“You are right,” she replied, despite wanting to weep. “That is the only logical course of action.
“Let's go, then,” he urged finally releasing her. They mounted their horses and returned to the farm. “She wasn't in her room when I left,” Geraldine provided. Together they checked the house, anyway, making sure her mother did not return in the meantime.
“Does she have a favorite place?” The Sheriff inquired.
“Apart from her room, she likes spending time in her garden.”
Unfortunately, she wasn't there either. There were not a lot of places where she could be, and Geraldine tried to sift through them quickly to find the most likely location. “What's in here?” The Sheriff wanted to know.
“That's just a small shed that mother uses for keeping all her tools.” Father built it for her, alongside the garden.
“I have a bad feeling, so I have to make sure,” the Sheriff murmured before going inside. Geraldine's panic about what he meant was short-lived. For a heartbeat or two, she really feared she would discover her mother's lifeless body inside, luckily the small wooden structure was empty. Geraldine felt like chastising him for scaring her half to death but didn't.
“I hate being right,” the Sheriff uttered, and Geraldine had to agree. “Oh, no,” she cried out, placing a hand over her heart. There was no dead body present, that much was true. On the small table was a glass container that was filled with what looked like dried mushrooms.
“I cannot believe this,” Geraldine said out loud. Her mother was involved. They have been looking for someone who was right there under their noses this whole time.
Mother killed Elsa, Geraldine repeated over and over. That notion was beyond her comprehension.
God is simply too cruel...
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“No, no, no, this is not possible,” Geraldine started to shake next to Robert. She was in serious denial about what they learned. If he was being honest, Robert would have to admit how Stephanie Laurel fooled him as well. He couldn't say if she was that good of an actress or if her behavior was the product of her illness.
Nevertheless, he truly believed she was not involved with Elsa's death. Not anymore. “This is not possible,” Geraldine repeated stubbornly. Robert knew this was all very devastating for her. He needed to stop her from going into complete shock. Unfortunately, there were no words he could implement that would stop her from hurting. Even though there was nothing he wanted more.
“Geraldine, look at me,” he commanded. She turned and her look was so lost, it broke his heart. To not only learn about your father's infidelity but about your mother's quite inevitable involvement in a murder would be tough for anyone.
“You must be mistaken,” she interjected. “There must be another explanation. My mother could not have done it,” she pleaded him with her eyes to agree with her. A part of him wanted to do that. That was the part that was desperately in love with her.
The other part, however, the part that was the officer of the law, knew he had to follow the evidence without getting emotionally attached.
Robert needed to find Stephanie Laurel and confront her about all of this while being fully aware he couldn't simply leave Geraldine in such state. Besides, something was telling him Geraldine would let him go alone to search for her mother alone anyway. “Geraldine,” he tried again as she continued to mumble something to herself. “Stop!” He boomed, hating he had to use that tone on her. It worked. She became completely still, and he used that precious moment to try and get through to her. “I understand you are in a world of hurt at the moment; I need you calm enough because I need your help. You are my assistant after all, and we need to find your mother.”
Robert refused to speculate if her mother somehow knew they were on to her and was absent because of that, or she simply stayed away like she normally did around him. He understood Mrs. Laurel's behavior better. All that he did know at the moment was that it was imperative she was located. He didn't want anyone else getting hurt. “She couldn't have done it, she loved Elsa,” Geraldine said stubbornly.
At the moment, Robert had no time to argue with Geraldine about love and what people were capable of doing because of it. He wished she was right, yet, at the same time, Elsa also betrayed her mother, and that could change everything in any relationship. That was why he said this. “Don't you want to learn the whole truth?”
Luckily, that got through to her. “I do,” she replied in a small voice, trying really hard not to cry.
Robert was quite impressed with her strength. “Then tell me where your mother could be right now.”
Geraldine pondered about that for so long, Robert started to fear she wasn't going to answer him. He was about to plead with her again when she opened her mouth. “I know it sounds ridiculous, mad even... I can think of only one place she would go.”
“And that is?”
“Elsa's,” she said simply, and Robert frowned. She was right, that did sound mad.
“Are you certain?”
She sighed, loudly. “I am not certain of anything at the moment,” she replied honestly, and Robert felt like hugging her. He refrained from it, fully knowing if he wrapped his hands around her, he would never want to let her go, and they were in the middle of a search, and time was of the essence.
“I am so sorry, Geraldine,” he said instead of doing what he really wanted, feeling lame in the process.
“Let us go,” she urged. “You were right, we need to find mother and end this nightmare one way or the other.”
And afterward? He didn't dare voice his question out loud.
On their way to the Black Tail Ranch, Robert racked his brain trying to find something inspirational to say to Geraldine and try to make her feel even slightly better. There were no words that could do that, he realized almost immediately. How could there be? Her whole world went upside down in mere hours and there was nothing he could say or do that could change that. He would only humiliate them both if he tried to use phrases such as “time will heal everything,” or “this is all God's will.”
He respected and loved her too much for that. Knowing all of this did not stop him from feeling the way he did. Absolutely powerless, and he detested every second of it.
Geraldine was right. She did come here. A part of him wished he didn't spot Mrs. Laurel sitting under a tree in front of Elsa Potter's house. That part wished she simply disappeared, like her husband before her, because he really did not want to do this. He did not want Geraldine to have to go through this. Then have to live with all this knowledge and bad memories.
Unfortunately, one could not choose his fate, so Robert was going to do it, because that was his sacred duty and responsibility. His personal feelings did not matter. Geraldine and Robert approached Mrs. Laurel in silence.
Stephanie Laurel raised her head. She looked at Geraldine and then at Robert and smiled, even though it did not touch her eyes. “I knew you would figure it out eventually,” she said as a form of greeting, speaking to Robert.
“Is it true, mother?” Geraldine cried out.
“Geraldine,” Robert cautioned in a calm manner, he needed her to stay out of it, and let him ask all the questions.
“I never wanted you to find out,” Stephanie told her daughter. “That is why I did this, I never wanted to involve you.”
“Mrs. Laurel, is there something you wish to say to me,” Robert asked her.
Mrs. Laurel nodded. “I had to stop her,” she said calmly. Robert could hear a sharp intake of breath coming from Geraldine while his focus was on her mother.
“Elsa?” Robert prompted.
Stephanie nodded again. “Yes, Elsa.”
“So, you admit you are the one that killed her.”
Mrs. Laurel sighed as if he asked the wrong question. He also noticed she never looked more lucid than in this moment. “Elsa was my best friend. She was there for me when Peter disappeared,” she started with her narrative, and Robert let her speak with
out interrupting. Stephanie made a face of disdain. “Everybody said Peter left me for another woman, and they were right.”
Did he have another affair apart from Elsa? Robert wondered.
Stephanie Laurel took a letter from her pocket. “One morning, out of the blue, I found this on my nightstand, and just like that he was gone,” her voice hitched at the end. Mrs. Laurel crumbled the letter with her hand as if its very existence was making her angry, and she wanted to destroy it. “I thought I lost it the other day, was afraid you would find it,” those last words were meant for Geraldine.
“Father betrayed you. He betrayed us,” Geraldine said. There was no fury in her voice, only resignation.
Her mother had plenty of fury for both of them. “He did not write the name of the harlot he was leaving me for. I suspected it was one of the saloon girls. He liked to go there, even though he denied it.” Robert started to fear they were going off track here. He wanted to hear about Elsa, not Peter Laurel. I guess in her mind those two things are linked. “He left me,” Mrs. Laurel continued, raising her voice. “Abandoned everything we built together as if it was nothing,” she spat. “I still hoped he would see the errors of his ways one day and come back to me, begging for forgiveness,” she added in a much calmer tone. “Elsa robbed me of that possibility.”
“How come?” Robert prompted.
Stephanie Laurel took a moment to look at the house at her right. “Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was actually Elsa that made my Peter stray.”
“Did she tell you that?” Robert urged. Maybe Elsa had a guilty conscience and confessed everything to Stephanie which in return made Stephanie retaliate in a very murderous manner.
“About six months ago I came to tea and she wasn't home. So, I let myself in and decided to have some anyway since I already walked all this way. Feeling a bit bored I decided to find some needlepoint to occupy myself until she returned,” Stephanie looked Robert directly in the eyes. “Elsa was terrible at needlepoint,” she explained. “She kept it around for my sake. Anyway, I went to her room and right there, on her bed, all these letters were scattered.”
The letters I found in the study, Robert presumed. “And I admit, curiosity took over me and I started reading them,” she confessed, a bit self-conscious. “They were all love letters, written to her by married men. Men I all knew. Men that live in Oatman,” Mrs. Laurel raised her voice in outrage.
“So, you killed her,” Geraldine kept quiet for so long, Robert almost forgot she was there. Her mother looked at her without any remorse in her eyes.
“Elsa was toying with all these men, like some common harlot, a woman without any morals, including my Peter. I recognized his handwriting immediately. He was confessing his undying love for her like a fool and expressing sorrow he didn't meet her first. I had to stop her.”
“So, you poisoned her,” Geraldine accused just as Robert prepared to do the same. Geraldine was softly sobbing, and her mother looked disappointed.
“I had to stop her,” she insisted, “before she ruined someone else's life. My dosage was wrong,” she almost sounded as if she was complaining. “Elsa only got sick, even though I kept adding mushrooms to her everyday tea.”
“I think I am going to be sick,” Geraldine announced.
“Elsa was a wicked woman, Geraldine,” her mother snapped. “Not even the devil wanted her at his side.”
“What happened next?” Robert interjected before the Laurel women got into a fight.
“She refused to die,” Mrs. Laurel explained, as matter of fact. “So, I had to help her. It was a bit extreme of me to simply use what I found on the spur of the moment, I admit. Still, it needed to be done.”
“Don't you have any remorse?” Geraldine asked, incredulously.
“She took everything from me, my whole life!”
“What about me, Mother?” Geraldine countered as tears streamed down her face. “I was the one left behind alongside you, and you acted as if you didn't care. All you cared about was your pain, your hurt.”
That shook Stephanie Laurel and she started crying as well. “Don't you see, I did this for you as well, all of it,” she argued back. “Elsa took your father from you.”
“And who took my mother from me?” Geraldine asked, wiping the tears from her face. Robert wanted to comfort her, but he knew they had to air everything out. That was the only way Geraldine could one day carry on with her life without any guilt or remorse.
“Elsa needed to be punished.”
Geraldine shook her head. “I never asked you to do that for me, besides, father did not run away with Elsa. She was here, with us, all these years.”
“Only because she killed him,” Stephanie revealed triumphantly, making Geraldine pause. She wasn't the only one having a brain freeze. Robert did not see that one coming. For a second he contemplated if Stephanie's first crime was killing her husband all those years ago. He was grateful to be wrong.
“Could you repeat that, madam,” Robert said as the two women continued to stare at one another.
“It's true,” Stephanie emphasized. “She confessed right before she died.”
“What did she say, exactly?” Robert wanted to know.
“Elsa told me with a smile on her face how Peter came and begged her to run away with him, and when she refused, he was so heartbroken his heart actually stopped beating, and he died right in front of her.”
“What?” Geraldine stammered. “Father is dead?” Even though it was phrased like a question Geraldine simply stated something she already knew deep inside, or that was how Robert understood her behavior.
Stephanie Laurel gave a curt nod. “She buried him right in this spot,” she patted the ground underneath her.
Buried him, in secret? “Why would she do that?” Geraldine asked in confusion.
“Because she knew she was guilty and wanted to hide her crime,” Stephanie explained to Geraldine, as if speaking to a small child. She then laughed without actual humor. “I remember when she planted this tree. When I asked her why the sudden change she declared she wanted some extra shade in front of her house, when actually, she was trying to hide her sin.”
It was all starting to fit together perfectly. Robert wanted to chastise himself all over again for being so blind. In his defense, he couldn't have known from the start that Peter had an affair with Elsa, and once she ended it, breaking his heart, he died. To cover everything up, she then buried him in her front yard. So, when Stephanie discovered the truth, she decided to take her revenge on Elsa and poisoned then strangled her.
That was quite the tale. Looking at Geraldine, he feared she would have some kind of episode her mother had all those years ago. He then reminded himself his Geraldine was much stronger than that, and she could survive everything because she already did.
“And what about your sins, Mother?” Geraldine accused, returning Robert to the present, and Stephanie Laurel simply shrugged.
“The way I see it, Elsa and Peter both got exactly what they deserved, and now so will I.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Geraldine and Robert demanded at the same time.
Mrs. Laurel pulled out a small pouch from her skirt pocket. It was empty. “I made sure the dosage was right this time,” she informed them.
“Mother, what did you do?”
“She ate the mushrooms,” Robert realized with dread.
“You are correct Sheriff, I did.”
“No,” Geraldine exclaimed, and rushed to her mother, getting down on her knees beside her. “Mother, what did you do,” Geraldine repeated her plea. “Why?”
Robert came closer as well, fully knowing there was nothing he could do. She confessed her crime but committed another afterward, one against herself. “Now all is well,” Stephanie Laurel announced, patting her daughter on the cheek as Geraldine sobbed. Suddenly, Stephanie looked as if she was extremely tired. “I am so sorry for everything, my dear. I really am.”
“Mother, please don'
t leave me,” Geraldine pleaded. It was all in vain, of course. Robert couldn't know when exactly Stephanie ate her deadly dose of mushrooms, but by the looks of it, her end was near.
“I am sorry,” she repeated.
Geraldine turned to look at him. “Please do something,” she shouted at him. “Bring help, she needs a physician.”
“Do not bother my dear,” Stephanie made her daughter refocus on her once more. “I can already feel the death angel coming for me.”
The Sheriff's Rebellious Bride (Historical Western Romance) Page 27
