by Linda Hanna
Jeff gave a winsome smile. “Yep, I learned it from all those years of watching you play on TV, Uncle Steady.”
Emily and Cora stood on the sidelines to sort out the various relationships represented within the group. The initial awkwardness of this family of strangers didn’t last long as they discovered the uniqueness of their blood ties.
The lively La-La girls entertained with preschool songs and newly learned tap dance steps.
Cora and Emily giggled at the delightful innocence of the three little sisters in look-alike dresses. A round of applause filled the air as the youngsters ended their mayhem of missteps.
All the excitement provoked Letitia Bockman’s French poodle into a round of howls. An invisible fence kept Tinkle-Belle contained as she danced along the property line.
Dahlia placed her fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle. “Hey, y’all!” she called. “It’s time to mosey on inside an’ watch your television show.”
Everyone stood to make the trek into Ed’s den. Wendell put up his hand to stop them and announced, “Be sure an’ watch close when they innerview me. I got to tell ‘em about my daddy an’ his daddy afore him bein’ Texas Rangers.”
Dahlia frowned at her crowing spouse. “Ya didn’t cough up that ol’ hairball again, did ya?” She stepped away from the door to let the group inside.
“Well, I think it added a li’l somethin’ to the piece,” Wendell turned to check the heat of the sizzling grill. “I’ll be ready for the chicken in about fifteen minutes, Dahlia Sue.”
Inside, the children and teens huddled on the floor in front of the TV while the adults squeezed together on the furniture. Dozens of eyes were glued to the set. Everyone was ready to view the McGibbons’ tape of the twin’s segment on Mysteries of the Rich and Famous. Members of the family waited excitedly to see themselves on the nationally aired program.
Cora noticed when June nervously checked her watch. A few minutes later, the family historian tiptoed out of the room. Where was she going? As the show’s theme music swelled, Cora’s attention was drawn back the television.
A fervent command arose from the back of the crowd, “Hey! Turn it up, I can’t hear.”
“Shhh!” was the reply. A photograph of Cora and one of Emily filled the screen as the announcer’s deep voice blared, “It was a mystery that spanned nearly six decades. Cora Timms, wife of legendary golf pro, Steady Eddie Timms, and her identical twin, Emily Morgan, were separated and given up for adoption at two years of age. They grew up only ninety miles apart, not remembering their twin existed.
“Ed and Cora Timms live in this high-end complex outside of Phoenix. The pleasant community is home to over three hundred senior adults who co-existed peacefully…until one stormy night, when Cora thought she witnessed a murder in her own backyard. Days later, the decomposing body of the Timms’s neighbor, Patrick Hyde, was found in a nearby garage. This would be the first of three murders to ravage the serene neighborhood.
“The story took an unexpected twist when Emily, who lived in Grand Sands, Arizona, came to Phoenix to visit her son, Dr. Jefferson Morgan.”
The scene on the television changed to show Jeff as he sat on the corner of his desk. “You can imagine my surprise when Steady Eddie Timms came into my office with my mother. When I got close enough to hug her, I realized she wasn’t Mom. That’s when we discovered Mom and Cora were identical twins.”
The show’s host added, “For some time, the sisters had been mistaken for each other throughout Phoenix and the surrounding area. Convicted embezzler, Jack Thurston, was no exception. He worked with one of the sisters at Mathelcorp in San Francisco. She and her husband had been close, personal friends of Thurston and unknowingly played a key role in his embezzlement scheme.”
Emily and Cora held hands while Thurston’s intricate plot was exposed to the viewers. A bird’s-eye view of the California prison aired. “For ten years, Thurston had been incarcerated here at Stockton Correctional Facility for Men. While serving time, he learned that his now-widowed friend had remarried and moved out of state.
“Weeks after his parole, Thurston found an article promoting Saguaro Valley Retirement Complex. A photograph of Steady Eddie Timms and his wife, Cora, caught his eye.”
While the announcer gave further details, Emily leaned over and whispered in Jeff’s ear. He replied with a simple shrug.
“Thurston,” the announcer said, “naturally assumed she was Mrs. Morgan, the former employee and close personal friend from San Francisco.”
Emily grabbed Cora’s elbow. “Wait! What did he say about me?”
“Shhh!” came a choir of voices from the back of the room.
The program reverted back to the Saguaro Valley Complex. “Thurston secured a job as a handyman in the community where the Timms’s live. Soon, he was harassing Mrs. Timms over the phone, trying to obtain his property, which he thought was stored in their home safe.
“When Mrs. Timms didn’t comply with his demands, he increased his fear tactics and recklessly pursued her on the way back from Phoenix one evening. Cora Timms was nearly run off the road. However, she was able to break away from her stalker on the outskirts of a nearby town. When she arrived home, the stalker’s car was parked in her neighbor’s drive. Mr. Timms recognized the auto as being that of George Shipley, his former employee. This blatant effort to put his wife in danger alarmed Steady Eddie enough to contact the police. Officer Norman McNulty was there to answer the call.”
Gasps were audible throughout the room as film footage of two covered bodies were removed from the Shipley’s home. Officer McNulty appeared on-screen. “When we went to question the suspect, we found the bodies of both Shipley and his eighty-two-year-old mother, Gertrude. They had been fatally shot and rigor mortis had already set in.” McNulty’s jaw clenched, his eyes slightly narrowed. “This was proof that they were dead prior to the car chase, and that Shipley hadn’t been Cora Timms’ stalker.”
Mug shots of the criminals were shown as the announcer added to the story. “According to the police, Thurston’s accomplice, Rita Santalis, acknowledged that he murdered Patrick Hyde and the Shipleys. In an effort to throw suspicion onto the dead man and off himself, Thurston used Shipley’s car to tail Mrs. Timms.”
Greek music filled the air and viewers were transported to the Pegasi Cafe.
Emily squeezed Cora’s hand as the dark-haired reporter stood in front of the bubbling Pegasus fountain. “Pegasi waiter, Ben Shafer, told of the confusion when he had mistaken Mrs. Timms for her sister.” He held the microphone up to the waiter’s mouth.
“You should have seen Mr. Timms’ when I told him his wife was here every week.” the waiter grinned and added, “With Dr. Morgan.”
The announcer’s voice grew soft and mysterious as he faced the television camera. “This revealing bit of information led Steady Eddie and Cora to visit Dr. Morgan, who fortunately held the key to the puzzle. Once the mystery was solved, the twins met for their first tear-filled reunion in many years.
“The next day, Mrs. Morgan went to her sister’s home. While alone, the ladies heard noises in the house and discovered Thurston ransacking the Timms’s home office. Unbeknownst to Thurston, Emily Morgan used her cell phone to take pictures of him. Later, he found the women hiding in a food pantry. Emily had taken medication for a heart problem and the ensuing headache rendered her helpless. There was a struggle. It was then the twins were kidnapped and held hostage in room 19 at the Catchpenny Motel.”
One of Vi’s photos of the repulsive room appeared on the screen. That picture changed to the be-robed twins, sombreros, duck slippers and all.
Cora moaned and covered her face with her hands. “I can’t watch.”
Emily nodded. “Sorry to say, they got this part exactly right.” She smiled at June, who returned to the room.
Wendell’s voice boomed throughout the den. “OK, here it is. This is where I get to talk. Listen, he calls me detective.”
“While doing h
is preliminary search,” the reporter said, “Detective O’Givens found the cell phone with the incriminating evidence.”
Wendell stomped his foot. “Aww, he got my name wrong an’ I even spelt it for him. I didn’t catch that whilst I was tapin’ it. No wonder I ain’t been gettin’ no calls.”
Then, Wendell, in his Stetson, appeared on camera. “Once’t I found Emily’s phone, I stuffed it in this here pocket. Later, she called me on it an’ asked me to come get ‘em.”
“Weren’t you afraid the kidnapper would catch up with you?” the correspondent asked.
“Naw. I was raised to be a lawman. My daddy an’ his daddy afore him was Texas Rangers. I got their blood a’gallopin’ through my veins.”
As the camera broke away from Wendell, the local police station came into view. A motorcycle roared past while the announcer stepped into the building. “Mrs. Morgan’s cell phone was found and surrendered to the police. It held enough evidence for the Saguaro Valley police to arrest Thurston on breaking and entering. Charges for kidnapping the twins, and the murders of the Shipleys and Patrick Hyde were quickly added.
“While abducted, Emily Morgan’s quick thinking thwarted her former friend’s attempt to follow through on his death threats of her newfound brother-in-law, Steady Eddy Timms.”
Emily stood up. “Wait! Former friend? They’re still getting us confused, Cora. I never met Jack Thurston until that first day I came to your house. Remember he thought I was you.”
“What are you talking about, Em?” Cora asked. “He hasn’t worked here that long, and I’d never met him. I’ve only heard about him through Wendell.” She frowned. “You have to be Jack’s old friend.”
“No, it’s not me. I’ve never been to San Francisco, and I certainly didn’t work at Mathelcorp. Besides, that beast kept calling me Cora. So, I just naturally assumed he mistook me for you.”
Ed turned the television off, “Let me get this straight. All this time you’ve had to discuss a relationship with Jack, and you’ve never brought up the subject?”
“We wanted to put all that negative stuff behind us,” Emily explained. “It was important to learn about each other and just enjoy being together.”
Cora nodded. “After all the phone calls and crazy things going on, bringing up our kidnapper was the last thing we wanted to do.” She cleared her throat. “That still leaves us with one unanswered question. If it wasn’t either of us working for Jack, who was it?”
A voice came from behind. “It was me. I worked for Jack.”
28
Dead silence filled the room as all heads spun to see the speaker.
First Emily, then Cora shrieked, as they focused on the new couple June ushered in.
The long-lost siblings were thunderstruck at the appearance of another duplicate face.
The unforeseen turn of events brought everyone to their feet.
“Triplets!” Dahlia’s forceful voice hollered. “If that don’t beat all. Your mama had herself a litter.” She went to the back door and called for her husband to share in the celebration.
A sly smile came across June’s face as she announced, “Cora, Mom, I’d like you to meet Dr. Vincent Bedford and his beautiful wife, Nora.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Nora rushed over and latched on to her two identical and bewildered sisters. All at once six arms crushed three bodies while kisses, tears and squeals caused an electrical charge of excitement to crackle throughout the room. Cameras and camcorders went into action.
Ed walked over to the white-haired man beside June. “Well, hello there, brother-in-law.” He put his hand on his guest’s shoulder. “Guess we should get acquainted. My name is Ed. Shall I call you Vincent or do you prefer Vince?”
“Everyone just calls me Doc.” The pudgy gentleman offered a hand. His dark eyes smiled behind wire-rimmed glasses.
The McGibbons joined in the celebration of family as the Bedfords were embraced by their welcoming relatives.
Dahlia sniffed the air. “Smells like ya best get back out to the grill while I make sure the triplets sit together at the table.” She raced around the kitchen, and gathered two more table settings.
Wendell flipped the last of the grilled meat onto the platter and handed it to his wife. He whistled for the crowd’s attention, and then took a deep breath and bellowed,
“Chicken’s off the grill, coffee’s in the pot; get up an’ get ‘em, get ‘em whilst they’re hot!”
Everyone laughed at Wendell’s announcement and found their places at the food-laden tables.
Dahlia clapped her hands. “Ed, you’re the head of this here household, why don’t ya lead in the blessin’?”
Ed stood, cleared his throat and offered thanksgiving for their extended family and blessings for the food.
Serving dishes were passed along as the hungry guests filled their plates. Platters and bowls fell into a smooth cadence and the group settled to wolf down the feast.
While they ate, Nora asked the family to call her Nonie, a nickname given to her by a neighbor boy. “Chip called me No-No when he started to talk.”
Doc added, “That later changed to Nonie and the name stuck. Seems everyone thought it suited her bubbly personality.”
She then revealed how they learned about her sisters. “Doc and I were on a short mission trip to Bolivia. You can imagine our surprise when we got a call from our friend, Neville Neubauer.” Nonie took a drink of water. “He told us about the segment of Cora and Emily on TV. Once we returned to the states, I tried to get in touch with you right away. It was nearly a week before I could get June on the phone.”
Doc cleared his throat and touched his wife’s shoulder. “Nonie told me that Jack had been her boss and was a friend of her first husband’s. She remembered an obscure envelope she’d found in the safe years ago.”
“What I didn’t know was, Jack had given an unmarked envelope with a key and fake ID to my husband.” Nonie wiped her mouth. “My husband must’ve put it in our safe but forgot to mention it to me before his fatal heart attack.” She sighed. “Eight months later, I discovered Jack’s embezzlement scheme and blew the whistle. I didn’t connect it with the strange envelope in our safe.”
“It turns out,” Doc said, “the key was to a safety deposit box that held the embezzled money, but with that fake ID, we didn’t know who it belonged to. The only fingerprints belonged to Nonie’s first husband. Anyway, it took the police several weeks to tie up the loose ends.”
Ed listened intently, then, excused himself from the table. Within a few minutes, he returned with the old photo that had been left in Cora’s drawer. He asked his wife’s sisters if they knew the man.
Nonie took the photo from Emily. “That’s a picture of me with my late husband, Art.”
The name caught Cora’s attention. She almost choked on the potato salad. She grabbed a napkin, and exclaimed, “Art? That must be what the caller meant.” She highlighted the story of Jack’s frequent references to art. “He wasn’t talking about our paintings and sculptures, like I thought, he meant your husband, Art.”
“Do y’all realize,” Dahlia said, “If Nonie here hadn’t turned that buzzard in all them years ago, chances are y’all never woulda met?”
The Timms’ looked at each other. Ed remarked, “That’s a good way to think about it. Gives some purpose to all the craziness, doesn’t it, Toots?”
“The Lord does work in mysterious ways,” Emily added.
Lighthearted chatter continued while Letitia’s cake and Dahlia’s pies were passed around the table.
The family learned that Nonie was the daughter of missionaries and grew up in what is now known as Belize in Central America. She shared several childhood tales, from the antics of Howler monkeys to horrifying incidents of evil shaman practices. The group sat in awe of the diverse adventures of her youth.
After dessert, the three exhausted La-La girls went down for a much-needed nap.
The adults took their coffee and moved i
nto the great room to view the Morgans’ extensive collection of family photographs.
Cora made a special effort to sit next to Josie.
Emily handed scrapbooks to Doc, then looked at Cora and said, “We’ve not seen very many of your family pictures. Won’t you get them out for us?”
Cora hesitated. “I haven’t seen them in a long time. They’re only in plain photo albums, not beautiful scrapbooks like June’s.” She turned to her husband. “Ed, could you get our family pictures from the top shelf in my closet?”
“You should see my collection,” Nonie assured her sister. “They’re all in shoe boxes.”
“Mine were too, until Junie got her hands on them,” Emily said with a laugh.
James proudly smiled. “Josie’s started an album for each of the kids. Of course, the boys aren’t into it, yet, but Heather appreciates it.”
“Could you help me arrange all our pictures in albums, too? Maybe that’s something we can work on together.” Cora patted Josie’s hand. “You could come for a weekend.”
“That’s a great idea,” James said. “Guess the kids and I can feed ourselves.”
Josie nudged Cora and gave a sly wink. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll have all your meals in the freezer.”
“If I could have everybody’s attention,” Ed announced. “I have a special gift for my wife.” He handed her a beautifully wrapped present.
With a questioning look, she accepted the heavy package. “Oh Eddie, what have you done? This better not be anything embarrassing.” She opened the box and lifted a bronzed object.
“What…on…earth…is…this?”
“Bookends, Toots!” Ed laughed at his joke. “I had your duck slippers bronzed and mounted. Push the button at the base.”
“Quack-quack!”
Laughter exploded. Then the slippers/bookends were passed around the room.
When it ended in Jeff’s possession, he begged, “Please hide those things before the La-La girls wake up.”
Cora took the ducks, and handed them to her grinning husband. “These will look smashing on the bookshelf in your office, Ed.”