Lady in the Lake

When her husband, Milton Schwartz, calls to tell Maddie he has invited a local television personality to dinner, Maddie is ruffled. Maddie has adopted the persona of an ideal midcentury American housewife, priding herself on appearing prepared and poised. She is apprehensive because she knew “Wallace Wright” in high school as Wally Weiss, and she is desperate to avoid revelations about her youth in Milton’s presence. At dinner, she fails to redirect Wally’s determination to reminisce. Wally reveals he was in love with Maddie and took her to prom after her boyfriend broke up with her. Maddie downplays the incident, not reminding Wally of her ex-boyfriend’s name (Allan Durst Jr.) when he tries to recall it. She is offended when, on departing, Wally says, “You’ve done okay for yourself” (14). Looking at her newly renovated kitchen, Maddie perceives in her life a sudden triviality. Her mind drifts back 20 years to the secret relationship that defined her adolescence. Strategically considering her timing, Maddie decides to leave Milton at the end of November, after her 37th birthday.

The intoxicated “Wallace Wright” drives home from dinner. An awkward teenager when he knew Maddie Morgenstern, Wally believes he has successfully reinvented himself. Maddie was pleasant at prom, but she rejected Wally’s offer of a second date. Within the year, she was engaged to Milton. Wally was originally excited to accept Milton’s dinner invitation: “it’s not every day you get to show your first love what a mistake she made” (18). Now, though, he’s imbittered by Maddie’s lack of warmth toward him. Alone in the house he once shared with his ex-wife, Wally retrieves a book, turning to the pages holding the dried orchid from Maddie’s prom corsage. He congratulates himself on being 35 with potential, telling himself Maddie is “pushing forty, [with] nothing to look forward to” (24).

A jeweler examines Maddie’s engagement ring, assessing its value. Maddie is embarrassed, but she needs the proceeds from its sale. Once divorced, she expects Milton will provide enough financial support to replicate and sustain her lifestyle. Presently, he allocates her fluctuating sums of cash at sporadic intervals. Maddie had presumed their son, Seth, would live with her, and that Milton’s contributions would reflect this, but Seth chose to remain with his father. The jeweler offers $500. Maddie refuses, arguing that her ring was purchased for $1,000 and insured for $2,000. Returning to her new apartment, she hides the engagement ring in the soil of a potted African violet. Methodically, she ransacks her living space. Then, she runs outside, feigning distress. Patrolman Ferdie Platt comes to her aid. He persuades Maddie’s landlord to break her lease, helping her choose an apartment in a different neighborhood, a move funded by payout of the insurance claim she files against the “theft” of her ring. When Ferdie returns to visit her, they embark on a covert sexual relationship.

When Maddie enters her family’s jewelry store, Judith Weinstein sees an opportunity. Living at home with her strict, traditional parents, Judith knows she will never be permitted to move out until she is married or living with a respectable roommate. Judith anticipates that her parents would welcome the idea of her living with Maddie; their families are familiar with one another through their close-knit Jewish community in Baltimore, and rumors are circulating that Milton, not Maddie, is at fault for their separation. Calling Maddie’s apartment, Judith allows the phone to ring. When Maddie finally answers, she sounds exasperated and inconvenienced. Judith invites Maddie to a meeting of the Stonewall Democratic Club. Maddie briefly puts the phone down, and by the time she returns, the noise in the background has given Judith the impression that Maddie is not alone.

Maddie and Ferdie’s relationship progresses, albeit strictly within the confines of her apartment. Beyond her pending divorce, Maddie knows that the social climate in Baltimore would present significant obstacles for them as an interracial couple. Though she learns about Ferdie’s personal history, she chooses not to ask whether he sees other women, assuming that he does. With Ferdie, she explores sex in a way she hadn’t with Milton. Ferdie recommends a stylist who irons Maddie’s hair into a modern, softened style, and she relishes the transformation.

At a dinner out, a frustrated Seth struggles to understand all of the abrupt changes in his mother. Maddie explains she has realized that she has done nothing with her life apart from being his mother. Now that he is preparing for college, she believes it is time that she accomplish something for herself. When she shares that she is thinking about looking 

Cleo wonders how long it took her family to start worrying after she failed to visit on New Year’s Day. Over the holidays, she showered them with gifts, enduring her father’s familiar refrain of disapproval that she was spending instead of saving and his repetitive denouncement of the money she made as “dirty.” Outside her regular shifts working behind the bar at the Flamingo club, Cleo alludes to receiving gifts, cash, and payment of her bills in exchange for time spent with men on dates. By mid-January 1966, when their landlord came to collect overdue rent from Cleo and her roommate, Latetia, he found stacks of unopened mail and a telegram from Latetia indicating that she had moved to Florida. Many assumed that Cleo had decided to join Latetia, but Cleo’s mother, Mrs. Merva Sherwood, urged greater scrutiny into her daughter’s disappearance. On Valentine’s Day, The Afro-American newspaper ran a story that compelled the police to take interest, but authorities found no witnesses who saw Cleo past New Year’s Eve. Cleo reflects on the difference between the response to her disappearance and that of Tessie Fine.

Eleven-year-old Tessie Fine believes herself smarter and more attractive than her schoolmates. She has decided to demand attention by purchasing a training bra without her mother’s knowledge. She convinces the mother responsible for driving her home after school to drop her off at the pet store for fish food, promising to walk the short distance home. Once inside the pet shop, she plans to wait until the mother has driven out of sight; then, she’ll enter the neighboring lingerie store. However, she gets annoyed with the pet shop attendant, who offends her strong sense of entitlement by asking her not to touch anything. Insistent that he can’t tell her what to do, she stomps her feet. Her chapter concludes abruptly as she escalates in irritating him.

As the Fines are members of their Jewish community, Maddie’s mother insists Maddie join the volunteer search parties. Mrs. Morgenstern believes Tessie is the victim of sexual homicide, claiming a similar incident occurred when she was young: “It was where you live now, which was a ghetto then. A ghetto now, really” (62). Maddie considers how erotic it would be if she were targeted by a sexual predator but saved by Ferdie. She once thought Ferdie suspected her of staging the robbery, adding to the excitement she derives from their unequal power dynamic. Maddie calls Judith Weinstein to join her on the search for Tessie at a local park, but they are turned away by the men of their synagogue, who consider the undertaking inappropriate for women. Maddie and Judith decide to search on their own, Maddie steering them toward the “parking” area in the arboretum, where she once tried to convince Milton to have sex with her before their wedding. He had refused, and on their wedding night, she feigned inexperience for his benefit. At the very perimeter of the park’s fenced confines, Maddie and Judith find the body of Tessie Fine.

Closest to the scene, the patrolman and his partner, Paul, respond to the arboretum. The patrolman fixates on Maddie’s physical attractiveness. When Maddie, crying, mentions she has a son, the patrolman silently reflects on his wife’s two miscarriages in three years and his belief that they are deserving of children. Maddie insists on remaining until the coroner arrives. He and Paul drive Judith and Maddie home, the patrolman silently judging Paul for flirting with Judith. The patrolman emphatically discourages Maddie from talking to the press and is miffed when she refuses his offer to walk her to her door at her “old dump of an apartment” (73). He has a beer with colleagues, then decides to stop by Maddie’s apartment, claiming to be worried about her. It is 3 am when he arrives. He is surprised to find a patrol car parked outside and shocked when an officer he describes as “blacker than ink” (74) emerges from Maddie’s building and drives off in the department vehicle.