A Lethal Legacy (25 page)

"Do you know
where they are right now?" he asked.

"I'm not sure.
They were staying out at the Comfort Inn, I think, but I haven't seen her since
the afternoon before Claire's death. I'm not sure if she and her mother went
back to Las Vegas or not. I can give you some phone numbers, if you'd like."

"That would be
good, Mr. Townsend, if you wouldn't mind. We need to ask them some questions,
too."

I went into the study
to retrieve my address book and carefully wrote down the last addresses and
phones numbers that I had for Kristina and Pam.

"We may need to
question you again, Mr. Townsend, after we talk to these two women. I hope you
don't mind. I know it's a difficult time for you."

"No, no,
Detective, I understand. Just call me."

After I showed them
the door, I felt swept back into the past, remembering the night of Gary's
funeral and how easily I had been seduced by Kristina. I remembered all of the
times I had been with her and knew she couldn't have been the one that killed
Claire. Despite her tough exterior, she loved her grandmother, and she loved
me. I felt certain she wouldn't destroy either of us that way.

When the detectives called,
again I wondered if I should tell them everything. At least I should tell them
about my suspicions of Pam. Maybe they didn't need to know about Kristina and
me. I thought about the last few years and my relationship with Kristina that
had never really ended and that continually threatened to pull me under. I
decided that no matter what, I would tell Cassie. Maybe by confessing this
albatross, I could finally get rid of it. And if she left me, then I would have
received only a portion of the punishment I deserved.

Pam's call broke into
my thoughts.

"Ed, it's Pam. I
want to see you today."

"Did you know
that Claire died?"

"Claire died?
No, I didn't know, but she wasn't doing very well when I left. I'm sorry. I
know how close the two of you were."

"Where did you
go and why did you leave without saying anything?"

"I needed to get
back to Vegas for some personal reasons. But I'm back now and we really need to
talk. I've brought Oscar with me, and we'd both like to meet with you.
Soon."

"Pam, I really
don't know what you and Oscar could say to me at this point."

"I think we
might have some information that you might like to have, too."

"OK, but I'm not
crazy about meeting your husband. Kristina hasn't been very complimentary about
him."

"No, I'm sure
she hasn't. But why don't you meet him for yourself and then decide? How about
seven tonight? We can come over there or meet you some place."

I made arrangements
to meet them at a restaurant close to their motel out by the interstate.

Later that day,
Kristina finally called.

"Ed, is it true?
Is Grandma dead like they said at the nursing home?" she asked.

"Hello,
Kristina. Yes, she died four days ago. Where did you go?"

"Mom and I had
to go back to Vegas. Oscar was sick. How did she die?"

"We're not
sure," I said. I didn't know how much I should reveal before the police
talked to her. "You went with Pam back to Vegas?"

"Yes, she was
really worried about Oscar so I went to give her moral support. Have I missed
the funeral?"

"It was
yesterday. Where are you?"

"I'm at the
Comfort Inn at I-75. Here in Ocala."

"Really? When
did you arrive?"

"A few minutes
ago. I came back and called Magnolia Arms to talk to Grandma, and they gave me
the news. Can you come over, please?" I recognized the voice pleading with
me now and felt myself pulled by the vulnerability creeping into her words.

"Why?"

"I need a
friend. Just come over, please. You know Cassie wouldn't like it if I came over
there. I'm in room 301."

After I hung up the phone,
I decided to call the detectives who had been at my house just a few minutes
earlier. They asked me for Kristina’s and Pam's Las Vegas addresses, but I
thought they might like to know that both of them were just a few miles away.
As I prepared to meet Kristina, I remembered the last time I had been with her
just days before Claire died. I felt relief that the detectives would be there
to protect me from the control she always exerted over my mental and physical
being.

It came just as
quickly as he always hoped it would. The release itself was ecstasy, and then,
nothing. Nothing left but the blackness of the abyss and the endless feeling of
falling.

Kristina opened the
door of her motel room almost immediately after my first tentative knock.

"Eddie,"
she said as she flung herself against me. "Hold me, please just hold
me."

Unwillingly I held
her, trying not to remember how vulnerable this young woman had always seemed
to me in these moments. She looked at me, and in a life-long gesture, she
reached up with one hand to touch the side of my face. I smiled tenderly as I
remembered the toddler at my wedding to Kelsey who had done the same thing when
I had swept her into my arms.

Almost as suddenly as
those unwanted thoughts came, another sensation developed as I realized that
Kristina was now pushing desperately against me and moving in a rhythmic
pattern. I fought to retain control, but my body once again began responding.

"You can't deny
it, Ed. Not anymore. You have always wanted me, and I have always wanted you.
We're meant for one another. You loved Gary, and you love me. Quit fighting
it." She pushed harder against me, and I tried not to feel her warm
breasts crush into my chest.

"See, you think
too much, let your body take control. It's OK, baby, just love me," she
whispered as she felt my arousal. "Now we can be together all the time. We
can leave this place and go anywhere we want. I've been making plans, Eddie. We
can go away together, and I'll take care of you just like you've taken care of
everyone else all these years." She continued to caress me letting her
soft voice work its magic.

"You want that,
too, don't you, Eddie? You know you do; there that's right; I've missed you so
much," she said.

I began working on
the buttons of her blouse, and when I couldn't stand it any longer, I pulled at
the material until the bottom buttons fell onto the floor. I soaked up the
scent and feel of her. I blotted out the rest of the world from my
consciousness. I could hear her voice continuing its litany.

"We'll go to
Mexico, first, baby. That feels so good. You always know what's right. Mexico,
OK, Eddie?"

"Yes, yes,"
I managed to mumble between mouthfuls of her ample flesh.

"You love me,
don't you, Eddie?"

"Yes, for God's
sake, yes, Kristina." I closed my eyes and only felt the sensation of her
hands caressing me.

Suddenly Kristina
pulled away from me. "Cassie," I heard her say through my thick fog
of confusion.

"Cassie?" I
repeated.

"Hello,
Kristina, Ed," I heard my wife say from behind me. I turned to stare at
her standing in the doorway.

"What?" I
said.

Cassie glared at me.
"Kristina called me and asked me to come over. She said she had something
she wanted to share with me. I didn't realize it would be my husband. Ed,
really, how could you?"

I looked from my
angry wife to Kristina and saw the sardonic grin spread across her face.

 "I thought it
was time that she knew," Kristina said. "Ed has always loved me,
Cassie, long before he even knew you. He only married you because his high
standards prevented him from pursuing me. As you can see, he's always wanted me
no matter what."

"Kristina, shut
up. Cassie, wait, we need to talk."

"That's probably
an understatement. I'll meet you at home later," Cassie said as I saw her
fight back the tears, and then she left the room as quickly as she appeared,
leaving me alone once again with Kristina.

"Why did you do
that?" I asked.

"Someone needed
to do something. I got tired of waiting for you to move. In the long run,
you'll see that it's better this way, Ed. Now everything's out in the
open." Kristina stood before me with her blouse still gaping from my
exuberance of a few minutes earlier.

"Kristina, you
and I . . ." I was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

"Hello,"
Kristina barked into the receiver. "Hi, Theresa. What'd you find
out?"

Kristina's body
tensed imperceptibly as she listened. Only someone who was familiar with her
body would notice the tight ball of steel it had become since answering the
phone. She buttoned the two remaining buttons on her blouse while she listened.

"Of course, I
want to know now," I heard her say.

I continued my
scrutiny of her until I heard a knock at the door. I had forgotten until this
moment that the detectives would probably be showing up soon.

"What do you
mean?" Kristina paid no attention to the demands of the visitors as she
continued her phone conversation.

I knew who I would
face when I opened it, and I hesitated slightly in the hopes that Kristina
would answer the door herself. Just as my hand touched the handle, I heard her
scream, "Everything!? What the..."

When I finally opened
the door and faced the detectives I called before leaving my house, Kristina's
cursing filled the room.

"Hello, Mr.
Townsend. We got here as soon as we could," one of the men said as he
needlessly flashed his badge and identification. "This is my partner
Detective Winston."

"Is that Miss
Timmons?" Detective Winston nodded toward Kristina's back as he reached to
shake my hand.

"I don't believe
it!" came the scream from the spot next to the bed where Kristina stood
tightly holding the phone's receiver to her ear.

I pointed toward the
angry form. "She seems to be receiving some bad news."

"Interesting,"
Detective Winston said.

Kristina slammed the
phone back into its cradle and came toward me, her eyes wide and wild.

"Miss Timmons,
I'm Detective Larson with the Marion County Sheriff's Department; this is
Detective Winston. We'd like to question you about the death of . . ."

Kristina's voice
pierced the air and effectively cut off the detective's attempts to engage her
attention.

"You bastard!
You really won this time, didn't you? She left it all to you, you son of a
bitch. First, Gary, and now you, Mr. kiss-my-ass Perfect! I could kill
you!" Then she fell toward me, fists flying as she pummeled my chest.

The detectives each
grabbed an arm and pulled her away from me. Kicking her legs fiercely, Kristina
continued to struggle even as the large men held tightly to her upper arms.

"Please calm
down, Miss Timmons." Detective Winston spoke to her as if she was a child.
"We need to ask you some questions about your grandmother's death."

Finally, Kristina
turned to look at the detectives. First one, then the other. Slowly they
released her from their grips.

"Who are
you?" she asked as if they had just appeared in the room.

"I'm Detective
Larson, and this is Detective Winston. We're from the Marion County Sheriff's
Department, and we need to ask you some questions about the death of your
grandmother, Claire Townsend."

"What did you
say?" She seemed to be struggling to understand the detective.

"Your
grandmother. Claire Townsend. Her death is being investigated as a homicide,
and we need to ask you a few questions."

I excused myself from
the motel room and left the detectives alone with Kristina to ask their
questions. I assumed that whoever had just called brought the news of Claire's
will.

When I arrived home,
I went directly to my study and shut the door. Cassie hadn't arrived yet, but
it didn't matter. I wasn't ready to face her. I needed time to think about the
events of the past few days. I usually liked to just push those thoughts aside
or write about someone else's life during these moments, but I had reached a
crucial turning point in my life. It deserved my immediate attention.

I had always taken
care of the family. Everyone, including my Uncle Philip in his later years,
learned to depend upon me. I didn't question why I took on the role of family
patriarch; I just did it. I'm sure if I examined my reasons, I would have
discovered that I actually enjoyed having the family come to me for advice.

I looked over at the
sea oat sitting next to my computer. Thank goodness everyone had died so they
couldn't see how miserably I'd let them all down. I began to lose control when
I first had sex with Kristina as Gary lay dying in the next room. I wondered
now if the nightmare would ever end for me.

I sat in my study
remembering Howard Mickle and Kristina's extortion of his money and how I had
seen myself through his experience. Whenever I felt my lowest concerning
Kristina, the image of Howard always appeared to remind me of how far I had
gone. When the phone rang, I reluctantly reached for the receiver.

"Mr. Townsend?
This is Detective Winston. I think we're going to need to speak with you
again."

"OK, yes. You
said that earlier. When?"

"How about now?
Can you come down to the station?"

"Sure, sure. Is
everything all right, Detective?"

"Just get down
here as soon as possible," he said.

When I arrived at the
police station, I was escorted into a conference room where I found the two
detectives who had visited Kristina at the motel earlier in the day.

"Mr. Townsend,
I'll get right to the point. Kristina Timmons and her mother gave us some very
interesting information today, and we'd like to ask you some questions about
it. Did you talk with Kristina about going to Mexico?"

"She mentioned
it before you arrived this morning. Why?"

"She says that
you planned to leave with her right after Claire Townsend's death. She also
told us that you had been having an affair for the past seven years. Is that
true?"

"Do I need to
call my lawyer?" I asked when I realized that the friendly detectives of
yesterday had disappeared into these intense scrutinizers of something loosely
called the truth.

"That might be a
good idea," Detective Larson said.

Once Tim arrived, we
sat and talked for a long time before the detectives joined us. I told Tim
briefly about their questions, and then I told him a little bit about my
relationship with Kristina.

"I'd like to
cooperate fully, Tim."

"Are you sure?
Some things you don't have to tell them if it doesn't relate directly to
Claire's death."

"I know I didn't
kill Claire, and that's what they're thinking right now. There's the changed
will and then who knows what those two have told the police. I need to tell
them everything, then they can decide."

"OK, OK, I don't
necessarily agree, but you're the boss here, Ed. I'll be here through the whole
thing. Keep your answers focused. And just tell the truth." He looked at
me and laughed. "I never thought I'd be saying that to you."

When the detectives
returned, they began by telling me that Pam suggested I interfered with Claire
and Philip and their granddaughter a little too much.

"Detectives, I'd
like to tell my side of the story. I'm not sure what either Kristina or Pam
have told you, but I think I should let you know the whole story, at least from
my perspective."

They told me to go
ahead and only interrupted for a point of clarification or to ask a question. I
began the saga of Kristina and me, leaving very little out. I felt they needed
to know everything that had happened in the past few years, and they needed to
understand how Kristina and Pam had been plotting to get all of the money from
the Townsend family legacy.

It began to get
easier to tell the detectives everything as I moved through the story. I could
even talk about her seduction of Howard without wincing.

I paused to take a
sip of water after telling them about the Christmas shopping excursion that
ended up at a motel. I also told them what Kristina had said about deserving
the money.

"So what year
was this?" Detective Winston asked.

"1991, I
think."

"Did you ever
discuss any of this with Claire or her husband? I mean did you try to warn them
about the money?"

"Yes, sometimes
at the risk of making Claire angry, but Philip began to suspect that not all
was right with his granddaughter soon after that visit during Christmas. It was
right after that I suggested putting her on an allowance."

I explained that both
Kristina and Pam were angry about it. Kristina did not call for some time after
that.

"How long did
she stay away this time?" One of the detectives asked me.

"More than a
year, until Philip's death."

Then I proceeded to
tell them about the trip from the airport on the very day that Phillip died.

"So you two got
it on, on the very day that your uncle, her grandfather, died." Detective
Larson shook his head.

"Look,
Detective, I'm trying to tell you everything."

"OK, OK. She's
some hot number that's for sure."

"What happened
after you two arrived in Ocala for the funeral?" Detective Winston asked
before Larson could make any more stupid remarks.