A Reunion to Die For (A Joshua Thornton Mystery)

by Lauren Carr

  He recognized the uniform of a Hancock County deputy sheriff. Through the bushes, he could not tell which deputy it was. “They found Gail’s car.”

  Tad dropped the tablet and joined him in watching as the sports car was hoisted up onto the flatbed. “What’s her car doing behind your house?”

  Joshua hung his head. “She was too drunk to drive back home when she showed up here, so I drove her. I left her a message the next day to tell her where it was and to come get it.”

  “But someone killed her before she could do that, and Cavanaugh got the message.”

  “Yep.” Joshua turned from the window. “Was there any evidence of sexual assault?”

  Tad shook his head with a chuckle. “Nope, she was as clean as a whistle.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Joshua had heard the term “clean as a whistle,” but he had never heard it used in connection with a medical exam on a murder victim, except when it meant that she had been sterilized by the killer to remove all evidence.

  “Her genital membrane was intact.” The corners of Tad’s mouth curled with amusement.

  Once again, Joshua heard himself asking what the doctor was talking about.

  “When a woman or girl is penetrated, the genital membrane is broken—”

  “Also referred to in slang as breaking a girl’s cherry.” Joshua frowned as he repeated, “Her genital membrane was intact.”

  Tad nodded his head.

  Joshua shook his. “But Gail was not a virgin. We had sex together right upstairs in what used to be my room—”

  “Twenty years ago. With no sexual activity over a long period of time, and I’m talking years, the membrane can grow back. You know,” he said, putting his hands on his hips, “there is a theory that every seven years we end up with a totally different body as a result of cells dying and then replacing each other.”

  Joshua interrupted him, “Therefore, Gail didn’t have a lover for a very long time.”

  “We also know that she had a baby.” Tad pointed to the word on the yellow pad. “Episiotomy. She had an episiotomy scar.”

  “She had a baby.”

  Tad shrugged. “An episiotomy scar does not necessarily mean that a woman had a baby. There can be other reasons for the scar. But, yes, Johnstone did also find a distended uterus to indicate childbirth at some point.”

  “What point?” Joshua swallowed.

  “Not recently.”

  Jan was proud of herself. She may not have had the experience of a hard-hitting journalist, but she was developing the mind of one. If she could not get anyone at Gail’s network willing to talk about her and what had occurred in Connecticut, then she would call the O’Neals. Considering that they were driven into getting a restraining order against the journalist, they should be willing to talk about what drove them there.

  She found Sylvia O’Neal’s phone number on the Internet. She was not sure if the woman knew or cared who she was talking to. As soon as Jan mentioned Gail Reynolds, the story poured out over the phone line faster than she could type on her laptop.

  “They told us that those records were sealed. There should be laws to protect decent people like us. We invested our heart and soul into that boy. He was a part of us, even if he didn’t come from us. And then, nineteen years later, that woman goes digging through the records and turns our world upside down. Poor Adam has had to start seeing a shrink because of her.”

  Sylvia was talking so fast that the words were swimming in Jan’s head while she tried to put them together to comprehend the meaning behind them while she wrote her story. “Wait a minute,” she sputtered while typing out that Adam had to see a therapist after his experience with Gail Reynolds. “She found you. Why was she looking for you?”

  “Because she suddenly started feeling all maternal,” Sylvia spat out. “He might have come out of her womb—”

  “Gail was his birth mother?”

  “—but I’m still his mother. You can’t give your child over to another woman to raise and then pop back up in his life with this insane idea that you can take this boy—who’s now in college—home to live with you and his daddy and be some big happy family! That woman is insane!”

  Joshua didn’t intend to fall asleep. He was resting his eyes when the dongs of the doorbell echoed through his head. He sat up at attention in his desk chair so abruptly that he pulled a muscle in his neck. His knees banged against the underside of his desk, and he let out a yelp.

  Admiral must have been asleep, too. Uttering a bark, he jumped into a sitting position from where he was stretched out in the middle of the study floor. He looked at his master for an order about what to do next.

  Rubbing his knees, Joshua went to answer the door.

  Tori waited for him on his threshold. Her seductive style of dress had been transformed in a casual ensemble of blue jeans, a sweater, and boots. She held a bouquet of flowers and a carton of McDonald’s food and drinks. “I thought you could use some company.” She offered the flowers to him.

  He refused to touch them. “Now’s not a good time.”

  “Why will you not even accept a token of friendship? Do you hate me that much?”

  “I don’t hate you.” With a sigh that she interpreted as defeat, Joshua took the flowers and stepped back to permit her into the foyer.

  She tried not to gape at the interior of the three-story stone home at the end of Rock Springs Boulevard. In her youth, she could only imagine being invited inside the home that had been in the Thornton family for five generations. It was several times bigger and homier than the trailer in which she had grown up.

  Joshua led the way to the kitchen to set the table with paper plates and plastic utensils. Admiral followed the scent of the burgers.

  “I’m a gourmet cook. Did you know that?” Tori chatted away while she set up the fast food with the elegance of a three-course meal. “I went to Europe for a couple of weeks with this guy. I tried authentic European cooking. It’s nothing like anything that you get here. But, I have to tell you, when I got back, I was dying for a big ole greasy burger.” She held out the sandwich to him.

  As he slid into his chair at the head of the table, Joshua stared at the hamburger that she offered to him. Admiral was also staring at the ground beef that was four inches from his nose. He licked his chops. If his master was not going to take it, he would.

  Joshua accepted the burger, much to the dog’s disappointment. “Tori, why did you come here?”

  She took a bite of her hamburger and chewed. She watched him gazing at the burger on his plate. “I did not have anything to do with Max coming after you.”

  His eyes were tired. “That is ancient history.”

  “If you really believe that, then why can’t we be friends?”

  “You seem to have this warped idea that friends should engage in casual sex with each other and I don’t. I’ll be your friend, but I’m not going to sleep with you.” Joshua took a bite of his burger, but didn’t taste it.

  “Why do you assume that I sleep with every man who I’m friends with? Is it because I’m a whore?”

  He was exhausted with the topic of their discussion. “I’ve said no thank you. Why do we have to keep talking about it?”

  “I want to sleep with you because I have always been attracted to you, and I know you are attracted to me.”

  “This conversation at this time is inappropriate.” Joshua reminded her of his friend who was found dead.

  “I’m sorry.” She balled up the wrapper from her burger. “I did not come here to pick you up.” She stood up. Her voice rose an octave. “Yes, I like sex. I make no apologies for that. If that makes me a whore, then I guess that’s what I am.”

  She had gathered up her purse and tossed the bag from McDonald’s into the trash as she added the closing line of her s
tatement. “The problem with people from your side of the tracks, Joshua Thornton, is that you won’t look beyond the label that you stick on people to see what lies underneath.”

  She left him alone in the kitchen with the bouquet of flowers sitting in the middle of the table without a vase to stand in.

  Admiral ate his hamburger in one gulp.

  Joshua had resumed his nap on the sofa in his study when the sound of the doorbell brought him back to the foyer. Assuming that it was Tori returning, either to argue for the affair she was wanting or to apologize, he swung open the door. “Can’t you see that now is not a good time?” He started at seeing Seth Cavanaugh on the other side of the door.

  “Now is as good a time as any, Counselor.” He pushed open the door and stepped in without invitation. “We have to talk.”

  Joshua folded his arms across his chest. “If you want to interview me about Gail, I suggest we make an appointment to do it downtown in Sheriff Sawyer’s office.”

  Seth took in his tired eyes and disheveled appearance. “You look like hell.”

  “Lack of sleep.”

  “Guilt does that.”

  “One,” Joshua replied, “I did not kill Gail. Two, what evidence do you have to suggest that I did?”

  “Opportunity. You were on the murder scene. We have witnesses who heard you admit to that.” The detective pointed out to the driveway. “And I just saw your motive leaving. Were you going over your stories for the police?”

  “Damn it, Cavanaugh!” He gritted his teeth. “Tori Brody is a colleague. She came over here to offer condolences on the death of a classmate. If you had bothered asking me, instead of jumping to conclusions—”

  “Why bother asking? You would have told me the same lie you are telling me now.”

  “Well, I do bother asking, and then I take the time to go after the truth. You just jump on the train and ride it until you railroad your case into court!”

  “Is this railroading?” Seth held up a plastic evidence bag containing a blue pen with gold engraving on the side.

  Joshua uttered a gasp at the sight of his lost pen.

  “Aren’t you even going to ask where I found it? Or do you already know?”

  “I lost that pen weeks ago.”

  “And I found it . . . in Reynolds’s living room. How did you lose it? Did it fall out of your pocket while you were unzipping your pants? Then she found out that she wasn’t the only woman you were dipping your pen into—”

  “Have you spoken to the medical examiner?”

  Seth snorted.

  Joshua opened the door and gestured for him to leave. “Talk to Dr. Johnstone and then, after that, we’ll talk in Sawyer’s office.”

  “We will talk again, Thornton.” He could feel the frost of Seth’s breath in his face. “You should be more careful about whose past you go around checking out.”

  “So that’s what this is about. What are you afraid of my finding out?”

  “Nothing now.” Seth predicted, “By the time I’m through with you, no one will believe a thing you say.”

  Joshua closed the door behind him and then went to the window to watch Seth pull out of the driveway and down Fifth Street to town. Then, he picked up the phone and hit a speed dial number.

  Tad picked up on the first ring.

  “Cavanaugh was just here.”

  “And?”

  “I think I need to lawyer up.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Gail did not have any baby,” Carey Hoffman stated.

  The writer’s sister worked as a clerk for an automotive service in New Cumberland. She glanced around to make sure that none of the three customers waiting for their cars were listening to her conversation with Jan Martin, who countered her version with proof of the lie.

  “That’s not what the autopsy said. They did find evidence of childbirth.”

  With a combination of a sigh and a snort, Carey asked, “Why can’t you leave well enough alone?”

  “We have to check out all possibilities.” Jan pressed her lips together. “Had you seen Gail since she came back home?”

  “We were not that close.”

  “I noticed. I recall back when we were all kids that you two didn’t exactly hang out with the same crowd.”

  Carey rationalized the lack of friendship. “I was three years younger than Gail. That’s a big difference when you’re kids.”

  “But you’re not kids anymore.”

  “When Mom was sick, Gail started planning for her death and had the legal connections to get everything of value. All I got were the photo albums and the chipped family china. There were hard feelings about that.”

  “Then why are you so set on protecting her name now?”

  “I have a daughter who wants to be a journalist just like her Aunt Gail. I don’t want her name dragged through the mud,” Carey told her. “That’s what they do every time someone famous dies. Dig up all the dirt on them. They don’t think about the person, and all the pain and hurt she might have suffered.”

  Seeing a light in the tunnel that pointed in the direction she was seeking, Jan offered, “Why don’t you try telling me about the pain and hurt she went through?”

  “Gail did not want to put the baby up for adoption. My parents insisted that she give it up. Either that, or they weren’t going to pay for her to go away to college.”

  “Do you know who the baby’s father was?”

  Carey shrugged.

  “Gail didn’t tell you?”

  She responded with a hollow laugh. “Gail was not a well person. Of course, when I mentioned that to Mom and Dad, they practically disowned me.”

  “How was she not well?” Jan didn’t want to confess to knowing about the nervous breakdown.

  “Gail fantasized. She told me that Joshua Thornton was the baby’s father. But I was there at the Valentine’s Day dance when he and Beth Davis announced their engagement. He was with her that whole evening. There was no—”

  “Could—?”

  “That was the night that Gail got pregnant. I know. I found her in the backseat of our car afterwards.”

  “I guess you are wondering why I’ve been in the twilight zone.”

  Joshua sucked in a deep breath and observed the faces sitting before him around the kitchen table. He tried to think of the most diplomatic words to express the sin he committed in his youth that threatened to come back now to bite him in the butt. It would mean risking the loss of his children’s respect.

  “It’s hard losing a friend.” Tracy reminded him of Grace’s murder with a nod of her head.

  Joshua shook his head. “Gail was a friend. I’ve lost friends before, but—”

  “Did you two have an affair?” Sarah asked.

  He asserted, “We were friends, nothing more.”

  “Mom said that she was trying to get you.”

  Joshua cocked his head at his younger daughter. He had realized that he and his wife would fight after Gail came to visit. He wasn’t aware that the children had noticed it as well. He had thought that his late wife didn’t like Gail because she was a hardcore feminist. There was another reason. Valerie sensed her attraction to him.

  Jan rushed in through the kitchen back door. “Josh! We have to talk!”

  He groaned.

  “I think you are going to want to hear what I found out.” Her tone told him that she was bursting with news.

  With the effort of an emotionally and physically exhausted man, Joshua raised himself up from the table and led the way into his study. He was aware of five pairs of eyes on his back.

  Jan plunged ahead. “Were you aware that the network let Gail go from her contract and paid her off? In other words, she was fired.” She explained the termination of Gail’s contract. �
�There is a family in Connecticut that had a restraining order against her for stalking their son, whom she’d hunted down after giving him up for adoption. She ended up spending some time in a psych ward.”

  “Are you aware that there is a possibility that that boy is my son?”

  She squawked. “Is that why Ernie is nosing around to find out if you were sleeping with Gail?”

  “How did Gaston find out about all this so fast?”

  “I don’t know. He called me wanting to know about your love life. I told him that it was none of his business.” Jan asked, “Exactly what was going on with you and Gail?”

  “It was a one-night stand back in high school! We were kids!” He forced her back on track. “What did you find out about this kid in Connecticut?”

  She responded to his question with a question. “When did you sleep with Gail?”

  “Jan!”

  “It’s for the math. I have the boy’s birth date. He was conceived in February. When did you and Gail do the deed?”

  “First week of January.” He sighed with relief. “He can’t be mine.”

  “She wanted him to be yours. She wanted it so much, she convinced herself that he was.”

  “But who is the father?”

  “Gail was not exactly a hot date back then. Her sister is convinced that the baby was conceived Valentine’s Day night at the school dance. Gail got drunk and went out to the parking lot. She was drinking with a bunch of the jocks. Carey kept trying to get her to come back inside, but she refused. After the dance, she found Gail passed out in the backseat of their car. Her panties were missing. She told Carey that you sneaked out of the dance to make love to her.”

  “That’s not true! I was with Beth. We got engaged that night!”

  “Gail had some big issues, but she was so good at coming across like she had it together that no one saw it.”

  The phone rang on his desk. “Now what?” He snatched up the phone. “What?” He barked into the receiver. After Tad, who was on the other end of the line, reminded him of his manners, he apologized.