The Perfect Storm_A Thrilling Romantic Suspense

by Madyson Grey

  It was late when they neared El Paso, so they just pulled into a truck stop and parked there for the night. Tuesday morning they found an RV park and rented a site for that night. They both missed having a car to run around in, but decided against renting one for just one day.

  They drove to and parked in a designated parking area and walked across the border into Ciudad Juarez. They stocked up on souvenirs and post cards, struggling with the exchange of money.

  Thursday morning they were halfway to Tombstone, Arizona, when Victoria’s cell phone rang. She answered it, fearing what news the call would bring this time. It was Dr. Stevens.

  “Hello, Victoria, this is Dr. Stevens,” the voice on the other end said.

  “Hi, Dr. Stevens,” she replied.

  “I understand you are on your delayed honeymoon,” he said.

  “That’s right. We just left Texas behind and are on our way to Tombstone, Arizona. You know, the OK Corral and all that,” she said with a chuckle.

  “Sure, I know,” he said. “Victoria, I don’t know how to tell you this, especially over the phone, and while you’re on such a nice trip. But you need to know.”

  “What is it, Doctor? It’s Mother, isn’t it? What had she done this time?” Victoria’s voice had a tinge of despairing resignation in it.

  “Your mother … your mother is dead,” he said in the most gentle, compassionate tone he possessed.

  “Dead! Dead? What happened to her?” Victoria’s voice rose to a nervous pitch.

  Shocked, Rafael looked over at Victoria to be sure he was hearing her right. As soon as he found a safe place, he pulled over onto a wide shoulder and parked the motorhome. Victoria reached for his hand to cling to.

  “She hung herself in her room,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Victoria. I know this must be devastating to you. I am so sorry to spoil your honeymoon.”

  “Ohhh,” Victoria breathed out. “I can’t even think of the right things to say. What, where is she? What happens now?”

  “Well, she has been taken to the funeral home designated in her paperwork. They are awaiting your instructions. Do you want her body held for a funeral? Or do you want them to bury her and then you can have a memorial service at your convenience?”

  “I can’t imagine having a funeral for her after all that she has done over the past two or three months. I suppose I should have some sort of service, but I’m not sure whom I would even have the nerve to invite. Her country club friends promptly abandoned her when she was arrested. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of coming to a service for her anyway.

  “She has no family. What family she had has been estranged all my life. I don’t even know how to contact the one brother she had. I don’t have the funeral home phone number with me. Do you have it? I guess I’ll just call them and tell them to go ahead and bury her. I don’t think I even want to see her body. She looked so bad the last few times I did see her. I don’t want to see her dead.”

  Dr. Stevens listened patiently while she rambled, and then read the funeral home’s phone number to her. She wrote it down on a small notepad she pulled from her purse.

  “Please accept my deepest sympathies for all you have been through,” Dr. Stevens said. “If you need anything, just anything at all, please come see me anytime.”

  “I will, and thank you for being the one to call me,” Victoria replied.

  She pushed “End” on her cell phone and sat there in a daze. Rafael respected her silence, knowing she would tell him what happened as soon as she could find the words. Meanwhile, he just held her hand.

  “Mother hung herself in her room,” she said at last.

  Her voice was devoid of emotion. She felt no sorrow, no sadness, only pity for the woman who had lived for the finest things money could buy and yet left this life in such an ignominious fashion. Rather, much to her own shame, she felt a degree of relief that it was all over with. Now there would be no trial, no years of living either in prison or in a psychiatric facility, both of which would be a living death. No, it was better this way. Victoria was certain that that was what drove her mother to make her fatal decision. There must have been a glimmer of sanity somewhere deep in her brain that decided that a quick death was better than a prolonged, slow one. And true to form, her mother chose her own way out.

  “Do you want to go home now?” Rafael asked gently.

  “No, there’s nothing we can do for her now,” Victoria said. “It’s all over with now. I couldn’t do anything for her in life. I sure can’t do anything for her now that she’d dead.”

  Victoria got up and went to the bathroom. When she came out, she got a cold soda out of the fridge, and asked Rafael if he wanted one, too. He did, so she got out another, and returned to her seat.

  “Are you sure you want to continue on the trip?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Her voice was firmer now.

  “My mother has done the last thing she will ever do to ruin my day and my life. I will not, I repeat, NOT, allow her to cut short our honeymoon. Now drive!”

  Rafael looked at Victoria for a long moment, trying to gauge her emotions. She stared right back at him, daring him to try to talk her out of finishing the trip. He finally sighed, released her hand, and started the engine. He put it in gear, checked his rearview mirrors for traffic, and then eased back onto the highway.

  As Rafael drove, Victoria called the funeral home. She explained that she was two states away and would not be able to come home right away. She instructed them to go ahead with her mother’s burial as specified in her prepaid funeral plan. She told the man to whom she was speaking that she would not be having a funeral under the circumstances. He explained that there would be no refund of money paid in that included the funeral service. She told him that was fine.

  She asked if the funeral home would put the obituary in the newspaper. He said they would if she so requested and gave him the necessary information. All she wanted it to say was her name, birth and death dates, and herself as sole survivor. The man told her that he would see that it got published in the paper.

  The miles rolled past while Victoria sat silently staring out the window. Rafael wisely kept silent, too, giving Victoria her space to process this horrific news. He knew that there was little love lost, but it was still an awful tragedy. The past two or three months had been just one horrible thing after another. He didn’t know how she could deal with the grief in such a stoic manner.

  After an hour or so of silence, Victoria roused herself long enough to call Lena and give her the news. She couldn’t get through to her and assumed that she must still be somewhere in Yosemite where there was no cell service. She sent a text message, knowing that Lena would get it as soon as she entered a service area. She didn’t say what happened. That would be crude. She just told Lena to call her ASAP.

  Victoria noticed that Rafael was looking at her with concern in his eyes.

  “I’m OK, babe, really I am,” she told him. “You know that I don’t have the feelings for my mother that I should. That normal people have for their mothers. Like you have for your mother. My struggle now is feeling guilty for being relieved that this whole sordid mess is finally over with.

  “I know I should be grief-stricken that my mother is dead by her own choice like I was when I found out that Daddy was dead. But I’m not. That’s the plain, ugly truth. I am glad that this is all over with. That she doesn’t have to live out her life in a prison or a psych facility. That there will be no long, drawn-out trial. That she can’t hurt anyone else ever again. But it makes me feel guilty for not being sad.”

  Rafael reached over and took her hand.

  “Your feelings are your own,” he said. “No one can tell you how you should feel. Only you know the relationship you have had with your mother all through your life. You have been through so much ugly stuff since your dad died that I can understand why you are relieved that it is all over with. Honey, you have no reason to feel guilty over your feel
ings. Don’t think for one minute that I am being critical of you. Just because I have a good relationship with my mother, doesn’t mean that I can’t see that you didn’t have one with yours.

  “You forget that I have seen your mother during the years you were living in Seattle. I could see what kind of woman she was. I haven’t told you this before, and maybe now isn’t the best time to bring it up, but I have seen her with a couple of those other men. I knew she was cheating on your dad long before he did.”

  “Really?” Victoria looked at him with questioning.

  “Yeah.”

  “Where?”

  Rafael looked uncomfortable at that question, but Victoria had turned her head to look at a billboard they were passing and missed his expression.

  “Well, I kinda hate to say because it incriminates me, too, but I was taking a girl to a motel one day, and I saw your mother and some guy at the same motel. It was in the middle of the day, on a weekend,” he told her.

  “I see,” Victoria said, trying not to visualize Rafael with another woman, even though she knew he had a checkered past.

  He glanced over at her trying to read her expression. He hoped that the grim look on her face was directed at her mother and not at him.

  “Sorry, honey,” he said, squeezing her hand gently.

  “It’s OK,” she said resignedly. “I’m past being surprised at anything Marian did. As bad as I know it sounds, I am glad that she is past hurting anyone else ever again.”

  She sat there, dry-eyed, watching the white lines disappear underneath the motorhome, not really seeing the scenery. After another silence, she looked at her watch and saw that it was nearly ten o’clock. According to the time on the GPS, they should be nearing Tombstone. She mentioned this to Rafael.

  “Yeah, the last sign I saw said that it was thirty miles, and that was at least five miles back. So we’ll be there in less than half an hour,” he told her.

  “You hungry?” she asked.

  “Thinking about it,” he admitted. “You?”

  “I dunno,” she said. “My stomach feels like it’s tied up in knots.”

  “I’m sure,” he said sympathetically.

  Sure enough, in less than half an hour, they entered Tombstone. The uniqueness of this Old West town perked Victoria up a bit. As Rafael drove slowly looking for a likely parking spot, she mentally shook herself and determined to enjoy the rest of the trip no matter what. Marian had done her last evil deed, and Victoria would not let it ruin the last few days of their honeymoon.

  Rafael found a good place to park, but before they got out of the motorhome, Victoria went into the tiny bathroom to use the toilet and run a comb through her hair. Rafael went in as soon as she came out. When he came out, she was waiting for him. With outstretched arms, she pulled him close and lifted her face for a kiss.

  “I love you so much, babe,” she told him. “Thanks for being here for me and for being so understanding.”

  “I love you, too, honey,” he replied. “I will always be here for you for as long as we both shall live.”

  After another long kiss, they set out to walk around town and see all that there was to see. They weren’t disappointed with their decision to put Tombstone on the itinerary. It was such a fun place to poke around in. They found a café before too long, and went in to get some lunch.

  They had their photograph taken in an old-time photography studio. Victoria dressed up like a dance hall girl and Rafael put on a cowboy’s outfit for one picture. Then they changed: Victoria became an elegant lady and Rafael a dandy. A third photo showed them both dressed as a plain farm couple, while in a fourth they wore Native American costumes. It was so much fun, Victoria wanted to try on every outfit they had there. But Rafael called a halt after the fourth photo. He paid for their pictures and they went on to see what else there was to see.

  Every direction in which they turned there was something interesting to see. They watched a mock shoot-out at the OK Corral, Rafael tried his hand with a gun in a shooting gallery, they rode a stagecoach around town, and went on a tour of an old mine.

  Sometime in the middle of the night, Rafael was awakened by Victoria’s mumbling. He could make out the word “no,” but the rest was just gibberish. She repeated “no” several times and then screamed a loud shrill scream that woke her up. Rafael tried to clamp his hand over her mouth to keep the sound from carrying in the still night air, but he was too slow. He shook her awake, and when he did so, she looked around wildly, finally finding Rafael’s face. Sobs shook her whole body, which he tried to soothe, but was unsuccessful.

  “It’s all right, honey,” he crooned softly. “You’re safe here with me. No one is going to hurt you. You’re OK.”

  He repeated his comforting words over and over again until he felt her trembling body relax and again go limp. He held her for a few minutes longer before laying her back down beside him. At least now that they were married, he could stay with her and hope that even in her sleep, she could sense his presence beside her and feel safe.

  In the morning, he asked her about her nightmare. He’d not done that before, waiting instead for her to tell him. But this time he wanted to know what had set her off. He suspected that Marian’s death the day before had something to do with Victoria’s nightmare. He was right.

  “It was awful,” she said, searching her memory for the dream. “I went to visit Mother in the psych ward and there she was, hanging from the ceiling. Her face was twisted in an ugly grin and she was saying, ‘I killed him. I killed him. Now the money is all mine. All mine.’ And then she put a gun to her own head and shot herself into a million little pieces. It was horrible. Just horrible.”

  Victoria put her hands over her face and sobbed. Rafael sat beside her and held her while she cried. After a couple of minutes, she got up and went into the bathroom. She wet a washcloth and washed her face, rubbing it hard, as if that would erase the memory of her nightmare. Then she brushed her teeth, put on her make-up, and combed her hair. As she surveyed her reflection in the mirror, she vowed that she would put it behind her and she would have a good time today and enjoy what little was left of their honeymoon. Marian Thornton had ruined her day for the very last time.

  Later that morning, they took a jeep tour that took them around to several ghost towns in the vicinity of Tombstone. That was most fascinating to both of them. The third day they finished seeing everything, including the Bird Cage Theater, Boothill Graveyard, the Gunfighter Hall of Fame, and the Pioneer Home Museum, and even revisited some of the places that they had already been.

  When they learned about Kartchner Caverns, they knew that would be their next stop. Having gone through Carlsbad Caverns, they were now crazy about caves, and vowed to go to every one they came across. Kartchner Caverns did not disappoint them.

  On the road between the caverns and Tucson, Victoria’s phone rang. When she picked it up, she saw that it was Lena returning her call. Now she would have to tell her about Marian.

  “Hi, Lena,” Victoria said.

  “Hi, honey, I just got back in a service area and got your message to call you. Is everything all right?” Lena asked.

  “Not really,” Victoria said. “Mother is dead. She committed suicide last Thursday. Dr. Stevens called to tell me.”

  “Oh, honey, I am so sorry!” Lena exclaimed. “I just can’t believe it. Marian dead. I’m so sorry, honey. So sorry.”

  “Thanks, Lena. I know I’m terrible, but it is something of a relief to me that she won’t have to spend the rest of her life in a psych ward or a prison. At some level, she must have felt that way, too.”

  “You’re not terrible, honey. You’ve been through more in the past three months than most people endure in a lifetime. Don’t beat yourself up over your feelings. I can understand your point and agree that the alternative was pretty bad.”

  “We’ll talk more when we get home,” Victoria said. “My reception isn’t very good out here where we are. Don’t let this spoil your vacat
ion. I have determined that it won’t spoil ours. Just go ahead with your plans. There is nothing either one of us can do now. We’ll see you when we both get home.”

  “OK, honey,” said Lena. “Drive safe and try to have a good time.”

  “We will.”

  Tucson was next on their agenda, but before they got into the city, they had to stop at Old Tucson. Old Tucson, they learned, has been used as a movie set for dozens of movies and TV shows over the years. A most fascinating place, they even recognized a couple of the buildings from watching old westerns.

  It was late enough when they left Old Tucson that when they got into Tucson, the first thing they did was find an RV park for the night. The next morning they drove around Tucson some and then headed west. Rather than take the freeway all the way to Yuma, they chose a secondary road that took them to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the curious town of Why.

  “They named it ‘Why’ because that’s what you ask when you get here,” Rafael joked. “Why would anybody want to live here?”

  “That’s about it,” Victoria agreed with a laugh.

  They found the road that led down into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and went as far as the visitor’s center. They both found the cacti and the desert interesting with its own beauty, but agreed that they really wouldn’t want to live in it.

  “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here,” is how Victoria put it.

  “Agreed,” Rafael said.

  Gila Bend was their next goal where they would stop for the night. As there wasn’t much to see in Gila Bend, they entertained themselves in the motorhome with snacks and a good movie. And the pleasures of the flesh.

  Chapter Six

  It’s only about 116 miles from Gila Bend west to Yuma. But when there’s nothing much to look at except the vast expanse of desert, it can seem endless. Fortunately, there’s Dateland to break up the monotony. Dateland isn’t much more than a glorified truck stop, except that it also has a date palm grove, which turns it into an oasis in the desert.