You'll Never Know, Dear: A Novel of Suspense by Hallie Ephron

Author:Hallie Ephron [Ephron, Hallie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-05T23:00:00+00:00

25

Lis barely recognized Jenny Richards. She had on a white T-shirt and drawstring pants that hung loose from her gaunt frame. The purple bruise on her forehead was yellowing at the edges, and black stitches marred the flesh beneath her lower lip. She seemed so much less formidable than she had when she’d been waving that shotgun around.

Jenny’s gaze swept the room, pausing at Frank and coming to a full stop at Miss Sorrel. The two of them looked long and hard at each other.

“Sorrel, dear,” Evelyn said, “this is Jenny Richards. You’ve already met Maggie. The doll belongs to Jenny. Her parents gave it to her when she was little.”

Miss Sorrel extended her hand to Jenny. Lis could imagine her using the same gesture to lure a feral cat. “You don’t know me, do you?” Miss Sorrel said.

Jenny furrowed her brow and tipped her head to the side. Her head shake seemed more like indecision than an outright no.

“Go ahead, dear,” Evelyn said, nudging Jenny forward. “No one’s going to hurt you.”

Vanessa got up and Jenny took her chair.

“Evelyn told me that you made my doll,” Jenny said to Miss Sorrel.

“I did. Do you remember how you got it?”

“I’ve just always had it.”

“You don’t remember sitting for it?”

Jenny shook her head, puzzled.

“It’s a portrait doll. I’d have taken some pictures of you and drawn a few sketches. You would have been very young. Or maybe your parents brought me your photograph and I worked from that.”

“That doll is supposed to be me?”

“Unless your parents picked it up somewhere.”

“Picked it up? As if my mother would have been caught dead shopping at flea markets or rummage sales. She didn’t buy used.”

“Well then, she must have asked me to make it for you. Did you grow up nearby?”

With a shaking hand Jenny brushed a wisp of hair from her forehead. “Mount Royal.”

Lis had often seen the highway turnoff for Mount Royal but she’d never been there, only seen billboards on the highway advertising its gated communities and golf courses. Girls who grew up there still had coming-out parties, although no one called them that anymore.

Miss Sorrel said, “What did your parents do?”

“My father was a doctor. My mother called herself a homemaker, only we had help with most of that.”

Maggie was leaning forward, listening intently as if she were hearing this for the first time.

“Evelyn and I knew most of the families we made dolls for, especially the early ones. But I don’t remember making a doll for a family in Mount Royal. Way back then, wasn’t it still mostly farmland? An old cotton plantation that they turned into a tomato farm—”

“That was near our house. It’s got a little country store where they sell candy and Coke. I used to ride my bike over.”

“You’ve come a long way from Mount Royal.”

“As far away as I could get, and still it’s not far enough. And just so you know, I’m not a junkie.” Jenny’s voice sounded tired but defiant. “I had a prescription for the pills I was taking.

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