Secrets Everybody Knows Read online

  SECRETS EVERYBODY KNOWS

  CHRISTA MAURICE

  LYRICAL PRESS

  http://lyricalpress.com/

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/

  For my mom, on whose living room floor I wrote this.

  Chapter 1

  “Elaine,” John McMannus Sr. shouted, charging across the circle toward her, “I need to talk to you.” He folded his meaty arms and waited.

  Elaine kept her eyes on her clipboard to buy a moment to collect herself. There was no avoiding the man. “Yes, John?” Her lips wanted to say “Johnny” every time and she refused to let them. He wasn’t Johnny. No one was Johnny. Especially not his father.

  “How are you doing billing this year?”

  “The same way we do it every year. Submit a bill to the festival committee for hours owed.” Elaine gripped her clipboard like it might fly away. Where was Lily when she needed her? Lily could deal with John better than Elaine could. Anybody could deal with John better than Elaine could.

  “Oh no, I’m not going through that again. You know it was November before I got paid. I’m already giving you a great deal so the festival looks good. I’m not going to lose my shirt on it.”

  “I’m sorry about that, John, but you know I don’t control the money. Lily, Beth and I just do coordination. We work for free.”

  “You’re all schoolteachers who have nothing better to do during the summer. I have a business to worry about.”

  Yeah, Elaine thought. Because listening to people bitch is how I really want to spend my hard-earned vacation. “I wish I could help you, but there isn’t anything I can do. You’ll have to talk to Mr. Loomis.”

  “I will not talk to Archie Loomis again. If this isn’t settled right now, I’ll withdraw my support.”

  Elaine clenched her teeth. The church had a crew working. A couple of people planted the garden beds. The video store was setting up their tent. Keeping track of three dozen people working in half a dozen projects all over the town circle and she had to deal with cranky John McMannus too? “The flyers are all printed for this year. I suggest you take this up with the committee for next year’s festival.”

  “My guys aren’t out there yet.”

  “The flyers say that your garage supplies free battery charging and flat repair. If you aren’t there, you are the one who looks bad.” Elaine yanked a flyer from her clipboard and showed it to him.

  He shoved it away. “I know what it says. You’re manipulating me.”

  “John, it’s too late for this. I’m sorry you didn’t get paid on time. If it was up to me, you would have been paid the week after the festival ended. But you’ve been doing this for eight years, you know how things work.”

  “Just because I’ve been putting up with it doesn’t mean I have to take it anymore.” John turned and started to stomp away.

  “No wonder your son doesn’t speak to you.” Elaine clapped her hands over her mouth so fast she dropped her clipboard.

  “What did you say?” John’s face, when he turned back, looked like a beefsteak tomato.

  “Nothing.” Elaine tried to suck the words back, but they hung in the air like a foul odor.

  “You–how dare you–little–my son is none of your business. You shriveled-up little–”

  “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” Elaine said. She said that phrase a dozen times a day to her students during the school year, but she’d never had any intention of saying it to an adult.

  “Don’t–don’t say–” John reared back, his face turning a shade of purple Elaine had once seen on an eggplant at the county fair. “How dare you!” John roared.

  Elaine thought her hair might be streaming back with the intensity of his yell. “Mr. McMannus! Will you please calm down? I can’t do anything about your billing problem right now. I am very sorry about what I said. It was an unintentional slip.” Elaine tried to draw a deep breath so she could stop screaming her apology, but it didn’t help. Johnny was getting to her again and she hadn’t seen him in fourteen years.

  John took a breath like he intended to start shouting again, but it caught in his throat. He jerked, clutching his left shoulder and baring his teeth.

  “Oh God,” Elaine whispered. “He’s having a heart attack.” Her voice rose to ring off the buildings around the circle. “He’s having a heart attack.” She rooted in her pockets for her phone as John went over backward like a felled tree.

  People converged on them. She couldn’t remember any of their names and her fingers wouldn’t dial 911. A siren wailed toward them. Elaine threw herself to her knees beside John. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  “Can everybody step back and give him some air?” Lily’s voice carried over the crowd. She broke through as everyone moved away and knelt on the other side of John. “Elaine, what happened?”

  “I gave him a heart attack,” Elaine mumbled.

  “Coronary,” Lily said into her phone. With her free hand she started fussing with John’s open collar. “His breathing is rapid and shallow, he’s sweaty and red.” Tires squealed behind the crowd.

  Beth dropped to her knees beside Lily. “I’m sorry.” Elaine looked around the crowd, tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Dear God, Elaine, it’s not like you gave him the heart attack,” Beth snapped.

  Elaine cringed. Once they knew they would hate her. She would end up with nothing because of a stupid error in judgment fifteen years ago. She would be a pariah.

  She’d have to move.

  “Come on, honey.” Beth grabbed her arm and pulled her up. “Let’s get out of the way so they can work.”

  “It’s my fault,” Elaine muttered. “I should have kept my mouth shut.”

  “Elaine, this is not your fault.” Beth put her arm around Elaine’s shoulders. “You take too much responsibility for everything. John smoked like a chimney, ate all the wrong stuff and never learned to watch his temper.”

  Elaine met her eyes. “You don’t understand.”

  “Clear!” the paramedic shouted.

  Elaine’s knees lost strength. Beth was holding her up entirely now. Beth had so much strength. She’d always been the strong one.

  “We’ve got him,” the paramedic announced. “Let’s take him in.”

  Lily backed away as they loaded John onto a stretcher. “What were you guys arguing about?” she asked Elaine.

  Staring as they lifted John into the back of the paramedic truck, Elaine shook her head.

  “What happened?” Beth asked Lily. The crowd broke up into chattering clumps.

  Lily shrugged. “I was in the church talking to the minister about the first aid station and I heard yelling. When I stepped out to see who it was, John and Elaine were screaming at each other and then John grabbed his chest and keeled over.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  Beth jerked around. A tall, good-looking guy stood behind her, smiling. “Where are Nonie and Jean?” Beth demanded of the guy. Elaine wobbled, willing her knees to work. She needed to be strong on her own. Beth, with her two elderly charges and an unknown man tagging along with her, had her own problems and so did Lily. And once they found out what she’d done, they would never want to speak to her again.

  “In the car.” The man with Beth gestured over his shoulder. “Everyone was finished eating and Aunt Jean wanted to know what was going on.”

  “Did you pay the bill?” Beth asked the guy.

  “Of course I paid the bill. Even yours.”

  Beth swallowed. “Thank you. Lily, Elaine, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”

  “Sounds like we have things to talk about,” Lily said.

&nb
sp; “It was nothing. We just got into an argument,” Elaine mumbled. This was a nightmare. She pinched herself hard on the arm, but she didn’t wake up. Worse than a nightmare. “He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?”

  “Bill is taking him to the hospital.”

  What was Johnny going to say when he found out? Elaine chewed her fingernails. Would he come home if his father died? Jesus, what if his father died? What if she had killed John?

  “You don’t look too good.” Lily brushed Elaine’s hair off her forehead. “I can give you a ride.”

  “No.” Elaine stepped backward and felt her balance deserting her. She wheeled her arms. “I want to go home. I can drive myself.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Elaine nodded. “I’m sure. I just want to go home.”

  Lily tagged along beside Elaine to where she’d left her car in the church parking lot. “Is there anything you need?”

  “Talk to Archie Loomis and tell him he’s got to make sure Mr. McMannus gets paid in a timely manner.” Elaine fumbled her keys out of her pocket and found the lock remote by feel.

  “Is that what you were fighting about?”

  Elaine swallowed. “Yes.”

  Lily patted her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive? You look pale.”

  “I’m fine.” Elaine slid into the driver’s seat. She wanted to be home, in bed, with the covers pulled over her head, for the rest of her life.

  * * * *

  “I didn’t ride my bike,” Elaine said. She was sixteen and way too old for bikes. If her parents weren’t so horrible, she’d have a driver’s license by now.

  “Come on. Johnny’s old bike is in the chicken coop. You could ride it.” Sue was a year younger and wasn’t so prejudiced about riding a bike to the ice cream stand.

  “Why can’t we just walk?” Elaine twisted the end of her ponytail around her fingers.

  “You’re just scared to ask Johnny to borrow his bike.”

  “Am not.”

  “Are too.”

  “Am not.”

  “Then ask him.”

  Elaine glared at Sue. If she wasn’t the only girl near her age who lived near her house, they wouldn’t be friends. “Fine.”

  “He’s in the living room.”

  Elaine pushed through the kitchen door like she was entering a lion’s den. Mrs. McMannus wasn’t around. She spent a lot of time alone in her bedroom. Elaine tried not to think about what she did up there. Crossing the linoleum, she hesitated at the edge of the dining room. The television blared in the living room. Johnny was watching something with a lot of gunfire in it. Bracing herself, Elaine stepped over the threshold.

  Johnny lay on the couch with his feet up on the back. His hair was dirty blond and shaggy and he needed to shave.

  “Johnny?” Elaine whispered.

  He didn’t turn. Johnny was only two years older than Elaine. Everybody knew the probation he’d gotten for having sex with Shelly Myers was just because Sheriff Myers hated him. Even the judge said so. He was still the only boy she ever had contact with who had had sex and shaved.

  “Johnny?” she said, louder this time.

  He turned. “Oh, hey. I think Sue is out back.” He started to go back to his movie.

  “Actually, I was looking for you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I borrow your bike?”

  “My bike?”

  Elaine rolled her eyes, pretending cool she didn’t feel. “Sue wants to go to the ice cream stand.”

  Johnny sat up. “You want me to drive you?”

  The thought of being in a car with him made her heart flutter. Sue wouldn’t let her sit in the front seat with him anyway. “No, if I could borrow your bike that would be great. Is it okay?”

  “Sure. I’ll get it for you.” He stood up.

  Elaine backed up a step. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “It’s up in the loft. I don’t think you can reach it. Come on.” Johnny walked past her, out the door.

  Elaine trotted after him. She raised an eyebrow at Sue on the way past. Sue sneered back.

  The chicken coop, which hadn’t housed chickens in years, was filled with miscellaneous auto parts, toys and a variety of unidentifiables. Johnny reached up, his muscles flexing as he wrestled the bike off the top of the coops. Johnny dropped the ten-speed on its tires. “Let me see if it’s in good shape. I haven’t touched it in a while.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Did you get contacts?” He studied her as he leaned on the bike checking the tire pressure.

  Elaine brushed her fingers across her cheek. “For my birthday.”

  “Happy birthday. How old are you now?” He tested the brakes, but kept his eyes on her.

  “Sixteen.”

  “Well, happy birthday.” He looked down at the bike. “It’s in good shape, but be careful.” He rolled it toward her.

  Elaine wanted to step back out of the way, but her feet were rooted to the floor.

  Johnny stopped inches from her. “You’re a really pretty girl, Elaine.”

  “Thanks.” Elaine put her hands on the bike, but didn’t move for a second. She’d never been this close to a man before. He was a man. He’d graduated last month. And he thought she was pretty. This was something to savor.

  * * * *

  “Mom, please, I can’t understand you.” Johnny stuck his finger in his ear. “What happened to Dad?” He walked into the office. When the door shut behind him, all the garage noise stopped and air-conditioning enveloped him. “Start at the top.”

  Joe, the service manager, leaned back in his chair.

  “I see. How is he now?”

  Kim, the parts runner, lingered at the storeroom window.

  “Come home? Mom.” Johnny met Joe’s eyes. He looked thrilled. Kim looked like she might cry. “As soon as I can. Is Sue there?”

  Joe smiled. Actually smiled. Sadistic bastard.

  “Of course not. Look, the soonest I can be there is tomorrow. Mom, it’s the best I can do.” Johnny looked at the floor. She would still be there. She’d only left for four years of college. How much hatred had she accumulated over the past fourteen years? Or did she understand? “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mom.” He snapped his phone shut.

  “Trouble at home?” Joe asked.

  “My father had a heart attack. I need to go home for a couple of weeks.”

  “You know I can’t spare you. I can’t let you go.”

  Johnny slammed his fists on Joe’s desk. “Let’s just be honest. You hate me, but you don’t have the guts to fire me. I’ll do you a favor. I quit.” He pulled a wad of keys out of his pocket and threw them on the desk. “See ya.” He stalked out the door.

  “Johnny!” Kim cried when he was halfway across the parking lot.

  Johnny stopped. Kim grabbed his hand. She hadn’t worked up to being more forward than that.

  “Are you leaving forever?” Her voice had the devastated tone of a newly minted eighteen-year-old.

  “Kim, my dad had a heart attack, and I don’t know when or if he’ll be able to work again. Somebody has to run his garage.”

  “But I don’t want you to go.”

  “I’m sorry, Kim. Take care and don’t let Joe give you any shit.”

  Kim nodded and ran back inside wiping her eyes.

  She was too young. Why did he have a gift for attracting the ones who were too young?

  Chapter 2

  Johnny kept his eyes on his plate. It was the best policy lately. Dad was on the warpath. Mom was lost at the bottom of a bottle. Sue had a dinner guest, Elaine Hammersmith. Life sucked.

  He looked at Elaine through his lashes. Overnight she’d gotten really pretty. It wasn’t just the contact lenses, either. Long dark hair, bright blue eyes. If the boys in her class had brains, they’d be all over her next year. Why they hadn’t been last year was anybody’s guess. Cute chick.

  Cute underage chick.

  Johnny studied his dinner. Someday he
hoped to eat something that didn’t come directly out of a can. Why did Elaine’s parents let her come here? It wasn’t like the whole town didn’t know. Were they teaching her to do charity work? It was embarrassing to have dinner guests when dinner was nuked Chef Boyardee every day.

  “You get Mrs. Bennetti’s car tuned up?” Dad demanded.

  “I’ll get it first thing in the morning.”

  “I told her it would be done first thing in the morning.”

  “Then I’ll go in early,” Johnny muttered.

  “I said I wanted you to get it done today.”

  Johnny clenched his teeth. “I ran out of time today. I’ll go in early tomorrow and get it taken care of.”

  “You should do what I tell you to do.”

  “May I be excused?” Elaine asked.

  “Yeah, me too.” Sue stood up. She’d left half of her meal uneaten. If Dad kept yelling at him at dinner, his little sister was going to develop an eating disorder.

  Dad grunted at them. They both ran out the kitchen door. “You have a full load of work tomorrow.”

  “I always have a full load.” Johnny speared the last ravioli and shoved it in his mouth. Having Elaine and Sue in the room wouldn’t stop Dad, but it might have curbed him. “May I be excused?”

  “No. You are slacking off lately. You’re lucky to have a job. You think anyone else would hire you with your record?”

  “It’s not a record. It’s one probation.”

  “It’s a criminal record.”

  “Okay, we’re done now.” Johnny stood up.

  “We are not. Sit down.”

  Johnny slammed the kitchen door behind him. The girls were sitting on the patio. Sue kicked rocks into the drive. Elaine pressed herself into a deck chair watching for flying objects.

  “You get back here. We’re not done,” Dad bellowed from the door.

  Johnny lengthened his stride past the garage to the old barn, a holdover from when this had been a working farm. Stepping through the man door, he breathed the comforting scent of grease and old straw. He found his way to the light switch by feel. The cream and orange Packard Caribbean hardtop rested on blocks. It had belonged to his grandfather and been parked here to rot when the old man moved to Florida. This Johnny understood. He could take it apart, fix it and put it back together. Make it run.