Elizabeth was worried about him. He looked so pale, so drained. How much more could he take this week before collapsing?
Jared sat back in his chair. “Finally, I’ve remembered and now I wish I hadn’t.” He looked at Elizabeth with tears in his eyes.
There was silence as Jared breathed deeply trying to pull himself together. Suddenly he stopped, his face puzzled. “There’s something more, something else that I need to remember.” He shut his eyes. After a few moments he opened them again. “It just won’t come.”
“Do you have any idea of what it’s about?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well, how did I know she was in the well? I must have seen her go there.” He shook his head as if trying to clear it. “Why don’t I remember that? What happened that my memory has blanked it out so completely?”
“Do you think you’re ready to dig for it?”
“From the beginning I’ve never been sure where this week was going to take me and so far it hasn’t been pleasant. I guess it can’t get any worse.”
Elizabeth waited for him to say more. When he didn’t she asked Meredith. “Do you think Paul had something to do with her death? After all, he did admit to putting the lid back on the well.”
“I don’t think he killed her if that’s what you mean,” Meredith said.
“Do you think someone else may have?”
Meredith hesitated.
“What?” Jared asked, coming back into the conversation.
“Well, it’s just something I overheard. I forgot about it until now. There was a benefit dance for a family whose house had burned down. I was sitting with Anna and then we went outside because it was hot. She went to talk with Sarah. Sarah asked her what she’d meant by their first conversation and Anna told her that Nick had been a bit of a playboy when he was younger and she insinuated that he might be the father of her unborn baby.”
“Why would she say that?” Jared asked.
“I don’t know. But other people must have heard it because it wasn’t long before the rumours were flying that she was pregnant again with a child of Nick’s.”
“What do you mean, again?” Elizabeth asked. She was looking for confirmation of what they had been told yesterday.
“Just that everyone thought Jared was Nick’s son.”
“Do you think he is?”
Again Meredith paused. “I did overhear her tell Sarah he was.”
Elizabeth watched Jared. He just nodded his head.
“How did Paul and Nick feel about the rumours?” Elizabeth asked.
“I never really saw them after I moved into town. But according to the gossip, Paul was livid and embarrassed especially since it was just after he had gone to pick Anna and Jared up in Edmonton. And Nick went around telling people he was not the father of either of her children”
“That must have caused a lot of hard feelings.”
“It did but the one I really felt sorry for was Sarah. She’d just gotten married, left her family and the life she knew and moved to a farm where she knew no one, all for the man she loved. And then to find out that he may have fathered one child, and while they were planning their wedding was supposed to have had an affair with his old girlfriend and fathered her second child.”
“That must have been so hard on her,” Elizabeth agreed. “But she stuck it out with Nick.”
“Yes, she has. But she has become a very bitter woman.”
As they headed towards the van Meredith called. “Let me know what you think of the poems when you finish them.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything when they were in the van. She imagined Jared had too many thoughts running through his mind. His mother at the well, the possibility that Paul was not his father, his mother being so spiteful to another woman. When he didn’t start the van she decided she had to know.
“How are you doing with all this? Do you want to talk about it?”
“It’s just so hard to digest it all, because it isn’t even close to what I’d expected to discover about Mom. The memories of her that have been coming back are of her sweetness, her bathing me in bubble bath, her hugging me, her playing games with me. I guess I expected to find out that she was an angel who was mistreated by everyone around her. That image of her is slowly being crushed.”
Elizabeth was determined to try and divert his attention. “Do you want to know my thoughts about what we’ve learned?”
Jared smiled, grimly. “I appreciate that you are trying to distract me. I’m just not sure if I can discuss my mother right now, with all I’ve been finding out recently.”
Elizabeth waited, willing him to say more. “Okay. Tell me your thoughts,” he finally said.
“We know your mother dated Nick before she married Paul,” Elizabeth said, wondering if he was really paying attention. “She was pregnant with you when she got married, so Nick may be your father. Then four years later Nick moves back to the farm and she suddenly gets pregnant again.”
“And she tells Sarah that Nick had made her pregnant just before they married,” Jared said.
“Maybe she was trying to get Nick back,” Elizabeth said. “After all her marriage wasn’t very good. I wonder if at some point she told him outright that he was your father.”
“And what would his reaction have been?” Jared asked.
“There is the possibility that he may have killed her,” Elizabeth said gently.
“Oh, no,” Jared sobbed. “Do I want to find out if the man who may be my father killed my mother? Geeze, what will I do if it’s true?” He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
Elizabeth stopped. Was she pushing him too far? Should she wait, let him recover from today’s bombshells? She looked at Meredith’s house, expecting her to be peeking out the window wondering what was happening. No one was there. She glanced up and down the street. Cars were driving, people were walking. Everything else was normal. It was just in this van that things were in turmoil.
“We could go back to…”
“I don’t want to see Dad tonight,” Jared said quickly, as if knowing what she was going to say. “I’m really not sure if I want to learn the truth about that. If he is not my dad and Nick is, then where does that leave me? Without the man who raised me and having no bond with the man who is my father. Before I pursue it, I really have to be certain that I can deal with it if it is true.”
Suddenly, Jared slapped the steering wheel. “I know what it was that I’ve been trying to remember,” he said.
“What?” Elizabeth asked quickly.
“There was someone else with Mom at the well on the day she died.”
“There was? Who?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Chapter 37
Wayne’s Story
Wayne had stopped in at a convenience store for two packages of cigarettes and then went to the liquor store for a bottle of whiskey. He and Meredith were going to need both in order to get through this. He’d been told she had been in earlier to identify the body and then had quickly left after learning about the affair.
His feelings had returned and galvanized into one searing ball of hatred. How he hated Ben, and there was nothing he could do to get rid of the feeling. There was no Ben to hit, to kick, to throw across the room, like he’d done to the man who had made those calls to Christine. Last he’d seen of him, he’d been out cold on his living room floor. If he reported it to the police, Wayne never heard about it. Wayne wished he had the opportunity to do the same to Ben. Even a substitute would work, someone who deserved a good beating.
Wayne pulled into Meredith’s yard. The cows were bawling at the fence. He walked into the house without knocking. Meredith was standing at the sink, her eyes red from crying. He held up the cigarettes and she grabbed a package and immediately lit one. He showed her the whiskey and she carried two glasses to the table.
“Have you seen Christine?” Meredith asked.
“Yes. I just left her before coming here.” Wayne poured the
m each a drink. He drank his in one gulp.
Meredith downed hers. “Did she really stab Ben? Did she admit it to you? Is it really true?”
“Yes.” Wayne was trying hard to keep his voice neutral. He knew that if he gave in to his anger he would wreck her place, Ben’s place.
“Did she tell you about the affair?”
“Yes.”
They had another drink then he stood. “Come on. We’ve got to feed and water the animals.”
Meredith looked up at him and shook her head.
“They need looking after,” he said
“I can’t.” She inhaled deeply.
“Yes, you can. What happened is not their fault.”
“You do it.”
“We’ll do it.” Wayne had no desire to go out into the cold but he wasn’t one to neglect animals that supplied a person’s living. He pulled Meredith into a standing position and guided her over to where her winter coat hung. She listlessly put it on and slipped her feet into her boots.
While she went and started the pump, Wayne threw some bales over the fence to the cows. Then they carried pails of chop and water to the pigs.
“Will you tell me?”
“Are you sure you want to hear?”
Meredith breathed in a lungful of the cold air and let it out. “Yes.”
“It’s not very pleasant.”
Meredith glanced at Wayne. “Tell me.”
“They’ve been seeing each other for two years,” Wayne paused at the agony it caused him to say it and at the pained expression on Meredith’s face.
“Two years?” she whispered.
Wayne nodded.
“Two years.” Meredith shook her head. “That’s a long time for us to not know or even suspect.”
“I’ve thought of that, too,” Wayne agreed. “They’d get together at lunch time or on some of the evenings when Christine told me she was working late.”
“Probably the same evenings Ben said he was going to see his father at the bar,” Meredith said, in a quiet voice.
“She said he wanted his wife and girlfriend, too.”
“Well, I definitely feel better that I was ranked as high as his girlfriend.” Meredith dumped the chop in the feeder and watched the three pigs come out of their house. “I always thought his possessiveness was only for me. Apparently, it was for any woman who came within his grasp.”
“When she moved out on me she also tried to cut all ties with Ben.” Wayne poured the water on top of the chop.
“And he wasn’t happy about it,” Meredith said. “He didn’t like the idea of her calling the affair off.”
They went and gave the chickens some water and grain. Once the animals were taken care of they returned to the house.
Wayne poured each another glass of whiskey and Meredith lit two cigarettes. They blew smoke into the air and drank.
Meredith shook her head. “This is so unbelievable, so horrible. Ben is dead and Christine killed him. And they were having an affair.” Her eyes misted over. “It’s just too much to take in.”
Wayne wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear more. He wasn’t sure if he could tell her more. He waited in silence.
“What did Ben do to try and keep Christine?” Meredith asked. She got up and began to pace the floor.
“He made phone calls to her and when she got her unlisted number he started going to her place at night.” As Wayne spoke he wondered if Ben had seen him make his own evening visits.
“Apparently she wouldn’t let him in but the night before last he snuck up on her when she was entering. He actually hit her and he also threatened her if she didn’t see him again. When he came last night, he broke the door down to get in and she thought he was going to kill her. She got a knife and begged him to leave but he wouldn’t. He just kept coming at her until she stabbed him. Then she says someone hit her on the head and she blacked out.”
“Where did they meet for their little love fests?” Meredith stopped her pacing to pour herself another drink.
“At lunch times Ben would buy hamburgers or something and they would meet along a dead end road. In the evenings, they’d go to a hotel in Smoky Lake.”
“Sounds like they were acting like a couple of teenagers.” Meredith took a gulp of her drink then suddenly she threw the glass across the room. It splintered against the wall and the remains of her whiskey slowly trickled down the paint. “How could they do that to us?” she cried. “How could they betray us like that?”
Wayne went and put his arms around her. He held her until the tears stopped. She stepped back and wiped her eyes. “How could they?” she asked again.
“I don’t know,” Wayne said, keeping his arms lightly around her. “I’ve asked myself that, too.”
“Didn’t we mean anything to them? Didn’t our marriages mean anything?”
“I guess not enough to stop them.” He really should go. He felt himself losing the battle with his anger.
“Do you realize how trusting we were, how gullible? We actually sent them to that concert in Calgary together because neither of us wanted to go to it. I’ll bet they laughed all the way into the city.”
“And what were we doing that weekend?” Wayne asked, gruffly.
Meredith reddened and pushed herself away from him. “That wasn’t an affair. That wasn’t even a one night stand.”
“Yes, but we were thinking of doing the exact same thing they were doing.”
“They had an affair for two years,” Meredith yelled harshly, pounding the table with her fist. “We got drunk and went to a motel room only to find out we didn’t have the guts to cheat on them.”
“But we were thinking about it.”
“How can you say that?” Meredith paced the floor again. “They were seeing each other long before we even thought about it and long after we decided we loved them too much to do it.” She looked at him. “But you know what? Right now I wished we had done it. I wished we had spent the whole night screwing instead of running home like two honourable married people.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Maybe not, but right now I would feel like I’d gotten a little revenge on them.” Meredith reached for another cigarette. “Why aren’t you mad? Why aren’t you throwing things and yelling?”
“I’ve come close, believe me. It’s taking all my will power to stay calm. Christine told me that during the affair she realized she didn’t love me.”
Meredith put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.”
“Then why did she want you to sell the farm and move away with her?”
“She said she used that as an excuse to end our marriage. She knew I wouldn’t.”
“Do you think Ben loved me?”
“He acted like he did.”
“Yes, acted.” Meredith got another glass and filled it. “We had a conversation a while ago and I thought he was mad about Christine leaving you, but now I see that he was mad about her leaving him.”
They had just about finished the bottle but neither of them was close to feeling drunk. It was as if their bodies wouldn’t let their minds block out the devastation that had invaded their lives.
“Did Christine say how they got together? What, after all these years of being friends, had sparked them into having an affair?”
“From what she said, Ben came into the office one evening when she was working late to drop off his income tax papers. He told her she looked tired and asked if she wanted to have a drink with him. She accepted and somehow after a couple of drinks they ended up in a motel room.”
“That’s the way we almost had our fling,” Meredith said. “Only you bought me supper first and then the drinks.”
Wayne smiled at the memory. They had decided to go into Gibbons for supper and a stroll along the river bank while Ben and Christine were off enjoying themselves at the concert. They had the supper but didn’t get as far as the stroll. The few drinks they’d consumed had left them giddy an
d feeling a little reckless. On the spur of the moment they’d rented a motel room under the name Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Dearden. They’d giggled as they opened the door and went in, but once inside they had quickly sobered as the realization of what they were doing hit them. The man behind the desk had looked puzzled when they handed in the key ten minutes after they had gotten it. Wayne had saved the motel receipt as a souvenir, a reaffirmation of his love for Christine.
“So what made them take it further?”
Wayne shrugged. “I don’t know. Christine said it just kind of happened. They felt bad after the first time but when Ben came in to pick up his completed tax form they went for drinks again.”
“Did you tell Christine about our feeble attempt at an affair?”
“No.”
“Are you going to?”
Wayne shook his head. “What good will it do? It won’t change anything.”
“No,” Meredith agreed. “It won’t.”
“Have you told anyone about Ben?” Wayne asked.
“I phoned Brittany and Tylar as soon as I got home. They said they would call the rest of the family.”
“Did you tell them the story?”
“Only what I knew at the time, that Christine had stabbed him. I also said I didn’t want to see anyone. What about you? Have you told anyone?”
“No. I don’t know what I’m going to say to Graham.”
“It’s going to be very hard on him. What’s going to happen to Christine?”
“She’ll go before a Judge and if he sets bail, I’ll put it up and she’ll come back home until her trial.”
“You’re letting her move back in with you?” Meredith stared in disbelief.
“She has no place else to go. She won’t be able to go back to work after this and she won’t have any money to live on.”
“But to let her back into your life after what she has done, knowing she doesn’t even love you.”
“I can’t abandon her.”
“That’s what she was doing to you.”
“The circumstances are different now. And she is Graham’s mother. I have to do it for him, too. Besides, she does own half the farm. She has a right to come home.”
The Travelling Detective: Boxed Set Page 50
