Worse Than Being Alone (36 page)

“
What if Marian contests the
will?” I asked.

“
She can make it an ugly fight
that I think she would lose,” he said. “This was done prior to the
marriage. She’s only entitled to the things in their
trust.”

“
Which are?” I asked.

“
Basically, the Alton Heights lot
and some cash. Of course, the Alton house and everything in it is
in your trust.”

“
Sweet,” I said. “Do you think
Marian knows this? I’d really like to be here when you tell
her.”

“
You really believe Marian killed
Billy?” he asked. “I mean I’m not crazy about meeting with a
murderer.”

Roni was about to answer when the she heard the
ringtone of her cell phone. She checked the screen and looked at
Richard Cook.

“
I hope you don’t think I’m
impossibly rude, but I really need to get this.”

“
Hi, Mary Clare,” she said as she
listened to the information. “Thank you for your help, Mary Clare.
I’ll let you know.”

“
Well, it looks like Marian is
going to get away with it again,” Roni said. “Billy had a bruise on
his back but it’s just not enough to get an indictment. Unless the
tox screen or tissue analysis shows something, she’s off the
hook.”

“
Damn, I’m sorry, Roni,” I
said.

“
It’s what I expected,” Roni said.
“I think Marian was on to us.”

“
Or maybe Billy gave it away,” I
said. “If he was thinking about a divorce Marian could have picked
up on that.”

“
Billy seemed really conflicted
when we parted yesterday,” Roni said. “I thought it was because of
what I told him.”

“
I don’t think Billy was
conflicted at all anymore,” Richard Cook said.

“
What do you mean?” Roni
asked.

“
Billy called me yesterday
afternoon,” Cook said. “He was probably on his way to meet Marian.
He told me to pull most of the cash from his joint trust with
Marian and put it in the other one. Basically, all Marian’s going
to get is the Alton Heights Lot. There’s nothing else in her
trust.”

Chapter Seventy-Two

A violent thunderstorm left a cold wind and a
killing frost in its wake. Reluctant leaves tumbled off the trees
in the span of 48 hours, causing a mad scramble to rake and mulch
the huge piles. The season had changed suddenly and violently, much
like the aftermath of Billy’s death.

Marian reacted with a burning rage when she realized
Billy had basically cut her out of the will. Curiously, she seemed
more upset that Billy would not be cremated. She pitched a
screaming fit over not getting possession of the ashes and the fact
Billy would be buried next to his first wife on Roni’s land.

She threatened multiple lawsuits and consulted a
cadre of lawyers, who seemed to head for the exits when they
realized there wasn’t much available cash to be had.

Roni still held out hope that Billy’s tox screen or
tissue samples might nail Marian and we hoped she was right. Roni
and Harley planned Billy’s funeral and despite Marian’s objections,
there was no legal maneuvering to stop it.

A cold drizzle seemed fitting as Lionel and I drove
to the church for the service. When we entered the back of the
church, we could sense the tension in the air. The whole spectacle
had the feel of the Hatfield/McCoy family feud to it, which
absolutely guaranteed everyone would be extremely
uncomfortable.

Marian and her children sat on one side of the
church with everyone else on the other side. I half expected some
kind of confrontation, but I think everyone was afraid of letting
that genie out of the bottle.

After the service at the grave, Roni stayed to be
sure Billy actually made it into the ground, and then we gathered
at her house for lunch (or the wake as I refer to it since I’m
Irish). Noticeably absent were Marian and her clan.

Mary Clare, Cindy, and Lionel and I had our own
little support group thing going in Roni’s living room. It seemed
to us that Roni wasn’t quite ready to be alone with her grief, but
maybe we were just projecting our own feelings. Another round of
Coronas had been dispensed as the conversation continued.

“
So, Cindy,” I said. “This is the
first time you’ve actually seen Marian. What was her aura
like?”

“
Bright red with lots of black,”
Cindy said.

“
Like somebody who is bad and
really pissed off?” Lionel asked.

“
Actually, that would fit,” Cindy
said.

“
Hey, Mary Clare,” Lionel said.
“When will you get the tox screens and tissue sample
results?”

“
The tox screens will come back
first,” Mary Clare said. “The tissue samples will take a lot
longer. I’ll keep samples. I still have the cremains of husband
number five. Who knows, some day we might be able to nail Marian
with that.”

“
You’re more hopeful than I am,” I
said. “The only good thing I see is that Marian isn’t going to be
able cash in like she thought.”

The sound of the doorbell interrupted our
conversation. Roni’s daughter opened the door as all eyes turned to
catch the identity of the new arrival. I was surprised when I saw
my brother, Dave, and John Wood from the Alton Police Department
enter the room. Dave scanned the room, acknowledged my presence,
but walked toward Roni and Harley.

“
Hi, Dave,” Roni said.

“
Hi, Roni,” Dave said. “I’m sorry
to bother you, but I told John I’d come with him since I know
you.”

“
What’s the problem?” Harley
asked.

“
Marian called us,” John said.
“She said her house was robbed while she was at the funeral. She’s
convinced you had something to do with it.”

“
Well, first of all,” Roni said.
“That’s not Marian’s house, that’s my house. I’ve been at Billy’s
funeral, and I have a room full of witnesses who will confirm
that.”

“
Here, here,” everyone said in
unison.

“
I know,” Dave said. “But we have
to follow up.”

“
What did the thieves take?”
Lionel asked.

“
The only things missing are a
picture and a quilt,” Dave said.

“
That’s weird,” Harley said. “You
can search the house if you like.”

“
Yes, it is weird,” John said. “I
guess if we looked around we wouldn’t find anything,
right?”

“
Damn straight,” Harley
said.

“
Well, we’ll leave you alone,”
John said. “I’m sorry we bothered you. I’ll tell Marian we talked
to you.”

“
I have a message for Marian,”
Roni said.

“
What’s the message?” John
asked.

“
Tell her to get her ass out of my
house and this is her last marriage. Wherever she goes, I’ll find
her and keep tabs on her. Any relationship she starts is going to
be over before she can seal the deal. I’ll personally see to
it.”

Epilogue

Spring is breaking out all over again as the
daffodils, red buds, and white dogwoods explode with color and
signal another season of renewal. This is not the spring you’re
probable thinking it is. It’s actually the second spring since
Billy’s death. I wish I could say justice prevailed, and Marian is
awaiting trial, but sometimes justice is done in less satisfying,
subtle ways.

None of the tox screens or tissue samples or
cremains analyses came back positive. Looking back, I think Marian
realized when Billy was hospitalized early in their relationship
that her usual strategy wasn’t going to work. If you accept that
premise, then the accident was inevitable.

I think Roni still has mixed feelings about pushing
forward with her investigation of Marian. She gets the inevitable
part of the argument but obsesses over the time issue. Maybe she
could have had a few more months or even years with Billy if she
hadn’t investigated the other deaths. No one believes Marian is
anything but a stone cold killer.

Marian tried to challenge Billy’s will, but lost the
early rounds and ran out of money. She was evicted from Billy’s
Alton home and sold the Alton Heights lot for next to nothing,
given the bad economy and housing market. There was a lot of
negative publicity regarding Billy’s death, and the fate of
Marian’s other husbands. Her trial in the press was grossly unfair,
due to a constant flow of anonymous tips that kept pouring in. The
relatives of Marian’s other dead husbands finally had a voice.

No one was surprised when Marian and her children
moved away. They left in the dead of night, thinking that could
actually work in this technologically advanced society. It only
took us a little over an hour to find them in Hannibal, Missouri.
Marian seemed to be following her usual pattern of moving to a
good- sized small town.

An open question remains regarding the possible
involvement of Marian’s children. Vickie Cirillo was a clerk at the
Alton bank where Billy had his accounts and is a clerk at Community
First in Hannibal. Does she scour accounts for possible targets?
Murray is an independent insurance salesman in Hannibal just as
like he was in Alton. Just like Marian, they look innocent enough
on the surface. One thing I know with absolute certainty: I
wouldn’t want to be in the way of anything this malignant trio
wanted.

Cindy is doing well after her meltdown on Shaw
Avenue. She is managing her illness and is still helping with
surveillance. It took a while for her to be ready to tackle that
again. I proudly call her my friend, and she recently told me my
aura almost never has any red anymore.

Brad Henry and his wife Jennifer are expecting their
second child. He continues to work for David Weller.

Meadow Knull finished law school. Her fiancé, Brent
O’Malley, apparently is the real deal. They are still together and
planning their wedding. We remain good friends.

Several months after Billy died, Lionel and I got
married down at City Hall, with Sophie, Bella, and my son Ethan as
our witnesses. Nothing ever felt so right to me. They were all my
children from the moment I laid eyes on them.

Lionel and I are getting ready for a long overdue
honeymoon in France. Lionel’s grandfather, Harrison Paine, pitched
this trip to us several months ago. He has been hiding a secret for
almost 70 years. Despite his 65-year marriage to Lionel’s deceased
grandmother, he wants us to help him find the real love of his
life.

Harrison met her in France when he was stationed
there in WWII. Despite some hard feelings expressed by Lionel’s
mother, she doesn’t want the old coot to go by himself. We also
want to look into what we think are some Thomas Sloan sightings in
France.

Before we go, there’s something I
have to help Roni with. Today, Roni and I are on our way to
Hannibal, Missouri, the birthplace of Mark Twain. It is also the
new home of Marian Diamond. We have a copy of my recently published
book,
Worse Than Being
Alone
. As I heard someone say once, the
story just seemed to write itself.

Marian has apparently picked her next sucker, a man
named Paul Gremaud. We have the book, as well as all the press
clippings from Marian’s time in Alton. Only a fool would proceed
with a relationship given all that information. The GPS announced
our arrival, and I parked the car in front of a two-story with a
huge wraparound porch. I wished Roni luck and watched her walk up
the front steps and ring the bell. A pleasant looking man answered
the door, and accepted the book and the files. I could see the
puzzled look on his face as he closed the door. Roni had kept her
promise; there would be no more victims for Marian.

* * *

Marian got in the car and slammed the door shut. She
looked at the book again, enraged that something this horrible
could happen to her. Those freaking bitches had ruined everything.
She threw the car in reverse and tore out of Paul’s driveway. She
had tried to explain her side in all of this, but she could tell it
wasn’t going to work.

A fast drive along the scenic river road helped her
salve her growing panic though she knew there was only one place
she could go that would help her calm down and think straight. She
headed there with little concern for safety or speed limits. She
pounded the steering wheel over and over, and almost ran through
the bar at the storage facility, waiting for the gate to go up.

Marian took the familiar turn and arrived at her
storage locker. She took the book and jumped out of the car. After
unlocking the door, she pulled up the door and went inside, closing
the door behind her. She switched on a flashlight, walked over to
the table, and flipped the switch on the lamp.

The comfortable chair beckoned as Marian inhaled
deep breaths. She sat down, took the key out of her purse, and
opened the lock on the trunk. She took out the three urns and set
them on the table and started talking.

“
People seem to think I didn’t
love all of you. That’s not true. It’s not like that. In my own
way, I loved you all dearly. I gave you everything I had, but it
was never enough. Sooner or later, you started complaining about
something. You know you did. It was your fault, the lot of you. You
left me no choice. I did what I had to do to survive. I don’t know
what to do now. I’m totally broke. Those horrible women have ruined
everything. Why is there always someone in my way? I can only see
one way out of this. They have to be stopped. I’ll do what I have
to do to survive.”