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Authors: Gini Hartzmark
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tanks. “In the back of my mind I guess I thought there might have been something extracurricular going on between them.”
“Not likely,” Babbage replied with a shake of his head. “Believe me, Eugene is as straight as they come.”
“And Lydia?” I asked, steering the conversation back on track. “How does she feel about her father’s wife?”
“You can imagine that Lydia isn’t thrilled about having a stepmother who’s three years younger than she is and twice as good-looking.”
“There aren’t many daughters that would be,” I countered. Having not yet met Lydia, I was probably more likely to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“True. But in this case it’s more complicated than that. Lydia feels very threatened by Peaches, sure, but she’s also fascinated by her.”
“What do you mean, fascinated?”
“Fascinated, filled with an unhealthy interest, obsessed.... About a month after Jack and Peaches were married, they started getting crank calls. Someone was calling in the middle of the night and then hanging up the phone. Jack was rattled, but Peaches knew exactly what to do. She’d had trouble of this nature before, you see. Back when she worked for Channel Seven she was stalked by some weirdo who’d seen her on TV and become obsessed with her. You might have heard about it. It caused quite a stir at the time and Peaches was instrumental in getting the state to pass anti-stalking legislation. So when she started getting these hang-up calls, Peaches wasted no time in calling the police. Normally these kinds of cases are a nightmare, but Jack has some pull downtown and Peaches is still considered something of a celebrity, so they were able to cut through all the bureaucratic red tape and get the calls traced. You’ll never guess who was making them.”
“Who?”
“Lydia.”
“I bet Sunday dinners were a little awkward after that.”
“You could say that.”
“The whole situation just strikes me as creepy.”
“I’ll tell you what’s creepy. Lydia’s been gradually changing her appearance.”
“Changing her appearance? In what way?”
“Slowly, over the course of the last year, she’s been doing things—growing her hair long like Peaches, having it lightened to the same color. Peaches buys a dress and a week later Lydia shows up at a family function wearing the same one. When you meet Lydia I guarantee you’ll be struck by the resemblance.”
“I look forward to it,” I said as Davis, Babbage’s favorite waiter, arrived with our entrées. I eyed my veal cutlet suspiciously. I ventured a cautious bite—tasteless but otherwise unobjectionable.
“Peaches has actually shown a lot of backbone through all of this,” continued Daniel, cutting into his steak, “but about a month ago she reached the point where even she’d had enough.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Like so many family crises, the whole thing started out as what should have been a happy occasion. When Jack and Peaches got married they did it very quietly— just the family down at Tall Pines—that’s their place down in Georgia. So this past February, when their first anniversary rolled around, Dagny decided to throw them a party. She invited everybody—friends, customers,
Peaches’s family even came in from Atlanta. There were well in excess of a hundred guests.
“Dagny is the sort of person who does everything well and that night was no exception. It should have been a wonderful evening—especially for Jack. His favorite daughter had gone out of her way to do something special for him and his beautiful wife. Despite what happened, you could tell he was really touched.”
“So what happened?”
“For their anniversary Jack gave Peaches a diamond necklace that he’d given to Eleanor, his first wife, on their first anniversary. Naturally, Peaches wore it to the party.”
“And when Lydia saw it she went ballistic.”
“You could say that. I honestly thought there would be murder done.
“Not likely,” Babbage replied with a shake of his head. “Believe me, Eugene is as straight as they come.”
“And Lydia?” I asked, steering the conversation back on track. “How does she feel about her father’s wife?”
“You can imagine that Lydia isn’t thrilled about having a stepmother who’s three years younger than she is and twice as good-looking.”
“There aren’t many daughters that would be,” I countered. Having not yet met Lydia, I was probably more likely to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“True. But in this case it’s more complicated than that. Lydia feels very threatened by Peaches, sure, but she’s also fascinated by her.”
“What do you mean, fascinated?”
“Fascinated, filled with an unhealthy interest, obsessed.... About a month after Jack and Peaches were married, they started getting crank calls. Someone was calling in the middle of the night and then hanging up the phone. Jack was rattled, but Peaches knew exactly what to do. She’d had trouble of this nature before, you see. Back when she worked for Channel Seven she was stalked by some weirdo who’d seen her on TV and become obsessed with her. You might have heard about it. It caused quite a stir at the time and Peaches was instrumental in getting the state to pass anti-stalking legislation. So when she started getting these hang-up calls, Peaches wasted no time in calling the police. Normally these kinds of cases are a nightmare, but Jack has some pull downtown and Peaches is still considered something of a celebrity, so they were able to cut through all the bureaucratic red tape and get the calls traced. You’ll never guess who was making them.”
“Who?”
“Lydia.”
“I bet Sunday dinners were a little awkward after that.”
“You could say that.”
“The whole situation just strikes me as creepy.”
“I’ll tell you what’s creepy. Lydia’s been gradually changing her appearance.”
“Changing her appearance? In what way?”
“Slowly, over the course of the last year, she’s been doing things—growing her hair long like Peaches, having it lightened to the same color. Peaches buys a dress and a week later Lydia shows up at a family function wearing the same one. When you meet Lydia I guarantee you’ll be struck by the resemblance.”
“I look forward to it,” I said as Davis, Babbage’s favorite waiter, arrived with our entrées. I eyed my veal cutlet suspiciously. I ventured a cautious bite—tasteless but otherwise unobjectionable.
“Peaches has actually shown a lot of backbone through all of this,” continued Daniel, cutting into his steak, “but about a month ago she reached the point where even she’d had enough.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Like so many family crises, the whole thing started out as what should have been a happy occasion. When Jack and Peaches got married they did it very quietly— just the family down at Tall Pines—that’s their place down in Georgia. So this past February, when their first anniversary rolled around, Dagny decided to throw them a party. She invited everybody—friends, customers,
Peaches’s family even came in from Atlanta. There were well in excess of a hundred guests.
“Dagny is the sort of person who does everything well and that night was no exception. It should have been a wonderful evening—especially for Jack. His favorite daughter had gone out of her way to do something special for him and his beautiful wife. Despite what happened, you could tell he was really touched.”
“So what happened?”
“For their anniversary Jack gave Peaches a diamond necklace that he’d given to Eleanor, his first wife, on their first anniversary. Naturally, Peaches wore it to the party.”
“And when Lydia saw it she went ballistic.”
“You could say that. I honestly thought there would be murder done.
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