The hidden painting chapter 5

As I stand on the stoop of the closed front door, I look at my car and realise that it, and what’s left of the €5,500 my mom left me, are all I have on this earth. It’s not a lot to show for a thirty-four-year-old woman! I walk towards the car thinking of all the what if’s. What if Mr Godfree hadn’t died? What if the disease that took my mother, my one constant in life, never presented itself? Would I be doing something other than chase a painting that might not exist? Definitely! I’d also still have a roof over my head and a job to focus on!

I sit into the car and feel a profound sense of loss. Mom would have loved to have heard about Jasper and his batman t-shirt. She would have gotten a laugh from that. My mind begins to wander and I can’t help but wonder what had happened to make Jasper the king of my father’s castle. He had obviously sold up, but why? And why didn’t I, being what I presumed to be his only child, get some of the proceeds from what was more a mansion than a house?

I close my eyes and can’t help but feel irrelevant. Had he forgotten about me? I recall some of the shocking stories that passed my mother’s cracked, dry lips towards the end. He sounded like a monster, but you only get one father in life and I was willing to let slide his previous transgressions in order to retrieve the painting. ‘Maybe he’s changed!’ I said to myself as I listened to my audiobook on the way here. I had come with an open mind. I wanted to be able to make my own opinion of him!

Who do I know that can answer all of these questions I have? My mind immediately turns to Lois, my mother’s best friend. I vaguely remember her to live a block away from the family home and before I know it, I’m in front of her house.

The first thing I notice as I open the white washed wooden gate that comes up as far as my waist, is that the person living here has impeccable taste in horticultural design. They have perfectly trimmed bursts of colour coming at you from every angle and it’s so well maintained. It tells me the inhabitant takes pride in appearances.

My heart flutters as I push the doorbell with my right index finger. When no one answers, I see no harm in looking in the windows of what I perceive to be a mansion. I go to the first window on the right and cup my hands to look through the glass. I quickly step backwards, crushing a hydrangea as I do so because I saw a woman in her living room arm chair looking at the TV.

‘Maybe she just didn’t hear the doorbell!’ I tell myself and carefully navigating my way back to the front door.

When I press the doorbell for a second time, an older version of a woman I vaguely remember comes towards the door with haste.

‘What are you doing looking in my window?’ she spits scornfully.

‘You’re Lois,’ I smile and extend a hand which she looks at with distain. ‘I’m Cindy, Cindy spencer?’

Lois stares at me blankly.

‘Sadie Spencer is my mother!’

‘I’m sorry dear, I don’t know any Spencer’s!’ she says and just as she’s closing the door, I blurt out, ‘my father is Frank Deveraux!’ The door stops moving, my father’s name obviously sparked something with her because she slowly begins to open the door again.

‘Are you saying your Sadie Deveraux’s daughter?’ she asks with a little voice.

‘Yes!’ I feel relieved to have someone know who I am.

‘Come in!’ she says smiling, holding the door open for me.

As I enter the vast hallway, I notice the beautiful paintings on the walls and am in awe at the way in which I was right in thinking the person who lived there to have impeccable taste. The floor had what looked like marble tiles laid on it and every piece of furniture screamed, ‘money’!

I follow Lois towards the back of the house into the kitchen. The floor to ceiling windows and marble countertops make the kitchen lovely and bright.

‘Sit dear, sit!’ Lois gesticulates towards the island. I sit in one of the four bar stools and am in awe of the room. Lois has made a lovely home for herself.

‘I was a bit shocked when I came back from Europe to find you and your mother gone!’ Lois starts as she takes out a nice big pitcher of iced tea from the massive fridge. She puts the pitcher in front of me and produces two glasses that look as though they are crystal! ‘Iced tea dear?’ she asks, and before I nod my head ‘yes’, she has begun pouring the beverage into the tall fancy glasses. ‘How is Sadie?’ she asks, ‘I have always wanted to get in touch but no one in town knew where she went!’

‘Oh,’ I start. I am still fresh on announcing to people that my mom had passed and begin to choke up as I inform Lois.

‘I’m so sorry dear!’ she says after I tell her the news, taking the bar stool beside me and gently placing a welcome hand on my back. I rub a stray tear from my face and smile at her.

‘I wanted to personally inform my father, but when I went back to the big house I was greeted by Jasper! He actually ended up giving me a research job!’ I giggle, ‘It’s a job that is very welcome as I’m finding it hard to find employment at the minute!’ I divulge.

‘Jasper is a good egg!’ Lois nods. ‘He is doing a biography of Arthur Waldron if I’m not mistaken!’

‘Yea,’ I nod taking a sup out of my iced tea. ‘I’m his new research assistant!’

‘Is that something that interests you? Or do you just need a job?’

‘Oh its right down my alley!’ I inform Lois and tell her all about the late Mr Godfree.

‘It sounds as though he was a very inspirational man!’ she smiles.

‘Oh he was! The dream is to someday, somehow, open up a bookshop of my own and continue his work!’

‘That’s a lovely dream!’ Lois smiles as I take a sup from the beautiful glass of delicious iced tea.

‘I have some questions that you may or may not be able to answer,’ I say, ‘would it be alright if I asked you some of them?’

‘Of course dear,’ Lois smiles, ‘I don’t know how helpful I will be but I’ll try my best!’

‘What happened my father?’ I ask. ‘Jasper said he bought the big house a year ago!’

Lois has a sombre expression on her face. ‘I thought someone would have told you dear,’ she hangs her head. ‘Sadly your father passed a little over a year ago!’

I gasp in shock and squeeze my eyes shut, shaking my head. To hear that both of your parents have passed in the same week is hard to take!

‘I don’t think anyone knew where you were to break the news to you!’ she rubs my back in a counter clockwise direction as I bury my face in my hands.

‘And just when I was ready to give him a chance!’ I cry.

‘He was a troubled soul your father!’ Lois offers.

‘Can you tell me anything about him?’ I ask, drying my tears with the sleeve of my cardigan.

‘I don’t know if you know or not but he was a very aggressive man towards your mother!’

I nod, ‘that’s why we left in the middle of the night!’ I remember my mom explaining.

‘When I got back from Europe, he was a different man, a changed man! He took the loss of you and your mother very hard and I’m not sure he ever recovered from that! He started drinking heavily and spent most of his time at the casino!’

‘Did he lose everything there?’ I ask expectantly.

‘No!’ Lois shook her head, ‘if anything he won more often than he lost! His picture was on at least two casinos’ ‘not welcome here’ lists. He won too much money in them and, as far as I know, they frown upon people who make money off of them!’

‘So what happened to all that money?’ I ask curiously.

‘You know I never understood what happened there!’ Lois tries to explain. ‘I presumed it went to you and your mother!’ she shrugged. ‘All I know is that Jasper moved in shortly after his death!’

‘And where does Jasper hail from?’

‘I know, he comes from a very wealthy family who purchased the house as an investment, but let him live there temporarily. He celebrated his fortieth birthday not long ago. It was a big do, the whole town of Wakeley was invited! His gift from his parents was the deeds to the house. A pretty lavish gift if you ask me, but it made them happy which is all that matters!’

‘Oh,’ I look at my iced tea and feel deflated.

Thoughts are whizzing through my head, ‘where is the money that he supposedly owned go? Surely to God it should have been passed to me! But what if mom had hidden me so well that, even if they were looking for me, no one knew where I was or what my surname is now!’

Lois puts a hand on my back again, bringing me out of my trance.

‘Do you know if there’s any cheap hotels in the vicinity?’ I ask Lois. I was really hoping she would ask me to stay, but instead she got up off of the bar stool with a groan and opened the drawer under the worktop directly beside the fridge. She arrives back by my side with a business card of a hotel not ten minutes away.

‘It’s clean!’ she adds as I take the card from her, unable to crack a smile as I know this place has at least four bedrooms. If she was as good a friend as I thought she was, wouldn’t you think she would have asked me to stay?

We say our goodbye’s. ‘Thank you for the tea!’

As I turn, walking through the impeccable front yard, I roll my eyes in disgust and disappointment. As I look at the card she gave me once safe in my car and begin to shout expletives towards the woman!’

 

As I enter the seedy hotel room, that has a bed a locker against the wall to the ensuite, a table and two chairs filling the rest of the small room, I empty the duffle bag that holds the change in clothes that I bought and let out a sigh of relief when I see that there is a safe inside the wardrobe opposite the bed. I put whatever is left of the money in it. It doesn’t scream safety, but all I can do is make the best of a bad situation. I put my clothes in the wardrobe also and then flop onto the bed.

A million and one things are literally going through my mind. That’s exactly how much the house was on the market for last year! Curiosity had gotten the better of me and I looked up the listing.

‘Where did all the money go?’ I ask myself baffled.

When my mind goes towards my father and how I hardly got to know the man, I wave of resentment crosses my face for a fleeting second. I had grown up just mom and I and don’t get me wrong, I was such a happy child. She had provided all that I needed to get by in the world! The what ifs are starting to play around in my mind again however. What if I had just some of my fathers wealth and followed my dream to be an English student in college? What if I could have bought Mr Godfree out years ago, before his son got his hands on the place?

I continue to wonder how much money plays a vital role in society and how, those who have it, seem to be more successful. Then again, I had constant happiness, laughter and joy in my life. Mom provided the means of a stable family home and, even though she worked her ass off for what she got, she gave me the wisdom of the value of a dollar early in life.

I drift to sleep, images of my childhood flashing through my subconscious, and wake with a smile on my face when I hear the alarm chime on my phone. It was 8am. I shower and all the woes of the previous day are washed away. It’s a new day, with a new job, in a new place.

I grab the empty duffle bag to put the painting in, when I finally find it, grab my keys, and head to meet Jasper in the big house!