The Sleeping Doll

he didn’t. He made it for my birthday.”
    Sam foresaw disaster looming. She said quickly, “Well, whatever, you made a real nice turkey. I think we had sandwiches for two weeks.”
    They both ignored her. Rebecca sipped more of the wine. “Linda, he gave it to you on your birthday because he was with her that morning and she gave it to him. Some surfer dude made it for her but she didn’t cook.”
    “He was with her?” Linda whispered. “On my birthday?”
    Pell had told Linda he hadn’t seen Rachel since the incident at Christmas. Linda’s birthday was in April.
    “Yeah. And, like, three times a week or so. You mean you didn’t know?”
    “It doesn’t matter,” Sam said. “It was a long—”
    “Shut up,” Linda snapped. She turned to Rebecca. “You’re wrong.”
    “What, you’re surprised Daniel lied to you?” Rebecca was laughing. “He told you he had a retarded brother and he told me he didn’t have a brother. Let’s ask the authority. Sam, was Daniel seeing Rachel that spring?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Wrong answer . . . Yes, you do,” Rebecca announced.
    “Oh, come on,” Sam said. “What difference does it make?”
    “Let’s play who knows Daniel best. Did he say anything to you about it? He told everything to his Mouse.”
    “We don’t need to—”
    “Answer the question!”
    “I don’t have any idea. Rebecca, come on. Let it go.”
    “Did he?”
    Yes, in fact, he had. But Sam said, “I don’t remember.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “Why would he lie to me?” Linda growled.
    “Because you told him that Mommy and Daddy didn’t let you play at the cookout. That gave him something to work with. And he used it. And he didn’t just buy you one. He claimed he made it! What a fucking saint!”
    “You’re the one who’s lying.”
    “Why?”
    “Because Daniel never made anything for you.”
    “Oh, please. Are we back in high school?” Rebecca looked Linda over. “Oh, I get it. You were jealous of me! That’s why you were so pissed off then. That’s why you’re pissed off now.”
    This was true too, Sam reflected. After Rebecca joined the Family Daniel had spent far less time with the other women. Sam could handle it—anything as long as he was happy and didn’t want to kick her out of the Family. But Linda, in the role of mother, was stung that Rebecca seemed to supplant her.
    Linda denied it now. “I was not. How could anybody afford to be jealous living in that situation? One man and three women living together?”
    “How? Because we’re human, that’s how. Hell, you were jealous of Rachel .”
    “That was different. She was a slut. She wasn’t one of us, she wasn’t part of the Family.”
    Sam said, “Look, we’re not here about us. We’re here to help the police.”
    Rebecca scoffed. “How could we not be here about us? The first time we’ve been together after eight years? What, you think we’d just show up, write a top-ten list—‘Things I remember about Daniel Pell’—and go home? Of course, this’s about us as much as him.”
    Angry too, Linda gazed at Sam. “And you don’t have to defend me.” A contemptuous nod toward Rebecca. “ She’s not worth it. She wasn’t there from the beginning like we were. She wasn’t a part of it, and she took over.”Turning to Rebecca. “I was with him for more than a year. You? A few months.”
    “Daniel asked me. I didn’t force my way in.”
    “We were going along fine, and then you show up.”
    “ ‘Going along fine’?” Rebecca set down her wineglass and sat forward. “Are you hearing what you’re saying?”
    “Rebecca, please,” Sam said. Her heart was pounding. She thought she’d cry as she looked at the two red-faced women, facing each other across a coffee table of varnished yellowing logs. “Don’t.”
    The lean woman ignored her. “Linda, I’ve been listening to you since I got here. Defending him, saying it wasn’t so bad, we didn’t steal all that much, maybe Daniel didn’t kill so-and-so . . . Well, that’s bullshit. Get real. Yes, the Family was sick, totally sick.”
    “Don’t say that! It’s not true.”
    “Goddamn it, it is true. And Daniel Pell’s a monster. Think about it. Think about what he did to us. . . .” Rebecca’s eyes were glowing, jaw trembling. “He looked at you and saw somebody whose parents never gave her an inch of freedom. So what does he do? He tells you what a fine, independent person you are, how you’re being stifled.