Persephone Cole and the Christmas Killings Conundrum

by Heather Haven

  “He doesn’t have one that I know of.”

  “Do I get to name him?” His mother nodded. “Fred! I’m going to call him Fred.”

  Percy glanced at Lily, acknowledging her for the first time. The both said in unison,

  “Fred?”

  “That’s my best friend’s name at school. Fred. I like the name Fred,” said the boy, standing.

  Percy moved to Lily’s side. Both women stood watching the boy and dog.

  “You realize,” Percy whispered to Lily, “In about two days he’ll forget and I’ll be doing all of that myself. But it’s good for Oliver to try his hand at responsibility.”

  ‘You’re a good mother, Miss Cole,” said Lily.

  “When I’m around. Speaking of being around, where is everybody?”

  “Your father got a call from the doctor a few hours ago. A bed opened earlier than expected.”

  “So he’s at the hospital?”

  “Yes. Your brother dropped by and picked him up. He’s nice, your brother.”

  “Jude is. Where’s my mother? With them?”

  “Yes. She’s going to spend the night at the hospital.”

  “And Sera, where’s she?”

  “She had a date.”

  “Aw, that girl,” Percy commented in disapproval.

  “She wanted to go with them, but your father wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted her to go on with her plans, he said.”

  Percy didn’t reply. Grim lips formed a thin line on her face. She gestured with her head toward the kitchen, pushed the door open, and went inside, followed by Lily.

  “How was Pop doing?”

  “Okay. Not too bad. He looked like he was in a certain amount of pain.”

  “I know. We’re hoping this new Penicillin drug will help.”

  Lily looked down at her feet, hesitating before she spoke. “If you need any money…” Her voice tapered off.

  “Thank you, Lily, but no.” Percy patted her lightly on the shoulder. “And thanks for babysitting Oliver for me. Let’s sit down for a moment.” Percy pulled back a kitchen chair, gestured to it, and sat down at the table across from it.

  A deep sigh escaped from Lily. “Another question and answer period?”

  “More like true confessions.”

  Lily sat down and looked earnestly into Percy’s face, much the way Oliver had moments before.

  “First, I want to relieve your mind about something. Danny DeLuca has been caught and is on his way back to jail.”

  Tension seemed to sweep away from the girl. She threw her head back and closed her eyes. “Thank God. I was so scared, not just for me but for you and your family.”

  “That’s one problem out of the way, but to move along to a few more, let me say first, I think you trust me, Lily. You may not like me, but you trust me.”

  “You’re wrong, Miss Cole. I do like you. I’m a little afraid of you, but I like you.” Lily opened her eyes and smiled tentatively. Her face was devoid of makeup and her wavy, dark hair was pulled back off her face. Large brown eyes looked up at Percy with the same air of trust and wonderment she’d just seen in her son and the dog.

  Jeesh, she’s hardly more than a kid. She could practically be my daughter, for cripes sake. Oh great. I really am an old broad.

  “Well, thank you, Lily, I think,” she said. “I know in some instances, I’ve been hard on you.”

  “You were just doing your job, Miss Cole.”

  “Yeah, that I was and am. It’s nothing personal.” Both women smiled at each other, a tenuous friendship beginning. “How are you feeling, Lily? Still got that upset stomach?”

  “Not too much,” she replied. “It’s mostly in the morning, anyway. By the evening I’m fine.”

  “How’s the ache in the small of your back? And your breasts, are they swollen or sore?”

  “Now that you mention it, I --” Lily froze midsentence, with her hand half-way to the small of her back. Her face took on a look of surprise then comprehension. Her eyes focused not on her surroundings, but somewhere within herself.

  “That’s what I think, too,” Percy said. “But you’d better go to a doctor to make sure.”

  The kitchen door burst open and Oliver ran in followed by the newly named Fred. A laughing child was chased by a barking dog in a game clearly a timeless favorite of all small children and dogs. Oliver ran in circles around the two women at the table, the dog happily behind. Percy grabbed her son by the arm on one of his runs.

  “Oliver, stop.” The boy came to a stop and looked expectantly at his mother. Her voice was gentle but firm. “You can’t play with the dog inside the house the same way you play with him outside, understand?”

  “Yes, Mommy.”

  “Being tomorrow is Saturday and there’s no school, go put on your coat and hat. You can take Fred down to the courtyard behind the building. But you are to stay right under the kitchen window and near the lamppost where I can see you at all times, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And only for fifteen minutes. Then come back upstairs, you have to go to bed. Did you do your homework?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The boy headed back to the kitchen door, followed by the dog still dragging the makeshift leash.

  “And Oliver, hold onto the belt I put on his collar on your way down the stairs. We’ll buy him a proper leash tomorrow but meanwhile, we don’t want him to run away.”

  A look of horror crossed Oliver’s face. “No, ma’am.”

  He spoke with such earnestness, his face wearing such a sincere look, Percy had to bite her lip to hide the smile. She fought the urge to cover him with kisses and responded to his solemnity with only a nod.

  “All right then. You go downstairs and have a good time with Fred.”

  The boy went out, trailed by the dog, and the door swung to a close. A moment passed with Percy watching the silent, closed door. Then she turned back to Lily, who hadn’t moved, probably still lost in her own thoughts.

  “I love it when he calls me ma’am. I’m enjoying it while I can. He’ll probably stop soon enough.” She studied the girl for a few moments, pushed the chair back, and got up slowly. “I should take an aspirin. Maybe some food will help my headache. Got anything to eat around here?”

  Lily’s mind seemed to come back into focus. She rose and crossed to the stove, standing in front of the oven. “I kept a plate of meatloaf warm for you in the oven. I make mine with shaved carrots. It adds a sweetness--” She broke off abruptly, covered her face with her hands and sobbed into them. “Oh, my God. I can’t be pregnant. I can’t be.”

  Percy came up behind Lily, turned her around, and gave her small, shaking body a quick, motherly embrace. “Listen, you’ll go to a doctor and you’ll see. If so, it’s not like you’re going to starve to death. You’ve got the money to have a kid. Actually about two dozen kids, if you want. You’re not alone in this, unless you want to be.”

  “It’s not always about money,” Lily said, her voice quivering with bitterness.

  “No, but it often is. If you really don’t want a kid, there are always backstreet doctors--”

  “I’d never do that,” Lily interrupted Percy with a burst of anger.

  Percy put her hands up in surrender and backed away. “Then there you go,” she said in an easy tone. “You’ve already made one decision. The others will come as you go along.”

  Lily cooled as quickly as she’d flared. “I’m sorry and you’re right. Besides, maybe I could have someone as wonderful as Oliver in my life. That wouldn’t be so bad.” She forced a smile, grabbed the corners of her apron with both hands to use as oven mitts, bent over, and took the plate out of the oven. “I made potatoes au gratin, too. They’re my favorite.” The two women smiled at one another.

  Percy lost her smile and watched Lily spoon out potatoes onto the plate. Percy crossed over to the kitchen window, raised it up, and leaned out, looking down to make sure her child was there. “Oliver,” she called. “St
ay close to the light where I can see you at all times, okay? Don’t play over in the shadows.”

  “Okay, Mommy,” he shouted up. “I brought my ball down with me. Can I throw it to Fred?”

  “If you throw it easy and not out of the yard. And don’t make too much noise. Remember, it’s getting late and some people are going to bed soon.”

  “Okay, Mommy!” The dog let out two short barks, sounding like he too, would not make unnecessary noise.

  Percy turned and looked at Lily, now fussing with the plate of warm food in her hand. Lily’s body, though, had a tense edge to it, as if all the muscles were waiting for something to happen. Her eyes darted around the room, maybe looking for a peaceful place to land. Percy felt sorrier for her than she had for anyone in a long time.

  “Have you ever heard a boy’s voice so delirious with happiness?” She smiled at Lily. “Even the dog sounds happy.”

  Lily brightened for a moment, picked up a fork and napkin and scurried over to Percy, offering the food and tableware. “You’re probably going to want to sit here and watch Oliver out the window.”

  “You’re probably right.” Percy grabbed the back of a chair and pulled it over. She lowered the window but sat watching her son. She spread the napkin in her lap and took the plate and fork. “I’m sure this looks nuts to you, but--”

  Lily smiled. “No, I understand. You want to make sure he’s safe.”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Parents want their children to be safe…usually.” It was a sad statement, as if Lily knew times when parents didn’t care if their children are safe or not. Head down, she went to the sink and began to wash dishes. Her face had a maturity about it, so different from the short time ago, when she seemed to have the face of a child.

  Percy cut off a large piece of meatloaf with her fork, holding the plate in the other hand. She crammed it into her mouth and chewed with her eyes closed in appreciation. After swallowing, she said, “God, girl, you’ve got to open your own restaurant. The world needs this food.”

  Lily laughed lightly. “Thanks. Maybe I’ll do that one of these days.”

  Percy took another bite, listening to the sounds of her son and the dog below, but all the while looking at Lily. “Lily, you’re going to have to talk to me. I know there’s something bad between you and your father and I want to know what it is.”

  “I…” The girl hesitated. She shook her head and dried a cup with gusto, concentrating on it.

  “Pay attention to me, Lily.” The girl put down the cup and stared at Percy. “I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important, even crucial. We’re at the eleventh hour. I need to know. What happened in the past? What’s going on between you and your father?”

  The girl dried her hands and went over to the table. She sat in one of the chair and looked straight ahead. She nodded to no one in particular, maybe to all the ghosts in the past.

  “All right, I’ll tell you. I’ve never told anyone what happened that day.”

  “What day?”

  “The day my mother died.” She took a deep breath, held it and released it with a hissing sound. “I was seven years old. It actually started the night before. My mother and father had a terrible, terrible fight. I’ve never heard so much yelling.”

  “What was the fight about?”

  “At the time, I didn’t understand what was going on, but now…” She turned and looked at Percy for the first time. “I was only seven. But as the years went by and I grew up, I began to understand what happened that night…and the following day.” Lily looked away again. She picked up the corner of the tablecloth and fussed with it absentmindedly before she went on.

  “My father found out my mother was cheating on him and confronted her. Apparently she’d been doing it for some time when he’d be away on his buying trips. And not just with one man, but several.” Lily let out a choked sob. “This is hard, hard to say, even after all these years. My mother had been drinking. She did that a lot. That night she said terrible things to father, nasty cruel things. Things like him not being man enough for her. He called her a tramp or a whore. I can’t remember which one; I was so terrified. I’d never known him to raise his voice to her before. I… I think she slapped him. I don’t know for sure everything that went on inside that room but you could feel the hate coming out at you, even through the closed door. At first, I was outside her room in the hallway,” Lily explained, glancing over at Percy. “They had separate bedrooms by this time. I heard a vase or something, smashing against a wall then a piece of furniture being overturned. That’s when I ran and hid under my bed. I must have been there, sobbing for hours. I don’t know what happened between them after that. I was too frightened to stay.” Lily reached out both hands and smoothed the tablecloth before going on.

  “Father came into my room several hours later and found me asleep under the bed. He pulled me out and put me to bed. He kept telling me not to be afraid; it would be all right. My mother never came to me that night.” Lily stopped speaking, brushed at wet eyes, and was silent.

  “Go on,” Percy demanded.

  “The next morning I woke up late, went downstairs, had some breakfast then went to mother’s room. I knocked on the door and when she didn’t answer, I didn’t think anything of it. She often slept late and didn’t answer. I would usually go away for an hour or two, but that morning, I didn’t go away. I pushed the door open and went inside. My mother had been sick for weeks with something called ‘walking pneumonia’ but you could never get her to stay home. She was out every night, dancing and partying, no matter what the doctor said. Gosh, she was so beautiful, my mother,” Lily said with a faint smile.

  “I’ll bet she was.”

  “Anyway, the first thing I noticed when I snuck into her room was it was freezing. The window was wide open, even thought we’d had a freak snowstorm and it had been snowing all night. Mother was lying on the bed in a sheer nightgown, completely uncovered, still, so still. Even at that age, I knew something was wrong. I called out to her but she didn’t answer. I closed the window and scraped the snow off the sill and floor, running back and forth, throwing it into the sink, trying to clean up. Then I covered her up as best I could.”

  “You didn’t think to call your father?”

  Lily shook her head. “I knew they were mad at each other. I wanted to make her better, first. Maybe I wanted to be the one to make everything better, I don’t know. I kept shaking her, trying to get her to wake up. Sometimes when she’d been drinking, it would take several minutes to wake her up. When I touched her face, it was burning hot. Just as I was about to panic, father came into the room. When he saw her, he pulled me away. He was rough about it. I’d never known him to be rough with me before. He called the doctor and the doctor came right away. They took my mother to the hospital but she never regained consciousness and died a day later.”

  Lily began to sob. “He killed her.” Lily turned a wet face to Percy. “He opened the window that night and stripped off the covers. He hated her that night. I could hear it in his voice. He knew she’d been sick. That night she was drunker than usual. She wouldn’t know anything he did to her. But her body did and she died.”

  “Did you ever confront your father? Talk to him about this?” Lily shook her head slowly. “Jesus, what is the matter with you people?”

  “I didn’t realize most of this until years later, maybe when I was twelve or thirteen. At the time, I was scared. None of it made sense.”

  “But later?”

  “I would think about that night and the next morning over and over again, time after time. The older I got, the more I understood what was really going on, what happened. But by then, it was too late. I tried to hate him, but I couldn’t. She was so awful, I see that. I still don’t hate him. I know he had is reasons, but he killed my mother. I know he was angry and hurt but….”

  Percy stood, went to the table and set down her empty plate. She returned to the window and raised it.

>   “Oliver,” she called down. Her son stopped bouncing the ball and looked up. “Come on upstairs now. Time for bed.” She lowered the window and turned to Lily, who was staring down at the table, but not really seeing it. “Thanks for telling me. I can see you’ve been living a hell on earth and not much of it was your own making.”

  “But I’ve still made a lot of my own mistakes.”

  “But you’ve still made a lot of your own mistakes,” Percy agreed.

  “Maybe this baby is my chance to make a fresh start.”

  “Listen, if you got troubles a lot of times a kid can only make them worse. Having a baby isn’t the magic cure-all but for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t trade Oliver for anything. He’s my life.”

  Lily looked at Percy with searching eyes. “What are you going to do? Now that you know the truth about my father and mother?”

  “First, I’m going to put my son to bed and then I’m going out again. I need to take care of something. You okay with watching Oliver while I’m gone?”

  “Of, course.”

  “That was fast. I think I hear him at the door.”

  Trailed by Lily, Percy went to the kitchen door, opened it and looked down the hall.

  The front door flew open and Sera came in. “Hi, everybody,” she said when she saw Percy and Lily standing at the end of the hall in the kitchen doorway. Hi, you two.”

  “What are you doing home?” Percy questioned. She stepped into the hall. Lily followed, both women letting the kitchen door close behind them.

  “I thought you were out on a date,” Lily said.

  “Oh, that.” Sera’s tone was noncommittal. “I wasn’t in the mood. Besides, he got fresh so I ditched him and came home by bus.”

  “Leave the door open,” Percy ordered as her sister started to close it. “Oliver is coming up from the courtyard with his new dog.”

  “Dog?” Sera let go of the door and moved down the hall toward Percy and Lily.

  The door swung wide open. Instead of Oliver, Detective Hutchers stepped inside, and paused with a knowing stance in the doorway.

  “I thought so.” Hutchers looked directly at Lily then Percy.