A Lethal Legacy (18 page)

"What is it, Ed?
Do you have some information about Kris?" he asked.

"Only that she
went back to New Orleans abruptly. Claire mentioned that you seemed upset about
that," I said.

“I guess I foolishly
thought that we had something going. I know she's too young, but she seemed to
really need me." He stopped and looked at me. "It sounds crazy, but I
thought she cared about me."

"What made you
think that?" I asked, dreading his answer.

"She told me
over and over again how much she needed me, for one thing. She practically
begged me to take care of her."

"And did
you?" I asked, fully aware of what his answer would be.

"You don't need
the gory details. I feel like such a fool," he said.

"Because you let
a beautiful young woman into your bed?" I asked as he looked at me
sharply.

"Not just
that."

"What else,
Howard?"

He shook his head
reluctant to say anything more.

"I know what
Kristina is like. What else happened, Howard?"

"She kept
talking about wanting to move here. She hinted at us living together. Now, of
course, I would have married her. I couldn't just live with her. She seemed
interested in starting a catering business. Told me that she had called around
since she'd been here and felt there was a real market for something like
that."

"And..." I
prodded him to complete the story although I now had an inkling about where
this was headed.

"This morning I
wrote her a check for $5,000, the amount she said she would need to get
started."

"And then she
left town," I finished for him. I could have written the story. "Did
you try stopping payment?"

"As soon as I
talked to Claire. She'd already been to my bank and cashed it."

"Press charges,
Howard. She stole that money."

"Never, Ed. I
don't want anyone else to know about this. It's too humiliating. Promise me,
you won't tell anyone," he said.

"I hate to see her
use people like this. And I don't know how to stop her."

"Watch over
Claire and Philip. That's the best you can do. Besides I doubt she'll be back
here any time soon."

"OK, Howard, I'm
awfully sorry. I wanted to warn you on New Year's Eve."

"It's all right,
Ed. I wouldn't have listened. By then she had me under her spell. Besides she
told me that you hated her, probably to ward off the possibility you might say
something to me."

"She's
persuasive, that's for sure. And maybe we've seen the last of her. I bet Claire
and Philip sent her off with a nice check, too. Again, I'm sorry, Howard."

I went back to the
apartment dejected. I felt Howard's pain because I had been in his shoes. I
even broke a sacred promise to Gary because she said she needed me. I even
believed, like Howard, that she required only me in this world to survive. Apparently,
she needed a whole lot more than that.

Drowning, drowning,
drowning. Keep awake. Don't give up the fight. Keep awake. Drowning, drowning,
drowning...

The rock around my
neck carved with Kristina's name remained heavy for the next seven years. I
could never break away from her. Each encounter with Kristina took me to the
heights of passion and then dropped me right back down into a hell beyond
imagining. The fog continued to envelop me.

No one suspected, of
course. I was the anchor in the family. As soon as Gary died, everyone,
including Philip, looked to me and sought my advice and help in all the
decisions that make up the later years of someone's life. Taking care of
Kristina also came with the territory, but no one had ever guessed at the depth
of our duplicity over the years. All of them, even my wife, saw our
relationship as a father and daughter who often fought and made up. There was
nothing filial in Kristina's feelings or actions toward me. I very rarely felt
paternal toward her. In the years after Gary's death, many changes occurred in
my life although I never forgot about him. As time passed, I missed him more
than ever.

Howard Mickle turned
out to be right about us not hearing from Kristina for a

very long time.
Claire and Philip both told me they had tried calling her at the apartment in
New Orleans, but the phone had been disconnected. Claire called Rick who hadn't
heard from Kris since the funeral. Neither Claire nor Philip wanted to call
Pam. The task fell to me. I wanted to help ease their fears about Kristina.
When I reached her, Pam told me Kristina moved back to Las Vegas and was
enrolled at the community college. She wouldn't give me Kristina's number.

"She doesn't
really want any contact with any of you," Pam said.

"Even with
Philip and Claire?"

"That's right.
Musta been one hell of a Christmas. She won't talk about it much, but she did
have plenty of money when she got back, so they must have bankrolled her for
awhile," she said. "The Townsends love Kris, hate me."

"Pam, you made
it difficult for them to like you, especially Claire. When Gary brought you
home that first time you flirted openly with Claire's husband." I decided
for once to tell Pam the truth. "And if I was able to catch you and Philip
together in the garage, why not Claire? You obviously weren't that
discreet."

" Eddie boy's
showing some emotion! What did happen over Christmas? I can't get Kris to talk
about it."

"All I'm going
to say is that you've taught Kristina some pretty creative ways to get money
out of people. Not all the money she returned with came from Claire and
Philip."

"That's my kid.
So you're paying her for it now? Funny, I never would have taken you for a
fool."

"It wasn't me
who gave her the money. She found someone else to fool."

"Ed, this is the
best advice I can give you because you know out of all the Townsends you were
the one who always treated me fairly. Don't let Kristina seduce you. She's got
a bad habit of hurting those closest to her."

"And where did
she learn that, Pam?"

"Good bye, Ed.
I'll tell Kris that her grandparents want to hear from her, although I doubt it
will do any good."

By early 1991, a room
became available for my mother in the nursing home. It was a difficult thing to
do, but fortunately, by the time her name came up on the waiting list, she no
longer knew where she was. She did know me on some days, but mostly she lived
in her own little world. At this point in her illness, the days when she didn't
know me were the easiest. On the days of lucidity, her clarity of the situation
made things much more difficult.

One day she looked me
straight in the eyes and grabbed both of my wrists. "Ed, you must find a
way to kill me."

"Mom, don't talk
like that," I said, but I understood exactly what she meant, and I also
knew that I would want the same thing to happen if I were in her shoes. It took
every bit of strength I had to encourage her to live for my sake.

I know Mom always
wanted a grandchild and envied Claire for having Kristina back in her life. I
contemplated marrying Cassie on several occasions. I was forty-nine and Cassie
was thirty-five. I knew she wanted to have children because she often talked
about that old biological clock ticking away.

And so while my
mother deteriorated further into her dementia, Cassie and I decided to get
married. I knew we could have a happy and contented life with one another. My
love for Cassie took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it, and for a long time,
I didn't realize that I did love her. However, her steady belief in me, and our
mutual respect for one another lent itself to a much deeper passion than I'd
ever had before. As long as I didn't think about Kristina, I could believe that
I had found the one person I could live with for the rest of my life and remain
satisfied. And she would remain satisfied with me.

Cassie never pushed
me to be something I couldn't. In fact, she seemed content with her life and
happy to move into an apartment as we started our marriage. Although we could
afford to buy a house, I fought against the responsibility of owning a home.
Scars run deep after a major incision, and mine had never totally healed after
my divorce from Allison.

However, Cassie
exuded a confidence of self that had been lacking in both of my previous wives
whose quest for outward trappings kept me at a distance emotionally. And I
began to trust her.

In June of 1991, I
married for the third time, vowing to make it my last marriage. Again, Claire
and Philip hosted the wedding in their backyard. I spent the day missing Gary
more than I ever had. He wasn't there to do his job as my best man. Both Claire
and I moped around before the ceremony. When Cassie realized why we both seemed
so sad, she asked us questions about Gary, allowing us to miss him openly. Once
we did that, we were able to smile at some of the memories and go forward with
the day's events. Cassie seemed to know intuitively what both Claire and I were
feeling on that day and did just the right thing to help us survive it.

We spent the summer
in Europe, traveling around England and France. We both wrote, satisfied with
our adventure and ourselves. By the time we came home in the fall, Cassie was
pregnant.

Unfortunately the
person who I had wanted to present with a grandchild, no longer understood who
I was. Mom's days of lucidity disappeared forever while we honeymooned and
created. The new Marjorie Townsend little resembled my mother, which made it
easier to accept that my mother died when the disease won.

Cassie and I were
able to share our good news with the only family left on my side, Claire,
Philip, and Susan. All of them now treated me like their son and acted as if we
had given them a million bucks when we told them our news.

"That baby will
be the bestest baby ever with you two for parents," Claire said.

"Your mother
would be so pleased. I guess we'll just have to spoil that little baby twice as
much," Susan said.

"That's right,
old man, and I for one say it's about time you settled down. You sure didn't
waste any time once you settled." Philip winked at me as he kissed Cassie
on the cheek.

Claire and Philip,
both in their eighties, remained active and healthy. Philip couldn't play
eighteen holes any longer, but if he rented a cart, he could do nine holes with
me. The club didn't invite him to play in tournaments anymore, but he still got
out. However, Claire was unstoppable both at bridge and golf, although she also
had to slow down some. They talked of selling the house, but could afford to
hire maintenance for the lawn and a maid for the inside. They really needed the
house because of all of their visitors from the North. Philip's former students
and athletes, now retired, still visited as well as their friends from Ann
Arbor.

Kristina surfaced
again near the holidays. She called Claire who invited her to fly to Florida
for Christmas. Howard had since moved away to be nearer one of his children,
and I imagine Kristina managed to wrangle that news somehow from Claire. I
decided that Cassie and I would spend as much time as possible with Claire and
Philip during her visit because I assumed she came for money.

Her first evening at
her grandparents I called and asked if I could to come over to say hello, but
Claire informed me that Kristina had requested a talk alone with them that
evening. Claire invited us over the next day for drinks and then dinner at the
club.

The following
evening, Kristina, even more beautiful and voluptuous, kissed me in a sisterly
manner.

"Cassie, you
must be carrying twins. I can't believe how much weight you've gained. Are you
due this month?" Kristina asked.

"I'm due in
March, Kris, but thanks for your concern," Cassie said. "Ed tells me
I'm beautiful with the glow of pregnancy, but I guess to someone who's never
been pregnant, I just look fat. You look quite beautiful tonight,
Kristina."

That's one of the
reasons I loved Cassie. She never got flustered and could sweetly deflate a
comment aimed at the heart by not allowing it to hit her. And just like her
mother, Kristina knew how to make an enemy of a woman.

For my part, I tried
to keep my eyes away from the front of Kristina's dress where her cleavage
threatened to swallow me as she turned and bent in my direction. I desperately
tried to keep my mind on my wife and the table's conversation.

When I went to the
cloakroom at the club to retrieve our coats at the end of the evening, Kristina
followed. When I turned around, she was standing so close to me that her
breasts pressed into my suit.

"Kristina, I
didn't see you there," I said.

"I think you've
seen me all night, Eddie." She began rubbing up against me. "I've
missed you so much. Can't we get together, just the two of us while I'm
here?" Her voice had taken on the tone of the hurt little girl once again.

"I don't think
that's a good idea, Kristina." I felt her hands grab me from behind as she
pulled me towards her.

"Oh, come on, I
can feel that you want to," she whispered. And she was right, my body had
once again betrayed me.

"Please,
Kristina. Stop," I said, but I made no movement to pull away from her
clench. "I've got to go."

"Eddie, I need
you. I've been so lonely. Please can't we see each other just once?
Tomorrow?" She reached up and touched the side of my face.

I breathed in the
smell of her and melted under her touch that always seemed to comfort me as
well as arouse my sense of duty to protect this woman/child.

"Tomorrow,"
I said to appease her and get her to stop. I pulled away, trying to compose
myself so I could go back to my wife.

I slept poorly that
night. Cassie tossed and turned next to me getting up several times to use the
bathroom. Once when she came back to bed, she noticed that my eyes were open.

"Can't
sleep?" she asked.

"I guess I had
too much to eat tonight," I said.

"Or you just got
too much of an eyeful of Kris. I swear that girl flaunts herself so in front of
whatever man is available."

"Kris? I didn't
notice."

"Right, Ed. And
I'm blind as well as pregnant. Good night."

My last thought
before going to sleep was my vow not to be alone with Kristina ever again. I
wouldn't call her the next day, I promised myself. However, when I woke up, I
was aroused like I used to be in the mornings. I realized once I fell asleep, I
dreamed of standing in the cloakroom and removing her dress and taking her right
there. I went into the shower before Cassie woke.

After breakfast,
Cassie left for a day of Christmas shopping with her sister. I had the place to
myself, but the air felt close and stagnant around me. I found it difficult to
breath and worse, I couldn't settle down to write, even though my current novel
was coming together nicely.

Instead, I paced and
kept thinking of making love with Kristina. Except with Kristina, it wasn't
making love; it was an earthy almost primal act. I yearned to feel her pressed
against me once again.

"Claire, it's
Ed. I wondered if Kristina needed to do some Christmas shopping without her
doting grandparents," I said when I finally gave in and called her.

"Just a minute,
I'll get her," Claire said.

"Hi, Ed!" Kristina
said when she came on the line.

"Be waiting in
the driveway in ten minutes," I said.

We drove to a motel
off the interstate near Wildwood. We had barely shut the door when we attacked
one another. This had nothing to do with love, but a whole lot to do with sex.

Kris reached over and
unzipped my pants before I could even shut the door. She put her mouth around
me. I pushed her head down further, and for the first time I didn't try to stop
her but encouraged her to do whatever she wanted with me.

"Why do you
always make things so difficult, Ed?" she asked when she came up for air.

"Shut up,"
I said as I lifted the small T-shirt over her head and saw that she wore no
bra. She pulled my hand to her thigh under the short skirt, and I could feel
that she wore no underwear either. I pushed up the skirt and backed her up to
the bed. She pulled a condom out of her skirt pocket and put it over me. Maybe
she was learning something, but I didn't have time to think about that right
now. I wasted no time in taking advantage of our protection.