by Sylvia Nobel
“Ruth, get to the point.”
“I mean it! I must have your solemn vow that what I’m about to tell you will not leave this room. No one else can ever know.”
I weighed her ultimatum against Tally’s and, after several seconds of wrenching indecision, decided that my commitment to him outweighed hers. “I’m not giving in on this one, Ruth. I’m sorry.”
She tilted her head slowly to one side. “Well then, if something happens to Tally it will be on your conscience.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do I have your promise?”
I stood there, eyes locked with hers and held out for another thirty seconds before curiosity got the best of me. “Okay, you have my word.”
She took a drag off her cigarette so long and so deep she must have sucked the smoke right down to her toenails. Itching with suspense, I watched her expel a long stream of smoke. “Riley Gibbons was Tally’s real father.”
17
She might as well have told me that the moon had switched places with the sun. For several seconds, shock held me immobile and I felt like all the air had been punched from my lungs. Incredulous, I asked, “Are you sure about this?”
Her disdainful scowl implied that my question ranked several rungs below inane. “Of course I’m sure.”
Well, no wonder she’d been acting so weird. Since she was already predisposed to mental issues, massive loads of guilt could only add to her psychosis. On one hand, I felt sorry for her, but I’m ashamed to say that another part of me gloated as I thought that this woman, this insufferable woman, who never missed an opportunity to criticize and stand in holier-than-thou judgment of others, had had a tawdry affair with her dying sister’s husband. After all was said and done she was simply a fallible human being after all.
Involuntarily my eyes strayed to the old photograph on the wall and I studied the earnest faces of the two dark-haired young cowboys. Now that I knew the truth, the resemblance between Tally and Riley jumped out at me. Holy crap! As the magnitude of her admission slowly sank in, the ramifications were staggering. I thought about how often Tally spoke with loving reverence of Joe Talverson, how much he idolized his memory and cherished the rich family history and traditions that spanned three generations of ranching families. This land was in his blood, in his soul and I couldn’t even fathom what his reaction would be if he learned the truth. My heart ached for him. I could only imagine how I’d feel if someone came to me today and told me that the man who’d lovingly raised me, the man I adored and respected so profoundly, wasn’t my father. I’d be devastated. Completely devastated. His world would be turned upside down and inside out. How could I keep something this earth-shattering from him? And should I?
“Well, this is certainly…unexpected news.” Major, major understatement! She couldn’t hold my gaze. “Ruth, you have to tell him. He deserves to know the truth.”
A strange light burned behind her eyes. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t face the humiliation of him…of everyone else knowing what I’ve done.”
“What you’ve done? It takes two to tango,” I commented dryly, amazed to see her cheeks redden.
“Please don’t judge him too harshly. Riley was…an extraordinary person, and even though I knew I wasn’t the only other woman he…was with while he and Ginny were married, from the first moment I laid eyes on him he was the only man I ever truly loved…and still love.” Tears brightened her eyes.
Still in the process of absorbing her bombastic confession, I had to ask, “What about Ronda? Is she…?”
“No. No,” she answered hastily, a tear spilling down one cheek, “she’s Joe’s child.”
So…that meant Ronda was in fact Tally’s half-sister. Knowing how close they were, I wondered how this would affect each of them. I was unsure of what to say next. After a brief silence, where she noisily blew her nose, I suggested, “Ruth, this isn’t nineteen hundred. These things sometimes happen—”
Her eyes glazed with long-ago memories. “It didn’t just happen. I initiated our…relationship…to get even with my sister.”
I drew back, surprised. “Why?”
She squirmed in her chair. “You have to understand how it was. She was the beautiful one, the smart one—the one people always gravitated to while no one ever paid me the slightest bit of attention.” Her mouth twisted bitterly. “She knew how much I loved Riley and she deliberately took him away from me.”
Did she actually believe her statement or was she clinging to it because it justified her actions? “So…why did you marry Joe Talverson?”
She shrugged. “I guess I was flattered that someone actually paid attention to me and it wasn’t like I had a lot of prospects. He was nice enough and…I didn’t want to be alone the rest of my life. I thought I could learn to love him. I really did try, but Riley was always here in front of me. You can’t imagine the torture of having to constantly see him and Ginny together when it should have been me.”
I flashed back to Grant’s deception. “Actually,” I said ruefully, “I can.”
Her doubtful look conveyed that I couldn’t possibly identify with her anguish. “At the same time, I hated myself for hating my sister,” she lamented, dabbing at her eyes. “The greatest irony of all was that Ginny wanted desperately to have children, but she couldn’t.” Her bemused expression turned wistfully triumphant. “While I, on the other hand, was able to give Riley a healthy, beautiful son. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him.”
I glanced back at the photograph. “So…Joe never suspected?”
“No. Lucky for me they both had dark hair and Tally got my brown eyes. Joe had such a violent temper. If he’d found out he’d have killed Riley, and me too, probably.”
“Ruth, you’ve got to tell Tally. I’m sure if he knew the whole story he’d forgive you.”
“How can he do that when I can’t forgive myself?” More tears trickled down her cheeks and she clutched her stomach, rocking back and forth. “Lord knows I’ve had to live with the shame all these years. I’m a terrible, awful…disgusting person! I betrayed my husband’s trust! I betrayed my sister’s trust…I’m sure to go to hell for what I’ve done—and I deserve it.” She buried her face in her hands and bawled loudly.
As she wept uncontrollably, I couldn’t help thinking how much it had to have cost her to admit all of this to me, a person she barely tolerated. The serious issues from her past would need to be addressed, but at this point I was more worried about the present. “I still don’t understand why you think Tally’s true relationship to Riley would put him in any kind of danger.”
She pulled in a couple of shuddery breaths and looked up at me. “Riley came to visit me about a week before he disappeared.”
“And?”
“He seemed worried.”
“About what?”
“Several people he’d been involved with in the past had died recently under what he called…very odd circumstances.”
I sat up straighter. “Involved with? That’s rather ambiguous. Was he referring to court cases or personal connections?”
“I don’t know.” She paused, her eyes narrowed with recollection, then added, “But he did say he might have made a terrible mistake in judgment and feared that it had finally come back to haunt him.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, he also mentioned that he’d received some strange correspondence.”
I leaned forward eagerly. “Go on.”
“Someone mailed him quotations.”
“Did he tell you anything about them?”
She shook her head in frustration. “I can’t remember the exact words.”
“Just give me a general overview.”
She paused, thinking, and then said slowly, “Something about a final vengeance for evil people who lie and that others close to that person would share the same fate.”
She tamped out her cigarette while simultaneously lighting anoth
er. Inhaling deeply, she blew twin streams of smoke through her nostrils. “Now do you understand why I’ve been out of my mind with worry these past few weeks?”
I stared at her, goose bumps raising the hair on my arms. I’d been on the right track all along. No question in my mind that the judge’s carefully premeditated murder was payback, plain and simple. And while I couldn’t discount associations in his personal life, logic dictated that the crime more likely was linked to someone’s perception of an erroneous ruling handed down in one of his past cases. But, which one? On the surface, the Talverson family’s connection to the judge was tenuous at best and Ruth’s fears sounded a bit overblown, but there was one thing that might validate her theory. “Ruth, did you ever tell Riley the truth about Tally?”
She averted her eyes. “Yes.”
“When?”
“A few months after Joe died.”
“Did he tell anyone else?”
“I don’t know.”
That could be a problem. Riley might have told La Donna or more recently, Marissa. But what reason would either of them have to harm anyone in the Talverson family?
“What was his reaction to your confession?”
Her face clouded with regret. “At first he was angry and then he just seemed in awe of the whole situation.”
Yeah, that’s kind of how I felt, sitting there trying to analyze exactly what I should do. The sick feeling in my gut confirmed that no matter which direction I chose to take, it would be wrong. But, considering the circumstances, how could I afford not to forge ahead in my investigation?
“Ruth, Tally has to be told.”
Like a person possessed, her whole demeanor changed. She charged out of her chair and lunged at me with teeth bared like one of the wild burros. “You lying bitch! Your word isn’t worth shit! I knew I couldn’t trust you!” I recoiled in amazement. Either she was the most selfish woman on the face of the earth or she was prone to truly insane mood swings. “My reputation will be ruined! I know what you’re up to,” she screeched, narrowing her eyes to tiny slits. “You’ve had a plan from the beginning, haven’t you? You want him to hate me so he’ll send me away and you can have him all to yourself!”
How was I to reason with a person this unstable? “Ruth, worrying about your pride is the least important issue at stake here. So you made a mistake! I think Tally’s safety trumps your injured sensibilities.”
“No! You gave me your promise,” she wailed, wringing her hands. “You gave me your promise you wouldn’t tell him!” She burst into another torrent of tears and wailed like a banshee. “I’ll have to kill myself! I’ll kill myself!”
Good grief. She really was nuts. Could I take a chance that she might be serious? “Ruth! Ruth!” I shouted over her howling, “if you’ll calm down I think we can settle this problem!”
Like shutting off a faucet, her sobbing ceased. “How?”
“I’ll honor my promise to continue my investigation on the condition that you tell Tally the truth immediately.”
“What?”
“You heard me. This is way too important to sit on any longer.”
She turned her back to me and mulled over my proposal for what seemed like an hour before wearily conceding, “All right, I’ll tell him. Now get out of here before I change my mind.”
She dismissed me with a curt wave of her hand and I walked outside feeling confounded and apprehensive. How had Tally managed to deal with someone so unhinged his whole life and stay sane? And how the hell was I going to? Should I have forced her hand? Would the opportunity to cleanse her soul help heal her wounds or make her manic condition even worse?
All during the drive home, I stewed about it. Her reason for wanting Riley’s killer apprehended was much clearer now. Having obsessed over the judge her entire life, I could understand why his horrifying death would send her into an emotional tailspin. But, the real dilemma was what to do about Tally. He deserved to know the truth for a host of reasons. But was it my right to deliver such intimate news? Not really. The responsibility for that lay with his mother. But could I trust her to follow through? What was that old saying? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. If Riley’s killer was determined to harm anyone close to the judge, the threat of possible danger was frighteningly credible. I slowed down to allow two rabbits to hop across the road in front of me and, when I swung onto the main highway, another sobering thought surfaced. Ruth and Riley’s ignoble conduct really could have far-reaching consequences. How on earth was Tally, a fiercely proud, principled, no-nonsense, intensely private guy going to react to the fact that Ronda was his half-sister and the baby Marissa was carrying would be his new brother or sister? I couldn’t even imagine how he’d react to that news. Could things possibly get any more complex?
I exhaled an exasperated breath. Okay. Next hurdle. How to tactfully explain to Tally why it was vital that I go forward with my investigation? Overcome by the urgent need to just hear his voice, I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled to the number he’d called from earlier. Imagine my consternation when a recording announced that it was out of service. Great. I tossed the phone aside and switched on the radio. The powerful winter storm in northern Arizona was the lead story on the news. In some places, three feet of snow had already fallen, there were drifts as high as eight and another storm was on the way. Dozens of people were stranded along highways, power was out in large areas, phone lines were down, and there were reports of massive livestock losses in the remote sections of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations. There was speculation that the governor would call out the National Guard. I snapped the radio off, feeling as if I were carrying a thousand-pound dumbbell on my shoulders.
The weight got even heavier when I got home and checked my voicemail. Nonplussed, I stood there listening to a call from Grant’s mother, Phyllis, asking me to phone her back as soon as possible tonight, even if it was late. Now what? I hadn’t spoken to her in almost a year. She and my mother were definitely up to something. On emotional overload, I collapsed onto the couch and stared blankly into space until Marmalade jumped on my lap. “Can you believe this?” I asked my furry companion, stroking her back softly. “Are the stars out of alignment or something? So what do you think? It’s after eleven o’clock in Pennsylvania. Should I call her back now?” She just sat there purring and looking at me lovingly with those huge turquoise eyes.
“Well, you’re no help,” I grumbled. Reluctantly, I picked up the phone and dialed Phyllis’s number, struggling with the strange sense that my life was spiraling out of control and I couldn’t seem to do a damn thing about it. “Phyllis? It’s Kendall.”
“Oh, my dear girl!” she gushed. “It’s so good to hear from you! Thank you for returning my call so promptly.”
Wary, I replied, “No problem.”
“Your mother was kind enough to give me your number.”
No surprise there. I sensed the noose was about to be tightened. “Okay. Well, how are you doing? I understand you’re recovering from hip surgery.”
“Yes, yes. It’s been quite an ordeal.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice quavered slightly. “It really is nice to chat with you after such a long time. I’ve missed you.”
The genuine affection in her voice brought back a host of fond memories and my throat clogged with emotion. “I’ve missed you too, Phyllis. Sorry I haven’t called. I thought it might be…awkward.”
“Oh, not at all. I just wish things had turned out differently between you and Grant. You two were so good together.”
Yeah, until he’d screwed it up. “So…what’s up? Is everything all right?”
She cleared her throat delicately. “Actually, I’m calling to ask you a big favor.”
Was it an illusion, or were the walls really closing in on me? I sat down. “What can I do for you?”
Nervous laughter. “You know me, go, go, go all the time and if I wasn’t still undergoing physical therapy, I’d hop on a plane and come out there myself—”
<
br /> My stomach muscles tensed. “Why would you be coming here, Phyllis?”
She sighed deeply. “Grant called me this evening and the poor boy is so distraught.”
“About what?”
“He told me about being hurt in the car accident and how helpful you’ve been.”
“Uh-huh. And your point is…?”
“He told me that he’s in a lot of pain and that the doctor you took him to prescribed so much medication that now it will be difficult for him to drive.” I swallowed back sudden irritation. How had this become my fault? “He’s really worried because his editor is counting on him to cover a funeral on Tuesday somewhere up in the mountains. Prescott, is it? Anyway, I know Grant. He’ll be bound and determined to pursue that story regardless of doctor’s orders and I’m frightened to death he’s going to get behind the wheel. He’s liable to end up killing himself or someone else! If I could I’d be there to help him, but since I can’t well…” she paused for a breath and I knew what she was going to say next. “I was wondering, if it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition…could you possibly drive him to this event?”
My inner antennae vibrated. Perhaps it was all in my head, but I could not suppress the nagging sense of skepticism. Perhaps Phyllis and my mother were not the only co-conspirators. “Did Grant put you up to this?”
“Good heavens, no! In fact, he’d be very upset with me if he knew I’d called you.”
The noose settled firmly around my neck. “Phyllis, you know I’d do just about anything for you, but…I can’t do this.”
“Why not?” There was a note of anxious incredulity in her voice.
“Didn’t you read the note I sent you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then you know that I’m engaged to someone else now.”
“So? You’re all mature adults. I’m sure your fiancé will understand the importance of—”
“Are you kidding? The two of us showing up together at the funeral—even if it is on a professional basis—could create unbelievable problems for me. This is a small town. People talk—”