Louie perched on the edge of the sofa; Otto sat next to him, his back straight, his expression guarded.
“I’m not sure where to start,” the mayor said, glancing up at Troy. His hands dangled between his parted knees.
“You saw Charlotte Rhodes stop by my office earlier this afternoon, didn’t you?”
“No,” Louie said starkly. “She came to see me afterward and suggested I speak to you.” He gave a long sigh. “I figured it was either come to you and tell my story or wait for you to seek me out. I’d rather clear this up once and for all. I don’t want it hanging over my head anymore.”
“My brother can’t be held responsible—”
Louie raised a hand to silence his brother. “I’ll do the talking. I appreciate that you’re here, Otto, but I’m going to do it my own way.”
“I—”
Again Louie silenced his brother, this time with a look.
Troy settled back and waited.
“I married my first wife while I was in college,” Louie said.
Troy didn’t know the mayor had been married more than once. Donna had been Louie’s wife for as long as he could recall.
“My marriage to Beverly wasn’t good,” Louie told him. “My wife had…medical problems.”
“What my brother’s trying to say,” Otto cut in, “is that Beverly had emotional problems. Or, more accurately, psychiatric ones.”
“She was agoraphobic,” Louie said as if his brother hadn’t spoken. “In the beginning, everything seemed fine. Beverly was shy and she didn’t like being around a lot of people but that didn’t bother me. After we were married I realized this tendency of hers was more than simple aversion. To be fair, we had a few good months together.” Louie paused, sighing, before he went on. “I was about to graduate from college and we decided it was time to start our family.”
“That’s when the trouble began,” Otto said. “And—”
Louie cast his brother another quelling look and Otto didn’t complete the sentence.
“As I was saying,” Louie continued, “Beverly got pregnant easily enough but miscarried in the third month. Losing the pregnancy devastated her.”
Troy remembered how hard Sandy’s miscarriage had been on both of them, and more recently, how painful the loss of Megan’s baby had been. He nodded sympathetically.
“Afterward she withdrew completely. I couldn’t get her to leave the house.”
Otto leaned forward and added, “Louie did everything he could for her—to no avail. He couldn’t persuade her to see a psychiatrist, and the problem got worse and worse.”
“By then Beverly and I had no relationship to speak of. Some days she didn’t get out of bed.” Louie rubbed his palms together as if to warm his hands. “It didn’t help that her younger sister—who wasn’t married—got pregnant. The father was some sailor she met during Seafair in Seattle. Here today and gone tomorrow. Apparently Amber didn’t bother to ask his name. She didn’t want the baby, but Beverly did. She told her we’d raise the child. I was willing to adopt Amber’s child,” Louie said, “hoping that a baby would give me back the woman I married.”
“Did you legally adopt the baby?”
“No,” he said, sighing once more. “That meant Beverly would have to leave the house—go to court, for one thing—and she refused to do that.”
Troy nodded, indicating that his friend should go on.
“When the child was born with Down syndrome, it made no difference to Beverly. She mothered him, gave him all her love and attention.”
“But nothing changed,” Otto said. “Beverly was still a recluse.”
“Her only joy was her sister’s son,” Louie said. “She doted on him, loved and pampered him and then—”
Troy interrupted with a question. “You stayed in the marriage?”
Louie looked away, then finally shook his head. “Eventually we divorced.”
“My brother did everything he could to save the marriage,” Otto insisted.
Louie raised his hand. “None of that’s important now. Beverly didn’t seem to care that we were no longer married. Timmy was her entire world.”
Sensing there was more to this story, Troy turned to Otto, who—strangely—remained quiet.
“A few years after the divorce, I met Donna,” Louie said, lowering his voice. “I was living in Seattle then. We got engaged. She knew I was divorced but I didn’t mention Timmy.”
“Louie kept in touch with Beverly and Timmy and saw to their needs.”
“I brought her groceries once a week, made sure her bills were paid and checked up on her,” Louie elaborated. “Otherwise, I don’t know what would’ve become of them. Although we were divorced I still felt some responsibility for her and Timmy. I was often tempted to call Child Protective Services but they would, most likely, have taken Timmy away, which would’ve destroyed Beverly completely. I guess he was a kid who slipped through the cracks. No one from any official agency knew about him—and I didn’t tell them.”
“What happened to Beverly?” Troy asked.
“I’m getting to that. When Timmy was in his early teens, I noticed that she’d started to lose weight. Soon I realized it was something physical. She became gaunt and spent practically all her time in bed. I begged her to see a doctor but no matter how much I pleaded she refused.”
Otto did speak up then. “Louie phoned to ask for my help. I had a good friend who was a medical student. He went to the house to examine her—over her protests—and diagnosed her with cancer. Stomach cancer.”
“It became apparent that unless she got immediate medical treatment she’d die, and frankly I think that’s what she wanted. Life had become too painful for her.”
Louie’s expression was tormented. “I did everything I could to convince her to seek medical help. For Timmy’s sake, I pleaded with her to go to a hospital.”
Troy gave a slight nod. He believed Louie. He knew nothing about any of this because he’d been in the service at that time.
“She kept refusing,” Otto inserted. “I was with him on more than one occasion and what he’s saying is the truth. The thought of leaving the security of her house was more than she could bear. It was a sad, difficult situation.” He shook his head. “Eventually, when she was too weak to resist, we had her taken to Seattle by ambulance. She didn’t last much longer.”
“What about the boy?” Troy asked.
“I stopped by to visit a couple of weeks before that—and Timmy was gone.” He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees.
“Did Beverly tell you where he was?”
Louie nodded. “She said her sister had come and taken him away.” He swallowed visibly. “Beverly knew she was dying and couldn’t look after him anymore.”
“You checked this out?”
“No. I…I know I should have. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve spent wondering. Beverly said Amber had promised to take the boy to an aunt of theirs who lived near Cedar Cove. This aunt, whom I never met, apparently used to visit once in a while.”
Troy let that information settle before he asked, “Did you ever hear from Amber again?”
“Never.”
Otto said, “She died a year after Beverly in an automobile accident.”
“I didn’t find out about it until several years later,” Louie clarified. “By then, Donna and I were married and we’d moved back to Cedar Cove and started our family.”
“So you believe the body in the cave is Timmy,” Troy said.
Louie stared down at the floor. “I strongly suspect it is. The…skeleton was wearing the baseball cap I gave him. He loved that thing and wore it constantly.”
“We’d need dental records to confirm his identity,” Troy said. He paused. “I assume there are dental records?”
“Yes,” Louie told him. “He’d been to the dentist two or three times. He broke a tooth when he was eight, and I took him to Dr. Hudson myself.”
“Fine. I’ll get the chart
from Hudson and send it to the pathologist.”
“It’s Timmy,” Louie insisted. “You can compare dental records if you want, but in my heart of hearts, I know it’s Timmy.”
This brought up something else. “Charlotte Jefferson knew about Timmy. She met the aunt—Amber and Beverly’s aunt—in the park.”
Closing his eyes, Louie nodded.
“So you believe the aunt is responsible for Timmy’s death?” Troy asked.
“I don’t know what to believe,” Louie said, his voice ragged. “If I were to speculate, I’d guess Amber did take the boy to live with her mother’s sister. But you have to remember that Timmy had only been away from Beverly for the briefest periods of time. He couldn’t possibly have understood what had happened and why he had to leave the only home he’d ever known.”
“My assumption is that he ran away,” Otto said. “Somehow he found the cave and hid out there….”
“Wouldn’t his aunt have looked for him or reported him missing? Is she still alive?” Troy asked urgently.
Louie shook his head. “I learned a few years later that she died of a sudden heart attack about two weeks after Beverly. I figured the boy had gone to a group home or something. I…I suppose that’s what I wanted to believe.”
“Timmy died due to a tragic series of events.” Otto stood. “My brother hasn’t done anything culpable.”
“Maybe not, but I should’ve made sure Timmy was okay, that he was settled and happy. The truth is, I was young and selfish and relieved not to be responsible for the boy anymore. I feel wretched now to realize my self-centeredness might have contributed to his death. The night I was arrested for drunk driving was the night I could no longer deny what I’d suspected from the beginning—it was Timmy in that cave.”
Troy knew that no one would be harder on the mayor than he’d been on himself.
“If you feel you need to press charges, then do so,” Louie said brokenly.
“On what grounds?” Otto demanded.
“Neglect,” Louie whispered. “Amber wasn’t to be trusted and I knew it. I was far too willing to let her take Timmy to this aunt of hers and then, when I discovered the aunt was dead…I didn’t look for him or try to find out where he was.”
“We’d prefer to keep Louie’s name out of the press,” Otto said. “By the time Timmy died, he’d been divorced from Beverly for a number of years.”
“I don’t see how mentioning Louie is relevant to the case. You had no legal obligation toward Timmy.”
“Perhaps not a legal obligation but a moral one. I should never have been so willing to slough him off.”
Troy agreed that morally Louie had been in the wrong even if legally he wasn’t. But in his view, the mayor had suffered enough.
“Once I get confirmation from the pathologist,” he said, “I’ll write up a short press release, merely indicating that the remains have been identified. What was Timmy’s last name?” he asked as the thought suddenly occurred to him. “Was it Benson?”
“No, Amber gave him her name—Beverly’s maiden name—which was Gilbert.”
“Fine. I’ll identify the body as that of Timothy Gilbert.”
“You won’t mention Louie?” Otto asked. “We can count on that?”
Troy nodded. “I can’t see that dragging his name into this matter would serve any useful purpose.”
Louie hung his head and whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’ve been a good husband and father during the years since,” Troy said thoughtfully. “You’ve served your community well. I suggest we leave things as they are.”
“I’d like to bury Timmy,” Louie said. “It’s the least I can do.”
“I’ll see that the remains are released to you.”
“I think Beverly would want him buried with her.”
Troy agreed.
Twenty-Eight
Mack knew something was wrong the moment he arrived home from his shift at the fire station. Mary Jo threw open her front door, as if she’d been waiting for him. She stood there, looking small and frightened.
Not bothering to go to his own place, Mack walked toward her. She was chewing frantically on her lower lip.
“What happened?” he asked.
She seemed to have trouble speaking, and he noticed how close to tears she was.
“Is Noelle sick?”
The three-month-old had come down with a cold earlier in the week, but it didn’t appear to be serious.
“I…I saw David.”
Mack stiffened instantly. “When?”
“Here…a few minutes ago. I’d just got home with Noelle.” It was now about five-thirty, so David had known to come after Mary Jo had left the office and picked up Noelle. Mack supposed Mary Jo’s address wouldn’t be too difficult for someone like David to find. Access to a computer was probably all he needed.
Taking her by the elbow, Mack led Mary Jo inside and sat on the sofa with her. Clasping her hand, he held it between his own. He felt her tremble as she gathered her composure.
She breathed in deeply before she spoke. “He wants Noelle.”
Mack bit off an angry retort. “He’s living in a dream world if he thinks any court in the land will take this baby away from you.”
“He said he has an attorney….”
“And you believe him?” Mack had never met David but he’d heard enough about him to realize the other man wasn’t to be trusted. Apparently he expected to use his infant daughter as leverage for his own purposes. Whatever his specific objective, Mack was sure it had everything to do with cold, hard cash.
“I…I don’t know,” she said, scraping her hair off her forehead.
“This is the first time you’ve seen him since before Noelle’s birth, isn’t it?”
Mary Jo nodded.
“Do you still have feelings for him?” She’d said she didn’t but he had to ask. Had to know. David was Noelle’s father, and at one time Mary Jo had loved him. Mack struggled to hide the anger he felt at the thought of David threatening Mary Jo.
“I don’t.” Her response was loud and immediate. “I can’t believe I ever cared for him. How could I have been so blind and…and so gullible?”
Mack couldn’t answer that, although he didn’t want Mary Jo to change in any way. He’d fallen in love with her and he loved Noelle, too. David Rhodes had a hell of a fight on his hands if he thought he could walk away with Mary Jo’s baby—with the baby Mack considered his more than David’s.
“Why do you think he has this sudden interest in Noelle?” Mack asked. All he could figure was that David saw some financial advantage in claiming Noelle.
“I have no idea why he came,” Mary Jo cried. “I haven’t heard from him in all this time and then out of the blue he shows up demanding his parental rights. It doesn’t make sense.”
“What about Ben?” Mack asked. “Has David been in touch with his father?”
Mary Jo nodded slowly. “Apparently he went to his father a little while ago. I don’t know if he asked for money or not, but he has in the past. Ben assured me he wouldn’t give his son any child support money because there’s no guarantee David would use it for Noelle.”
Mack frowned. “Is it possible that David assumes his father will give him money if Ben knows Noelle is living with him?”
“I’m not sure.” Panic edged her voice. “Maybe.”
“He didn’t seriously think you’d just hand Noelle over to him, did he?”
“I don’t know,” she said again.
“Did he say he was coming back?”
“He said he was and that, when he did, he was bringing the authorities.”
Mack nearly laughed out loud. “That’s a bold-faced lie.” He clenched his fists, wishing he’d been home when David had come to the house. Rhodes might be able to intimidate Mary Jo, but not Mack. He would gladly have taken him on.
“I don’t care if he comes back or not, I can’t risk losing Noelle.”
“What are you going to do?
”
Mary Jo’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m moving back home. He’s never been there, and after everything I’ve said about my brothers, I doubt he’d show his face.”
Mack wanted to argue. He’d gotten accustomed to having Mary Jo and Noelle so close, accustomed to sharing special moments with them. Everything had been going so well. He’d thought Mary Jo had begun to return his love, but obviously she wasn’t ready….
“Is moving away what you really want?” he finally asked. If he voiced his objections too strenuously, she’d guess the strength of his feelings, and that might scare her off. He sensed she still wasn’t ready for a new relationship, other than being friends.
“No!” She buried her face in her hands. “It’s the last thing I want, but my daughter’s future is at stake. Her well-being takes precedence over my personal desires.”
“Can your brothers do anything I can’t do?” he asked, hoping she’d listen to reason.
“No…I don’t suppose they could. But there are three of them and only one of you.”
Mack couldn’t argue with her logic. As much as he would’ve liked to spend every minute of every day standing guard over her and Noelle, that would be impossible.
“I left a message with Linc and asked him to contact me as soon as he could.”
“I see.” Mack’s heart sank.
“Leaving Cedar Cove isn’t what I want,” Mary Jo insisted again. “But I’m afraid, Mack.”
The way her voice shook told him how upset she was. He offered reassurances but he wasn’t sure he’d convinced her. “David’s bluffing,” he said. “This is just another scheme of his.”
“I want to believe that.” She gazed up at him, tears glittering on her lashes. “But I can’t be a hundred percent certain and neither can you.”
“I could beat him up for you,” Mack said, half-humorously.
Mary Jo punched his arm playfully.
“Have you discussed any of this with Allan Harris?”
“My legal situation is complicated, he says, because I’ve acknowledged David as the father and the DNA test confirmed it. Plus, he has parental rights and he claims he wants to exercise them. So…” She took a deep breath. “Allan tells me we’d be in for a protracted court battle.”
Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series, Volume 3 Page 23
