by Liz Eagle
“How about some dinner?” Cynthia asked her husband, trying to be polite. “Can I fix you something?” There were a few things in the refrigerator she could make. Since Cynthia never knew when to expect him, she had not planned on anything elaborate.
“I think I will just have some of the leftover roast that we had the other night,” her husband said, still confused about the strange visitor he saw at the hospital. “That will be fine with me. I can fix it myself, you don’t need to bother. I have a few things to sort out in my head. There is a lot going on in the hospital, and I will just take my dinner into the library and do some work.” Dr. Lewis wanted to get a handle on the questions he had been asked by that family member, what was his name? The stranger wanted information on the final report on the two girls murdered at the park. He wanted to immediately go to the records department at the hospital and take a look at them before anyone else did, but he refrained from doing that. Dr. Lewis did not want to jump the gun. Knowing he had kept a copy of the file in his safe in his home library, he wanted to take a look at it and reassure himself. He doubted that he had copies of the black-and-white pictures that the stranger had. Did he say what his name was? He could not recall.
“Well, that is fine with me,” Cynthia said. “I am not really hungry, so I will reheat the roast for you and bring it to you in the library.” She was really trying to be nice, realizing that her husband was a little out of sorts, though she doubted it was related to hospital business. She figured it was probably only personal problems, likely because he could not find someone who would have sex with him. But she decided to make his life easier, at least for tonight. Maybe he would come to bed with her if she did. They had not had sex in several months, but she was craving it tonight. If she had to get it from her estranged husband, that would have to do.
Cynthia reheated the roast in the oven along with some potatoes. While the oven heated, she opened a bottle of beer and drank it almost in one gulp. She started to feel better.
Dr. Lewis went into the library and opened the safe. The combination was their wedding date. He made a mental note to change it as he did not want to keep conjuring up that bad memory over and over again. He recalled the day of their wedding. Cynthia wanted an outdoor wedding, so it was scheduled to be at his parent’s cottage on Silver Lake. He thought about how thin and pretty she was back then and wondered what happened to her. She must have put on fifty pounds. The death of their son had taken its toll on her, but she did not even care to keep herself up for him at all. He was so glad that his current nurse girlfriend did, as did every other woman he slept with. It was exciting to have sex with them. The nurse had such a small frame it was easy for him to lift her up and put her down on his lap, over and over.
“Here you are, dear,” Cynthia said. She could tell he was deep in thought as he stared down at some hospital records. Placing the tray of food on his desk, she noticed that the safe door was open.
He looked up, saying, “Thank you very much. Did you fix yourself something? You really should eat if you are going to drink, you know.” He could smell beer on her breath already.
“I know,” Cynthia said. “I will after a while. I see you got something out of the safe. What are you working on?” She never looked in the safe though she knew the combination. Every time she had in the past, there was nothing in there but piles of boring medical files.
“I had a visitor today at the hospital,” her husband replied. “He said he was a relative of one of the girls who was found murdered at the park, you remember that case? It took me off guard, and I was clearly surprised. I had made copies of the reports and put them in the safe. I just wanted to see who was listed as the next of kin. I can’t remember if they had any. This stranger looked a little suspicious to me,” he said. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something seemed odd about him.”
“Are you talking about the girls who were found up by the cannon during the fair last year?” Cynthia asked. She also wondered who would be delving into the case. They already had a perpetrator or a suspect, and Milton Chandler had defended the guilty sap when the case went to trial. She had attended the trial and watched the whole thing as the defendant was found guilty. It had been the talk of the town for months. Attorney Milton Chandler did his usual good job, not that there was much to work with, she thought. The district attorney got a conviction, and it seemed like an open and shut case. Thinking about Milton made her want to have sex with Phillip again soon. He was so good in bed. She hoped her husband would be up for it tonight. She would settle for some halfway-satisfying sex with him, if she had to.
“Yes, and I can’t see that they had any next of kin listed in any of these reports,” her husband said. “I need some time to read these in private. Do you mind?” He glared at her. It was impossible for him to be kind to her at this moment, with all of this on his mind. He stood up and poured himself some whiskey from the bar in the library.
“Certainly, dear,” Cynthia replied, “I will clean up the kitchen. Let me know if you need anything else.” There would be no sex tonight. She wondered if she could call Phillip but dismissed the idea because it was so late. Besides, he was probably back at law school by now. She went into the kitchen, cleaned up the dishes, wiped off the counter and carried the last four beers to bed with her, planning to drink herself into a sound sleep. That would keep her mind off of sex for the night.
Chapter 30
1945 Warsaw, New York
Gus walked back to the inn and went straight to his room. Too much time had passed, and he needed to figure out just what had happened with this case. He reviewed the court records again and looked at the photos. Discouraged that he was getting nowhere, Gus knew he needed to either get to the bottom of what happened or just leave it and this town behind him. He hoped that soon he would have both a thorough report on the copper sulfate from headquarters, and the results of Jackie’s testing.
He walked downstairs to take another look around. It seemed there was no one around, but then he heard faint talking. He couldn’t quite determine if it was coming from the kitchen, or just outside the back door. He assumed it was Max and Gynnie. This was an opportune time to look in the cabinet where Max stored the wine. He walked slowly across the hall to the front room, making his way over to the cabinet. He kept an eye on the hall leading to the kitchen with the large mirror on the wall. Max had apparently restocked the cabinet with jars of wine. Just as Harvey had said, they were all different colors and most had no labels. It appeared that Harvey was telling the truth about something. He held the jars up to the light and did not notice anything strange about the contents. This was probably a dead end.
Gus heard the voices coming from the back of the house growing louder. He moved closer down the hall and listened to two men talking. “You want how much?” one voice said. “Come on, that is too much for us, and you know that, old man. Just keep the price the same or we will spread the word around town about how much you took us for, and I guarantee you will lose business.” Gus did not recognize that voice. He heard Max reply, “Hey, you are going to pay the amount we charge, or you get no wine. That’s it. The wine business has been slow since the murders, and the inn is not bringing in enough to make up for it. It takes a lot of time and material to make this wine. You are getting a great deal. Now hand over the money and get off my property.”
The stranger said, “Hey, I know that you use whatever shit grows in your garden, so don’t give me that sob story. I will pay what you ask, but this is highway robbery. The price better go back down next time, or else I will go up to Gainesville to buy from your cousin, and you know that I will.”
Max responded, “You just go ahead and do that. I don’t give a shit. Now get the hell off my property!” At that point, Gus heard the sound of a door being slammed shut.
It sounded as though there was about to be a fight. Gus thought this was an interesting turn of events because he distinctly remembe
red Max saying that they did not sell any of their wine. In fact, he remembered that Max had said something about giving it away or donating it to local churches. It now made sense how they were able to keep this inn going without many guests. He went up to his room to add this new information to his notes and made a mental note to include the day and time of the conversation. He went to his room and opened his briefcase. In his notes, he made sure to include the part about the wine business slowing down since the murders. He needed to confirm what he heard about the McDougals never selling the wine with Jacqueline. She had a knack for remembering little details like that.
The window in Gus’ room looked out over the back door and the barn. He watched as the stranger walked away with a jar of wine in a brown grocery bag. He wondered if Max was still in the kitchen. He wanted to get back down in the cellar to look around again. It appeared that he had caught the McDougals in a lie. It wasn’t much, but who knows what else they had lied about, or what he could get them to confess.
Chapter 31
1945 Warsaw, New York
Dr. Lewis took another sip of the I.W. Harper whiskey. It was straight bourbon, and even though he knew that he had passed the drunken stage several hours ago, he wanted to keep drinking. All the bourbon in the world could not help him stop thinking about what a mess he had made of his life. His son was dead, and his daughter was not home yet. He could not remember if she was old enough to stay out this late. How old was she anyway, thirteen or fourteen? He could not remember. He never saw her or even spoke to her anymore. He took four more drinks.
He stood up to get a closer look at a framed picture that appeared out of focus from the desk. When he stood up from his chair he got dizzy and sat right back down, almost falling off. He could not stop himself from rocking side to side, so he firmly put both hands on his desk to stop it. Trying to steady himself, he shook his head to help him focus. Too much to drink. The picture was taken of his family when they were at the lake last summer. It was probably the last time the four of them were together. That was so long ago and everything has changed. Dr. Lewis started to feel sad, felt tears roll down his face and drop on the hospital records. He had to pull himself together, he thought, sitting up straight and wiping his eyes.
Dr. Lewis was a brilliant surgeon and had the potential to make thousands of dollars in this town. He was still young and good-looking. Just because he had lost all interest in his wife was not his fault. He really wanted to have sex with his nurse tonight, but she had to be somewhere else. The alcoholic state made him suddenly angry about that and he called her a whore. Did he just say that out loud? Oops. He wondered if he did but could not remember. He looked toward the door leading into the foyer. No one was there. Should he call her? It was late, but he needed to talk to someone. Everything was falling apart, and he could feel it. He put his head back down on his desk.
Cynthia got out of bed, walked out of the master bedroom and padded down the hall to see if their daughter was in her bed yet. The six-pack of beer did not give her the deep sleep she had desired. Her daughter was still so young, and it worried her that she stayed out so late, sometimes all night long. At the top of the stairway she heard her husband say, “The whore, she doesn’t give a shit about me!”
She knew he had to be drunk again and she wondered how long he could keep this up without losing his license to practice medicine. Ever since the murders at the fair, he has been drinking and getting drunk more frequently. She wondered how he was able to get out of bed and go to work at the hospital when he was hungover. She started down one side of the double staircase toward the foyer. From there, she could listen to him in the library and he would never see her.
“I do someone a favor, and this is the shit I get,” Dr. Lewis mumbled in his drunkenness. It was hard to make out exactly what he was saying. “That damned Chandler,” he said slurring each word. “He thinks he is so great, so squeaky damn clean. But he is not. He’s a killer and such a rotten, stupid, wannabe lawyer. Ha!” His voice drifts off and is unintelligible. “He will get his. He has ruined me and my whole family. So what, she stole from me…she took all my money...I have to, have to, find a way….” His voice trailed off as he passed out on his desk.
Cynthia went down the rest of the stairs and peeked into the library, where her husband was out cold with his head on the desk. She walked quietly over to his desk and saw the hospital file sticking out from under his arms. She saw the title of the document and was still able to read it despite it being smudged from drops of water. “Cause of Death: Strangulation,” it said. The file was on the two girls who were murdered at the park, just as he had said. She wondered what, in that file, had gotten him so upset that he felt he had to drink so much.
Cynthia thought about what she heard. Chandler a killer? Which Chandler? And what was that all about? How had Chandler ruined their family? She wondered if her husband had found out about her affair with the young Chandler and if that was what he was talking about. She doubted someone would have told him, but this small town fostered rumors. Cynthia hated to see her husband like this, so vulnerable. That was not his way and she did not like it. She went back to bed and left him just as he was in the library. Even if they were each having affairs, they were still married, and she would do whatever it took to protect what was left of her family and their fortune. She crawled back into bed alone, pulled up the covers and resolved to worry about all that tomorrow. She had a feeling this was more than just drunken thoughts, there was a lot to worry about. Cynthia would do just about anything to keep her status in this town. She vowed that she would not give up her fancy home, luxury cars, and cottage at the lake. She tried to stay awake in bed thinking about all this and waiting until she heard her daughter come home, but sleep finally came and she did not hear anything.
Chapter 32
1945 Warsaw, New York
“I am so glad to see you, sweetheart,” Gus said to his daughter as she walked into the inn and sat down beside him on the settee. He folded the newspaper and put it on the floor. “How are you doing with the proposal and all?” her father asked. “Given anymore thought to it? And how is your stomach feeling?”
“I am feeling fine now, I think.” Jacqueline said. “And, yes, I think about it all the time. That’s all I think about, as a matter of fact.” She leaned against her father and laid her head on his shoulder. “Well, you know all the most important facts of the proposal and our relationship, brief as it might be,” Jacqueline said. “But, you know, there is something that has been bothering me.”
“What is it, sweetheart?” Gus asked. He hated seeing her this way.
She paused and took a deep breath. “I have been doing a lot of thinking, and I know my career is taking a long time to get off the ground,” Jacqueline said. “But Phillip is offering me a good life,” she continued, “and he has been a pure gentleman to me each time we are together.”
“Well, then what is the matter?” her father asked. “It sounds like you have made up your mind. I have my opinions, but I love you so much Jackie, and if you are actually in love with the guy, how could I stand in your way? But, if you want my opinion about the proposal or your career, I am happy to oblige,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulder. Gus was glad to have this opportunity to talk to Jacqueline about the matter. He thought it may even give him an opening to discuss his work assignment. He definitely wanted to ask her about the McDougals and her recollection of the conversation on selling their wine.
“I am as happy as I have ever been when it comes to Phillip,” Jacqueline said, “and, quite frankly, my career is…is in the toilet. There, I said it. I was afraid to admit it, but all the encounters with Vincent Price or other famous actors will not automatically make me an actress. I have not been called back to any auditions, and I am running out of options. At my age, the opportunities in this field are scarce unless I want to play an old maid on the big screen.” Jacqueline sighed, feeling good abo
ut getting those concerns off her chest.
“Oh, honey,” Gus said. “You are not that old. Even at twenty-four, you are as beautiful as ever. You take good care of yourself, and Phillip or any other man would be lucky to have you as his wife. If you want to stop trying to be an actress, that would be fine with me. I will help you any way I can. I am just worried that you and Phillip have not had enough time to get to know each other. We barely know his family, and it appears to be pretty extensive. Remember, we have only you and me in our family, so it is a very different situation. Do you love him?” Gus wholeheartedly believed that the Chandler family was extensive, but he did not necessarily mean in family members, but rather in secrets. He was trying so hard to hold back his deep concerns. He wanted her to be happy, but he knew it was quite possible that these people could be deadly.
“I think I do,” Jacqueline said. “We like being together, and I miss him terribly when we are apart. He is all I think about when he goes back to law school, and I get so excited to see him when he comes home.” She wondered if that was enough to be classified as love. Jacqueline went on to tell her father that the feelings she had for Phillip were very different from the way she felt for Frank Ripley. But she explained that since their divorce, she had changed and believed that the love she felt for Phillip was much more realistic that what she had felt for her first husband. Jacqueline sincerely believed this was real love.
Gus was not faring well with this situation. His investigation was stalling, he could not prove anything against anyone in the town and now his daughter was falling for one of his suspects. He tried to hide all this from her, and covered it well by saying, “Let’s just take this one step at a time. We know that there are some unscrupulous things going on with Phillip’s aunt and uncle as well as his parents. I believe we need to get his parents together and talk about some issues, like why they gave you that brandy, for one. We will use the pretense that we want to discuss wedding plans to pull this off. Now, I am not saying don’t marry the guy, just let’s slow down and see what we might be dealing with, that’s all.”