Rachel Alexander 02 - The Dog who knew too much

idiot.
    “The gum will remind you to keep your nose where it belongs,” he added, rather personally, I thought. My nose was everywhere, usually in someone else’s business, and that was precisely where I wanted it.
    After class the other teachers all went to change their shoes and get back to work. “ Gotta run,” Janet said, looking at her watch. She caught my eye and winked, mouthing, “See you at five.” When they had all gone, Avi motioned me to follow him into his office.
    “How is your project coming along, Rachel?” he whispered, even though we were all alone.
    “I don’t know anything for sure,” I said.
    “Excellent,” he said, then he sat and turned his full attention to his computer.
    It was one thirty. If I was going to get to Sea Gate on time, I had to hustle. After passing muster with the guard at the gate, I headed not for the Jacobses ’ house but to the beach. Marsha was already there, standing by the gate, a scarf covering her hair, a bag of groceries in her arms. I parked the car and went to join her.
    “I told David I had to do some shopping,” she said, hiking up the bag of food and looking terrified. “What did you want to tell me?”
    I took the bag of groceries and set it down on the ground. “Walk with me,” I said, looking down at her stockings and heels after I did so. She slipped off her shoes, leaving them next to the bag of groceries. I took off my running shoes and sweat socks and gave them to her to put on, feeling the coolness of the sand as I did.
    She took my arm, and we walked down the beach, then headed to our right, where the spit of land that is this private community abuts Gravesend Bay .
    “I wanted to see you without David because I thought that if you were alone—”
    “David would be very upset with me if he knew about this. Very angry.”
    “Why is that, Marsha?”
    I felt the envelopes I had brought with me in my pocket, all that was left of Lisa’s mail after I’d pitched the catalogs and junk mail and filed the bills for her parents to deal with later.
    “Certain things, he says, belong in the family, only in the family.” She lifted her free hand and wiped her cheeks. “But I know you can’t really help us if you don’t know the truth. Your aunt Ceil said we should trust you completely. But we haven’t done that. We’ve kept secrets from you.”
    I took the envelopes from my pocket, the one I’d slid out from between the couch cushions after Paul had left and the one I’d found in the pile of mail I’d gone through later.
    “What is that?” she asked.
    I showed her the contents of both envelopes.
    “I knew that one day I would have to talk to you myself. I am only ashamed that I waited for you to call.”
    For a moment, there was only the sound of the seagulls, their beaks wide open as they cawed loudly to each other.
    “When you asked about Lisa’s note to us—”
    “The suicide note?” I asked.
    Marsha nodded. We walked past the jetty, where there was a small pool of water caught between the rocks and the sloping shore. Dashiell began fishing for crabs, and I called him to follow us as we slowly headed toward the bay, the light so bright it was difficult to see.
    “We had seen her several times in the months before, and there had been many phone calls, more than usual. She was usually so busy, she’d only come on the holidays, and only call once a week. Sometimes less. Her father would try to call her in between, but he would only get the answering machine. She worked such long hours at the school, she couldn’t return her calls the same day. Sometimes not for several days. David would get impatient and call her at school, too, but there they do not answer the phone when they are teaching or practicing t’ai chi, and Lisa told us they were always doing one or the other.”
    “But then something changed?”
    “Yes. She started calling more often, then she came to see us, because she had something on her mind.”
    I stopped walking, loosened my arm from Marsha’s, and tinned to face her.
    “ China ,” she said. “Again, China.” She began to weep, covering her face with both hands.
    I put the airline ticket, one-way, to Beijing and the signed contract to sell the condo back into my pocket, then took off my jacket and spread it on the sand for Marsha to sit on so that she wouldn’t ruin her good coat. And for a while, my arm around her, she cried against my shoulder. When she sat back up, eyes swollen and pink, her