"You're way out of line, Mrs. Bradley."
"Am I?" Helen opened the door and stepped into the waiting room. "Maybe you didn't kill Ethan, but one of your clients may have. I'd watch my back if I were you, Mr. Young. You could be representing a murderer."
Chapter Sixteen
After leaving the attorney's office, Helen drove back to Adele's place and parked where she had before, then walked back to the house. The empty driveway testified that Adele and Rosie still weren't home. Helen let herself in and, as Dave had suggested, made herself at home. She was still there an hour later, soaking in the view, drinking a second cup of tea, and leafing through a stack of magazines when she heard the door open.
"Dave must have left the door unlocked again," Adele said. "I keep having to remind him."
Rosie laughed. "If that's his worst vice, you are a very lucky woman. Guys don't come much better than Dave."
Adele chuckled. "Hey, don't get me started. I love the guy, but. . ." She stopped and stared openmouthed as Helen swiveled around to face the door. "How? Who? Helen Bradley. What are you doing here?"
Rosie dropped her armload of shopping bags and dove for the still-open door.
"Rosie, wait!" Helen ran after her. She leapt over the pile of plastic bags and clothes spilling out of them, then raced around the house and down the hill. Halfway down, she caught up with Rosie, who was having trouble running in her sandals. Helen grabbed her arm and pulled her to an abrupt halt. "Listen to me? They have a man in custody. But Joe still needs to talk to you."
Rosie bent over, hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath. "They do?"
"Yes." Helen started to tell her about the break-in and Alex's arrest but decided to hold off. "You need to come back home, Rosie."
She straightened and held a hand on her chest. "Who? Who did it?"
"I'll tell you all about it, but first let's get you up the hill and into the house so you can sit down." Helen placed Rosie's arm around her neck and her own arm around Rosie's waist to help her walk.
"I'm. . . in terrible. . . shape." Despite Helen's attempts to keep her upright, Rosie sank onto the blacktop.
"So I see."
"Give me a minute to catch my breath."
"Take all the time you need." Helen frowned and then crouched down beside her friend. Rosie's face contorted in pain as she grasped the front of her T-shirt. "You don't look so good. Are you sure you're okay? Are you having chest pains?"
"I'm fine. Will be in a minute. Get these spells when I. . . exert myself. Been meaning to see. . . the doctor."
"Well, you should. What if it's your heart?" Helen bit into her lower lip. "Maybe I should get an ambulance."
She waved her hand in dismissal. "No. I-I just can't run. I knew that. Stupid of me to try."
Helen sighed. "Oh, Rosie, what am I going to do with you?"
The pained look gradually left her face, and within a couple of minutes her breathing returned to normal. "I'm okay now. Help me up." Rosie extended a hand, and Helen pulled her to her feet.
Helen walked her back up the hill, stopping three times. Even after she'd gotten Rosie to the couch and lying down, Helen remained concerned. She wasn't sure she should talk to Rosie about Ethan or Alex. The last thing she wanted to do was get Rosie upset again.
Half an hour later, though, Rosie seemed like her old self and was anxious to hear about the man in police custody.
"First," Helen said, "I want you to tell me what you know about Alex Jordan."
Rosie's mouth dropped open. "How. . .?"
"He came over to fix my roof. And I saw his picture in your apartment. I broke in so I could feed your cats and try to figure out why you were acting so weird. Don't worry, I'll fix the window."
"My cats. Oh, I'd forgotten. Thank you. But what do you mean, you broke in? You have a key."
"I lost it." She waved her hand. "None of that matters. I want you to tell me who this guy is and why his photo was on your dresser."
Rosie leaned back against the cushions, her frantic gaze connecting with Adele's.
'You may as well tell her," Adele said. "She'll find out anyway."
Rosie glanced at Helen, then looked away. "I was going to tell you eventually. I would have right away, except that I'm not the only one involved." She closed her eyes. "Alex Jordan is my son."
"Your son? Oh, Rosie." The pieces fell together. Perhaps Alex Jordan had a motive after all. "Ethan is the father, isn't he?"
Rosie groaned. "How did you know? Ethan didn't even know until. . .."
"Until Alex met with him the night he was killed."
"But Alex didn't do it."
"That's why you ran, isn't it? When I told you that your letter opener was the murder weapon, you thought Alex had killed him. He had access to the letter opener and to Ethan."
She shook her head, sending her wild hair flying. "No!"
"Then why did you run?"
"Okay. I did think Alex might have done it at first, but only because I was in shock. I just wanted to find Alex and talk to him. He'd been sitting on my desk, playing with the opener some days before. I was afraid his prints would be on it. Once I had time to think about it, I knew he couldn't have killed Ethan. Alex isn't like that. He wouldn't hurt anyone. He's a sweet boy. He only wanted to meet his father."
"Rosie, there's something I need to tell you." Helen dreaded telling Rosie about her son's arrest, but delaying would only make matters worse. "I'm not the only one who broke into your place last night. Alex did too. He made quite a mess of your desk. He may have been removing evidence of his connection with you and Ethan."
Her teary eyes widened in disbelief. "Why would he do that?"
"You tell me." Helen then told her about the canceled check she'd found in the bushes. "I'm certain Alex dropped it as he was making his getaway."
Rosie paled and kept shaking her head.
"You don't have that kind of money," Helen went on. "Yet you made a deposit in that same amount just last week. Did you borrow it? Was Alex blackmailing you or Ethan? If Ethan were still alive, I doubt he'd appreciate this kind of scandal. It would tear his family apart, not to mention his career."
"No-o-o." Rosie let out an exaggerated groan. "You don't understand."
"Okay, then, explain it. I want to help you, Rosie. Tell me what's going on."
"It's a long story."
"I have time."
"Go ahead and tell her, honey." Adele sat on the arm of the couch, her hands soothing her sister's flaming hair. "Like I said before, she'll find out one way or another. It's better if she hears it from you."
"You're right." Rosie offered her sister a small smile.
"Would you two like some coffee?" Adele asked.
Rosie nodded.
Helen handed her empty cup to Adele. "I'll have tea, if you don't mind." She then went over to sit on the sea-green leather couch beside Rosie.
"I don't know where to start." Rosie toyed with the button on the top she wore over a pale lavender T-shirt. Helen suspected the drab colored clothes had come from Adele's closet. They were attractive: a pair of crinkled-cotton pants and large matching shirt in an off-white. Yet they hung on Rosie, making her look thin and pale.
"Why don't you start at the beginning," Helen suggested.
"But it was so long ago."
"The past might have a bearing on the present." To help Rosie into the subject, Helen said, "I heard a rumor that you and Ethan dated in high school."
"Dated?" Her melancholy smile nearly broke Helen's heart. "Yes, I guess you could say that, but it was so much more. We were planning to get married when we graduated from college. We were so in love and naive. I never thought to use birth control. We hadn't meant for anything to happen. The night of our prom, we got too involved and. . .."
"You got pregnant." Helen provided the words when Rosie couldn't seem to get them out.
"I was so ashamed. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't tell anyone at first, except Adele." Rosie looked up
at her sister and leaned forward to accept the coffee.
"We were very dose." Adele handed Helen her tea and sat in the chair Helen had vacated. "Still, Rosie never told me who the father was until last night. She kept her secret all these years. No one else knew, not even Ethan."
"But if Rosie was dating Ethan, surely you must have put two and two together."
"I told her I'd been raped." Rosie glanced away. "It seemed easier that way."
"Why didn't you tell Ethan?" Helen asked. "This sort of thing happens all the time. I'm sure he would have taken responsibility."
"That's just it," Rosie said. "He would have married me. He'd have gotten a job right out of high school and forgotten about going to college. Ethan was like that. But I couldn't let him. I didn't want him to sacrifice his future for me. He was an A student and everyone was always saying what a wonderful career he would have. I couldn't destroy that." Rosie shook her head.
"What about your future, Rosie?" Helen ran a hand through, her hair.
"That's one of the reasons I couldn't tell him. I wasn't just trying to protect him. I didn't want to get married. I wanted to finish school and become a librarian. It had been my dream for as long as I could remember. Ethan would have insisted on keeping the baby, and I didn't want to."
"Don't you think Ethan had a right to know and to at least have a choice in the matter?"
"There would have been no choice where Ethan was concerned. I knew from the start I couldn't involve him. I told Adele I was pregnant and didn't know who the father was. She encouraged me to talk to our folks." Rosie gave Helen a crooked smile.
"They were furious at first," Adele added, "and wanted to go to the police. Rosie refused. Said she didn't want anyone to know and insisted it wouldn't do any good, because she couldn't identify the guy who did it. Once they had time to think about it, they agreed not to subject the family to the humiliation. They became very supportive."
Rosie nodded. "Mom and Dad finally agreed to keep my secret. As you know, things weren't so open and aboveboard back then. None of us wanted me to bear the stigma of having a child out of wedlock. Abortion wasn't legal, but even if it had been, I could never have had one. The only real choice for me was to give the baby up for adoption. My parents were pretty adamant about that. They wanted me to have the baby, give him to a good family, and go on with my plans to finish school. At the time it seemed the perfect solution. I just didn't realize how totally devastating it would be to give up my child.
"It was so hard," Rosie went on. "There were times I thought about keeping the baby and letting Ethan know after he'd finished college. In some ways that's what kept me going. Since it was early in the pregnancy, I was able to graduate that June. I left town shortly after."
"What did you tell Ethan? He must have been heartbroken."
"I told him I was going to visit relatives for the summer, which was true. Mom and Dad sent me to Aunt Hattie's in Minnesota. I stayed with her until Alex was born. I told him I'd be back long before our college classes started. We'd both planned to go to the University of Oregon." Rosie paused to take several sips of coffee. "I hated lying to him that way. I knew at the time I might never see him again. My parents arranged for me to attend college in Minnesota." Fresh tears trailed down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." Helen patted Rosie's hand. "If this is too painful you don't have to go on."
"No. I want you to know everything. You need to understand what happened with Ethan and me and Alex." Rosie set her cup on the coffee table. "By the end of the summer, I had to let Ethan know I wasn't coming back to Oregon. I wrote him a Dear John letter, saying I'd met a man and we'd gotten engaged. I didn't actually lie. I had met a man. A neighbor of Hattie's who would have married me if I'd agreed. I almost did, but I realized it wouldn't have been fair to him. I still loved Ethan."
"And you still do." Rosie's expression confirmed Helen's comment, even though she didn't admit it.
"I went through with the adoption and moved into a dorm on campus. Finished school and became a librarian. I decided never to go back to the Northwest, but I couldn't get Ethan or Oregon out of my mind. Finally, when my father died several years ago, I was forced to come home." She gave Helen a watery smile. "Once I got here, I couldn't leave."
After dabbing at her tears and blowing her nose, Rosie composed herself and told the rest of the story of how she used her savings to buy the Victorian and restore it. "It had always been a dream of mine to own a bookstore. I didn't know what to expect. Ethan was angry, especially when he learned I had never married. Not that it would have done any good. Six months after I broke up with him, he was engaged to Eleanor. I was hurt, but not surprised."
"Eleanor had always liked Ethan," Adele said. "She was more than happy to mend his broken heart."
"Sounds like you're not too fond of her." Helen wrapped both hands around the warm mug and stared into the steam curling above it.
Adele raised her eyebrows. "She's okay. It's my problem, not hers. I was jealous of her for years. Her parents were rich, and I thought she was spoiled rotten. I had mixed feelings about her marrying Ethan. I hated her for Rosie's sake, but in a way I was glad. Ethan deserved some happiness, and Eleanor gave him that. She was the best wife he could have had, considering his career in law and politics. Maybe it was fate that Rosie left."
"He never stopped loving me." Rosie's voice went soft.
Helen thought again about Eleanor's suspicions the day before. "Sounds as though you and Ethan took up where you left off. Were you having an affair?"
"Not in the way you're thinking."
"Come on, sugar," Adele urged, "be honest."
"I am." Rosie clasped her hands. "As much as we wanted to go back to the way things were, we couldn't. Ethan had a family. We decided to be friends and nothing more."
Helen wasn't sure she believed that. Adele apparently didn't either.
"Right." Adele pursed her lips. "You never did make much of a liar, sis."
"Okay," Rosie admitted, "we tried not to get involved. And we did fine until Alex showed up. Then it was as though a dam broke loose in both of us."
Helen and Adele waited while Rosie seemed to struggle to keep her emotions intact. When she finally spoke, it was in hushed tones and Helen had to lean forward to hear. "Alex came to me about a month ago. He said he'd been able to track me down through a service on the Internet. I was thrilled. You can't imagine. It was like having that big empty hole in my heart filled up again. He was everything I'd dreamed he'd be and more. And he looks so much like Ethan. Oh, Helen, my heart was so full. I had my son back. I couldn't have been happier. Then he asked about his father. He wanted me to tell him who his father was, and I refused."
"Why didn't he just track Ethan down? He'd found you."
"I hadn't put the father's name on the birth certificate."
"How did he react when you refused to tell him?"
"He wasn't too happy. In fact, he got rather angry. Insisted he had a right to know. We argued and he left. Said he'd find out with or without me."
He had apparently done just that. Helen's mind tumbled with possibilities. Could Alex have killed Ethan after all? "How did Alex find out?"
"It wasn't all that hard. Ethan came into the store one day while Alex was there. He'd learned that Ethan and I had gone steady in high school. . .." Rosie sighed. "I guess I really didn't try that hard to hide the fact. When Alex told me he'd figured out who his father was, I pleaded with him not to contact Ethan. Alex seemed desperate to meet his father. I convinced him to wait. I wanted to think about it."
"And did Alex wait?" Helen could see the evidence piling up against Rosie's son. A man angry with the father who'd gotten his mother pregnant, then wanted nothing to do with her. Of course that wasn't true, but what did Alex believe?
"Yes, as a matter of fact, he did," Rosie said. "He was anxious to meet Ethan, of course, but I managed to convince him that Ethan would take the news better coming from me."
"And how di
d Ethan take it?"
Rosie bit the fleshy part of her thumb. "I'd never seen him more angry. He couldn't believe that I had kept it from him. When he finally calmed down, he insisted on seeing his son as soon as possible. He felt terrible that he hadn't been there for me. We cried together over the life we'd lost because of my selfish and foolish decisions. That night we fell in love all over again. It was wrong. I know. But. . ..
Helen rubbed at her forehead, marveling at how complicated people's lives could become, especially in the midst of lies and deceit. "What about the check? Why did you give Alex a check for a hundred thousand dollars?"
"Ethan wrote a check out to me that night. I'm not sure why, really. He wanted me to have it for all the trouble I'd been through. I didn't want it. He insisted. It made me angry. I felt like he was paying me off. He said it was a gesture of goodwill. I told him I was going to tear it up."
"But you didn't."
"No. I decided to give it to Alex. I deposited it and wrote Alex a check. Told him it was from his father."
"Could Alex have considered it hush money? A payoff?"
"Is that what you think? Alex isn't like that. He didn't even want the money. But I insisted."
Covering her face, Rosie rocked back and forth, her sobs coming in agonizing moans. "Ethan is dead and it's my fault."
"Why would you say it's your fault, Rosie? Alex is in custody. . . ."
"Helen, please. No more questions." Adele grabbed a box of tissues from under an end table and stuffed a bunch in Rosie's hand. "She's been through enough already."
"You're right. I'm sorry." Helen put a hand on Rosie's slumped shoulder. "I shouldn't be pushing you this way. It's just that you've been a friend for a long time and you're in trouble here. I'd like to help."
Adele's sharp gaze fastened on Helen's. "Wait a minute. Did I hear you right? Did you say Alex was in jail?"
"Unfortunately, yes. He was arrested last night after he broke into your store."
Rosie wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "They had no business arresting him. He didn't break in he had a key. Just like you did, Helen. If I refuse to press charges, they'll let him go, won't they?"
When Shadows Fall: A Helen Bradley Mystery (Helen Bradley Mysteries Book 5) Page 12