Claws For Concern

“No, I know he did it,” Bill said.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“I just know,” Bill replied. “Elizabeth told Hiram I was coming to take Betty and the boys away from him. They were my sons.”

“That made him go crazy and kill them?” Jack asked.

“Partly,” Bill said. “Elizabeth also told him I was the boys’ father. He’d always suspected they weren’t his, I think, and Elizabeth telling him she knew it for a fact pushed him over the edge.”

THIRTY-SIX

“Yes, Sean, you’re right,” I said, trying not to sound long-suffering, though I wasn’t sure I was completely successful. “If I hadn’t gone to the hospital the deputies would have handled things very well on their own.” I was thankful Sean had at least waited until we finished our Sunday dinner before he brought up the subject. I don’t think I would have been able to eat otherwise.

“I know you think I’m nagging, Dad,” Sean said. He sounded aggrieved.

“Well, you are,” Laura said. “You talk to him sometimes like he’s an adolescent.”

“Thanks for the support, sister dear.” Sean leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“She’s right, sweetheart,” Alex, Sean’s wife, said. “I can hear you sounding just like that about fifteen years from now with our child.” She smiled at him.

Sean’s gaze softened as he looked across the table at his wife. He might fuss at me, but he wouldn’t fuss at Alex.

“Go on, Charlie,” Stewart said. “Before Sean launches into another lecture on proper behavior for grandfathers.” He grinned.

“Ha-ha,” Sean said.

“I did feel a little foolish hiding in the bathroom,” I said, “but I couldn’t take the chance. If the deputy hadn’t shown up, and I hadn’t been there, Bill would have died.”

“What was in the syringe? Were you able to find out?” Haskell asked.

“A powerful tranquilizer, with a dose strong enough to bring down a couple of bull elephants,” I said. “Lethal to Bill, obviously.”

“She was desperate,” Helen Louise said. “Despite the fact that she murdered her own father and tried to kill another man, I do feel sorry for her. She was not quite sane.”

“Sane enough to kill people to get what she wanted,” Haskell said. “And she nearly got away with it. I wonder how long it would have been before she turned on someone else, like her husband or her children.”

That didn’t bear thinking about. I felt desperately sorry for Campbell and the children. I imagined he would be watching his children closely from now on for signs of their mother’s extreme behavior.

“The one I feel really sorry for is Bill Delaney,” Laura said. “He thought he was going to be able to save the woman he loved and his sons from a monster.” She shook her head, and I could see tears running down her face. Frank obviously noticed, too. He left his chair and went around the table to comfort her.

“I agree, honey,” I said. “To me, that is the real tragedy in all this.”

“Why did Delaney protect Elizabeth all these years?” Sean asked. “I don’t understand that at all. Why didn’t he turn her in?”

“I asked him that,” I said. “He told me he couldn’t. He didn’t want her to go to prison. It wouldn’t have been self-defense with her shooting him in the back. If Hiram had intended to kill her, she would have been dead by the time Bill arrived. She was Betty’s daughter, and he felt he had to protect her. It was all he had left that he could do for Betty.”

“Did he tell you what he did with the shotgun?” Stewart asked.

“He drove out to Tullahoma Lake and threw it in. Even if the sheriff’s department had looked for it there, I doubt they would have found it. It’s a big lake,” I said.

“Did Dr. Finch know all of this?” Alex asked.

“I’m not sure how much she really knew,” I replied. “I believe she knew Elizabeth was planning to help her mother and brothers escape from her father. I also believe Elizabeth told her that Bill Delaney killed Hiram in revenge for Hiram murdering her mother and the boys. Elizabeth swore her to secrecy because she said she didn’t want Bill to go to jail.”

“She was still trying to protect her all these years later, I suppose,” Helen Louise said. “Now that is a best friend for you.”

“She loved Elizabeth like a sister, and that’s why she was feeding Elizabeth information on Bill’s condition, although that is unethical,” I said. “I don’t think she ever realized that Elizabeth had such a dark side to her personality.”

“She was pretty good at keeping it hidden,” Haskell said.

“For the most part, yes,” I said. “I didn’t trust her, although the act of contrition she put on at Bill’s bedside almost convinced me I was wrong. That was before she tried to kill him, of course.”

“Was she afraid he would finally tell the truth to someone?” Frank asked. “After he’d been silent for so many years?”

I shrugged. “That’s my guess. She didn’t trust him. He promised never to come back, apparently, and then he did. That spooked her.”

“I’m thankful she’s off the streets,” Laura said. “I’d hate to think of her loose out there.”