The Arrangement by Suzanne Forster

Author:Suzanne Forster [Forster, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2007-11-17T20:00:00+00:00

18

Marnie scrubbed the penny ring with a toothbrush until it shone. She’d used a tiny bit of toothpaste, an old trick of her grandmother’s, and it seemed to be working. When she was done scrubbing, she rinsed the copper thoroughly in warm water, blotted it dry with a soft towel and put it back on the chain her grandmother had given her.

The feel of it and the deep golden glow gave her a sense of comfort as she fastened it around her neck. Maybe at one time it had even made her feel safe, but right now her concern for her grandmother was too great. Somehow Marnie had to find out what had happened.

She didn’t have access to a computer, but she’d spent the evening going through the phone book calling hospitals and nursing homes and asking for Josephine Hazelton’s room. Most refused to give out the information because of the new privacy regulations. Marnie got around that by calling back and asking to discuss Josephine Hazelton’s overdue account. They were quick to check on that, but none of them had any record of such an account. And, of course, they couldn’t reveal whether a Josephine Hazelton had been there in the last month.

Finally, Andrew had made her stop. While she’d been calling, he’d used his cell phone’s wireless Internet connection to check the obits in the county papers, going back to when her grandmother had last been seen in the area. But he’d found nothing himself, and he’d insisted that was good news. Josephine Hazelton wasn’t dead or hospitalized, so it was just a matter of tracking her down. He’d promised again to do that. He would even hire a detective if he couldn’t find her on his own—but only if Marnie would come to bed.

And now that she had washed her face, changed the bandage on her temple, brushed her teeth, dabbed some cream that smelled of lilies around her eyes, and cleaned her good luck charm with the spare toothbrush she’d found in the medicine cabinet, there was nothing else to do except that. Go to bed.

Her cool, black satin nightgown hung on the door hook. She shed her clothes and slipped it on, glancing at her reflection in the mirrored door. She’d received lots of compliments the night of the reception, and she was beginning to see what other people saw, the strange beauty, the wariness. They hadn’t used those words, but she could be objective because she still didn’t see the exquisite face in the mirror as her own.

It was Alison Fairmont Villard’s features she saw, but that was starting to change. The more Marnie looked at herself, the more intrigued she became. She could see glimmers of herself everywhere, in the blue eye color that she shared with the real Alison, and in the questioning arch of her brow. But she also found herself wondering who Alison really was. It didn’t seem possible that one woman could be as evil and conniving as Andrew and Bret saw her, or as ideal and perfect as Julia did.

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