The Ratliff girls had a special type of relationship with Kathleen. No doubt Margaret and Martha remained distant at times, but that was more a consequence of having been orphaned. There was always a distance the two girls kept from outsiders. They referred to both Patricia and Kathleen as Mom, but they were removed, at some level, from both women. Even if the Ratliff girls shared a close relationship with Kathleen, in the final analysis, it was only their dad, Michael, whom they considered true family. It was Michael who had spent all his adult life doting on them.
In the months after they had been orphaned, Margaret and Martha had truly become his. For most of their lives, hardly a moment had gone by that Michael wasn’t there for Margaret and Martha. Michael was their one shining light. In a way, Michael had become the Ratliffs’ savior. Michael was their primary parent, always taking the girls with him, back and forth from Germany to North Carolina. Michael was the one who helped with the burial of the girls’ mom, Elizabeth, after she had died tragically in Germany.
He meant everything to them, and the feeling was mutual. So, as much as Margaret and Martha were saddened about the loss of their stepmother, to the Ratliff girls, it was their legal guardian, Michael, who was their only true parent. It wasn’t that Margaret and Martha didn’t feel their own sense of loss about Kathleen, but it was also for their dad’s sake that the Ratliff girls grieved. They knew how much he loved Kathleen.
Of course Kathleen Peterson had tried to be a good mother to the Ratliff girls. But it was complicated. Over the years, Kathleen had to deal with Michael’s ex-wife making trouble. In the months following Elizabeth Ratliff’s death, once Michael and Patricia had been designated guardians to Margaret and Martha, Patricia had agreed to leave Germany, to move back to North Carolina with Michael, really for the sake of the girls. For whatever reason, Michael convinced her that it would be easier to raise the four kids in the States. But Patricia had a hard time making that adjustment back to American life. Living in Durham was not what she had expected, and having to supervise four demanding children just made her life impossible. Michael would later tell Kathleen that Patricia had been making comments about how she really didn’t want to raise the Ratliff girls. Michael reported that Patricia said she hadn’t signed up for a second family.
Nonetheless, Patricia had tried. She had moved back to the States, returning to the home she and Michael still owned in Durham. It was the home that she and Michael had bought in their early days of marriage, when they were young college kids, when their lives were carefree. But life with four kids was a whole different ball game. Michael was working in isolation, writing his novels, and most of the everyday burdens fell on Patricia. And so, returning back to North Carolina would wind up being disastrous for her, and especially for her marriage. Patricia would never feel quite comfortable in the States. Even though she was an American, she didn’t really adapt very well. Because of that, Michael wound up retreating into a friendship with Kathleen, the glamorous divorcée who lived nearby.
In the beginning, when Michael and Kathleen were only friends, when Caitlin and Margaret and Martha were three grade-school kids, living as neighbors, playing happily together, everything seemed simple and innocent. But then Patricia noticed that Michael was spending more and more time with Kathleen. For months, she tried to keep a blind eye; she basically stood back and said nothing. But as Michael and Kathleen became more and more involved, Patricia found them together to be near impossible.
Michael and Kathleen were falling deeply in love, and Patricia couldn’t help herself from feeling hateful. Naturally, she resented Michael and Kathleen’s love affair, especially as it became increasingly open. As things became more serious, as Michael was threatening to move out of their house, Patricia decided she wasn’t about to make things easy for Kathleen. She was painfully aware of how well Kathleen was getting along with Michael, Margaret, and Martha, and Patricia was becoming outwardly nervous about losing her family.
Back in those days, Patricia was still trying to save her marriage to Michael. Determined to maintain her status as his wife, Patricia requested that Michael move back with her to Germany. She had accepted a teaching position there, and would be taking their sons with her, whether he liked it or not. Patricia would suggest that Michael keep the house in Durham, that he rent it out as an investment property, but she insisted that North Carolina would no longer be her home. Michael would have to choose. If he wanted to live with his sons, he would have to leave the United States.
Patricia figured that since she and Michael had been happy back in Germany, they could rekindle their love there. They had many friends in that part of the world, Patricia having worked many years as a teacher for the Department of Defense. She knew Michael loved it there; he had written his first novel in Germany and adored European ways. Germany was a place of so many fond memories for Michael, a man who loved being an expatriate. And Patricia knew that.
The two of them had initially agreed to return to the states as a temporary fix. They felt the old Southern ways, the Southern hospitality, would make life more cushy for their larger family. But once she became a full-time teacher and a full-time mom in Durham, Patricia grew increasingly unsettled with the American ways of life. As Michael became more enamored with the ease of an American existence, Patricia felt that her sons would be best served growing up in Europe. As for the Ratliff girls, Patricia felt Michael should determine what the best upbringing for them would be. Their “adopted” girls were in grade school; Margaret and Martha would be able to withstand another move. If Michael wanted his sons in his life, he would have to take the girls away from America. Patricia felt the girls would flourish in Germany, where their biological mom, Liz, had wanted them to grow up. She believed that Michael would somehow agree.
But no one could have foreseen the love that Michael would find with Kathleen. The love affair between Michael and Kathleen had started off slowly, with their girls being best friends. But as the two of them continued to see each other, they realized how much they really had in common. When their secret love affair was no longer hidden, Patricia was devastated. At first, she was hopeful that she could outlast Kathleen. Patricia was willing to do anything to keep Michael in her life, to make concessions about staying in America, to do whatever her husband might ask. But when Michael announced that he was going to move into Kathleen’s house, just a few blocks away, telling Patricia that he had decided to live with Kathleen out of wedlock . . . Patricia could hardly stand it.
At first, Michael had this idea that Caitlin, Margaret, and Martha could live like sisters. They all seemed so happy together, and Kathleen was all for it. But that was too much of a leap for Patricia to make. In those early years, even though Patricia hardly showed it, she disliked Kathleen and her preppy daughter, Caitlin. Patricia refused to allow her sons to even visit Kathleen’s home. As the tug-of-war for Michael continued, Patricia picked up and moved back to Germany, taking hers sons with her.
By shifting households, Patricia Peterson felt certain that she would force Michael back into her life. But to her surprise, Michael, who had gone back to give Germany a try for a few months, who had taken Margaret and Martha overseas to try to keep his family whole, had decided that there was no way he could make it work with Patricia. Instead, Michael had grown spiteful toward Patricia and her attempt to keep him away from Kathleen. It became even more clear, with all the miles and the Atlantic Ocean between them, that Kathleen was the only woman Michael loved. After only nine months, not being able to live apart from her, Michael returned to Kathleen. With his two daughters in tow, Michael Peterson would never move from his home base of North Carolina again.
Once Michael returned, Kathleen took on greater responsibilities for the Ratliff girls. Margaret and Martha were always closer to Michael, and Kathleen had her daughter, Caitlin, but Kathleen tried very hard to be a true mother to Margaret and Martha. Kathleen seemed to know how to handle the kids; she was fair with all three girls. She showed each of them
the same unconditional love. The same love she had for Caitlin, she tried to bestow to Margaret and Martha. Kathleen only became the type of mother they needed.
As the girls grew up together, they blossomed under Kathleen’s watchful eye. She encouraged them to become involved with sports; she guided them through their school projects. But Kathleen wasn’t the type to take control of the girls. Martha and Margaret were still Michael’s children. She tried to earn their admiration, and she understood that Michael was the person they loved best. It was okay that Michael was the mainstay for the Ratliff girls. Kathleen knew her place, and did everything possible to complete their lives.
It would take years, but Kathleen slowly earned the title of Mom. Through her nurturing and fairness, she had won them over. Margaret and Martha loved her. They considered themselves hers. Even though they stayed in touch with their “mom” Patricia, who would make annual summer visits to Durham, who would try to assert her own status with the girls, Margaret and Martha had developed a very unique relationship with Kathleen—one that was hardly penetrable.
Patricia, of course, would continue to operate from the sidelines. She would continue to resent Michael’s true love of Kathleen. For a long time, Patricia tried to delay her divorce from Michael, but Kathleen had won Michael’s heart. Kathleen stood by him, and had managed to live through his lengthy separation and divorce.
When Michael was finally free, the two of them moved out of Kathleen’s Forest Hills home. They had purchased their storybook mansion on Cedar Street. At that point, Kathleen and Michael had been together for over five years. With their move into their very own home, with Michael publishing a new book and reaching a new height of success, the two decided they should marry. They loved each other, and they wanted to make everything official.
Michael was well on his way to becoming a famous author, and Kathleen was also becoming a success, climbing the corporate ladder at Nortel Networks. The two worked so well together, and once they were married, things were better than ever. Michael and Kathleen were really on top of the world. Their lifestyle felt so right. They had a love and respect that few couples ever knew. Their ties to the kids had become so strong that neither of them needed to worry about how Patricia might affect the family. When Michael’s sons returned to Durham to begin looking at American universities, the boys fit right in. Kathleen treated Clayton and Todd with the utmost respect. After years of marriage, Kathleen was no longer concerned about doing anything that might make Michael balk. She no longer had to walk a fine line, no longer had to worry about causing ripples or waves with the children.
Certain bad feelings continued to exist between Patricia and Michael and Kathleen over the years, but once Clayton and Todd had decided to attend Duke University, to live back home with Michael, Patricia was good about letting Michael keep his boys close to his home. For their part, Clayton and Todd came to know what a good soul Kathleen was.... They held her in a separate place.
As the boys began to appreciate how gentle and respectful Kathleen was with them, as they shared stories about Kathleen’s kind ways, their mother began to set her hard feelings aside. Michael and the children backed Kathleen one hundred percent, and eventually Patricia conceded that Kathleen had become a central figure in the Peterson family.
It had taken years, but Patricia had come to understand that Michael and Kathleen were entrenched with the children, that they all enjoyed having an American life. Michael was relieved about that. Michael admired Kathleen for seeming to have endless patience in the war that went on during the first few years of their relationship, but finally the whole situation with Patricia, all the fighting, all the struggle with the kids, was over. After so many years of working on things, of working things out, Michael and Kathleen had it all together. Their own relationship was tight. And their life with their patchwork family—their sons, their daughters—had become the ultimate and quintessential American dream.
Not that any of that mattered anymore.
Whatever family wounds there had been, whatever peace Patricia had made with Michael and Kathleen, was no longer relevant. Kathleen had died so quickly, so tragically. Her children, including Caitlin, regardless of having other parents in their lives, regardless of being young adults, would still have a hard time fending for themselves.
Everyone knew that Kathleen worked so hard to keep the Peterson household together. Everyone knew how much Kathleen had gone out of her way for her kids, making five-course family dinners, insisting that all of them sit together for her home-cooked meals But now with Kathleen’s death, all any of them could feel was sorrow.
Kathleen was gone, and the Peterson kids would begin to wonder how they would actually manage without her. They had that big house, and there were so many responsibilities to think about. It wasn’t that they weren’t willing . . . but they had all moved away. Except for Todd, they each had their separate lives in other parts of the country. The kids knew Michael would never be able to keep up such a big household by himself. The kids knew Kathleen had always taken on the family chores, the nitty-gritty work behind the scenes. Kathleen had always done all the social arrangements for the family get-togethers, she had always handled the shopping, the baking, all the extras that only a mom could do.
Now, with Michael all alone, of course, things would be different. Even the basics would be difficult for him. And the frills, the holiday gatherings and charity events, those things would be out of the question.
With Kathleen no longer there to run things, everyone felt ill at ease. Kathleen was the glue that held them all together. Even Michael, who was a fabulous dad to his children, who was loved and respected by all of them, would never be able to equal Kathleen. There was all the love she put into things, all the handmade care that Kathleen devoted to the family. Kathleen was a one-of-a-kind woman, a breadwinner, a supermom and homemaker. Michael would always be the first to tell people that.
Nine
“We stayed in this hotel room, and we were all talking about how sad we were,” Caitlin recalled, speaking of the first night back in Durham with Margaret and Martha. “We hadn’t seen each other in three months, and we all had those random stories that would pop into our heads about Mom.”
The three sisters wanted to share anecdotes about happy times. They were leaning on their pillows, still distraught, but they needed to calm themselves down. Remembering happy things, the little mottoes Kathleen had, the way she advised them about boys, those were the types of things the girls wanted to talk about. But no matter how many stories they told about shopping sprees, no matter how many comments they would make about their experiences with Kathleen at home in Durham, or with Kathleen in faraway places, like Hong Kong, they still kept coming back to the subject of her shocking death, and about all the police suspicions. They resented the police for intruding into their private lives. They knew their dad had been a public figure in Durham. They knew that the death investigation was standard police procedure. But it still didn’t seem fair.
“It’s so crazy that they’re doing this to our dad,” Margaret complained.
“I don’t understand why they’re blowing things out of proportion,” Martha blurted. “They’re trying to make a big deal about it for no reason.”
“I wish they would just let it go,” Caitlin said. “I wish they would just leave us alone.”
The girls didn’t want to talk about the news reports. They knew that Michael had been advised, by his lawyer friends, not to talk to the press. Kerry Sutton, the family friend who was initially representing him, had been angered by the circumstances. Sutton told local reporters that Michael Peterson had been treated like a criminal from the get-go, and because of the so-called police misconduct, Michael had decided to hire a criminal attorney. The girls were aware that their dad had called a top lawyer out of Chapel Hill. But they had no idea what Barry Winston, the attorney, was going to do for Michael. No charges had been filed; there was no foul play being reported.
The girl
s felt confident that the situation would work itself out. They knew their dad was innocent. There was no question in their minds. They would later make statements to the media to confirm their beliefs.
The following morning, as the girls woke up in their hotel room at the Washington Duke, the three of them were still in shock. They really wanted the whole world to go away. None of them wanted to get out of their beds. They were content to stay bunched together, the three of them just comforting each other. They felt upset, and wanted to grieve in their own quiet way. No throng of mourners, no amount of public accolades for their mom, was going to change the fact that they were confronting her death.
When they were asked by their aunts, Candace and Lori, to help run some errands, to help with funeral arrangements, they weren’t really feeling up to it. But the flowers needed to be ordered, and their mom’s cemetery plot needed to be chosen. It was all so depressing for the girls. Margaret and Martha were just beside themselves, but Caitlin felt these things had to be handled. Clayton and Todd were busy, holed up in the house with their dad. Caitlin told her sisters that they had no real choice.
The local news, meanwhile, was giving reports about the hazards and injuries that people suffered from stairway falls. One expert noted that in 2001 alone, over 1 million people across America had been treated in hospitals as a result of a slip in a stairway. The local news commented, in particular, about the Petersons’ back stairway. They surmised that because it was in such an old house, because the back stairway served as a utility access for the mansion, the stairs where Mrs. Peterson was found were probably very steep.
News reports mentioned that police investigators wouldn’t really understand certain factors such as the “orientation gradient,” where people can become disoriented by subtle factors. There was much speculation about things such as the curves in the stairwell, the tread edges, and the handrails. News reporters speculated about the unusual size of the steps, noting that any fall, even a fall down three or four steps, could be very unforgiving. News reports reminded the public of the many factors that might make a person lose their view or vision, especially if the stairwell was dimly lit.
A Perfect Husband Page 6