by Madyson Grey
“Rafael? Hispanic?” Mrs. Danforth asked.
“Yeah, his father immigrated from Mexico before Rafael was born.”
“That’s nice,” Mrs. Danforth said.
“The reason I’m here,” Victoria began, “is that I need to turn in my resignation. I’m going to move back to LA. All the reasons that I left have … have gone away. Being back there made me realize that I miss the California weather. And there are a lot of loose ends that I have to take care of. My dad left his business to me, and the house, so I need to be there.”
“Your mother?” Mrs. Danforth asked gently.
She knew that much of the reason Victoria had come to Seattle seven years ago was to escape her mother. Victoria sighed.
“She had a complete breakdown and is in a psych ward,” she said sadly. “She assaulted her housekeeper, held Rafael at gunpoint, and I think she killed my dad. But that hasn’t been proven yet. It’s a really long, ugly story. You don’t want to hear it and I don’t have time to tell it.”
“Sounds like you’ve been through the ringer the past couple of weeks,” Mrs. Danforth said sympathetically.
“Through it backwards and forwards, several times,” Victoria said. “Anyway, I decided I’d rather tell you in person than call you from down there. I had to come up to move my stuff back to LA, so I just waited until I got here.”
“Well, I’m sure sorry to see you go. You’ve been a great asset here at the museum. But I understand that sometimes our lives take sudden twists and turns that we didn’t expect. And you have to do what you have to do.”
Mrs. Danforth got up and came around her desk to take Victoria’s hands in hers.
“Best of luck to you, Vicky,” she said. “If you ever get up this way again, be sure to stop in and see me.”
“I will. Thank you for being so good to work for and so understanding now.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Mrs. Danforth said, going back around her desk.
She opened a drawer and took out a white envelope.
“Here’s your last paycheck,” she said, holding the envelope out to Victoria.
“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Victoria said.
After saying goodbye to Mrs. Danforth and her co-workers who clustered around her after she left the office, Victoria took one last glance around the place where she had been so happy for the past several years. Then she left, went to the car where Rafael waited, and left that part of her life behind her.
Chapter Two
They drove over to the Space Needle complex and got out and walked around. They rode the elevator up to the observation deck and looked out over the city.
“This is cool up here,” Rafael said. “I’ve wanted to do this for years.”
“I like it, too,” Victoria said. “I’ve come up here quite a few times in the last few years.”
They fooled around there for a while, and then decided they’d better get back to Victoria’s apartment and get her things packed. Victoria bought a tiny Space Needle model to commemorate her time in Seattle. On the way back to her place, they stopped at the truck rental place to place a hold on a truck and to buy packing boxes and materials. They also rented a car dolly to put her car on to take south with them.
They picked up a frozen pizza to have for lunch, along with a quart of milk, a loaf of bread, and some cheese for sandwiches, and then hurried back to get busy packing. By bedtime, they had the majority of her things boxed, labeled and stacked in the living room ready to load into the truck the next day. The next morning they had a quick breakfast of cereal and milk and packed up the kitchen.
By noon, everything was packed up except for a few cleaning supplies. While Rafael drove her car to pick up the rental truck, she cleaned the apartment. Then she went to the manager’s apartment and turned in her keys. She apologized for not giving notice, but when she briefly explained her situation, the manager said it was all right, and, after inspecting the apartment, said that a check for her cleaning deposit would be mailed to her soon.
Rafael returned and they began toting boxes out to the truck and loading them. It took a good hour or longer to get everything carried out to the truck. Victoria was grateful for a ground floor apartment, and one that opened onto the parking lot, so they didn’t have far to carry the boxes. A hand truck that was provided with the truck helped considerably.
At last the last box was in place in the truck and the car had been rolled up onto the car dolly again and secured in place. Victoria took one last look around the apartment that she had called home for four years. She had first lived in a dormitory while she was in college. She’d had some good times here; but, just as she had come to make a change in her life, she was leaving to make another change.
She pulled the door shut, made sure it was locked, and then joined Rafael in the truck. It was three o’clock in the afternoon by the time they pulled onto Interstate 5 headed south. They wouldn’t get very far today, but the more miles they put behind them, the closer back home they would be.
After they had cleared Portland, they began to look for a place to eat. Victoria spotted a fast food place just off the freeway at Woodburn, so they pulled off, grabbed a bite and got back on the road just as quick as they could. By the time they hit Roseburg, Rafael was tired of driving, and getting sleepy. So they took an exit, found a motel, and called it a night.
They were up early the next morning, and decided to drive at least as far as Medford before stopping for breakfast. Since it was only about an hour and a half’s drive, they were good with that. Sure enough, by eight o’clock they were pulling off at Central Point and into the big truck stop there.
After a good breakfast and refueling, they were on the road again, armed with snacks and cold drinks. Rafael set his speed for a steady sixty-five miles per hour, which he held even climbing the Siskiyou Summit south of Ashland, the highest point on Interstate 5. Victoria held her breath as they started picking up speed going downhill, but Rafael slowed down some and carefully negotiated the curves. At the first sighting of Mt. Shasta, Rafael was impressed with its size and beauty. As they descended into Yreka, the view of the wide Shasta Valley nestled in between the majesty of the mountains was breathtaking.
By the time they got to Stockton, the truck had to be refueled, so they exited the freeway where they could see a gas station. As long as they were stopped, Victoria walked over to a burger place next to the gas station and got them burgers, fries, and milkshakes for lunch while Rafael was refueling the truck.
On the road again, Rafael once again set his speed at sixty-five and held it there as traffic permitted. It was close to three o’clock and they still had about a five-hour run or more, depending on how bad traffic was once they got close to LA.
“I think we’ll make it on in tonight,” Rafael told Victoria. “Even if it’s late, we’ll just keep rolling.”
“OK, just don’t get too tired,” Victoria said. “Better to stop even if we’re close than to take a chance on a wreck just because you got sleepy.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said. “If I do get too tired, we will just stop. But I think I’ll be fine.”
As the miles rolled by, they tossed ideas back and forth about what to do for a really nice, memorable wedding trip. Hawaii. The Bahamas. New Orleans. A cruise. A motorhome rental. The Grand Canyon. Yellowstone. The ideas flew back and forth between them a good share of the day.
The final decision was that they would buy a small Class C motorhome and travel as far as Galveston, Texas, and take in as many sights between home and there as they possibly could in one month. Rafael thought that one month was as long as he dared be gone from the business until he was more firmly established as the CEO. Even that was pushing it, he felt. But he really wanted this trip to be a memorable one. He had never traveled outside of southern California in his entire life, so there were a lot of places he wanted to go to and see and do.
Although Victoria’s parents could well afford to travel, they didn’t do much of it. D
avid was wrapped up in the business much of the time and Marian was completely involved in her social circles. Sometimes if David had to make a business trip to another city, he would take Marian and Victoria along. There were even a few occasions, when Victoria was a little older that Marian didn’t want to go, but Victoria did, so David would take just her. Those were very special trips during which father and daughter bonded even closer, if that were possible. Victoria would always treasure the memory of them in her heart.
The Grand Canyon, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, were major points of interest to stop at along the way to Texas. Once inside the borders of Texas, there were so many places to go and things to see that they would be hard pressed to get them all in. Austin and San Antonio, with its Alamo, were at the top of the list. Then, of course, Galveston and on to Corpus Christi. On the way back, they would hit up Roswell, New Mexico and White Sands National Monument, Tombstone and Tucson, Arizona, and the Yuma Territorial Prison.
A month was a short enough time, but if they were a day or two late coming home, at least they wouldn’t get fired. As they hammered out the major places of interest they each wanted to stop at, Victoria wrote them down on a scrap of paper. At home, they would map out the exact route and figure out what dates they could be gone for that long. It would be a month or so at least, they figured, to get a handle on things at work and to find out what was going to happen to Marian. Maybe even longer.
It was close to ten o’clock that night when Rafael finally turned the rental truck into the Thornton driveway. Victoria hopped out and opened the gate, and then got back in. Rafael pulled the truck up into the circle drive to the front door. He shut of the ignition and heaved a sigh of relief. The long day was finally over. They took only their one suitcase in the house, leaving the unloading until the morrow.
Lena was waiting up for them. Victoria had called her when they were a couple of hours out and let her know that they would be in that night. They didn’t want to scare her by coming in so late unannounced. After being assured that the trip had been successful and safe, Lena excused herself and went to bed, leaving them to do the same.
After quick showers, the two exhausted travelers collapsed into bed and were soon fast asleep. When they awoke the next morning, they were in no hurry to get up. But after they had satisfied their morning desire, they got up. Victoria dressed in a pair of old jeans and a shirt to get the truck unloaded.
Lena had oats cooking and the coffee ready when they went downstairs. After a good home cooked breakfast, they were ready to tackle the job of unpacking the truck. Lena insisted on coming out to help, even though they told her she wasn’t needed. Rafael had to get the car off the dolly and unhitch it before they could begin unloading. So he did that while the women cleaned up after breakfast.
When they were finished, they went outside to get started. With the three of them working together, and the help of the hand truck, the truck was emptied in less than an hour, and the boxes were stacked temporarily in the master bedroom and the end of the hallway. Victoria knew that something would have to give for her and Rafael to get all their things unpacked and settled into the house, and make it theirs. She just didn’t know if she could ever use the master suite. For two cents, she’d just sell the place and get something that would be hers and Rafael’s alone, with no ghosts from the past lingering in her parents’ rooms and her dad’s office.
But until a decision was made concerning her mother’s fate, her hands were tied. She wondered if they had enough money to go buy a more modest place before this one could be sold. She’d have to ask Rafael about that.
The ringing of her cell phone brought Victoria out of her thinking mode. She answered it, not recognizing the phone number. It was the lieutenant.
“Hello, Miss Thornton,” he greeted her. “This is Lieutenant Mobry.”
“Hello, Lieutenant,” she replied. “How are you this morning?”
“Just fine, ma’am. How are you?” he inquired.
“OK, I think. Rafael and I just got back late last night from Seattle, and we just got the rental truck unloaded a little bit ago. Is there any news?”
“Yes, there is. We did find gunshot residue on a couple of the garments that were in your mother’s laundry hamper. There was a long-sleeved blouse that had the most on it. The blouse also had traces of blood spatter on it. The residue found on the other items was probably transferred due to being in the hamper together.”
“So, Mother did shoot Daddy, is that it?” she asked, a hint of despair in her voice.
“It certainly looks that way. I’m very sorry, Miss Thornton,” he said. “Very sorry. The question we now have is how was she able to overpower him in order to shoot him and make it appear as though he committed suicide?”
“I have thought about that off and on lately,” Victoria said. “I keep coming back to the empty Tylenol 3 bottle that was in the medicine chest in Mother’s bathroom. What if Mother was able to grind up enough of those pills and put it in a hot drink, say tea or coffee, get Daddy to drink it so that he became unconscious? Then she put on gloves, put the gun in Daddy’s hand and pulled the trigger. He slumps to the desk, the gun still in his hand, she throws the gloves away, and puts her blouse in the hamper.”
“When could she have done this?” the lieutenant asked. “She was seen at her club luncheon during the time David allegedly died.”
“How about this?” Victoria proposed. “She drugs him before she goes to her luncheon with enough codeine to kill him. She comes home, Daddy is dead from the drug overdose, and then she shoots him, then calls 911 saying she came home to find him dead. The coroner’s time of death would place her at the luncheon.”
“You watch a lot of murder mysteries on TV, don’t you,” the lieutenant asked with the tiniest bit of a chuckle.
“Well, yes, I do, but it makes sense, doesn’t it?” she asked, returning his chuckle.
“I have to admit, it is a possibility. Proving it is a whole other ball game, however.”
“Yeah, I know. If you need any help, just call Jessica Fletcher. Or maybe Columbo. They’ll help you figure it out,” Victoria said with a laugh.
“Yeah, right. That’ll work,” the lieutenant said dryly.
He laughed, too.
“No, what we’d have to do is exhume your father’s body and do a tox screen on it for drugs. We technically need your mother’s permission, but since she is not mentally stable now, your permission would be acceptable.”
“Well, then, I give my permission for you to do so,” Victoria said. “Do I need to come down and sign something?”
“Do you have a fax machine there at home?”
“Yes.”
“I can fax you the form, you can sign it and fax it back. That will save you a trip to the station,” the lieutenant said.
“Works for me,” Victoria said. “Send it over and I’ll sign it and get it right back to you, then you can get on it.”
“All right, I’ll send it in just a few minutes. I’ll have to go pull the form.”
“I don’t suppose the DNA testing is back yet, is it?” Victoria asked.
“No, not yet. I don’t expect it for several weeks yet,” he answered.
Victoria gave the lieutenant the home fax number so he could send over the form. Then they hung up so he could get the form sent. In about five minutes, the form was on the fax machine. Victoria signed it and sent it back. Then she went to find Rafael and tell him what the lieutenant had just told her.
Rafael put his arms around Victoria and held her close for a moment.
“I’m so sorry about all of this, honey,” he said.
“I have such mixed feelings about all this,” Victoria said. “On one hand, I’m very relieved to know that Daddy didn’t kill himself. Suicide is such an awful thing. On the other hand I am viciously angry with Mother for killing him, but relieved to know he didn’t kill himself. I’m devastated that my own mother could kill him—her own husband. I have lost both parents at the
same time. And even though I didn’t have the best relationship with my mother, she’s still my mother, and it still hurts. And I miss Daddy just so, so much.”
Victoria knew she was rambling somewhat, but the words just came tumbling out of her mouth. She put her head on Rafael’s shoulder and let the hot tears flow. He held her lovingly, rubbing her back with one hand, and holding her close with the other. When her sobbing subsided, she pulled back a little from him and wiped her eyes. Then she had to go and find a tissue to blow her nose on.
Lena happened to come upstairs to bring clean laundry up just as Victoria was wiping her face.
“What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.
“I just talked to the lieutenant and he told me that they found gunshot residue on one of Mother’s blouses that I took him that was in the hamper,” she told Lena. “He’s pretty sure that Mother killed Daddy, but he still needs more proof that will hold up in court. I have given him permission to exhume Daddy’s body to test it for drugs.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Lena said, putting her arm around Victoria’s shoulder. “I’m just so sorry. I wish I could take all your pain away.”
“I’m OK, Lena. Really I am,” Victoria said, sniffling. “I’m just so thankful for you and Rafael. I don’t know what I’d do without the two of you. I’d be a total basket case here all by myself.”
“I’ll always be here for you, honey,” Lena assured her.
“Well, I’ve got to get it together and figure out what I’m gonna do,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to talk with Mr. Hall and see just what I can do. I think I’d really like to sell this place and get something a little more modest and one with no bad memories in it. You will move with us, won’t you, Lena? Please? We’ll look for something where you can still have your own living quarters.”
“I have been wondering what I would do if you decided to sell this place,” Lena admitted. “I didn’t know if you would want me to go with you, or if I would need to look for another position.”