Page 34 of Starlight & Dark Nights

CHAPTER15

Jude

Jude has been worriedabout Maxine, but she’s got troubles of her own, so she does her best to go over or call every other day, just to check in on her friend. The rest of her energy is focused entirely on being a good and present mother, and on not drinking.

Most days she manages to get through the entire day without giving in to the urge to pour a Screwdriver in a tall glass, and instead she finishes dinner, the dishes, and bedtime with the girls before she allows herself one drink.

That’s her compromise: stay focused, stay alert, get one drink at the end of the day. And it’s been working so far. On two or three occasions she’s managed to make it to bed at night without a single drink, but thus far, Jude has felt as though she’s her most relaxed, happy self if she can just have one solitary drink in the evening.

Vance, for his part, has watched the whole thing with slightly removed interest. He’s made it clear that he wants what’s best for his wife, but he’s both unable and unwilling to police her and rip the bottle from her hands. And Jude knows that this is how it has to be: no person has ever quit drinking successfully by force. She has to want it, and after seeing herself drink to excess and forget to pick up her own girls, she knows that it’s what sheneedsto do.

When the phone rings on a Thursday morning, Jude answers, unclipping her earring and putting it in the pocket of her dress.

“Good morning, Majors residence,” she says, glancing at the pile of ironing in her kitchen distractedly.

“Mrs. Majors?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“This is Harrison Watts.”

Jude stands upright at the sound of the private investigator’s name. “Mr. Watts,” she says, feeling breathless. “How can I help you?”

“I’m calling to help you, Mrs. Majors,” he says gruffly. “I have a few more questions for you on Catherine Hamnett.”

Jude looks around the room anxiously, though she’s home alone. Finding Catherine had been Vance’s idea in the first place, but she’d decided not to tell him about driving to Daytona Beach to meet with Harrison Watts, or that she was looking for Catherine. To do so would mean talking about Catherine, and that isn’t something she feels like doing at the moment.

“Okay,” Jude says. “Shoot.”

“What was her relationship to a Mr. Edwin Gaines?”

Jude frowns. “Mr. Gaines? He was our neighbor. He worked in the industry, as most people in Hollywood did in those days, and he threw parties for the biggest stars you can imagine.” Jude twists the phone cord around her finger, remembering the way Mr. Gaines would stand on his front porch holding a tiny pair of stem-gripping rose pruners in hand. He wore thick-framed black glasses, and had his hair swept to one side. He would watch with a half-amused, half-curious smile every time Catherine or Jude walked up the path to their little bungalow. “I don’t think they had a relationship, other than a friendly one.”

“Mmm,” Mr. Watts says over the phone line. “I see. And do you know what her life was like immediately after you met Vance Majors? What I mean by that,” he adds, “is do you know whether she stayed in your shared dwelling once you’d left to marry Mr. Majors?”

Jude shakes her head. “I don’t know. That’s why I came to you. I left with Vance, and she never returned my letters. It was like she vanished.”

“And we never did see her on the big screen.”

“Well, no.” Jude has to admit this out loud, though she does still find herself hoping on occasion that one day she’ll be in a theater, and as the lights go down, Catherine’s face will appear. “No, I’ve never seen her in any film since then—not even in the background.”

“Right.” Harrison Watts is quiet for a moment, and Jude can imagine him sitting at the desk in his Daytona Beach office, sun streaming through the high window, as he scratches notes on a piece of paper. “Okay then. I have a few more ideas I can pursue.” He falls silent. “Mrs. Majors? I was wondering if I could ask a few things about you.”

“Me?” Jude is taken aback; this is supposed to be a fact-finding mission about Catherine, not about herself. “I suppose.”

“What can you tell me about your early childhood?”

Jude laughs in a way that sounds like a sharp “Ha!” She puts a fist to her mouth and swallows before answering. “You want to know aboutmychildhood? Why?”

Harrison Watts waits before answering. “Well, I think there’s a story there.”

“Isn’t there always?”

“Of course. But some stories are more interesting than others. What can you tell me about the first ten years of your life?”

Jude sinks onto the stool near the phone and continues to wrap and re-wrap the cord around her fingers like a little girl playing cat’s cradle with a length of yarn.

“Well,” Jude says. “I can tell you about my trip back here from Japan when I was seven. It was the last time I ever saw my mother…”

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