Tales of the City 03 - Further Tales of the City

trial, and that old woman is gonna go through hell all over again….”
    “But surely … if he’s who you think he is …”
    “Then Emma and Mother and the children … all of us … will be subjected to the most hideous kind of public scrutiny. I’ve had it, Mary Ann. I’m tired of torturing my family. This is as close as I’ve ever gotten to a happy ending. I’ll do anything I can to hang onto it.”
    “DeDe … what are you saying? What do you want?”
    “I want you to tell only part of the story. You can say all you want about my escape … and the Cuban stuff. I just don’t want you to mention anything after that. You offered to do that once. I need to know if the offer still holds.”
    “DeDe … you know I would, but …”
    “But what?”
    “Well … there are other people who know about it.”
    “Just Mother, really. And she slept through the bad stuff.”
    “And Prue,” added Mary Ann.
    “Are you kidding? She was sleeping with him, Mary Ann! She’d like nothing better than to forget it ever happened. She didn’t even call back after she warned Emma. Forget about that bitch.”
    “DeDe … we can’t just forget a body in the backyard. We can’t just pretend it never happened.”
    DeDe looked at her long and hard. “Why not?” she asked.
    “You mean …?”
    DeDe nodded. “If we hurry, we can do it before Mother wakes up.”

A Tangled Web
    M ARY ANN NOTICED, WITH SOME DISMAY, THAT there were still traces of mud on her shoes when she and DeDe arrived at Prue Giroux’s townhouse on Nob Hill.
    “God,” she said, frowning down at them, “I thought I’d cleaned all that off.”
    DeDe rang Prue’s door bell. “She won’t notice. What’s a little mud, anyway? It could happen to anybody. How’s your back, by the way?”
    “Better,” said Mary Ann.
    “Good.”
    “I’m not used to that kind of exercise.”
    DeDe’s smile was sardonic. “I’m glad to hear that.”
    At this point, Mary Ann could only smile back. “What did you tell her?” she asked.
    “Who?”
    “Prue.”
    DeDe shrugged. “Just that we were coming over to pick up the kids.” Then, hearing the door open, she squeezed Mary Ann’s arm and whispered: “Don’t worry. Let me do the talking.”
    * * *
There was little talking, however, when DeDe caught sight of her children. She fell to her knees and scooped them into her arms, weeping copiously.
    Mary Ann and Prue watched in silence, also crying.
    Only the children were free from tears, accepting the reunion as a matter of joyful inevitability. Released from their mother’s embrace, they gamboled about her ecstatically, attempting to recount their adventures in DeDe’s absence.
    “Now, now,” said Prue. “Your mommy’s tired right now, so why don’t you …?”
    “It’s all right,” beamed DeDe. “Let them yammer all they want.” She reached out for Edgar again and hugged him. “It’s sheer music.” Looking up at Prue, she asked; “How … how did it happen?”
    Prue flushed noticeably. “He … well, it’s silly, but he came back on the ship.”
    “We know,” said DeDe, standing up again.
    Prue was obviously thrown. “How?” she asked.
    “A friend of Mary Ann’s saw him.”
    “Oh … then you …?”
    “How did he get here?” asked DeDe. “That’s what I meant.”
    “Oh … well, he just brought them by the house.”
    DeDe frowned. “When?”
    “Uh … last night. I called your mother’s house immediately. That’s when Emma took the message.”
    DeDe’s brow furrowed. “But the ship got in yesterday.”
    “It did?”
    “Yes,” said DeDe darkly. “It did.”
    Silence.
    DeDe studied the columnist’s face. “He didn’t suggest to you where he might have been for a day?”
    “No,” replied Prue. “Nothing.”
    “Why did you tell Emma he had lost his mind?”
    Prue looked away. “I don’t think I phrased it exactly that way. He was upset, of course … mostly because he’d been stuck with the kids for the rest of the trip. He waited for us back on the ship that day. When we didn’t show up, he was angry. And worried.”
    “But it didn’t occur to him to tell anybody? The ship’s officials, for instance?”
    Silence.
    “Prue … why did you tell Emma that Mr. Starr had lost his mind?”
    “I told you … I …”
    “You told them to leave the house immediately!”
    “Well … he was extremely upset. I’m sorry if I gave her the impression that …”
    “Why didn’t he bring the children directly to