by Raven Snow
“I’d say what kind of a woman she is, but my mother taught me better than that,” Marnie muttered, turning back to the chess board.
“She didn’t seem to be a fan of your sister,” said Eric, making the first move with one of his pawns.
Marnie immediately made a move of her own. “No, I expect she wasn’t.’
“Is that why you weren’t at the memorial service?” asked Eric. Marnie took a deep breath, hissing a little at the end like it hurt her. “I’m sorry,” Eric added quickly. “I didn’t mean to pick at fresh wounds or anything.”
“It’s not fresh,” Marnie assured him. She was moving her pieces on the chess board regularly. As soon as Eric would make a move, she was moving a piece of her own. It was like she hardly even needed to glance at the board. Rowen knew how to play but not well. What she did know was that Eric wasn’t one to let someone win out of pity. He was having some trouble against Marnie. “We haven’t been close since we were girls.” Marnie sighed, lost in nostalgia maybe. “I don’t expect my family was much like yours. You Greensmiths seem close.”
“We are,” Rowen confirmed, feeling a small swell of pride in her chest when she said that.
Marnie nodded. “We were close as far as appearances went, I suppose, but we didn’t share our troubles with one another. Everyone kept their problems to themselves. A lot of families work like that, I think. It’s the only way they can work. Acknowledge the faults and the whole family falls apart.”
“What kind of faults did your family have?” asked Rowen. “If you don’t mind my asking, I mean.” She added that last part quickly, worried she was being too nosy. That question probably didn’t have a whole lot to do with why she was there in the first place.
Marnie raised her shoulders in an indifferent gesture. “They ignored your father’s bad behavior, for one. Well…” She trailed off and made a move, capturing Eric’s rook. “Maybe ignore is too strong a word. They looked the other way then were quick to forget about him as soon as he left. It was easier then—after he left, I mean. They didn’t have to look the other way as much. No one asked after him.”
“Bertha raised him, right?”
“Raised is a strong word. She was his guardian so that the courts wouldn’t take him away. She made sure he had clothes on his back and food in his belly. She sent him to school and punished him when he skipped. ‘Course it’s hard to punish a boy who’s already skipping school. As I remember it, he’d sneak out the window when he was grounded, go meet up with your uncle. Those two got up to all sorts of no good.”
“And your family didn’t like my family, right?”
“That’s putting it lightly. We were raised to fear your family, to shun them. We were God-fearing folk.”
“Were?”
Marnie inclined her head, silent like she was considering that. “I don’t suppose I was ever very God-fearing deep down. It was something my parents instilled in me that let up the older I got. Not that I ever thought your uncle was a good influence, mind you.”
“How do you know he was the one who was the bad influence on my dad?” Rowen found herself more defensive of Norm than Desmond, even though she knew they were both pretty bad in similar ways.
There was another few seconds of silence from Marnie where it looked like she was thinking that over. “I guess I don’t really. Whoever influenced whom, I know it made Desmond worse, though. So, there’s that.”
“How so? How did it make him worse?” At that moment, Rowen wasn’t thinking so much about solving Bertha’s murder anymore. She still had questions about her own father. Marnie was being more generous with answers than she had expected her to be.
Marnie raised an eyebrow in Rowen’s direction. “I think you can imagine. You’ve spent time around your uncle, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but not back when he was hanging out with my dad. To me it’s kind of a chicken and the egg deal, I guess. I don’t know who rubbed off on who, ya know? Honestly, I only met my dad this past week, so…”
“I see. Well, part of the blame could be on Desmond. He used to be a sweet boy. After his mother passed, he started acting out.”
“What was my actual grandmother like? Desmond’s real mom?”
“Oh, she was sweet. She was too sweet, if you ask me. She doted on that boy. He could do no wrong.”
“And my grandfather?”
“Well.” Marnie’s eyes widened marginally, like that was a scandalous tale all its own. “Like I said, your grandmother was too sweet for her own good.”
That didn’t sound promising. “Does anyone even know who my grandfather is?”
“Was,” Marnie corrected. “He was a landscaper, died ages ago. Your grandmother took the death hard even though the fellow was a trash heap of a human being. There’s just no accounting for taste sometimes. She was still mourning that man when she passed.” There was a sadness that came over Marnie then. It wasn’t immediately visible in her features, but Rowen could feel it as it moved through her. “Thank goodness our parents were gone already. I don’t know how they would have handled that. Desmond took the whole thing hard. He was… hmm. I want to say he was twelve or thirteen, maybe. He was plenty old enough to understand it all.” Marnie turned her gaze back to Eric. “Check.”
“So, how did you and Bertha have your falling out?” asked Rowen, feeling bolder in her line of questioning.
“Who said we had a falling out?”
“I just… I assumed.” Rowen thought back. Hadn’t Marnie mentioned that they hadn’t been close for a long time?
“We never had a big falling out. We stopped talking as much over the years. We drifted apart… Check again, Dear.”
“And you’re not close to any of your family members anymore?”
“The last person I was close to was the woman my brother married.”
Rowen had to think back again. She vaguely recalled Rose mentioning an aunt and uncle. Both were dead now if she remembered correctly. “She’s the one who died of medical malpractice, right?”
Marnie snorted. “Is that what they’re calling it?”
“I think that’s what I heard.”
“That’s probably her… What a shame. She was such a sweet woman. Pity she married into this family. That gal was the best friend I ever had. She could play chess better than anyone I knew… No offense, Dear. Checkmate.”
“None taken,” Eric said with a chuckle, looking down at the board. “You’re pretty good yourself.”
“Aw, I didn’t have anything on her. She was sharp as a whip.” That same sadness passed over Marnie again. “At least she was in some respects. If she’d had more sense, she would have married someone else or moved away at the end there.”
“What was wrong with your brother?” asked Rowen. She hadn’t heard anything negative said about her late great uncle yet.
“He dragged a good woman like that into this mess.” Marnie leaned back in her chair, surveying the chess board before her and the game that was already won there.
“So, what? You regret your nephew and his kids being born?” Rowen wondered if there wasn’t something off about Marnie after all. She wasn’t sure which was better, being touched with dementia or genuinely wishing members of your family had never been born.
“I believe I would be a great deal happier these days if Lilah had stayed my friend and not become a wife to my brother.”
“Why?” Rowen found herself curious. She wasn’t entirely sure this still had something to do with what she was attempting to find out and yet she still wanted to know.
“She doted on that child of hers too much. She never denied him anything.”
“Shane?”
Marnie nodded. “He was an only child.”
“He seemed like a nice guy when I met him.” It was true that Rowen had only met him a handful of times, but she was generally good at reading folks. He hadn’t struck her as especially cruel or anything.
“Oh, sure. He’s nice enough. He takes after his moth
er in that respect. It’s why he’s being walked all over by that wife of his and their brat.”
Rowen shifted a bit where she stood, suddenly very aware of her posture and how uncomfortable she was. “Brat?” She had to swallow before getting the question out. The vehemence with which Marnie had said the word had caught her off guard. “Which one of the kids is a brat?”
“Do you really need to ask? I’m sure you can guess.”
Rowen considered the question. “Kate?” she ventured. It was the answer that immediately came into her mind. She was a teenage girl, though. She was full of hormones and had a mother who probably didn’t set the best example. “Brat” might be a fine descriptor but the way Marnie all but spat the word seemed a little unfair. “Why? What’s wrong with her?”
“What isn’t wrong with her?” Marnie shook her head. It was impossible not to sense the emotions in her now. It wasn’t just sadness anymore. It wasn’t even anger. It was more than that. It was a rage slowly bubbling up beneath her pale skin.
“I don’t know.” Rowen moved closer to Marnie and took a seat on the edge of her bed. “Why don’t you tell me?”
Marnie watched Rowen, really watched her. It became clear that she wasn’t suffering from any sort of dementia. Those narrowed brown eyes of hers were clear. Rowen could see the thoughts turning behind them. It was hard to keep still. Rowen was very aware that she was being appraised. Of what, she wasn’t sure. She only knew that if Marnie didn’t like what she saw, she would ask them to leave. She wouldn’t tell them what Rowen desperately wanted to know.
“You can trust me,” said Rowen. It felt like something that needed to be said. Marnie had no particular reason to trust her. They had only met today, and she had likely spent her whole life wary of the Greensmiths. Still, it felt like it needed to be said.
“Can I?” asked Marnie, raising her eyebrows as if issuing a challenge.
Rowen nodded immediately. “We’re family now… Not that people who aren’t family can’t trust me. I just mean… That’s an even bigger deal. You being family makes this personal.”
“Family,” Marnie repeated with a derisive snort. “Kate and that horrid mother of hers are family too, you know.”
That was true. “I just want to do the right thing.”
“Even if it means betraying family?”
Rowen leaned in a little closer, resting her arms on her knees. “What constitutes betrayal? If someone in my family did something wrong, I wouldn’t lie to protect them. My cousin is married to the Chief of Police. I’m not sure I could keep that kind of thing a secret, even if I wanted to… which I don’t, just in case you were wondering. Doing the wrong thing is doing the wrong thing no matter which way you look at it.”
Marnie nodded, though it was difficult to tell what she was thinking. It was difficult to get a read on her even when Rowen tried. “I’m an old lady now anyway,” Marnie said with a heavy sigh. “I suppose there isn’t any harm. If I don’t tell you, I don’t know who I’ll tell. Maybe no one at this point.” Marnie nodded to Eric. “Go ahead and put that up.”
Eric did as he was asked, putting all the plastic chess pieces back into their box. “You’re good,” he told Marnie.
“I know,” Marnie said without a smile or hint of modesty. “Lilah was better, if you can believe it. She kept me on my toes, taught me a lot of tricks too. I credit her for keeping my mind sharp all these years, even if she did go and die much sooner than she should have.”
“You were friends before she married your brother, right?” Rowen had guessed at that much.
Marnie nodded. “We’d been friends in school. My older brother used to pick on the both of us right on up until all Lilah’s curves filled out. You know how those things go.” Marnie rolled her eyes. “He didn’t appreciate her like he should have, if you ask me. She was smart, like I’ve been saying. She was much too smart for him. Not that she seemed to mind. She did love him. As much as I complain about the man, my brother wasn’t a bad person. He wasn’t what I’d call a good person, mind, but he was better than most and loved Lilah back well enough.”
Rowen could sense love behind the grudge Marnie held. Maybe she was mad at the both of them for dying. Rowen made a mental note to visit Marnie if she would allow it. It must get lonely in this place. For now, she remained silent, leaning forward and waiting for Marnie to continue. The woman had paused again, eying Eric as he finished putting the chess board away.
“She loved Shane more than anything,” Marnie finally continued. “He takes after that mama of his. They’re hopeless—were hopeless. I guess Shane is the only hopeless one now.”
“How do you mean?” asked Eric. For all his reluctance in coming there, he was getting curious himself.
“Too nice for their own good. Too quick to trust people,” Marnie clarified. “That’s how he got saddled with that wife of his, I expect. Last I saw, he lets those kids walk all over him. Even Lilah didn’t know what to make of her grandkids.”
“Kate and Ty?” Rowen thought back to her respective run-ins with the both of them. “They seemed normal enough to me.”
“You’re blind then. They’re little monsters, the both of them.”
“Why do you say that?” Sure, the kids had been rude and aloof, but they were teens. Rowen expected that sort of behavior from teens. It didn’t excuse the behavior, but Rowen was willing to forgive them for it as long as they grew out of it by the time they hit adulthood.
“Lilah died in the hospital. They ruled it malpractice.”
“I heard about that. What happened exactly?”
“She had been in and out of the hospital for quite some time. The final time she went in was the roughest. She was hooked up to all sorts of machines last I saw her.” Again, Marnie paused. This time it was because her sadness was coming on strong. “The way I heard it, something important must have come unplugged. She died before they could set things right.”
“I’m sorry,” said Rowen reflexively. She realized what Marnie must be getting at a moment later. “And you think someone did that on purpose, one of the kids?”
“All I know is that Kate got all her jewelry after. There were some nice pieces in there. She got it all.”
This was becoming difficult to swallow. Perhaps Marnie was simply resentful or even jealous that Kate had received Lilah’s most prized possessions instead of her. Rowen wouldn’t say that out loud, but it must have shown on her face. Marnie was scowling at her.
“It wasn’t long after that that my brother passed. Kate was sixteen then. She got the car.”
“Are you… Are you suggesting that Kate murdered your brother and his wife?” Rowen tried to keep the disbelief from her voice. It sounded like a leap, to say the least. Marnie was a lonely old lady, the last of her siblings left alone in a nursing home. She had plenty of free time to dream up wild theories like these.
“You don’t believe me.” Marnie didn’t sound the least bit surprised. She stated Rowen’s disbelief like the fact that it was. “A witch from a self-proclaimed family of witches, and you don’t believe me.”
“It’s not that,” Rowen said quickly, even though it very much was. “I just… I mean, do you have any evidence?”
“Someone unplugged the machines keeping Lilah alive.”
“It was ruled as malpractice,” Rowen reminded her. She immediately regretted it. Marnie had clearly loved Layla. It was doubtful she needed reminding.
Eric came to his wife’s rescue, drawing Marnie’s attention to himself. “Maybe a nurse tripped over the cord or-”
“My brother supposedly mixed up his pills,” Marnie continued, interrupting Eric. “That’s what got him killed. He mixed medicines.”
“I’m sorry,” Rowen said, lamely. “That… Do you really think that was one of the kids, though? I mean, that sort of thing happens. It’s sad, but-”
“My brother kept a pill organizer. Heck, he kept everything organized. He was just like Bertha. They were both anal as can be. He w
ent downhill after Lilah died, sure… Not that far downhill, though. Not that fast. Not that suddenly.”
“And you think it was one of the kids that messed with the medicine? You don’t think it was Shane or Lacie?”
Marnie considered that question. “Couldn’t have been Shane,” she said, almost immediately. “Lacie wouldn’t be that sloppy. First Lilah, then my brother, and now my sister? No, it’s too obvious. It’s a wonder that brother-in-law of yours hasn’t caught on yet.”
“Is that why you moved in here?” asked Eric. “Because you were afraid?”
Marnie’s gaze dropped to the floor. She was ashamed all of a sudden. The anger was still there, making her shoulders tense and her clasped hands tighten around one another. “I don’t let them visit… just in case.”
That explained why Marnie was in such a hands-on facility. Rowen felt a surge of pity for the woman. Still, her explanation for everything was difficult to completely buy into. “And what reason did Kate have for murdering Bertha?”
“A house,” Marnie said simply. She looked up, meeting Rowen’s eyes with her own. She held her gaze. It was intense, willing Rowen to believe her. “She turned eighteen not all that long ago. She wanted a car as soon as she turned sixteen. Her family couldn’t afford it and look what happened then. Now she wants what most impatient girls her age want. Now she wants to move out.”
Chapter Thirteen
“What do you think?” Rowen asked, once she and her husband were both back in the car. She was already pulling out, driving away from the nursing home without really knowing where it was she was headed. All she knew was that she wanted to put some distance between herself and that place. It was stirring up some feelings inside of her that she couldn’t name and wasn’t overly fond of.
“About what?”
“About what?” Rowen repeated, throwing her husband an incredulous side-long look. “What do you think about what Marnie told us?”
“That Kate is the one killing off her relatives?” Eric shook his head. “Kind of hard to believe isn’t it.”