapter 2

Fifteen minutes later, Katharine Murray stepped off her shaded veranda and hoped the morning would not be her last.

Riding with her sister-in-law was risky at the best of times. That morning, Posey was tootling up her drive in a new red convertible that looked no bigger than a bumper car, and although Atlanta was eighty-five in the shade, Posey had the top down. In large sunglasses, her bright hair wrapped in a white scarf, she looked like an aging Hollywood star—except that nobody used the word aging in the presence of Posey Buiton.

Do you like it? she called. Wrens brought it home yesterday as a surprise birthday present. I’ve got the air conditioner on, but I couldn’t bear to leave the top up on my first day. Okay? Without waiting for an answer, she waved a gold chiffon scarf. I brought this for your hair. It will look good with your coloring.

Posey Buiton might be flighty about some things, but she had a faultless eye for clothes. The scarf was a perfect complement to Katharine’s auburn hair, copper shirt, and creamy slacks.

Katharine wanted to say, Thanks, but I’ve decided to stay home, but a voice in her head reminded her, Be nice! You called Posey for a ride and she gave up an aerobics class to drive you. Was that her mother’s voice or her own conscience? It was hard to tell them apart at times.

Ignoring every shred of common sense she possessed, Katharine lowered herself into the passenger seat. The car had plenty of legroom if you didn’t mind sitting on your tail-bone.

Wrens spoils you rotten, she said, tying on the scarf. You both know your birthday isn’t for another month. By then he’ll have forgotten this was supposed to be your present.

And don’t you remind him. Posey stroked the dashboard. Isn’t it gorgeous? You ought to ask Tom to buy you one. The car leaped down the drive and Posey slammed on brakes halfway to the street. Sorry. I haven’t gotten the feel of the pedals yet.

Katharine resigned herself to the next fifteen minutes, glad their drive would not take them outside the residential part of Buckhead—streets where Posey had grown up. Katharine had scarcely comforted herself with that thought when Posey flew out of the drive without braking and barely missed the back bumper of a passing navy Jag.

Sorry. I was looking for my turn signal. Posey didn’t sound the least bit dismayed. She peered after the Jag. Wasn’t that Bara Weidenauer? Bless her heart, she is going through so much right now. Have you heard about Foley’s latest little trick?

Katharine shook her head. I don’t know them very well.

You know her daughter, Payne, Lolly’s roommate. She married Hamilton Anderson.

Nobody but Posey Buiton would have named three daughters Laura, Mary, and Hollis and insisted on calling them Lolly, Molly, and Holly. So far only the youngest had rebelled and insisted on being called by her full name.

Only slightly. Katharine didn’t point out that she’d had little reason to keep track of her nieces’ college roommates—she’d had children of her own to raise.

You were at their wedding, Posey persisted.

Katharine’s chief memory of the extravaganza Bara Weidenauer had flung for her daughter was of the receiving line, where the tall dark groom stood beside his lovely but quiet bride while her mother, in a sparkling silver dress, outshone them both. Not intentionally, but because wherever Bara was, she lit up the room. We sat on the groom’s side, Katharine told Posey. Ann Rose and Jeffers put us on the list.

The Anderson men had been the pediatricians of choice in Buckhead for half a century. Hamilton Anderson took care of Posey’s grandchildren. Hamilton’s father, Jeffers, had taken care of Posey’s three daughters and Tom and Katharine’s children, Susan and Jon. Jeffers’s widowed father, Oscar, had cared for Posey and Tom when they were small. But Katharine’s primary connection to the family was that Ann Rose Anderson, Jeffers’s wife and Hamilton’s mother, was one of her best friends, in spite of being twenty years her elder. Katharine and Posey were headed to Ann Rose’s that very morning for a meeting to discuss adult illiteracy in Atlanta.

Speaking of Jeffers, Posey executed a turn without finding her signals and waved at the driver who blew his horn behind her, didn’t I hear that he and Oscar have gone on a world cruise or something out in the Far East?

Not exactly. They’re spending several months on a medical ship that stops in ports and takes care of destitute people.

Posey grimaced. Lord only knows what germs they’ll pick up.

They’re doctors. They know about germs. What were you going to say about Payne?

She is worried sick about her mother. I am, too. I don’t know if Bara can survive.

Bara hadn’t noticed the convertible shooting out of the Murrays’ drive. She’d been taking another slug of bourbon. I’ve had a bad shock, she excused herself, and whiskey is good for shock. Those blasted medals. The Holcomb family has done far more than enough for our country. What has the country ever done for us?

She felt her father’s grip on her shoulder as soon as she voiced that heresy. Winston Arthur Holcomb Sr. had remained a strong supporter of John F. Kennedy’s sentiments long after Kennedy was shot.

But Winnie, she protested as she reached her own street, we couldn’t all be like you.

How old had she been when she realized she would never play football at Georgia Tech, never become a war hero? When did she give up her dream of becoming an architect and a partner in Holcomb & Associates? At what age had she finally agreed with Nettie that she could not grow up to be just like Winnie?

As the Jag purred up the long hill to the stucco mansion she called home, Bara demanded of the universe, How did my life go so flat-out wrong?

She slammed on the brakes barely in time to avoid crashing into the garage door. That would have been disastrous. She had no funds to repair it, and Foley’s lawyer…

She would not think about Foley or his lawyer.

She would not think about her own lawyer, either. Poor Uncle Scotty knew practically nothing about divorce. His specialty was golf. When he wasn’t on the links, he handled accounts for a few condominium associations. She suspected he didn’t do that very well. Still, her mother’s only brother was all she could afford at the moment, and she had to have a lawyer in this mess.

She took another gulp of whiskey as she fumbled for the door opener, had to press the button twice before the door began to rise. She pulled slowly into the four-car garage, turned off the engine, and laid her head on the wheel. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

She lifted her head to study her face in the flask, a reflection as distorted as her life. I was programmed from birth for marriage and good works, she told it somberly. She ticked off the accomplishments of sixty-two years on her fingers. Debut, Randolph-Macon, marriage to Ray, two kids, all those fund-raising shindigs, then Foley, my own private roller coaster to hell. She flung back her head and took a swallow that choked her. Dammit, Mama, she roared, between us, we have wasted my life. And what do I have to show for it? Nothing!

She blearily contemplated the white door in front of her hood and wondered whether she had enough energy to carry in the groceries.

Two months before, Deva would have bought the groceries and brought them home, but Bara had come home one day to discover that Foley had dismissed her entire staff—some of whom had been with her for twenty years. Instead, he had hired a weekly cleaning crew and a lawn service.

Like a museum or something, Bara had stormed.

We’re only keeping the place in shape to sell, he had said coldly.

I’m never going to sell. And who’s going to do the cooking and laundry?

For those, my dear, you are on your own.

Since then, Bara had subsisted on yogurt, cereal, fruit, and TV dinners. She had ruined several good garments before she’d discovered care instructions on those little tags sewn in seams. Recently she had noticed, to her dismay, how much Publix charged for milk and detergent.

I bought too many groceries, she lamented, resting her forehead on the steering wheel. Too many groceries, too much house.

It had been big for four people. For one, it was enormous.

Not one, two, she reminded herself. Foley’s in the basement. I’ve got a rat in my basement, Mama. That’s what happens when you marry one. You know what he said yesterday? He wants me to sell my car! She clutched the wheel of her beloved Jag. Why didn’t somebody come to rescue her from so much pain?

I’m going under, Winnie! she cried. I can’t hold out much longer.

She took two long swallows from the flask. To forget. But she couldn’t.

Even after months of therapy, she still woke some nights weeping because she had killed her daddy.

Chapter 3

The air filled with the theme from The Lone Ranger.

It took a couple of seconds for Bara to realize the music was not the soundtrack to her thoughts, but rather, her new cell phone’s ring tone. As she grabbed her black leather purse and pawed through it, she smiled. She and Chip had chosen the ring tone together. It goes bump-a-bump, he had announced with satisfaction. Her three-year-old grandson was the one person in the world who could still make her smile.

The phone was buried deep in her purse, eluding her shaking fingers. Blasted nuisance, she muttered as she searched. Never would have gotten the danged thing if Payne hadn’t insisted. I sure named her right. The girl can be a royal pain.

She pulled out the phone and flipped it open without looking to see who the caller was.

Bara? It was her cousin, Murdoch Payne, Uncle Scotty’s only child.

Bara scowled. Next to Foley, Murdoch was her least favorite person on earth. In order to reach the phone in the Jag, Murdoch’s voice had needed to travel from her house to a satellite thousands of miles above the earth and back to a very small target. Couldn’t it have gotten sidetracked along the way?

You didn’t forget the literacy meeting at Ann Rose Anderson’s this morning, did you? Murdoch sounded exactly like her Aunt Nettie used to: Oh, Bara, what have you done now?

Bara huffed. Of course she had forgotten the meeting. Who wouldn’t, with the shock of finding those medals? If she had remembered, she needn’t have gone to the grocery store until later. Ann Rose was serving lunch.

I didn’t forget, I’m running a little behind.

It’s already ten forty. If you aren’t here in five minutes, we’re going to be late.

Murdoch lived in a small white house on the unfashionable fringe of Buckhead. The street hadn’t even been in Buckhead when Murdoch’s family had moved there, but Buckhead was oozing in all directions as developers co-opted the name. Winnie used to predict that all of metropolitan Atlanta would eventually be in either Buckhead or its equally prestigious neighbor, Vinings.

I’m coming, Bara snapped.

Murdoch gave another righteous huff. You’d better hurry.

Some people claimed that Murdoch, eight years younger than Bara, was a saint. Hadn’t she given up her job and condo to move back in with her father after her mother’s dementia got so bad they’d had to put Eloise in a nursing home? Every time Bara heard about Saint Murdoch, she had to clench her teeth to keep from pointing out that Murdoch had hated her job and had never liked the one-bedroom condo that was all she could afford after she lost most of her money in the technology bubble—convinced, with her usual stubbornness, that she knew more about investing than her broker. Murdoch had been delighted to move back home and devote herself to travel and genealogy while Uncle Scotty spent his days happily serving a few clients, playing countless rounds of golf, and dropping in once a day to visit Eloise—who often had no idea who he was, but thought him charming.

Bara sometimes wondered if Murdoch and Uncle Scotty were aware that she knew they lived comfortably because Eloise’s teacher’s pension was supplemented by income from a generous trust fund Winnie had set up to take care of his wife’s brother and his family, after Scotty climbed into the saddle of his father’s successful law firm and rode it to the brink of bankruptcy. If so, they never mentioned the fact. Murdoch often publicly praised her daddy for paying the bills so she could use her money for frequent trips and genealogy books.

How ironic, Bara thought, that Winnie supported Murdoch, Uncle Scotty, and Eloise, when he could not support his own daughter. Not yet. He had left his estate divided between Bara and Payne with a special trust fund for little Chip, but Foley—

She would not think of Foley. Why further ruin her day?

She shook the flask instead, to see if there was more whiskey in it.

Bara? Are you still there? Murdoch demanded.

Bara blinked. She had forgotten she was talking to Murdoch. Murdoch was so easy to forget.

I’ll be there in a jiff. She hiccupped and tried to conceal it with a cough. The world won’t end if we’re a few minutes late.

Get here as soon as you can. Murdoch hung up with another righteous huff.

Bara took a defiant slug before she reached for the door handle. As soon as she emptied the trunk and stopped to powder her nose, the William Tell Overture again filled her car. She punched the button and shouted to Murdoch, Keep your britches on! I’m coming!

It wasn’t Murdoch, it was Payne. Murdoch must have called her, because Payne sounded like she was edging her way barefoot across a field of shattered crystal. Hey, Mama, it’s me. What you doing?

Sitting in my garage trying to get off the damned phone so I can carry my groceries into the house and go pick up Murdoch for an imbecilic meeting.

You’ve been drinking, haven’t you? You never swear unless you’ve been drinking. Were you drinking and driving?

You are getting downright neurotic on that subject. I am not driving. I told you, I’m sitting in the garage. I took a couple of swallows sitting right here, to steady my nerves before going to pick up Murdoch. And I’m swearing because I’ve got to take her to a meeting. I have been to enough meetings in my lifetime to qualify for a Congressional Medal for meeting goers. I wouldn’t go, except Ann Rose twisted my arm so hard she nearly broke it. But I would never have promised if I’d known I’d have to drive Murdoch. You know she makes me think of fingernails on blackboards. I can’t talk now, I’m running late. I had to go get groceries. There wasn’t a bite to eat in the house. Now I have to carry the dratted things in before the meeting or my frozen foods will melt.

You carry in your groceries and I’ll come pick you up. I don’t want you driving. I’ll be there as soon as I tear Chip away from his sandbox.

Normally Bara would have been delighted to see Chip, but Payne’s tone enraged her. I’m fine to drive, Miss Prissy-pants. And I’ve got to go. I’m late.

She punched the button to end the call. Almost immediately the phone rang again. That time she checked the name. Maria Ortiz. She pressed the button to disconnect. Maria was one friend Bara was avoiding at the moment. I can’t talk right now, she apologized to the air. I’ve got to get to that blasted meeting. She wasn’t too drunk to feel a pang of regret. Maria deserved better of her. But Maria also expected too much.

Down in the basement, Foley Weidenauer heard the garage door open while he was shaving. Foley shaved with a blade. His beard