Sullied Sally

Chapter 2 - Widowed

Chapter 2 - Widowed

“Did Uncle Owen tell you where he was going on Monday?”

“I assumed he went to work until I got the call to go to the hospital.”

Mel was slightly taken aback. “He was still working?”

“Certainly.”

“He was, what? Well into his seventies, right? I mean, he didn’t look it but..”

Gladys gave her a half smile. “Seventy-six, but he always said the work kept him young. He was a teacher and he loved it. These last several years, he taught students in the gifted program. He did a lot of the honors and advanced placement English classes too, at Dresden and at a few other high schools. He traveled around, school to school.”

“I had no idea.” Mel shook her head, her shock evident on her face. “How long?”

“This was his 30th year. He was thinking about retiring after this school year...he would have maxed out his State Teacher’s Retirement Plan pension.”

“He wasn’t sure?”

She shook her head. “We have one more grandchild that’s still in high school. He’s a sophomore. Owen thought he might stay around until he graduated.”

Mel’s mind whirled. What she was hearing was so contradictory to the impression her mother had always given her of Owen and his family. She masked her emotions and tried to get back on track. “So, you knew nothing about him going to Chuck Knox’s cabin on Monday, then?”

She shook her head no again. “I didn’t think he spent any time in Morelville at all, ever, these days. Why, I hadn’t heard Chuck’s name mentioned in years, until this happened. It was a real bolt from the past.” The older woman shuddered visibly.

Mel made a mental note of her obvious discomfort at the mention of Knox. “Was there something between them in the past that might have kept them from speaking for such a long time?”

“It’s...it’s so hard for me to know. When we moved away from there, he didn’t want to talk about anyone or anything there, especially after that Thanksgiving. No one. Not even his brother. If I even mentioned the names Drew or Chuck or, heaven forbid, Eunice, he’d storm off in a huff. After a while, I gave up trying to get him to go and visit his brother or even to talk about anyone there.”

“But you went there for Thanksgiving?”

“Owen actually wanted to go. He helped bankroll the well. Said he wanted to make sure everyone involved was doing their part.” She shook her head. “He never got involved in any of the oil stuff again either...there or anywhere else.”

“Did Owen happen to mention speaking with anyone from back in Morelville in the past week or so, to anyone besides Chuck?”

She shrugged one slim shoulder. “This is all such a shock to begin with. Who else would there be?”

“Well, say, Horace Bailey?”

She sat back hard in her chair. “Wow, there’s another name from out of the blue.”

“I know. But, I have reason to believe one or the other of those two men may have gotten in touch with him. Can you think of anything?”

No.” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know of either calling him or calling on him but I don’t know for sure.”

“Did he use a cell phone? He, uh, he didn’t have one on him when he was found.”

“He has...had one, yes,” Gladys said. “He didn’t care for it; didn’t use it much. Reception is so spotty around here. He really only carried it when he knew he’d be traveling between schools for the day...just in case.”

“Do you think I could take a look at it?”

“Look at it? You can probably have it. The boys wouldn’t want it. Not even the grandkids.” She got up and went to a drawer in an old sideboard. She pulled it open and rummaged around in it for just a moment. “I tossed it in here. I didn’t really give it a thought.” She pulled an old flip phone out.

Seeing it, Mel grimaced. Any hopes she had of pulling something useful off of it were all but lost.

Gladys picked up on her expression. “Owen didn’t have a lot of use for it, like I said. He...he didn’t stay in touch with anyone - family or otherwise - back there in Morelville very well; not after that man was killed. Neither of us did...but you probably know all about that.”

Mel took the plunge. “Why is that? You must have some idea. Why the rift from that day that’s kept him...all of you, here in the county but completely apart from the rest of the family? There’s never been any evidence to say who killed Mathis.” Until now, anyway, Mel thought.

“Pardon me, you’re Faye’s girl, right?”

“Yes,” Mel bobbed her head. “And, I have a sister. My Uncle Brian has two sons and a daughter. Have you ever met any of them?”

The older woman looked away and didn’t answer for several long seconds. She broke her silence by taking in a gulp of air before she spoke. “Your grandmother...Eunice and I, we had been real close. Closer even than your granddad and Owen were. That was all back in the day, you understand? Real close. Owen moved us away from there several months before that well came in. He took a job up this way and it came with a house. We tried to stay involved down there for a time, because of the well drilling and all. Of course, when all of that happened, that kind of changed everything in his mind. He didn’t want anything to do with anyone down there.”

“And he never said why?”

She looked away from Mel’s gaze and didn’t speak.

Mel tried another approach. “Did you get to at least speak with Eunice much at all after that?”

Gladys turned her head back to look at Mel and shook it. “No. Something...something happened to her that very day. She...” Her lip trembled as she spoke. “She broke down. She had problems after that...maybe even before that. I tried to call her a few times...when Owen was out.” Her look was sheepish. “Once, Drew answered. He told me he had her put away for a time, ‘til she got her head back on right, he said.”

“When’s the last time you saw her or heard from her?”

The older woman raised her chin to the ceiling, thinking. Her eyes brimmed with tears when she looked back across the table and said, “At Drew’s funeral. At the viewing, I mean. We passed through rather quickly just to pay our respects. I told Owen; it’s your brother...”

“Did you speak to her then?”

“No. She...she just looked so alone and lost. The kids...your mama and your uncle, they were grown by then and starting families of their own. You were probably a toddler. I don’t think you were actually there that day but...it was all so fast...”

“Do you think Owen ever saw Eunice after that?”

Gladys started to shake her head but stopped herself. “He...he had a student...oh, it’s probably been 15 years or more now, that tried to commit suicide by taking a bunch of pills. He left a note. He said in it that ‘Mr. Lafferty is the only one that even cares about me.’ That just tore at Owen’s heart. He went to see the boy at the place where they’d sent him once they got his stomach right. He...he told me he couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw Eunice there, passing along a hallway as an aide led him to the boy.”

“Did he try and speak to her?”

“He said she looked like she was spaced out on drugs, was how he put it.”

Mel pursed her lips and nodded. “She’s at Shady Pines these days; not far from here. It’s pretty much the same sometimes but now I think it’s more dementia or maybe even Alzheimer's than the drugs they used to give to psych patients. I don’t know...medical stuff was never my strong suit.”

“Does she...does she get to have visitors?”

Mel tilted her head and looked at Gladys as she answered, “Yes, during certain hours but, in all honesty, some days she knows you, most days she doesn’t. My mom goes to see her a lot but she’s really the only one that does now and it’s getting harder and harder for her. She asked softly then, remembering Gladys had said she and Eunice were close, once upon a time, “Are you thinking about trying to see her?”

Gladys drew in a deep breath and let it out in a huff before she spoke. “I don’t know. Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t. I’ve always wanted to, sort of try and talk to her about some things and maybe clear the air. Get her side.”

“About her affair?”

The other woman sat back hard in her chair. “You know about that?”

Mel dipped her head in acknowledgment.

“I started suspecting she was having an affair because of things she would say or do. Actually, one time, she even asked me to...to sort of cover for her. I wouldn’t do it. I would have thought that would have made her mad, but she just breezed on along like it was nothing.”

“Do you know who she was seeing?”

“I...I was never sure. Eventually, I tried to...how do my grandchildren say it? Call her out on it? I think that’s it.”

“When was that?”

Gladys thought about that for a bit. “I’d have to say it was close to that Thanksgiving, maybe a week or two before that when I was back down there in the village and I stopped in to see her. Oh, she tried to deny it but she knew I knew better. Still, she wouldn’t admit anything directly. All she would say though was that she’d gotten in a little over her head with someone and she was planning to break it off. She said things were finally going good for her and her and Drew and she didn’t want to mess that up.” She half rolled her eyes. “Pardon me for saying this but what I really think is, what she didn’t want to mess up was the fact that a well had come in and they finally had a little money to burn.”