A Lethal Legacy

by P. C. Zick

  Later in the day, I decided to pay a visit to Howard out of curiosity.

  "Howard, can I come in for a second?" I asked when he opened the door.

  "What is it, Ed? Do you have some information about Kris?" he asked.

  "Only that she went back to New Orleans abruptly. Claire mentioned that you seemed upset about that," I said.

  “I guess I foolishly thought that we had something going. I know she's too young, but she seemed to really need me." He stopped and looked at me. "It sounds crazy, but I thought she cared about me."

  "What made you think that?" I asked, dreading his answer.

  "She told me over and over again how much she needed me, for one thing. She practically begged me to take care of her."

  "And did you?" I asked, fully aware of what his answer would be.

  "You don't need the gory details. I feel like such a fool," he said.

  "Because you let a beautiful young woman into your bed?" I asked as he looked at me sharply.

  "Not just that."

  "What else, Howard?"

  He shook his head reluctant to say anything more.

  "I know what Kristina is like. What else happened, Howard?"

  "She kept talking about wanting to move here. She hinted at us living together. Now, of course, I would have married her. I couldn't just live with her. She seemed interested in starting a catering business. Told me that she had called around since she'd been here and felt there was a real market for something like that."

  "And..." I prodded him to complete the story although I now had an inkling about where this was headed.

  "This morning I wrote her a check for $5,000, the amount she said she would need to get started."

  "And then she left town," I finished for him. I could have written the story. "Did you try stopping payment?"

  "As soon as I talked to Claire. She'd already been to my bank and cashed it."

  "Press charges, Howard. She stole that money."

  "Never, Ed. I don't want anyone else to know about this. It's too humiliating. Promise me, you won't tell anyone," he said.

  "I hate to see her use people like this. And I don't know how to stop her."

  "Watch over Claire and Philip. That's the best you can do. Besides I doubt she'll be back here any time soon."

  "OK, Howard, I'm awfully sorry. I wanted to warn you on New Year's Eve."

  "It's all right, Ed. I wouldn't have listened. By then she had me under her spell. Besides she told me that you hated her, probably to ward off the possibility you might say something to me."

  "She's persuasive, that's for sure. And maybe we've seen the last of her. I bet Claire and Philip sent her off with a nice check, too. Again, I'm sorry, Howard."

  I went back to the apartment dejected. I felt Howard's pain because I had been in his shoes. I even broke a sacred promise to Gary because she said she needed me. I even believed, like Howard, that she required only me in this world to survive. Apparently, she needed a whole lot more than that.

  Drowning, drowning, drowning. Keep awake. Don't give up the fight. Keep awake. Drowning, drowning, drowning...

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The rock around my neck carved with Kristina's name remained heavy for the next seven years. I could never break away from her. Each encounter with Kristina took me to the heights of passion and then dropped me right back down into a hell beyond imagining. The fog continued to envelop me.

  No one suspected, of course. I was the anchor in the family. As soon as Gary died, everyone, including Philip, looked to me and sought my advice and help in all the decisions that make up the later years of someone's life. Taking care of Kristina also came with the territory, but no one had ever guessed at the depth of our duplicity over the years. All of them, even my wife, saw our relationship as a father and daughter who often fought and made up. There was nothing filial in Kristina's feelings or actions toward me. I very rarely felt paternal toward her. In the years after Gary's death, many changes occurred in my life although I never forgot about him. As time passed, I missed him more than ever.

  Howard Mickle turned out to be right about us not hearing from Kristina for a

  very long time. Claire and Philip both told me they had tried calling her at the apartment in New Orleans, but the phone had been disconnected. Claire called Rick who hadn't heard from Kris since the funeral. Neither Claire nor Philip wanted to call Pam. The task fell to me. I wanted to help ease their fears about Kristina. When I reached her, Pam told me Kristina moved back to Las Vegas and was enrolled at the community college. She wouldn't give me Kristina's number.

  "She doesn't really want any contact with any of you," Pam said.

  "Even with Philip and Claire?"

  "That's right. Musta been one hell of a Christmas. She won't talk about it much, but she did have plenty of money when she got back, so they must have bankrolled her for awhile," she said. "The Townsends love Kris, hate me."

  "Pam, you made it difficult for them to like you, especially Claire. When Gary brought you home that first time you flirted openly with Claire's husband." I decided for once to tell Pam the truth. "And if I was able to catch you and Philip together in the garage, why not Claire? You obviously weren't that discreet."

  " Eddie boy's showing some emotion! What did happen over Christmas? I can't get Kris to talk about it."

  "All I'm going to say is that you've taught Kristina some pretty creative ways to get money out of people. Not all the money she returned with came from Claire and Philip."

  "That's my kid. So you're paying her for it now? Funny, I never would have taken you for a fool."

  "It wasn't me who gave her the money. She found someone else to fool."

  "Ed, this is the best advice I can give you because you know out of all the Townsends you were the one who always treated me fairly. Don't let Kristina seduce you. She's got a bad habit of hurting those closest to her."

  "And where did she learn that, Pam?"

  "Good bye, Ed. I'll tell Kris that her grandparents want to hear from her, although I doubt it will do any good."

  By early 1991, a room became available for my mother in the nursing home. It was a difficult thing to do, but fortunately, by the time her name came up on the waiting list, she no longer knew where she was. She did know me on some days, but mostly she lived in her own little world. At this point in her illness, the days when she didn't know me were the easiest. On the days of lucidity, her clarity of the situation made things much more difficult.

  One day she looked me straight in the eyes and grabbed both of my wrists. "Ed, you must find a way to kill me."

  "Mom, don't talk like that," I said, but I understood exactly what she meant, and I also knew that I would want the same thing to happen if I were in her shoes. It took every bit of strength I had to encourage her to live for my sake.

  I know Mom always wanted a grandchild and envied Claire for having Kristina back in her life. I contemplated marrying Cassie on several occasions. I was forty-nine and Cassie was thirty-five. I knew she wanted to have children because she often talked about that old biological clock ticking away.

  And so while my mother deteriorated further into her dementia, Cassie and I decided to get married. I knew we could have a happy and contented life with one another. My love for Cassie took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it, and for a long time, I didn't realize that I did love her. However, her steady belief in me, and our mutual respect for one another lent itself to a much deeper passion than I'd ever had before. As long as I didn't think about Kristina, I could believe that I had found the one person I could live with for the rest of my life and remain satisfied. And she would remain satisfied with me.

  Cassie never pushed me to be something I couldn't. In fact, she seemed content with her life and happy to move into an apartment as we started our marriage. Although we could afford to buy a house, I fought against the responsibility of owning a home. Scars run deep after a major incision, and mine had never totally healed afte
r my divorce from Allison.

  However, Cassie exuded a confidence of self that had been lacking in both of my previous wives whose quest for outward trappings kept me at a distance emotionally. And I began to trust her.

  In June of 1991, I married for the third time, vowing to make it my last marriage. Again, Claire and Philip hosted the wedding in their backyard. I spent the day missing Gary more than I ever had. He wasn't there to do his job as my best man. Both Claire and I moped around before the ceremony. When Cassie realized why we both seemed so sad, she asked us questions about Gary, allowing us to miss him openly. Once we did that, we were able to smile at some of the memories and go forward with the day's events. Cassie seemed to know intuitively what both Claire and I were feeling on that day and did just the right thing to help us survive it.

  We spent the summer in Europe, traveling around England and France. We both wrote, satisfied with our adventure and ourselves. By the time we came home in the fall, Cassie was pregnant.

  Unfortunately the person who I had wanted to present with a grandchild, no longer understood who I was. Mom's days of lucidity disappeared forever while we honeymooned and created. The new Marjorie Townsend little resembled my mother, which made it easier to accept that my mother died when the disease won.

  Cassie and I were able to share our good news with the only family left on my side, Claire, Philip, and Susan. All of them now treated me like their son and acted as if we had given them a million bucks when we told them our news.

  "That baby will be the bestest baby ever with you two for parents," Claire said.

  "Your mother would be so pleased. I guess we'll just have to spoil that little baby twice as much," Susan said.

  "That's right, old man, and I for one say it's about time you settled down. You sure didn't waste any time once you settled." Philip winked at me as he kissed Cassie on the cheek.

  Claire and Philip, both in their eighties, remained active and healthy. Philip couldn't play eighteen holes any longer, but if he rented a cart, he could do nine holes with me. The club didn't invite him to play in tournaments anymore, but he still got out. However, Claire was unstoppable both at bridge and golf, although she also had to slow down some. They talked of selling the house, but could afford to hire maintenance for the lawn and a maid for the inside. They really needed the house because of all of their visitors from the North. Philip's former students and athletes, now retired, still visited as well as their friends from Ann Arbor.

  Kristina surfaced again near the holidays. She called Claire who invited her to fly to Florida for Christmas. Howard had since moved away to be nearer one of his children, and I imagine Kristina managed to wrangle that news somehow from Claire. I decided that Cassie and I would spend as much time as possible with Claire and Philip during her visit because I assumed she came for money.

  Her first evening at her grandparents I called and asked if I could to come over to say hello, but Claire informed me that Kristina had requested a talk alone with them that evening. Claire invited us over the next day for drinks and then dinner at the club.

  The following evening, Kristina, even more beautiful and voluptuous, kissed me in a sisterly manner.

  "Cassie, you must be carrying twins. I can't believe how much weight you've gained. Are you due this month?" Kristina asked.

  "I'm due in March, Kris, but thanks for your concern," Cassie said. "Ed tells me I'm beautiful with the glow of pregnancy, but I guess to someone who's never been pregnant, I just look fat. You look quite beautiful tonight, Kristina."

  That's one of the reasons I loved Cassie. She never got flustered and could sweetly deflate a comment aimed at the heart by not allowing it to hit her. And just like her mother, Kristina knew how to make an enemy of a woman.

  For my part, I tried to keep my eyes away from the front of Kristina's dress where her cleavage threatened to swallow me as she turned and bent in my direction. I desperately tried to keep my mind on my wife and the table's conversation.

  When I went to the cloakroom at the club to retrieve our coats at the end of the evening, Kristina followed. When I turned around, she was standing so close to me that her breasts pressed into my suit.

  "Kristina, I didn't see you there," I said.

  "I think you've seen me all night, Eddie." She began rubbing up against me. "I've missed you so much. Can't we get together, just the two of us while I'm here?" Her voice had taken on the tone of the hurt little girl once again.

  "I don't think that's a good idea, Kristina." I felt her hands grab me from behind as she pulled me towards her.

  "Oh, come on, I can feel that you want to," she whispered. And she was right, my body had once again betrayed me.

  "Please, Kristina. Stop," I said, but I made no movement to pull away from her clench. "I've got to go."

  "Eddie, I need you. I've been so lonely. Please can't we see each other just once? Tomorrow?" She reached up and touched the side of my face.

  I breathed in the smell of her and melted under her touch that always seemed to comfort me as well as arouse my sense of duty to protect this woman/child.

  "Tomorrow," I said to appease her and get her to stop. I pulled away, trying to compose myself so I could go back to my wife.

  I slept poorly that night. Cassie tossed and turned next to me getting up several times to use the bathroom. Once when she came back to bed, she noticed that my eyes were open.

  "Can't sleep?" she asked.

  "I guess I had too much to eat tonight," I said.

  "Or you just got too much of an eyeful of Kris. I swear that girl flaunts herself so in front of whatever man is available."

  "Kris? I didn't notice."

  "Right, Ed. And I'm blind as well as pregnant. Good night."

  My last thought before going to sleep was my vow not to be alone with Kristina ever again. I wouldn't call her the next day, I promised myself. However, when I woke up, I was aroused like I used to be in the mornings. I realized once I fell asleep, I dreamed of standing in the cloakroom and removing her dress and taking her right there. I went into the shower before Cassie woke.

  After breakfast, Cassie left for a day of Christmas shopping with her sister. I had the place to myself, but the air felt close and stagnant around me. I found it difficult to breath and worse, I couldn't settle down to write, even though my current novel was coming together nicely.

  Instead, I paced and kept thinking of making love with Kristina. Except with Kristina, it wasn't making love; it was an earthy almost primal act. I yearned to feel her pressed against me once again.

  "Claire, it's Ed. I wondered if Kristina needed to do some Christmas shopping without her doting grandparents," I said when I finally gave in and called her.

  "Just a minute, I'll get her," Claire said.

  "Hi, Ed!" Kristina said when she came on the line.

  "Be waiting in the driveway in ten minutes," I said.

  We drove to a motel off the interstate near Wildwood. We had barely shut the door when we attacked one another. This had nothing to do with love, but a whole lot to do with sex.

  Kris reached over and unzipped my pants before I could even shut the door. She put her mouth around me. I pushed her head down further, and for the first time I didn't try to stop her but encouraged her to do whatever she wanted with me.

  "Why do you always make things so difficult, Ed?" she asked when she came up for air.

  "Shut up," I said as I lifted the small T-shirt over her head and saw that she wore no bra. She pulled my hand to her thigh under the short skirt, and I could feel that she wore no underwear either. I pushed up the skirt and backed her up to the bed. She pulled a condom out of her skirt pocket and put it over me. Maybe she was learning something, but I didn't have time to think about that right now. I wasted no time in taking advantage of our protection.

  Not many seconds later, I finished. Disgusted with myself, I zipped up my pants and told her to pull her shirt down. We hadn't even managed to undress all the way.


  "You're not very nice today, Eddie,'" she said.

  "I'm married. My wife's seven months pregnant. And you're almost thirty years younger than me. I wish you'd just go away," I said.

  "We can't help this. It's out of our control. No one will ever know," she began whispering over and over again in my ear until she had lulled me back into a state of desire.

  "It's OK, baby, it's OK. It's bigger than us, don't fight it." Her words and body and hands calmed me as I found myself aroused once again.

  This time we went slower and undressed. She continued to lull me with her litany of reasons why what we were doing was all right.

  When it was over, Kristina still clung to me and caressed me.

  "Please, don't feel guilty, Ed. It's all right. It's just like with my mom and Philip," she said.

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "I know about them," she told me.

  "So? What are you going to do about it?"

  "Nothing. No sense in getting Claire upset. Although I've hinted to Philip about my mom before. He doesn't say much, but he always gives me what I want."

  "So you just use him, don't you?"

  "Sometimes. I think I deserve it, don't you? This family abandoned me when they allowed Pam to take me away. Do you have any idea what kind of mother she was?"

  "She wasn't very nurturing, I'll admit. But she took care of you, and Gary really hurt her."

  "She sure took care of me, all right. And I provided a good income for her and Oscar whenever a client blew into town who favored little girls," she said as she withdrew physically from me.

  "You mean they prostituted you?"

  "Is that what it's called? I thought it was child abuse. But yeah, when I was about ten, it happened for the fist time. Then when I was around fourteen I got smarter and realized those men were paying Oscar, and I thought, why shouldn't they pay me directly? That's when I hit the streets. I've been hustling one way or another ever since."

  "Kristina, I'm sorry, I had no idea. But why did you move back to Las Vegas?"

  "It's all I really know. When Gary died, I didn't have anything in New Orleans. I'm trying to go straight though, but it hasn't been easy. Right after Gary died, Pam told me about Philip and mentioned how I could use their little affair to seal the inheritance deal. She thinks I'm going to share with her so she can leave Oscar."