Worse Than Being Alone (15 page)

“
Maybe you should check out number
two,” David said. “Then you can decide if you want to talk to your
dad.”

“
While you’re in Springfield I can
check out Ho Chi Minh,” I said.

“
That’s the nickname you gave
Dung, right?” Lionel asked.

“
Yeah, I have a bad habit of doing
that,” I said. “I guess I should work on that.”

“
I think it’s charming,” Lionel
said as everyone in the room turned to stare at him.

“
You do?” I asked as I smiled at
Lionel. Maybe not such a big nerd after all. “You said the black
Mustang belonged to David Tran. What do you know about
him?”

“
He runs the local Vietnamese
mob,” Lionel said. “They are into the usual things like drugs and
prostitution.”

“
I was thinking Cindy and I could
follow Ho tomorrow,” I said. “She has physical therapy again. She’s
probably already made me, but Cindy could follow her into the
restaurant to get some idea what she’s doing there.”

“
That sounds good,” Lionel said.
“Also, if you could get pictures of the driver and Ho I might be
able to figure out who they really are. Fingerprints would be
awesome.”

“
We’ll do the best we can,” I said
as Cindy nodded.

“
I’m still trying to figure out
who really owns that house on Shaw Avenue,” Lionel said.
“Supposedly a company called Sunny Day owns it. I think it’s a
shell company. I’m still digging.”

“
Maybe we should get some pictures
at Shaw, too,” I said.

“
It can’t hurt,” Lionel said.
“We’re just assuming we know what’s going on there.”

“
What are we assuming is going
on?” Cindy asked.

“
We think Ho is running a
whorehouse,” I said.

“
Oh, my,” Cindy said.

“
You need to be careful no one
spots you,” Lionel said. “David Tran is not someone you want to
mess with. He has a couple of arrests for assault but never went to
trial because the complaining witnesses disappeared.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

The next morning, Roni felt somewhat ambivalent
while she sipped coffee on her porch, waiting for Harley to return
from the gas station with her Explorer. A chronic worrier, Harley
always checked Roni’s ride before she went farther than a few
miles. Roni fought off impatient thoughts and tried to focus only
on Harley’s protective motives, a process made more difficult when
she spotted storm clouds gathering in the distance.

Dust rising on the gravel road marked Harley’s
return. Roni put her mug in the sink, picked up her briefcase, and
changed places with Harley when he pulled up in front of the house.
A quick kiss and Roni was finally on her way.

Gravel roads gave way to blacktop and finally, the
interstate. Roni set the cruise control, checking her rearview
mirror frequently because black clouds seemed to be chasing her as
she drove to Springfield. Fierce late summer storms had been
forecast and Roni prayed she could outrun them. The three-hour
drive would provide Roni the perfect opportunity to consider what
she was doing. Despite Ronnie Fitzgerald’s carefully couched words,
he left little doubt that he felt Marian had something to do with
his brother’s death. Was that reality or vindictive bitterness?

For that matter, she wasn’t sure about her own
motives. Was she the jealous daughter out to get the evil
stepmother under the dishonest guise of just seeking the truth?
Food for thought Roni decided. The other can of worms worth
considering before opening was what if she won the battle but lost
the proverbial war? What if her father found out what she was doing
and totally rejected her?

Would it be easier to live with his rejection or
something adverse happening to her father because she ignored the
danger Marian posed?

Roni couldn’t convince herself to quit looking into
Marian’s past. Her little nagging voice wouldn’t leave her alone
until she made her choice. Two hours into the trip with all options
explored, Roni reached a verdict: investigate until she reached a
dead end. Years ago, Roni learned not to revisit decisions once she
made them. So it would be full steam ahead. Roni’s thoughts turned
to the man she was on her way to meet.

According to the synopsis Lionel had provided, Glenn
Barton was 62 and the owner of a huge sporting goods operation
called Outdoor Mart. There were two other stores, one in St. Louis
and one in the Chicago area. Glenn Barton’s father, Dennis Barton,
had been married to Marian for two years before his untimely
death.

During her conversation with Glenn Barton to set up
the interview, Roni’s curiosity had been piqued. He seemed almost
eager to meet with her, which seemed somewhat strange to Roni, who
guarded her family’s secrets like the proverbial hawk. Barton had
invited Roni to meet him for lunch at a local Springfield
restaurant called the Blue Moon.

Tired of thinking, Roni started returning phone
calls. Just as she pulled up in front of the Blue Moon, a storm
caught up with her. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and huge
raindrops pounded the pavement as she ran through the entrance to
the charming restaurant, which seemed to be modeled on an old style
tearoom.

Crystal chandeliers mounted throughout the space
sparkled, flooding Roni’s thoughts with memories of her last
encounter with a crystal chandelier. As a child, she had shattered
her mother’s prized chandelier while playing with a friend. Her
parents were gone at the time so Roni and her friend had repaired
the shattered glass with nail polish the best they could. That
quick fix had worked well until Roni’s mother washed the glass
pieces in hot water laced with ammonia a few months later, not
understanding why the glass fell apart with a simple cleaning.
Guilt flooded Roni’s mind as she waited for the hostess.

Roni was shown to a small private room in the back
where a tall, thin man with a ready smile stood as she was led back
to the table. Fresh flowers, linen tablecloths, and antique dishes
and flatware covered the table, which had been placed in the large
bay window with lace curtains. It was so dark because of the storm
that the lighted candles on the table seemed to give off an eerie
glow. Glenn Barton pointed to a chair and thanked the hostess, who
dropped off Roni and menus.

“
It’s so nice to meet you Mrs.
Edelin,” Glenn Barton said as he shook Roni’s hand.

“
Call me Roni. You were so nice on
the phone I feel like I already know you.”

“
I always knew someone would call
me someday,” he said. “I’m a little surprised it took this
long.”

“
Really. I was thinking on the
drive down that maybe I should quit digging around.”

“
What did you decide?” he asked as
Roni noticed his compelling green eyes.

“
I can’t let it go. Believe me, I
wish I could, but it’s just not me.”

“
I think that’s a good decision,”
he said. “Years ago, I told my brother someone was going to come to
us some day and ask about Marian.”

The waitress came and took their order as rain
pelted the window.

“
I’m going to tell you my story,”
Glenn said. “You’ll have to decide how bitter or biased I am. Of
course, if you talk to my brother Jay, you’ll get a completely
different story.”

Roni wasn’t sure how to respond to Glenn’s last
comment. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

“
Let’s start at the beginning,”
Glenn said. “Jay is my older brother. Our father married Jay’s
mother after she got pregnant. She didn’t have the best reputation
but he felt responsible. This happened during World War II. My dad
got drafted and was stationed in Europe. Jay’s mother had a
drinking problem that got so out of control she had to be
hospitalized. My dad came home on emergency leave, and my
grandmother ended up taking care of Jay until after the war ended.
When he got back, he divorced Jay’s mother and eventually married
my mother.”

“
So, Jay is your half
brother?”

“
That’s right,” he said as the
waitress delivered their salads. “I think my mom treated us both
equally, but I’m sure Jay would quibble with that assessment. We
both went to college and grad school. Jay is a civil rights
attorney. My mother inherited quite a bit of money. She was very
close to my wife, Barbara. She called her the daughter she never
had. My mother died a few years before my dad and left us money in
trusts. My parents lived in the house where my mother was born. She
left it to Barbara, Jay, and me with the proviso that my father
could live there until he died. My father also had money in trusts.
In addition, he had a pension and Social Security. After my mother
died, my father was very lonely.”

“
Enter Marian and her
kids.”

“
Exactly,” he said. “This sounds
really familiar, right? When you told me your mother had recently
died and that your father was lonely when he met Marian, I knew I
had to meet with you. Have you met Vickie and Murray?”

“
Yes, but I’ve only been around
them a few times. My father seems to like them as far as I can
tell.”

“
They were barely teenagers when I
knew them,” he said. “I really didn’t interact with them very much.
Marian just seemed to swoop in and kept telling my father he was
getting a second family. They married and Marian immediately began
trying to get her hands on the money. Unfortunately for her, most
of the money was tied up in trusts and she couldn’t get her hands
on it. That’s when she made a fatal mistake.”

“
What was that?”

“
She decided to trust Jay,” he
said. “She went to him to help her get some of the money. Big
mistake. Jay strung her along to get her signatures on the
documents he needed. He raided my Dad’s trust funds and even had my
Dad’s pension and Social Security checks sent to him. He cut Marian
totally out of the deal.”

“
What did Marian do?”

“
She called me and complained they
were penniless,” he said. “I talked to Jay who basically refused to
discuss the issue. I discovered all the money in my father’s trust
funds was gone.”

“
What happened after
that?”

“
I was able to get the pension and
Social Security checks sent to my father again,” he said. “So, at
least they had money to live on. My father seemed to get sicker and
sicker and died about nine months later.”

“
I bet Marian had him cremated,
didn’t she?”

“
How did you know that?” he
asked.

“
It fits her pattern. Did you have
any doubts about why your father died?”

“
Not so much at first,” he said.
“You have to understand, Marian and Jay poisoned my father’s mind
against me and my wife so we didn’t see him that much. A couple
months after he died, I started thinking about everything and got
suspicious. Of course, it was too late at that point.”

“
Who got the money from your
father’s trust?”

“
Jay got most of it,” Glen said.
“Once Jay got what he needed from Marian, he cut her out of the
deal except for the house.”

“
She got the house?”

“
No, I think the idea was to rub
salt into the wound,” he said. “Marian insisted she had nowhere to
go and she deserved the house because she was married to my dad. I
think Jay just went along with her staying there. My wife and I
owned two thirds. Eventually, we were able to get Marian evicted
and we sold the house.”

“
So, Jay got his
third?”

“
That’s right,” he said. “I guess
we could have tried to sue to get some of the money from the trusts
back but we decided just to let it go. Marian and Jay destroyed my
family. My father and I were estranged for the last couple of years
of his life. I haven’t talked to Jay since my father’s funeral and
don’t intend to. He destroyed whatever chance we had at a
relationship.”

“
Have you heard from
Marian?”

“
No, I haven’t spoken to Marian
since the funeral either,” he said. “I heard she left town a couple
of weeks after she was evicted. So, does any of this sound
familiar?”

“
The part about swooping in sure
fits. Do you remember if your dad had a life insurance policy or if
Marian gave your father homeopathic or herbal
medicines?”

“
Yes, he had life insurance from
New York Life,” he said. “I think she got about a million dollars.
Do you think she’s poisoning your father?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
I’m getting mad all over again,”
he said. “Maybe she killed my dad, too. You have to stop
her.”

“
We’re jumping to a lot of
conclusions here and we can’t prove anything. Maybe Marian is just
an opportunist.”

“
As opposed to what?” he
asked.

“
A con artist and serial
killer.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cindy and I were drinking lattes from a Starbucks
drive through while we waited outside The King’s Wok for Ho Chi
Minh. Cindy had napkins wrapped around her paper cup to keep from
getting germs or worse from the Starbucks employees. I was trying
to figure out whether it was the caffeine from the coffee that was
making Cindy so agitated or her underlying condition.