by Evelyn Guy
Christine felt she had to be honest with Eileen about what she was going to do. Just in case Eileen was correct in assuming she was in danger from Richard, she had to let her know what she planned.
“Eileen, I have to tell you this. I am going to tell Richard I have talked to you. I have to clear things with him. I have to get his side of things. You do understand that, don’t you?”
“I was afraid of that when I came to you. You don’t understand. Richard can be very dangerous. He can be devious. You won’t know what he has planned. He will deceive you like he did me. We are not safe, none of us. Not your mother, not me, not you, not James. You don’t understand. You can’t let him know I talked to you. He will get us all. He already got much of our money. He will now go after us. You can’t tell him. Please promise you won’t tell him.”
“You know I can’t do that. I have to give Richard a chance to explain his side of things. I care about him very much. I love him, and want to marry him. I have to know if what you told me is true. I have to let him defend himself. You know that, don’t you?”
“I guess I do. I just don’t want to have to deal with him anymore. He threatened to get me declared sick as well as James. Then, he could do what he wanted and no one would believe me. He is capable of doing that. He will do that if it takes it to clear his name. That is why I didn’t pursue anything with my mother’s death. It would backfire on us if Richard had to clear his name. He would lay the blame on us somehow, saying we were sick and we did it. I just know it. I am scared to death of him and his evil ways.”
Eileen did indeed seem distressed. Christine knew, though, that if she had disillusioned herself into believing her own story as truth, then she would really be frightened, as she would believe there was some danger to her and her brother.
“I will try to protect you if I think Richard is going to harm you. I will call and let you know if he seems to be lying to me. If I think you are in danger, I will let you know. I will also take measures to protect my mother. If not, I will not be in touch with you again. I can’t listen to this slander against Richard if it is indeed not true. If I decide to marry him, I want you to never contact us again. I will let you know if I believe he is lying and decide not to marry him after all. Otherwise, please leave us alone. And know, I will do all I can to protect you if I feel it is warranted. I will even see about helping you press charges if I think he did do something to your mother. But, if not, then I plan to marry him. I just wanted you to know I am going to tell him about you, though.”
Christine waited until that evening to call Richard. She was nervous about how Richard would accept her calling him. By calling him she was basically telling him that she at least in part believed him and that she was wrong. She invited Richard over to their home. Ms. Mabry had agreed to invite her mother over there for part of the time that Richard was there so they could have privacy to talk. Christine hadn’t told Ms. Mabry all that was going on, but she knew that Ms. Mabry had noticed that she had a problem with Richard that last day he came over. She would tell her all of it later. Ms. Mabry was like a mother to her, had always been so ever since she stayed with her for that period of time that they thought she was going to adopt her.
“Richard, I have to apologize to you,” Christine began after they had settled down to talk. She had made a sandwich and some milk, Richard’s favorite snack. She had to be doing something to distract herself. She couldn’t just sit idly and talk. She was too stressed about it. “I haven’t been totally honest with you, and I am sorry about that. I intend to be open and honest about everything now. I lost someone once for not being totally honest. I don’t want that to happen to us.”
“Neither do I. I have been so worried. I sensed there was something you weren’t telling me. Maybe we can clear up whatever it is if you just tell me. It has been the hardest thing I ever had to do to give you space these few days. But, I promised to do it, so I did. I just wanted to come running in here and demand you tell me what was wrong. But, I couldn’t do that to you. I have been so worried that I had lost you, though. You just don’t know how bad it has been.”
“Yes, I do. It has been hard for me, too. I have done a lot of research into the concerns I had. I have to tell you, the person who caused me all the questioning was Eileen herself.”
“Eileen? What has she got to do with anything? How did you get to know her? And, what in the world did she say? There is not telling. She is a sick person.”
“I think I am aware of that now. However, there are some things I wanted to ask you about. She says you were married to her. But, I didn’t find any marriage or divorce records. She also said James was adopted, but I proved that was not true.”
“I can’t believe she is that far out of touch with reality. She did want us to get married, and seemed to think we would. But, we never did. As for James being adopted, I guess she wishes that were true so she wouldn’t ever have to worry about developing schizophrenia. She lives in fear of it every day. I never saw any symptoms of that, but she did have a strange sense of reality, just the same.”
“She says you had something to do with her mother’s death. Is that true?”
“She said what?” Richard seemed truly shocked. If he was being deceptive, he had to have known ahead of time what she was going to ask, because he never hesitated a moment before defending himself. “Where did she get that crazy idea? Why would she say that?”
“She said you convinced her mother to take out an insurance policy on her, and make yourself the beneficiary. Is that true?”
“Oh, man. Now I see where this is leading. You think I did that to them, and that now I did that to your mother? You believed that I killed them off for the money? Is that what you think of me? You think I can actually do that? I don’t believe it.”
“I don’t know what to think, Richard. She told me almost the exact thing that you did with my mother.”
“Yes, I did have her take out the policy. And, I had her make me the beneficiary. But, if you will check, you will see that I gave James every penny of that insurance. He wanted me to take some for my trouble, and I refused. You can check with James. He won’t lie to you.”
“Then why does Eileen say that? Why does she think you killed her mother? She said her mother started going downhill after you took out the policy on her.”
“Her mother had cancer. She didn’t want to tell Eileen because she couldn’t handle it. I also knew that Eileen planned on having James put away permanently, saying he was a danger to her mother. She knew her mother was getting weaker and weaker. She evidently thought I was doing something to her mother. She wanted to blame James for it and get him put away. I can’t believe she was going to do that, when she thought it was me all the time.”
“How could Eileen’s mother get treatment and such without everyone knowing?”
“She didn’t get treatment. She only wanted pain management. At the end, she was taking great quantities of pain killers just to bear the pain. She wanted me to see that James was cared for, because she didn’t trust Eileen to do it. That is why we did the policy. That is why my name was on it as beneficiary. I could collect the money for James, even if Eileen tried to say he was incompetent. For a while, I managed it for him, to keep Eileen from getting it. But, eventually I turned it all over to him. Eileen evidently thought I had confiscated it all. That explains why she seemed so fearful of me at the end. That is why I just left them alone. Eileen didn’t want me to have anything to do with them. I felt James was okay to take care of himself since Eileen didn’t know about the money. James seemed more stable than Eileen at that time.”
“So you are saying that you took out the policy to give James the money. And, you say that Eileen’s mother had cancer, and died naturally from that, and not poisoning? You had nothing to do with her death?”
“Most certainly I did not. She died from cancer. The only poisoning she might have had was from all the pain medicine. But, that was within the prescribed amounts. The doc
tors gave her enough to keep her comfortable. Unfortunately, it caused her to be almost comatose, and to get weaker and weaker as time went on. She swore me to secrecy. I could not tell either James or Eileen. She didn’t want Eileen to get control of James. She knew that if James knew what was happening, he couldn’t keep it together and Eileen would find out. So, I bore the burden of seeing her through her last requests.”
Richard seemed totally honest and sincere. Christine always thought she was a good judge of people. All that Richard said made sense. It made a whole lot more sense that anything Eileen had said. She could easily check it out with James. If they were as close as Richard indicated, James would be eager to clear Richard’s name. Christine would check it out later, just to reassure herself. But, she believed Richard was being totally honest with her. He appeared guileless about the whole matter. He couldn’t have done all the Eileen said he did. Christine thought for a moment. Then, realization hit her.
“What about my mother? You took out the policy on her. Is she . . . Did you . . . what about my mother? Is my mother dying like Eileen’s mother? Is that why you took out the policy on her?”
“No, Christine, I promise your mother does not have a terminal illness. She just wants to make sure you are provided for. She is not anticipating death any time soon. She just wants to provide for you when she does die. I promise that is all it is. If it will make you feel better, I will take my name off as beneficiary. It was just that your mother wants me to take care of you always.”
“Christine, there is nothing I want to do more than take care of you forever and always. I want to ensure that you will always be happy. I want to do whatever I can to assure you that I have no ulterior motive. I love you with all my being. I also love your mother. I want to be here for you both. Please, Christine, if you don’t believe anything else, please believe that I love you and only want the best for you. Please, Christine, tell me you love me as much as I do love you.”
“I do.” Christine said, with conviction of her love. “I do.” Two words that she definitely intended to repeat, next time in a church full of people.