by G M Barlean
I searched his eyes and held my breath, attempting to look calm. This was the moment of truth.
“I look fresh? Really?” Doug stared at me with a solemn face. “Odd. I was up all night.”
I exhaled. Shit. Well. What had I really expected? “Oh? Why?” Still playing nonchalant—hoping I could pull it off. But I knew I was circling the drain.
Doug looked deep into my eyes. “Actually, I’d be more interested to hear what you were doing last night. I know it wasn’t sleeping.” He leaned back in his chair.
My stomach clenched and I was thankful I hadn’t eaten breakfast. It would be all over his desk right now if I had. I stared at him and didn’t say a word. I couldn’t quite decide which direction to go. I hadn’t rehearsed how I’d start my confession.
He waited for what seemed an eternity but was maybe only twenty seconds. Then he leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. “So, tell me where you gals went after you whacked Naomi on the head with the trophy?”
There was that lump in my throat again.
“I saw the whole thing, you know. I was in the kitchen. You remember the noise before the cat walked out? That was me.” He cleared his throat. “I watched and did nothing to stop it. So I’m an accomplice.”
“Or a coward.” I couldn’t help myself. It slipped out.
“Yes. A coward, to be sure. You always have called it like you see it, Debbie.” He stared at his hands as he twirled the wedding ring on his finger.
“I’ll be the first suspect now, as a matter of fact,” he said. “But of course, we can control what people know, can’t we?” He looked up at me with a hopeful look in his eyes.
The lump in my throat doubled in size.
“Was it you who came back and cleaned up the house, Debbie? You did a great job. Not a speck of blood anywhere. I even did a little polishing. Never hurts to be too careful. And, you’ll be relieved to know I checked with the neighbors first thing this morning. Mrs. Morton has horrible vision. Can’t see past her front porch, even with her pop-bottle glasses. The Hunters happen to be visiting their family in Michigan; Mrs. Morton told me as much.” He smiled. “Oh, and she also asked me how I slept last night. Said she slept like a baby. I told her I did too.”
I let him do all the talking.
“Anyway. All you really need to know is I’ve taken care of everything. You and the others won’t have to worry about Naomi anymore.” Doug smiled and laced his fingers across his chest as he leaned back.
I couldn’t believe any of this—yet. Was this a trick? I was afraid to speak. I didn’t want to implicate myself.
“I won’t say anything this weekend, at least not publicly. I’ll tell Junior his mother left me. I’ll give him a few thousand dollars. He’ll beat it back to Colorado where his friends are. He’s been bugging me for money since he’s been back. It’s why he’s here in the first place. Out of funds.”
“What about the bank? Aren’t they going to miss her today?” I asked.
“They already called looking for her.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them she wouldn’t be in today.”
“What reason did you give them?”
“Didn’t give them a reason.”
“And they didn’t press you for it?”
“Debbie. I’m the judge. They kiss my ass like it’s made of sugar.” The corners of his mouth curled up in a devilish smile. “I plan to go in on Monday and talk to the president of the bank. I’ll tell him she left me for another man. I’ll act devastated. Tell them to keep it quiet. Then I’ll talk to my staff here. No one will be surprised. Most everyone will be relieved she’s gone, whether or not they’re willing to admit it.”
I inhaled. Could this really be so easy? What had he done with her? “What about Naomi?” I asked—cautious, wary, not sure I wanted to know.
“What about her?” he asked as he stared a hole through me. “You want to know if she can hurt you anymore?” His eyes softened.
I nodded. Still afraid to say too much.
“Naomi Waterman Talbot won’t be hurting anyone anymore.” He stood up and walked over to me. He reached to my hand and pulled me up from my chair, then enveloped me in an all-consuming hug.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I leaned in and hoped his hug wouldn’t end with his fingers closing around my throat.
He finally let me go and I slowly turned to leave, but at the door, I paused to ask one more question. “Why, Doug?”
He stared at his ring finger again, and I could see the muscles working in his jaw. “Because of Mari. I could tolerate about anything from Naomi, but when I heard her confess what she did to Mari…” His eyes filled with tears and he kept staring at his hands. There really wasn’t anything more to say.
I left with so many unanswered questions. What had he done with her? I wanted to know. Needed to know.
Or did I?
Maybe the less I knew the better. It didn’t change the fact we all had killing Naomi Talbot on our conscience.
Chapter 34
Debbie Tells Her Friends—1974
I went home after my visit with Doug, unsure of what to do with this new information. I couldn’t deal with it alone, so I called in the troops. They were all at my house in ten minutes flat.
“What’s going on?” Tanya blurted out as she busted into my living room.
Josie was right behind her, questions all over her face. Betty sidled in with a frown, suspecting the worst.
“Doug got rid of Naomi.” No reason to beat around the bush. I said it outright.
They stared at me like I’d spoken gibberish.
“Like… got rid of the body?” Betty finally found some words.
“I have no clue. I know he said he took care of her and she wouldn’t bother us anymore. Said we should all keep our mouths shut and not worry about anything.” I could see their confusion turning into relief.
They respectively sank into chairs and I waited for more questions. They didn’t come. I saw tears in Tanya’s eyes and a blank stare on Josie’s face. I went ahead and filled them in. “I went to Doug’s office. I was going to confess.”
“Debbie!” Betty stood up. “Why would you do that?”
“I had to know what happened. I can’t walk around waiting for Naomi to sneak up on me or Doug to confront me. I can’t live like that. And I have the least to lose.”
Betty shook her head but stared at me, waiting for more explanation.
“Anyway. He told me he was there when we, you know.”
“Killed her?” Now Josie was the one standing, a horrified look on her face since she was the one who had wielded the trophy.
I nodded. Josie dropped back down in the chair and covered her face with her hands.
“So he’ll be holding it over our heads for the rest of our lives?” Tanya threw up her hands.
“No, no. I don’t think so. His hands are as filthy as ours. He was there when we, you know, and he didn’t even try to stop us. It makes him like an accomplice or something, right? And he got rid of her. We don’t even know where he put her. So even if he decides to tell the authorities where she is and point the finger at us, he still has to take half the blame.”
They all nodded as understanding slowly arrived.
“So what will he tell people?” Josie asked.
“That she left him. Not much of a stretch. Everyone knew she was cheating on him.”
“This is true.” Betty nodded.
“So that’s the story he said he’d tell. Girls”—I paused and took a deep breath—“I think we’re in the clear!”
We joined in the center of the room and hugged but didn’t have a clue what was about to hit us next.
Chapter 35
“But the stories in the paper. Someone pointed the finger at you. If it wasn’t Doug, then who accused you of murder?” Gloria asked the women.
“That good-for-nothing Darby Pederson. Thinking with his pecker,” Tanya said.
> Debbie leaned forward with a bitter look in her eyes. “It took Darby only three days before he knew something was wrong. Apparently, he and Naomi had a standing date and she missed it. He kept going to the bank to check on her. She was never there. He asked where she was and the folks at the bank were all hush-hush, as Doug had told them she’d left him and he didn’t want people to know.”
“And Darby didn’t believe the story?” Gloria asked.
“No, ma’am. He did not. He ended up storming into the judge’s office to confront Doug.” Debbie crossed her arms.
“Doug told you that?” Gloria kept the idea of Debbie and Doug in the back of her mind. Seemed like they were talking to each other a lot. The fact that she was looking for her birth mother among these women never strayed far from her mind.
“Doug and I were close, you know. He didn’t have anyone else to talk to about this mess.” Debbie shrugged. “Anyway, Darby started pointing fingers at the judge, accusing him of foul play. He said he knew damn well Naomi wouldn’t have left.”
“So, essentially, he admitted to Doug he was the other man.” Gloria tapped her pencil on the table.
“I don’t think he said the words, but everyone knew anyway, including Doug. But the Judge called his bluff. Told him to get the hell out of his office or he’d turn the tables and point the finger at him. And Doug, being a judge, had a hell of a lot better reputation than old Darby Pederson.”
“And it worked?” Gloria asked.
“Well, old Darby put his pea brain to thinking about it. He had it so bad for Naomi, he couldn’t stand the idea of her being gone forever. He knew something bad had to have happened. So he told the police chief to talk to Doug Junior, hoping maybe he had some inside information. It turned out drinking in the bar is what landed us in trouble in the end. Junior told the chief he had overheard his mother’s name a few times in our conversation throughout the day. Of course, it led the chief to question us.”
“But without a body? And Darby, he really couldn’t have been the one to press charges, could he?” Gloria asked.
“It wasn’t really anything formal. The chief was following up on Darby’s gossip,” Debbie answered. “Then of course Darby started bending the ear of the newspaper editor. He also blabbed about it at the coffee shop and to anyone else who would listen. Between Darby’s finger-pointing and Junior’s comments, it was enough for the chief to bring us in for questioning.”
“And it was terrifying.” Tanya shuddered at the memory.
“It was, but we held steady. We all kept our mouths shut, like the judge told us to do,” Betty said triumphantly.
“Right. And in the middle of the questions, the judge burst into the room and saved us. He told the chief Naomi had left him like the cheating whore she was, and no one had any business dragging us poor girls through the mud like they were doing.” Debbie grinned.
“Wow. And it put an end to things?” Gloria asked.
“You bet your ass it did.” Debbie banged her fist on the table.
Betty chimed in. “Didn’t end up changing much, though. We were still caught in a whirlwind of gossip. But, at least the police stopped badgering us, and we kept doing exactly what Doug had told us to do. We kept our mouths shut. Never said a word. And thank God, no one ever came forward.”
Debbie nodded in agreement. “The chief questioned Judge Talbot because Darby insisted. But being the judge made all the difference. The whole thing was dropped like it was a hot rock. Doug maintained that he didn’t care where she was and he accepted she had left him. Case closed. But of course, it didn’t stop the rumors from flying or the story from living on for years. The folks in town enjoyed thinking we were Naomi’s killers. People do love a good rumor, you know.”
“So, what did Darby do once the police weren’t willing to assist anymore?” Gloria asked.
“Oh, he fussed around, claiming he’d hire a private investigator, but nothing ever came of it,” Betty said. “In the end, he went off and licked his wounds. Took to drinking a lot. His wife finally left him. His kids wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Sad.” Betty shrugged.
“But it was too late for us. The weeks while Darby was stirring up gossip were grueling. Every time we left our houses, reporters snapped our pictures and hounded us with questions. Damn it. Right in the frozen-food aisle at the Jack & Jill Grocery, one reporter asked me if we killed Naomi Talbot. People all around stared at me. I thought I would faint.” Tanya pouted.
“Well, the articles pretty much ended after the one, Thorns of Rosewood Go Free,” Gloria said.
Debbie sneered. “Not the best picture of me. Yes. The reporters laid off after that. Once we couldn’t be turned into monsters, the paper had nothing left to sensationalize. ‘They lived happily ever after’ doesn’t sell newspapers.” She huffed.
Gloria felt a twinge of guilt. How many times had she highlighted a story and riled up the masses? How many times had she thought more about the sales than the people in the stories?
But one thing continued to weigh heavily on Gloria’s mind. She’d put it aside to focus on this story, but it was time to bring it out into the open.
Chapter 36
So far, she hadn’t heard any of the women talk about having a baby. Gloria had ruled out Mari and Naomi. The timeline of their deaths didn’t work with her birth in ’75. She had no choice, she had to broach the topic. She would have to start the conversation and see where it led.
“Well. What did you all do after things died down? Just go back to your lives?”
“We tried. Oh, we tried. It didn’t take long for Hank Meyer to suggest I look for a different job. I didn’t wait around to do it, either. I told him he’d better damn well give me a good reference or I’d make sure those snoopy reporters knew he’d been messing around with Naomi.” Betty wagged her finger.
“Where did you find work?”
“I found a job at a law firm in Lincoln. Moved there and worked for them for quite a few years. Ended up in Ohio in the mid-eighties. Followed a man there I thought I might marry. Didn’t marry him, but no matter. It led me to a job I loved and I worked there until I retired.” Betty smiled.
“So you never had children, then?” Gloria held her breath.
Debbie snapped to attention at the question.
Betty’s eyebrows rose. “Well, no, dear. I never did.” Betty exchanged glances with Debbie.
Gloria knew it had to be one of these women. Her mother had been a woman in her forties from Rosewood. A woman accused of murder.
“What about you, Josie?” Gloria moved on.
“Me? Well. Originally, I felt lost at sea. I tumbled on the waves, not knowing which way to swim. Then my aunt in Connecticut called. Wealthy elderly woman. She wanted me to come live with her and help her out. She wasn’t bedridden or an invalid, but she had poor hearing and vision and couldn’t drive. She had no children of her own. She knew I was struggling, so she looked to me for help and ended up giving me a whole new life.” A warm glow filled her eyes.
“So you cared for your aunt, but then what? She must have died long ago.”
“Oh yes. Long ago. But the interesting thing is she left me her entire estate. I had a big beautiful house and I made friends in the neighborhood. It didn’t take long at all before the neighbor down the street, a principal at a private school in the area, came to ask if I’d teach for them.” She winked.
“And she’s leaving out that she ended up becoming the school’s administrator before it was all said and done,” Tanya said proudly.
“Yes. I had a wonderful career and enjoyed my life there.”
“Did you ever marry? Have kids?” Gloria probed. She saw Debbie shake her head.
“No, dear. I never did. I had a very nice relationship with the principal who lived down my street, but we were only great friends. Nothing serious. My life was so full. And my school children were my kids. I had hundreds of them over the years.”
Gloria didn’t think Josie could lie eve
n if she wanted to. She was actually relieved. Such a lovely woman. She didn’t want to think a woman like Josie could have given her away.
“And you, Tanya?”
“Me? Oh, Rusty and I moved out to Colorado. Our oldest son lives out there and we decided it would be easiest to start over. Seemed the folks in town were never going to stop looking at us with suspicious eyes. We ended up starting our own little business.” She smiled at the memory.
“Business? Really? What kind?” Gloria asked.
“A little bar in this ski town up in the mountains. We loved it. Ran it for almost twenty years before I lost my Rusty.” She darkened but perked back up. “But they were such good years.” Her smile beamed and her eyes glistened with tears and joy.
The room grew silent for a while.
“So no more kids for you and Rusty?” Gloria had to ask, even though she had never even suspected Tanya.
“Oh, heavens no.” Tanya shook her head and waved her off.
Gloria heard Debbie sigh, and so she turned her attention to the last possible woman who might have given birth to her.
She was disappointed but not really surprised. Gloria had the same impatience and quick temper Debbie had. Plus, Debbie was hard and cold enough to give away a child. But Gloria had come to love Debbie. Now, though, the thought of the woman turning her back on her own child ate at her. Turning her back on her. It was too much. She almost hated to ask, but she had no choice.
“And Debbie? What did you do?” Gloria tried not to clip her words, but she could feel her back stiffen. It hurt to think this woman had given her away. How could she hide her feelings of abandonment?
Debbie’s glassy eyes stared into Gloria’s. She inhaled deeply and pursed her lips as though she was steeling herself. Then Debbie pushed herself away from the table with shaking hands.
“I’m not feeling well.” Her face paled. Grayed. She tried to lift herself from the chair but sat back down in failure, her arms shaking, fear suddenly in her eyes.