Back to the Garden by King Laurie R

Author:King, Laurie R. [King, Laurie R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical, thriller, Adult, Suspense, Crime
ISBN: 9780593496565
Amazon: 0593496566
Goodreads: 59900687
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2022-09-06T07:00:00+00:00

25

Now

“This Meadow,” Raquel said to Jerry. “It sounds as if she was more or less running things.”

“She really was. Not that anyone would have admitted it, because The Commons ran things in common. But in practice, things always seemed to circle back to her, for approval or suggestions or just to get them done.”

“Not to Rob.”

“Rob was always in the loop, sure. But with everything going on, different people tended to focus on different things. Like, anything to do with the gardens was Meadow. Rain was great when it came to the outside world, especially music. Pig and Paolo mostly were in charge of the kids, and Eddie was the machinery expert, from pumps to car repair. A couple of the women—Donna? Daniela, that’s right—and a friend of hers who was a weaver, forget her name…anyway, some of the women were pretty organized politically, they brought The Commons into play for demonstrations and things.”

“So, where did that leave Rob?”

“Rob was happy to do whatever people needed.”

“That sounds awfully passive, for the man who actually owned everything.”

“Well, think about it. If he threw his weight around, what would that say to the others? There were already points against him, for having been in Vietnam.”

“The others didn’t trust him?”

“I think…This was all a long time ago,” he said. “And I was only here as a visitor. But I’d say, looking back, Rob may have deliberately chosen to stay in the background.”

“Passive.”

“Nonconfrontational, certainly.”

“Unlike Meadow.”

“She was the most amazing woman. Beautiful and alive and smart and fearless. You should’ve seen her standing in front of the city council, convincing them that having a huge rock festival in their backyard was just what they wanted. Do you think that’s her they found? The bones? Yeah, yeah—ongoing investigation, I know you can’t tell me. But do you?”

“As you say, Mr. Rathford, I can’t talk about it. Meadow can’t have been her real name.”

“No, it was Christine…something. I had to notarize her signature one time and needed to make sure she wasn’t using a nickname. Rob would remember.”

Raquel flipped through the folder of printouts—naturally, Mrs. Dalhousie had put them in alphabetical order—and found the page for Meadow. She added the name Christine, and closed the folder before the lawyer’s eyes got any sharper.

“Couldn’t you retrieve the name?”

“I’m sure my old notary books are in storage, though it might take a while to lay hands on them. You might ask Mrs. Dalhousie if she’s seen the document itself in the Archives—it was an agreement that once Rob inherited the Estate, five years after his grandfather died, The Commons would take over ownership. Or at any rate, it seemed to say that, although in fact it was a little less clear-cut—deliberately so, since Rob wanted to leave a loophole open in case Fort had an opinion. Anyway, it might be here, since I gave copies to both Rob and Meadow.”

“I’ll ask. I did notice another agreement, covering how the commune would vote on any visitors who wanted to stay.

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