AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now there was a word appropriate for an elementary school teacher.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Alfred and I got married a few months ago. I haven’t told Melly yet, but Rose knows.”
Rose hadn’t mentioned that to us.
“I swore her to secrecy,” Sue said before I could voicemy thoughts. “We plan to announce it soon, but . . .” She fiddled with the handle of her mug, running her fingers up and down the smooth surface. “Alfred’s younger than me. I know I shouldn’t worry about something like that, but I do. So . . . When I was hospitalized, I told him my kidney disease is advancing. It’s not. The doctor said the Xylitol made no difference.”
How could she hope to hold onto someone she loved with lies? “You should confess to Alfred, not me.”
“I know I should but once I started telling fibs, they got tangled together, and I can’t find a way out of them.”
“Confess everything.”
“I know I should, but it’s hard.”
“Did you put Xylitol in the punch?”
Horror filled her eyes, and she reeled away from me. “I might tell a fib about my kidney disease, but I would never purposefully do something like that to myself or anyone else. It would be stupid. I could truly damage my kidney.”
Yet she’d lie about it to someone she supposedly loved. I wasn’t ruling her out yet. “Have you shared this with Rose? She’s worried about you. Melly is too.”
“I plan to. Soon. When Alfred kissed that woman . . . Actually,shekissed him, not the other way around. I see that now. He loves me. He’s made that plain.”
I didn’t point out that he’d explain something like that away if he was trying to get Sue to name him her life insurance beneficiary.
“I thought I could hold onto my younger husband with sympathy,” Sue said. “But that’s a mean thing to do when you’re trying to save your marriage. I’m going totell him tonight. I hope he’ll forgive me.” She gave me a sad smile. “That’s why I didn’t hesitate to sign the paperwork he brought to the hospital. I have a rather large life insurance policy I’ve paid into for most of my life. He suggested I name him as the beneficiary not long after we got married, but I balked at first. After what happened at the social club, and seeing how concerned he was about me, I decided to show him I trust him and sign.”
Interesting that Alfred had been urging her to sign since they married.
“Who do you think put Xylitol in the punch?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. After I got there, and I’d helped Rose into the bathroom, I realized I’d forgotten the coleslaw I put all that effort into making. Alfred and I went out to get it together.”
That explained why she’d left.
“Let’s go through the timeframe once more,” I said. “You arrived and almost immediately helped Rose to the bathroom?”
“Yes. Alfred helped too, though he didn’t go inside the stall. We initially waited in the hallway. I wanted to be there to be with her until she’d returned to the function room. She does very well with the walker, but it can snag on things. I’m sure she won’t need it much longer, but I didn’t want her to fall again. I could hear someone else arriving, but I couldn’t see who it was.”
Was that when the punch was poisoned?
“You know how mayonnaise can go bad if it’s not refrigerated? I always put a bowl of ice beneath my coleslaw to keep it cold. I told Rose I’d left it in the car,and she insisted I go get it right away. Alfred came with me. He’s trying to quit, but it’s hard, you know?”
“Quit?”
“He’s smoked for most of his life. I keep telling him it’s going to ruin his lungs. He finally agreed. He’s cut back to one cigarette a day. He takes a few puffs, carefully puts it out, then saves the rest for later. Next week, he’s cutting back to half a cigarette a day. He used to smoke a pack, which I just can’t imagine, but we thought a slow wean like this might be easier than going cold turkey.”
“You’re saying Alfred was with you from the time you arrived until you came back inside and started drinking the punch?”
“Yes. He stood by the car and took his two puffs while I grabbed the coleslaw from the backseat.” She winced. “I have another confession to make. We . . . didn’t go back inside right away.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“We . . .” Color rose in her cheeks. “We haven’t been married long. We’re practically newlyweds. We, um, got into the backseat and . . . I don’t want to say any more.”
I held in my laugh. “You don’t need to. How long do you think it was before you went back inside?”
