House of the Forest

by Diana Wallis Taylor

  He hung his head. “My father died recently. I had to take care of his things, kind of like you have to do for your aunt.”

  She was intrigued, but more people were heading her way. “I’ve got to talk to you. Please, won’t you come to the house after the reception? I’ve invited a few neighbors.”

  He hesitated and then looked pleased. “That’s very kind of you. I guess I have a lot of questions too.”

  “Do you know where the house is?

  “I think so, though it’s been a few years.”

  “Good, we’ll see you there”.

  He nodded and she wondered at the expression on his face, but others wanted to talk to her and she turned from him, smiling at the next person in front of her.

  As soon as she could get away, Laura hurried over to Ginny and George Morgan.

  “Laura, dear, are you all right? Anything we can do? You seen a little distracted.”

  “Oh, I’m fine. It’s just that I had the most amazing experience. I met a man who told me he’s Uncle Ray’s son.”

  Ginny almost spilled her cup of punch. “Ray’s son? I didn’t know he had another son. Estelle never mentioned one, other than the one they lost.”

  Laura shook her head in disbelief. “I know, isn’t that strange? I think Uncle Ray had another family after he left Aunt Estelle, maybe years later.”

  George frowned and perused the room. “Did he tell you his name? Can you point him out?”

  She studied the crowd. “That’s him, the one with the mustache talking to my friend Beth. He said his name was Deke. I was so rattled when he told me who he was, I didn’t get the last name. I guess it would be DuPont.”

  George snorted. “Seems strange that he would turn up at Estelle’s services, I wonder how he knew her. She never mentioned him.” He chewed on his lower lip. “I’d like to talk to that young man. Maybe I’ll just wander over and say hello.”

  “Well, I invited him to the house after the reception. I think we’d all like to talk to him.”

  Ginny put a hand on his arm. “Let’s wait, George, it would be more private.”

  He snuffed. “All right, but he better be able to prove he is who he says he is.”

  Ginny wrinkled her brow. “Did he say where his father is?”

  “He’s dead. Deke said he just got through taking care of his father’s things”.

  The three of them turned to observe Deke and saw Beth turn suddenly and walk away to talk to some people nearby. Deke stood for a moment with an annoyed expression on his face, then strolled over to the buffet table and began to fill his plate.

  “Ms. Kingsley?”

  Laura turned to find herself face to face with Sam Matheson.

  “You’ve spoken with my father, Jake, on the phone. I’d like you to meet him and my mother, Alice Matheson.”

  Mrs. Matheson gave Laura a warm and gentle smile and reached out her hand.

  “We’re so sorry to lose your aunt. She was a lovely person and had quite a sense of humor. We worked in the garden club together.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Matheson. I’m so glad all of you could come. I’m finding out so many things about my aunt that I didn’t know. She seems to have been a very versatile lady.”

  “Oh, indeed. We owe her a large debt of gratitude.” She glanced quickly at her son and back to Laura.

  Laura turned to Sam. “Thank you for taking care of my electric problem. I’m glad it was just a downed wire.”

  Sam seemed to turn the full power of those blue eyes on her and for the second time today she felt completely distracted.

  “Beth tells me that she met a young man who says he is your cousin. I’m sure that was a pleasant surprise.” Laura detected a note of wariness in Sam’s voice.

  “He says he’s Uncle Ray’s son.”

  Jake Matheson echoed George’s words, “Just unusual that he would turn up here.”

  Laura nodded. “I think we all want to know why he’s here. I invited him to the house after the services. I’ve invited Ginny and George Morgan. Would you come also? I could use a little moral support when I talk to him.”

  Jake nodded his head. “We’d be delighted, Ms. Kingsley. Sam?”

  He only said his son’s name, but Laura heard the command. Evidently so did Sam. “Be glad to,” he answered.

  The hall began to clear as people took themselves off to their various destinations. Laura tried to spot Deke in the crowd, but he’d gone. Evidently he’d already left for the house. She thanked two of the ladies of the church who were cleaning up for all their help and made a note to herself to write a thank you note to the auxiliary.

  Just as Ginny and George were leaving, Laura touched the older woman’s arm.

  “Ginny, Sam Matheson mentioned a difficult time he’d gone through. Was he ill?”

  “Only in the spirit, dear. He lost his young wife to Leukemia.”

  Laura felt a stab of pity for Sam. That explained a lot of things.

  Laura found Beth and burst out, “What did you think of that man who said he was my cousin?”

  “I’m reserving my opinion, in case he really is your relative, but my first reaction is to watch out. I really felt a check in my spirit as I talked to him. I can’t put my finger on it, just a gentle warning. He tried to come on to me and I pretty much squelched that.”

  “Oh, Beth, I have the same feeling. Maybe I’m just spooky after having someone break in the house. Maybe we’re just both being too suspicious.”

  Beth pursed her Lips. “Laura, if it’s one thing I’ve learned to do after picking the wrong kind of guys to date for a while, it’s to listen to that still small voice. We don’t have to be overly suspicious, just wise. ”

  “You’re right. In all fairness, thought, I’ll reserve my opinion until I can talk with him more and find out about Uncle Ray.”

  “Good idea.”

  Laura potted her mother talking to Mr. Devers and his wife. She and Beth went to join them.

  “Are you coming to the house, Mother? I can put you up in the master bedroom.”

  “I have a lovely room at the inn, darling. I never could bear Estelle’s house. I’ll come by for a little while.” She gave Laura a brilliant smile. “We can get together for dinner, later perhaps?”

  Used to her mother’s unpredictable behavior, Laura merely smiled. “All right. By the way, did you ever know anyone in the family named Deke?”

  A shadow crossed Gloria’s face briefly but she shook her head. “Not that I can recall.” Just then she glanced over Laura’s shoulder and smiled provocatively.

  Laura turned and saw a tall, lean man who looked in his early forties leaning up against the doorway of the hall. The man’s angular face was handsome in a way. He looked a little young for her mother, but then Laura ceased long ago trying to understand her wayward parent. As she watched him she noted the hardness in his face. For someone who seemed to be a boyfriend, he didn’t seem especially attentive.

  With a quick social hug, gripping Laura’s shoulders and kissing the air by her ear, Gloria turned away. “I’ll see you at the house, darling.”

  Laura stood quietly watching the man take her mother’s elbow and hurry her out the door. She wasn’t sure she approved of this new man in her mother’s life either. She turned to Beth, who, other than a knowing glance, declined to comment.

  “I’m ready to go if you are, Beth.”

  “Right.”

  As they drove out of the church parking lot, Laura turned the meeting with Deke over in her mind. “Beth, Deke said his father died.”

  “That’s what you told me.”

  “Then it couldn’t have been Uncle Ray that broke in the house.”

  Beth gave her a quick startled glance and turned her eyes back to the highway.

  “Oh my goodness, you’re right.”

  “I didn’t feel too bad, thinking it might be Uncle Ray just getting some things, but now I don’t know what to think. I’m worried, Beth.”

  Just then
they rounded the corner and pulled into the driveway. Deke stood with his arms folded, leaning against the Camry, and looking like the cat that swallowed the canary.

  Chapter Twenty

  “How about some hot chocolate?”

  Beth thought a moment. “Sounds good, I’m still not hungry but I never turn down hot chocolate. Got any more marshmallows?”

  “As As Sam drove to the DuPont house, he thought about Laura’s surprise cousin. He too had looked the man over after Beth told him his identity and didn’t like the feeling he got. The guy seemed too smug. It was none of his business, but he found himself feeling protective of Laura Kingsley. She appeared a little too trusting and vulnerable. He considered himself a pretty good judge of character and something here didn’t fit. The guy is a stranger, no one has seen him before, and here he turns up at the memorial service and announces that he’s Ray DuPont’s son. Estelle DuPont had never mentioned this guy either. Did she know about him?

  Sam had a friend, Dave Hensley, in the police department in San Bernardino. He’d helped Dave fix his cabin in Big Bear and Sam felt sure his friend would be glad to return the favor. It shouldn’t take much to find out who this “cousin” was. If the info proved the guy legitimate, he wouldn’t say anything. If he’s not, I’m sure going to find out what he’s up to.

  Sam rotated his shoulders one at a time as he drove. Sam, old man, just why are you getting involved here? He couldn’t get Laura’s face out of his mind and realized with a start that he hadn’t thought of Marcy for several hours. For a moment he cringed with guilt. Yet he knew Marcy would want him to get on with his life. A scene came to his mind from one of his favorite movies, “Dances with Wolves” where the Indian father tells his foster daughter, “Standing with Fist,” that she is to stop mourning for her Indian warrior husband. Is that it? Just stop mourning? Did one come to a place where the mourning ends and life begins again? He marveled, examining his feelings. He could remember a lot of things about his years with Marcy, but suddenly it seemed like a long time ago, another life. What had caused the change? Then he knew. There was something about Laura Kingsley, and the sadness she was going through. She handled it with dignity and courage, no guile. It also occurred to him that she appeared completely unaware of how beautiful she was.

  He parked the truck down the street from the house and sat there a moment. Why was he even letting his thoughts go in that direction? She didn’t live in Big Bear and would most likely return to her job in San Diego after she settled her aunt’s estate. On top of that she was sporting a large ring on her left hand. She was taken.

  He remembered Pastor Bridges saying once that people come into our lives for a reason. Perhaps that was Laura’s purpose, to show him that he could feel again. In that way he felt grateful to her though she’d never know what she’d done.

  Having wrestled with his thoughts, Sam squared his shoulders and started towards the house. All right, long lost cousin, let’s just see who you are.

  Gloria entered the house with her escort and introduced him as John Howard, an old friend. Laura had never seen him before, but then she and her mother didn’t get together often enough to know who Gloria knew. Her mother eyed the punch bowl and raised her eyebrows in a question. Obviously she and her friend expected something a little stronger than punch.

  When Laura shrugged and gave a slight shake of her head, Gloria rolled her eyes heavenward and with a sigh went to sit down in the rocker. Her friend took a chair nearby. He didn’t say much but watched everyone with narrowed eyes.

  The Matheson’s arrived, and Laura realized Sam wasn’t with them. Was he coming? Why did it matter? When he at last appeared in the doorway, she felt conscious of his presence in a way she wasn’t sure she could explain. She had to admit he looked very nice in a suit and tie.

  One of the women from the church came by and brought some of the food left over from the reception and Alma Wilkins brought a Lemon cake. Beth busied herself in the kitchen putting the food away and laying out the desserts out with the help of Alice Matheson and Ginny.

  Pete Wilkins and his wife apologized for not being able to stay. They had to return home as they had family visiting them.

  Laura introduced everyone and the men shook hands. One by one they sat down in a circle in the living room, with Deke in the middle on the couch.

  George Morgan broke the ice and asked the question that Laura felt sure was on everyone’s mind.

  “So, Deke, tell us about your father. We’ve wondered about him.”

  With all the eyes upon him, Deke appeared calm, but wary. He shifted his position on the couch, put his cup of punch down and considered the question a moment before he spoke.

  “Well, as I told Laura, my father died a couple of weeks ago. He’d been living in an apartment in Van Nuys.”

  George tossed in what he hoped to shock Deke with. “How long had he been out of prison?”

  Deke was unperturbed. “Evidently only a few weeks.”

  Ginny too had questions. “Can you tell us how he met your mother?”

  “I was only around three or four when he went to prison. I didn’t know anything about his life before, other than the picture of my father, Estelle DuPont and a small boy that I ah, found in his apartment along with some clippings.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t know who the woman or the boy were until I read an obituary notice he saved. It said the boy had been hit by a car. It mentioned his parents as Ray and Estelle DuPont of Big Bear Lake. I guess my father was married to her before he met my mother”.

  Ginny pursed her lips. “To my knowledge, Ray was never divorced from Estelle.”

  Deke shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I think there’s something about seven years making a legal split, but then I’m not a lawyer. I have a birth certificate showing Ray DuPont as my father.”

  Laura raised her eyebrows, “So your Last name is DuPont?”

  Was it a flash of irritation that crossed his face? Laura couldn’t be sure.

  “It’s Brucker, my mother’s name. But Ray Dupont is listed as my father. I don’t remember much, I was only about three or four. My father was arrested for a robbery.”

  They were really giving him the third degree and Laura’s sense of compassion kicked in. She softened her voice. “I just found out about that. It’s hard to believe Uncle Ray committed a robbery. It had to be Uncle Ray’s partner that shot a guard.”

  Deke nodded. “Yeah, witnesses proved the other guy shot the guard. My old man, ah, my father, served twenty years.”

  “Did you ever hear from your father over the years, Deke?” Ginny asked, her voice gentle.

  A shadow crossed over Deke’s face momentarily. “ No. The police led him away that day and I never saw him again. I remember my mother crying, but she wouldn’t tell me why. She just said he’d done a bad thing. Shortly after that she turned me over to Family Services.”

  Laura leaned forward. “You mean she gave you up?”

  “Yeah. Said she couldn’t take care of me any more. She was sick, she was coughing all the time and in bed a lot. The social worker took me away. I learned a few months later that she died.”

  Laura put a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Deke.”

  Gloria listened, frowning, “If you were so little, how did you know about the bank robbery?”

  Deke leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Some insurance investigators came to my work and told me about my father’s death. They were looking for clues to the money he stole. Then I found the clipping about it with the other things from my father’s apartment.”

  Ginny broke in. “I knew it. It was Ray that came back to the house that day. He took the picture from Esty’s room.”

  Sam leaned forward. “Your father must have saved all those things for a reason. It’s good that you found them.”

  Deke shrugged, avoiding Sam’s steady gaze - he didn’t look at anyone in particular. “You grow up in foster homes, you deal with a lot of stuff. Yo
u learn to hide things,” then he glanced at Laura, “and where things are hidden.”

  He turned to Ginny. “You say he came back and broke in here one day? When was that?”

  “Oh, years ago, Deke. I guess he just wanted some clothes and a few things to keep and didn’t have the nerve to face Esty.”

  “It must have been before he went to prison then?”

  Ginny thought a moment. “Yes, it was just before that.”

  Deke’s eyes narrowed slightly and the faintest of smile touched his lips.

  Laura still had some questions. “You say you never saw Uncle Ray again, not even after he got out of prison?”

  Deke shrugged again. “I didn’t even know he was in prison or that he’d was out until the men tracked me down at the warehouse. They told me he was dead and the body was at the morgue if I wanted to claim it. I thought about it for a while, almost didn’t go. I didn’t know my old man and he hadn’t made any effort to look me up.”

  Laura felt compassion for all he’d been through. “You went, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I had him cremated and put in one of those memorial vaults. I guess someone had to do it.” Deke leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his voice was soft. “I didn’t know he had another family.”

  In spite of her misgivings, Laura felt her heart go out to him with all he’d been through. He couldn’t have had a very happy life with his father going off to prison and his mother giving him up. “So that’s why you came to Aunt Estelle’s services?”

  “Yeah. I wanted to find out about my father. I planned on talking to your aunt, but then I saw the notice of the memorial service and decided to come up anyway. I thought, what the heck, maybe I have some relatives that can tell me about my old man.”

  Sam’s question was casual, “It’s great that you saw the obituary notice. I didn’t realize it appeared in anything but the local paper.”

  Another flicker of annoyance on Deke’s face. “I told you, I intended to find Estelle DuPont, for information. All I knew that picture in the clipping told me. It said they lived in Big Bear Lake. I didn’t know anything about this place so I checked out a copy of The Grizzly.”