The Alpine Scandal by Mary Daheim

Author:Mary Daheim [Daheim, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780786295852
Publisher: Ballantine
Published: 2007-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

ANNA MARIA AND I chatted for a few more minutes while she ate a second cookie. The subject moved away from the Nystroms—mostly because she seemed reluctant to talk about them anymore—and onto her daughter, Gloria, or, as I recalled Janet Driggers’s description, “SuperSlut.”

But Gloria’s mother presented quite a different picture. “Our daughter wants to be an urban planner,” Anna Maria explained after I’d asked why Gloria was headed for the University of Washington. “She’d actually be in the school of architecture, where she’d get her BA in urban design and planning. Then, if she wants to, she can get an MA and even a doctorate. She’s an excellent student, but I don’t think she should make such a long-range commitment at this point.”

“That’s probably wise,” I said.

“Gloria’s a very sensible girl, if I do say so myself.” Anna Maria wore a pleased expression. “People always label only children as spoiled and selfish. That’s unfair. Nick and I’ve made darned sure our daughter didn’t turn out that way.” She got up from the table. “Let me show you a picture.”

Anna Maria left the kitchen. I took the opportunity to look around the area. It was reasonably, if not compulsively, tidy. A few dirty dishes sat in the sink, a frying pan had been left on the stove, and a plastic bag of garbage was waiting to be taken outside. I had a feeling that the reluctant homemaker took her time in completing household tasks.

She returned with a color photograph in a silver frame. “Senior picture,” she said. “They always take them in the fall.”

I studied Gloria, a pretty, slightly plump girl with dark blond hair and her mother’s brown eyes. Her makeup was spare: mascara, maybe, lip gloss, and possibly foundation base. She looked intelligent and happy. There was nothing in her appearance that would proclaim her as SuperSlut. But then, you can’t tell just by looking.

“She’s quite attractive,” I remarked. “Gloria exudes brains, too.”

Anna Maria laughed. “I always tell Nick that I don’t know where she got them. I figure that my husband and I are both fairly average.”

“Maybe you’re underrating yourselves,” I said. “You had to be smart to complete your training. I assume Nick needs a brain for his job as a surveyor.”

“Well…maybe,” Anna Maria murmured. She gave me a scrutinizing look. “I’ve seen you somewhere before. Safeway? The mall?”

“That’s possible,” I replied. “How about St. Mildred’s?”

Anna Maria clapped a hand to her cheek. “That’s it! You were at Christmas Mass.”

I nodded. “I thought I’d seen you, too, probably at church.”

“We don’t go as often as we should,” she said with a rueful expression. “I’m a slow starter in the morning, no matter what day of the week it is. And Nick…well, Nick never has been much of a churchgoer, even though he’s a baptized Catholic, too. We don’t set a very good example for Gloria.”

“Sometimes it backfires,” I said. “Gloria’s smart. She’ll figure it out. My son did, but it took him a long time.”

“He goes to church?”

“He’s a priest.

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