Chapter 6: The Woman in the Coffee Shop
She was already there when I arrived.
A woman about sixty, silver hair cut short, wearing a dark green cardigan.
She had chosen a corner table, away from the window, with a clear view of the door.
She had a cup of tea in front of her and her hands wrapped around it, and when I walked in she looked up immediately, the way people do when they have been watching for someone.
I sat down across from her.
"You came," she said.
"You knew I would."
She nodded slowly.
"I'm Margaret.
Not Daniel's mother — I know that's what you're wondering.
I'm his aunt.
His father's sister."
Daniel's father had died when Daniel was nineteen.
He almost never spoke about that side of the family.
"He doesn't know you contacted me," I said.
"No."
"Why?"
She turned her teacup slightly on its saucer.
"Because Linda would find out within the hour.
She always does."
"You're afraid of her."
"I've been managing her for thirty years," Margaret said.
"That's not the same as afraid.
It's just — careful."
The waitress came.
I ordered coffee I didn't want.
"Tell me about the money," I said.
Margaret looked at me steadily.
"The four hundred a month goes to Linda.
Has done for about fourteen months.
Daniel set it up after she told him she was struggling.
Said her pension wasn't covering her bills."
"He never told me."
"No."
"We have a joint account."
"I know." She paused.
"He should have told you.
I'm not here to defend that part."
"Then what are you here for?"
She reached into her bag and set a folded piece of paper on the table between us.
"Linda's pension.
I got a copy from my brother's estate paperwork — she's been receiving it since Gerald died.
It's not a small amount."
I unfolded the paper.
Read the figure at the top.
"She's not struggling," I said.
"She has not struggled financially in fourteen years."
I set the paper down.
"So she told Daniel she needed money.
He believed her.
He set up a transfer every month without telling me.
And she took it."
"And used it," Margaret said, "to fund her daughters.
Jessica's car payments.
Nicole's rent.
Linda doesn't spend it on herself.
She funnels it to them."
I thought about Jessica and Nicole at the party.
The way they had loaded those containers without a second thought.
The way they had looked at me like I was an inconvenience in my own backyard.
"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked.
"Why not a year ago?"
"Because a year ago I thought Daniel would figure it out on his own." She wrapped her hands around her cup again.
"And then I watched what happened at that party yesterday.
I watched Linda pack up every dish your wife made and call you stingy in front of thirty people.
And I thought — enough."
The coffee arrived.
I didn't touch it.
"She's going to push harder now," Margaret said.
"After yesterday.
She doesn't like losing.
She'll go after Daniel.
She'll make him feel guilty.
She'll find a way to turn this around so that you're the problem."
"She already started," I said.
"The text she sent last night."
Margaret's expression didn't change.
"That was Jessica.
Linda doesn't text.
She calls."
I looked at her.
"You know a lot about how they operate."
"I've been watching them operate since 1987." She picked up her tea.
"The question is what you're going to do with what I've just told you."
I looked at the pension document on the table between us.
"I'm going to talk to my husband," I said.
"He won't take it well at first."
"I know."
"He loves his mother."
"I know that too."
Margaret nodded.
She looked at me for a moment with something that was not quite pity and not quite admiration but somewhere between the two.
"You're steadier than I expected," she said.
"I've had practice," I said.
May you like
I folded the pension document and put it in my bag.
Outside, it had started to rain.
