Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 01 - Down Home Murder
Page 23
“Mama!”
“Linwood, Paw was your grandfather. Don’t you see? Loman killed Paw!”
The two stared at each other until finally Linwood lowered his eyes. “But he was my Daddy,” he said with a sob. He pushed past me and Richard, and ran out the door.
Aunt Edna started to follow.
“Leave him be, Edna,” Sue said without moving. “He’s going to have to work this one out on his own.”
Aunt Edna sat back down, and a minute later we heard Linwood start up his pickup truck and drive off with tires squealing.
Sue caught my eye. “Like Linwood said, if you hadn’t started asking questions, Loman would still be alive. Maybe he wasn’t the best father in the world, but he was the only one Linwood had. That’s neither here nor there. It did happen, and I don’t think that there’s anything you could have done different. I guess you were doing what Paw wanted you to, and I can’t fault you there. I think Loman would rather have died that way than to go to prison anyway.”
I looked at the other aunt I had somehow deprived of a husband. “Aunt Ruby Lee?”
Aunt Ruby Lee sniffed loudly. “I don’t know what to say. I feel like I brought this on us all.”
“Ruby Lee, don’t say that,” Aunt Nellie said, holding her tightly.
“It’s true! I should have known somehow. I guess I never was any good at picking husbands. You’d think I’d learn sometime.” She wiped her eyes. “I went down to the police station to see him, but I just couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him. I knew Conrad could be weak, but I never knew how weak. You say he was drunk when it happened?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “He said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“That’s something, anyway. I don’t blame you, Laurie Anne, really I don’t, but it’s hard to understand it all. So much has happened.”
I nodded. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“There’s one thing I want to know,” Aunt Maggie said. “Why didn’t you tell someone what you were up to?”
“I tried to,” I said, and Aunt Nora and Aunt Daphine nodded. “I was afraid no one would believe me, or that you’d think I was trying to make trouble.”
“That’s my fault,” Uncle Buddy said. “Laurie Anne tried to tell me what she was doing, but I wouldn’t listen. If I had, things might have turned out different.” He looked down at his hands, as if embarrassed at making such a long speech.
“If I hadn’t stumbled around like an idiot, I know things would have turned out differently,” I said miserably. “I really messed things up. I’m sorry.”
“Well, just stop being sorry,” Aunt Daphine said crisply. “This is going to be hard on all of us, but we’ll get by just the same.”
I was still standing at the door. “Do you want me to leave?”
Surprisingly, it was Vasti who said, “Laurie Anne, that is the silliest thing I ever heard! Now come on in here and sit down.”
I never lost the sensation of walking on eggshells that night. We all knew that it was going to be a long time before life felt normal again. Still, mostly what I felt was relief that despite everything that had happened, I was still family. Or maybe I was finally family.
Chapter 41
“Richard, will you please let go of my arm?”
“Not until we’re home. This is the only way I can be sure you’ll stay out of trouble.”
“Are you going to come into the bathroom with me?”
Thaddeous snickered.
Reluctantly Richard released his grasp. “I’ll be right here,” he said.
I sighed in mock exasperation, then went into the airport ladies’ room. Ever since we had returned to Aunt Nora’s house, Richard had not let me out of his sight. Two days had passed since Loman’s death and Conrad’s arrest, and I was hoping that the worst of it was over. Thaddeous, Richard, and I had attended Melanie Wilson’s funeral on Monday, but would not be attending Loman’s on Wednesday.
Now Thaddeous, Aunt Nora, Uncle Buddy, and Aunt Maggie had come to the airport to see us off. I finished in the ladies’ room and went to join the others at the gate.
“They said boarding would begin in a minute,” Richard said. “We better start on the good-byes now.”
I started hugging necks, with Richard following along behind me.
First Uncle Buddy who, to my surprise, added a kiss on my cheek.
Then Aunt Maggie.
“You take care of yourself up there, hear?” Aunt Maggie said.
“I will.”
She lowered her voice a bit. “Now Laurie Anne, I can see why you didn’t want to tell any of your aunts about what you suspected, not when you didn’t know whose husband or son was a murderer, but why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid you’d be upset with me,” I said sheepishly.
“Why in the Sam Hill did you think that?”
“You said once that only trash would turn in their own family.”
“Good Lord, child, I was talking about stealing, not murder. Do you really think I’d want my own brother’s murderer left out on the street? You did good. Ellis would be proud of you. Now don’t take so long coming home next time.”
Aunt Nora was already sniffing, tissue in hand. “Laurie Anne, I’m sorry things went the way they did, but it’s been awfully good seeing you. You let us hear from you.”
“I will.” Feeling tears welling in my own eyes, I hugged my aunt tightly. “Let me know how you’re doing, too.”
“I will. I’ve got a right to call my own niece once in a while,” she added defiantly. She looked pointedly at Uncle Buddy, who actually nodded.
“Are Aunt Edna and Aunt Ruby Lee going to be all right?” I asked.
“You know, I think Edna is going to come out of this better than she went in. It’s kind of shook her out of herself. Besides, she’s got Reverend Glass to help her through.”
“I didn’t think Reverend Glass would have much use for her since he didn’t get Paw’s house.”
“But she still makes the best ginger snaps around.”
“What about Aunt Ruby Lee?”
“She’s in pretty bad shape. First Paw dying and now Conad in jail—it’s hit her hard.”
I nodded.
“She’ll divorce Conrad, of course. He’s already said he won’t fight it, which helps. Daphine is staying with her until she gets over the worst, and I hear that Roger Bailey has been coming round to comfort her.”
I smiled. Roger was a stubborn soul.
“They’ve started boarding,” Richard said.
There was one last good-bye. “Thaddeous…,” I began, then gave up and stretched to throw my arms around him. He turned bright red.
Then Richard took his hand and shook it thoroughly. “I can’t thank you enough, Thaddeous.”
“It wasn’t anything that anyone wouldn’t have done,” he said.
“The heck it wasn’t,” Richard said.
“You come up and see us, and let us show you around Boston,” I said.
“I just might do that,” he said. “I’d kind of like to ride in those boats sometime.”
“Boats?”
“Those pretty bird boats in the pond. You sent me a postcard with them on it.”
I was momentarily transfixed by the imagined spectacle of my cousin wedged onto one of the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden lagoon.
“It’s a deal,” Richard said solemnly. Then, to me, “We better get on board.”
There was a chorus of final farewells as he handed the attendant our tickets, and I turned to wave furiously.
“Now, if you need anything, anything at all, you just call,” Aunt Nora called after us. “Collect!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toni L.P. Kelner is the author of the Laura Fleming mysteries and the “Where are they now?” series. She has also co-edited, with Charlaine Harris, a series of New York Times bestselling fantasy-mystery anthologies, including Many Bloody Returns; Wolfsbane & Mistletoe; Death’s Excellent Va
cation; and the forthcoming Games Creatures Play. Her short stories have been nominated for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer, and she has won the Agatha Award. Under her pseudonym Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries.
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