Into the Frying Pan

by Sarah Osborne

  “Ryan has always been devoted to her,” I said, “from the time he first laid eyes on her.”

  Lurleen shook her head slowly. “If this evening is any indication, I wouldn’t say the feeling was mutual. Phil and Harper seemed pretty intensely engaged with one another down by your pond.”

  “So Ryan wasn’t exaggerating about what he saw when he picked the fight with Phil,” I said.

  “I can’t say for sure,” Lurleen said. “Ryan stormed in before I got close enough for a good look.”

  “Your pond is a very romantic spot, tucked away enough to be out of view from the deck,” Mason said. “A good place for extracurricular activity.”

  “Poor Ryan,” I said. “I won’t be surprised if I hear they divorce soon. I think Ryan planned his life around Harper. He was interested in pediatrics until Harper decided on dermatology. Then he switched, and now they work in the same office. Maybe he thought that was the only way to keep an eye on her.”

  It was eleven before we finished putting my house back in order. Lurleen headed home with a container of soup and a bag of filled cookies.

  Mason left empty-handed. “I may never eat again,” he moaned.

  I decided I would leave the kids upstairs and sleep on the sofa. I’d just gotten myself settled when the doorbell rang. Hermione was apparently dead to the world, so I was on my own. I peeked through the curtains.

  It was Kathy Thompson. I opened the door and she practically fell into my arms.

  “What is it? Are you hurt?”

  She fainted without saying a word. I examined her. No obvious bleeding. Her pulse was strong. I looked her over more carefully. Her breathing was steady and slowly she came round.

  “My purse,” she said. “Someone left me the photo. I didn’t know where else to go.”

  I helped her to the sofa and had her lie down again. Then I opened her purse. Inside was a picture of Carl after the blast.

  Who would do such a thing?

  Chapter Eleven

  The picture was ghastly, taken from less than six feet away. I examined it closely. It was printed on good quality photo paper, the shot probably taken on an iPhone.

  When I looked over at Kathy, she had her head turned away and her hand over her eyes.

  “Why would anyone send this to me? He’s dead. Why isn’t that enough?”

  Why indeed? What kind of person would kill a man and then send the photo to his wife? It was unimaginable, unless perhaps, it was the wife the person wanted to torture.

  “We have to take this photo to the Gordon County investigator,” I said.

  Kathy nodded. “I don’t want to ever see it again.”

  “Mason will know how to get it to him.”

  Kathy sat up slowly. “I don’t understand who would do this?”

  “Do you know anyone who might want to make you suffer like this?”

  Kathy shook her head. “I told you about the threats.”

  “Were they ever written down in a letter or an email?”

  “No.”

  She brushed her hair back from her face. “You may as well know the whole story. Carl and I were barely speaking to each other. We talked about divorce after I told him I wasn’t sure I could go through another pregnancy. I’d had three miscarriages, and I thought maybe I wasn’t meant to have children. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted them with Carl.”

  My head was spinning.

  “Do you mind if we start at the beginning? But first, can I fix you a cup of tea, get you something to eat?”

  Kathy surprised me. “I would like something to eat, if it’s easy enough for you to do that.”

  “Very easy.”

  I took her to the kitchen and she sat on a stool at the marble island while I made tea, heated up some soup and brought out biscuits that were left over.

  She ate as if she were starving.

  “How long had you and Carl been having trouble?” I asked.

  “Ever since I had my last miscarriage a year ago,” she said. “I don’t know if the miscarriage caused it, but suddenly everything I did was wrong. He accused me of not wanting the baby.”

  “Did you want the baby?” I asked.

  She started to cry. “No,” she said, “I’m not sure I did.” She looked at me. “You must think I’m a terrible person, not wanting a child, especially when you have two you’ve taken in.”

  “I don’t think that. Even last year I thought it might be that I’d never have children, and I decided I could live with that. I do feel incredibly fortunate to have Lucie and Jason, but I can understand women who feel differently.”

  She looked relieved.

  “Why didn’t you want a child?” I asked.

  “It’s more accurate to say I didn’t want Carl’s child. He wasn’t the man I thought he was. When we met, he seemed different from anyone I’d ever known. He came down from New York with Sally Cutter to visit Andy. They were both looking for work—Carl in Andy’s practice and Sally on the business end of things. Andy introduced us at a party. Everything happened so fast. Carl literally swept me off my feet.”

  “How did he do that?” I tried to imagine Carl charming anyone.

  “Carl and I had a lot in common although you’d never know that from the outside. He came from a hard scrabble life in New Jersey and I had an affluent upbringing with an author-doctor for a father—Beau LeRoy.”

  “Beau LeRoy was your father?” I asked. “He came to talk to us in med school about his life as a country doc. He was a funny, charming man.”

  Kathy gave me a grim look. “That’s what everyone says who didn’t have to live with him. The man you saw at the front of the class was a fraud. I’m sorry to say it, but he was.”

  “What do you mean? He wasn’t a doctor?”

  “He was a doctor all right, but his best-selling books had nothing to do with his real life. He borrowed that history from Andy’s father. Andy’s dad was the real country doc, and Andy is following in his father’s footsteps.” She smiled at me. “They lived down the street from us. Andy and I were best friends growing up. He’d do anything for me. In fact, I think that’s why he gave Carl and Sally a job in his practice. He didn’t really need the help, but when he heard Carl and I were getting married—I think he did it as a wedding present for me.”

  “Andy cared that much about you even after what your father did?”

  “The funny thing is neither Andy nor his father cared about the fact my dad used their lives in some best-selling books. They were happy to stay under the radar, and no one seemed to guess it wasn’t my father’s life.”

  I offered Kathy more soup. She nodded and took another biscuit as well. “It’s delicious. Real Southern delicious. Most people could never make a biscuit as light as this. You’re not Southern are you?”

  “Nope. I grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa, but we did know how to eat well.”

  Kathy grinned and it changed the whole complexion of her face. It lost its drawn quality, but only for a moment.

  “I was telling you about Carl—how he and I had a lot in common. You see while my father was out promoting his books, I was left at home to care for four younger siblings. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Perhaps I just need to get it said.”

  I nodded and Kathy kept talking.

  “My mother was an alcoholic, a bad one. She did nothing around the house. We couldn’t get help because Dad was afraid it would ruin his reputation. So I got good at keeping secrets. I didn’t even tell Andy much of what was going on, but I think he knew.”

  She took another spoonful of soup.

  “Carl was the first person I could be honest with. He told me about his life with an alcoholic father and listened when I told him what I’d been through. For once, I didn’t have to sugar-coat anything, and Carl listened. You have no idea what a relief th
at was!”

  “I have some idea,” I said. I thought about how I could say anything to Mason and he would never judge me. Phil always wanted to tell me how to fix my problems, and it always involved changing myself in some way.

  “Things happened too quickly. I got pregnant after I’d been with Carl for a few months. My dad insisted on an immediate wedding, and Carl agreed. Carl was happy about the whole thing. I thought it was because he really loved me, but now I wonder if I was his ticket to respectability.”

  “Carl always said how much he hated the South,” I said. “I don’t understand why he came here.”

  “I’m pretty sure he was running away from something or someone. When the threats came I got the feeling it was about something in his past, something he’d done years ago.”

  “Were you happy together?” I asked.

  Kathy paused. “At first. Until I lost the baby and started to see the other side of Carl—the driven side. Carl was insistent I get pregnant again right away.”

  “Why did you stay with him?”

  “I thought he could change. If I loved him enough I thought I could help him heal. We were both troubled people, but I thought if we worked hard—or if I worked hard enough for both of us—I could make Carl into a good and loving man.”

  Kathy started to cry.

  “I didn’t know he was troubled beyond repair until I saw what he did to Andy.”

  “He stole money from him?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “My friend Lurleen has a way of getting people to talk.”

  “You two make quite a pair,” Kathy said. “Carl denied he stole the money, but I promised Andy I would pay back every cent. I couldn’t fix the other thing Carl did. I think he broke up Andy’s marriage. Jenna worked in the front office. Andy never told me what happened, but he and Jenna divorced three months after Carl left the practice.

  “You think Carl was having an affair with Jenna?”

  “Yes. I know how sordid that sounds.”

  “You didn’t leave him then, why?”

  “I’ve asked myself that a hundred times. I think I was still the good Southern girl who could keep secrets and do what was expected. Divorce in my family was unacceptable. Maybe I believed Carl when he said he really would change.”

  I poured Kathy more tea and myself a glass of wine. “Would you like something stronger?”

  “I would, but I can’t. I’m pregnant again.”

  “Did Carl know this?”

  “He did, and he seemed excited. I thought maybe things could finally get better between us.”

  “How do you feel about this pregnancy?”

  “I want to keep this baby.” Her look didn’t match her words. Maybe she feared this pregnancy would end in a miscarriage like the others, or maybe she didn’t want to be carrying the baby of a dead husband.

  She stood up. “It’s very late. I’m sorry. I didn’t know where else to go. I’m sure you have work tomorrow. I’ll leave.”

  “Do you have family staying with you?”

  “No,” she said.

  “Then why don’t you stay here for the night. I’ll change the sheets, and we can both get to bed.”

  “You don’t even know me,” Kathy said, “why would you do that?”

  “One, because it’s no trouble, and two, because sometimes you just need people around. I promise you the kids and my friend Lurleen will keep you busy. You can leave anytime you want tomorrow. I’ll be going to work at nine.”

  I made up the bed in Lucie’s room for Kathy, and settled myself once more on the sofa in the living room. It was lights out around midnight.

  I had more questions than answers. The main one centered on who would have been cruel enough, or vindictive enough, to send the photo to Kathy. Despite my troubled mind, I was asleep in half an hour and woke up to the sound of two children shushing each other, so they wouldn’t wake me. I looked at the clock. Almost seven.

  “You beat my alarm by eight minutes. I’m awake and need to get going.”

  I told the kids about our house guest and asked them to be quiet and not wake her. That meant we had to find clean clothes for Lucie in the dryer.

  Lurleen came at eight. The four of us sat in the breakfast room eating cereal and fruit and revisiting the best parts of the party.

  Jason went first. “I played my bugle for everybody!”

  Lucie was thoughtful. “Lurleen took me around with her and everyone said they liked my dress. And Uncle Mason played with us the whole time.”

  Before we had a chance to talk more, Kathy came out of Lucie’s bedroom. She looked better, more rested. I introduced her to Lurleen and left them to it while I got ready for work. When I returned I heard Lurleen speaking about her brief stint as a math teacher, and Lucie was enthralled to learn Kathy taught fourth grade, the grade she’d be entering in the fall. Lucie offered to make Kathy some toast—little did she know that was probably the perfect choice to settle Kathy’s stomach.

  “Stay as long as you like,” I said to Kathy. “I have fresh towels in my bathroom upstairs.”

  I could hear Lurleen as I left, urging Kathy to spend the day with them. I knew if she did there’d be no talk of death.

  I called Mason on the way to work and told him about the photograph. He said he’d meet me at work to pick it up. He’d get it dusted for fingerprints although we both knew that was unlikely to turn up anything useful.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mason arrived at the clinic just as I did. We exchanged a kiss in the parking lot, and I told him how much I appreciated the time he spent with the kids during the party.

  He looked at me with a strange expression on his face. “I love those kids. You know that. They were a lot more entertaining than conversations about the Battle of Tunnel Hill or where people got their authentic South Carolina belt buckles. Have you told the kids they’re not going on Saturday?”

  “I didn’t have a chance, but I will tonight.”

  “I’m thinking Mom would love to get involved with a reenactment on Saturday in her backyard. Maybe your brother could come.”

  I sighed. “I can see your mom being a good sport about all of this, but it’s a little hard for me to imagine Tommy taking part in the activities.”

  “I thought you two were much closer these days.”

  “We are, but he still likes his privacy. He loves the kids, so I’ll ask. Just don’t count on him.”

  I wondered if I was being too hard on Tommy. He really had changed. His boyfriend Josh had a lot to do with the new, happier Tommy. That and the fact he felt he no longer had to hide his relationships from me.

  Work consumed me for three and a half hours. When I looked at my watch it was twelve thirty and time for a lunch break.

  I called Tommy and explained the situation to him.

  “I heard about the accident in Resaca—I hadn’t heard they were officially calling it murder.”

  “I’m not sure it’s official, but that may be what it was.”

  “And I bet you’re in the middle of it if that old boyfriend of yours is involved. He dragged you into it, didn’t he?”

  I didn’t get a chance to respond.

  “Not that he’d have to work hard to do that. You still have your rescue complex. If you need a good therapist, I know one.”

  “Thanks.” I decided not to pick a fight. “You can see why we can’t take the kids on Saturday—in case something else happens.”

  “Got it. Amazingly, I think I’m free to help out, and I haven’t seen the kids in a month. Are you going to tell me to rent a uniform?”

  I had to laugh. The idea of Tommy in a Confederate uniform was more than I could imagine. Getting him out of Armani was work enough. “With your blond hair and blue eyes, you would look very handsome in gray.”

  “I ha
ve a better idea. We’ll actually teach the kids something. We’ll see the Civil War exhibit at the Atlanta History Center. You think Jason is too young for that?”

  “He might be, but I love the idea.”

  “There’s a room devoted to Civil War guns—he’ll think that’s cool for at least five minutes,” Tommy said.

  I got off the phone amazed at Tommy’s transformation and perhaps mine as well. I never expected much from Tommy, so that I’d never be disappointed. I needed to begin to see him for the man he was now. I hadn’t known how miserable he’d been as a child or why Mother sent him away to boarding school. When he didn’t write I assumed he cared nothing for me. I didn’t realize Mother intercepted our letters, so we wouldn’t communicate—all because she couldn’t accept the fact that Tommy might be gay.

  Lurleen called as I finished my sandwich. She never called me at work unless it was an emergency.

  “No, no,” she assured me. “The kids are fine. It’s Kathy. She’s fine too or as fine as she can be. The service for Carl is tomorrow, and she hopes you can come. It starts at one, and I can watch the kids.”

  “I’m off then, so that’ll work. Thanks.”

  “Kathy thought you might have a few more questions for her since you agreed to help find Carl’s murderer.”

  “Whoa,” I said. “I never made any agreement like that. My first priority is the kids. I can’t get involved in anything that might put them at risk.”

  “Chérie, you and I both know you are like l’eau bouillante when it comes to a mystery.”

  “Boiling water?”

  “Bien sûr. You can’t let it go. It just bubbles inside you until you find all the answers. Kathy isn’t asking you to go on the battlefield. Danny and I will handle that part. She just wants you to use your head, figure some things out. She went on and on about how smart you are.”

  “Enough, Lurleen. Kathy barely knows me. I can hear when I’m being manipulated.”

  “She wondered if you might come by her house on your way home from work. I’ll stay with the kids until you get home. No problem.”