Caught Red-Handed by Jan Burke Read Free Book Online

this house and his store to Jonathan, who had worked for him. Jonathan and Chloe were very much in love. She was pretty, and full of life and laughter, and she spoiled him rotten. She was an excellent seamstress.
    â€œHe thought her the perfect wife in all but one regard. She was a terrible cook. But Jonathan didn’t want to hurt her feelings so he always ate the meals she made for him with a smile. I lived just down the street then, and he’d come over to visit me after dinner, and groan and down bottles of antacid. She caught on, and one day gave him a large, heavy box with a big bow on it. There was a big, cast-iron skillet in it. She laughed and told him she would help him run the store if he would help her cook.”
    â€œDo you think this is that same skillet? Why would he bury it?”
    â€œI would be surprised to learn it was not that skillet. As for why, well, perhaps it is best if I continue to tell you their story.
    â€œIn December of 1941, they had a little boy, William, named after my uncle. He was born two days before Pearl Harbor. Jonathan was drafted. They were very brave about it, as were most people then. Chloe and I ran the store, and Little Billy kept us too busy to feel sorry for ourselves.”
    She paused and took a sip of wine.
    â€œShe was staying with me then; she had rented her place out to a group of women who worked at a war plant. One rainy night, after we closed up the store, Chloe told me she was going to stop by our little church on the way home. It was the winter of 1944. Jonathan had been wounded and was being sent back home. Chloe had been worried about Jonathan; said she hadn’t been able to sleep much, and wanted to pray for his safe return. Billy cried when she tried to get him to leave with me when we reached the steps of the church, so she took him with her. I still remember them standing under their umbrella on the steps, giving me a little wave.”
    She stopped again, her eyes filling with tears.
    â€œPlease, I didn’t know this would be so painful for you,” Leila said. “Perhaps you’d rather tell me another time.”
    â€œNo, no, I’ll be all right. All of this happened almost fifty years ago. You’d think I’d be able to talk about it.”
    â€œTime might heal our wounds, but that doesn’t mean we forget how much they hurt in the first place.”
    Alice smiled. “Something tells me you know something about being wounded, Leila. Well, you may be right. Still, I owe you an explanation for my brother’s odd behavior.
    â€œSo, on that night, I went home alone in the rain. It had been raining hard for a couple of days. I waited, but they didn’t come back. Finally, I put on my raingear and walked back to the church. There were firemen and emergency vehicles blocking the street. The roof on the church had collapsed. It had been a flat roof. The scuppers on the drains from the roof had been plugged by leaves, and the water built up on it until it just gave way. Chloe and Billy were killed.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    Alice shook her head. “I identified their bodies. They took them away. I sat there, next to the place they had been killed, unable to move, getting drenched by rain. I kept wondering how I could possibly tell Jonathan about what had happened. A policeman tried to get me to go home. I saw one of Chloe’s boots; I guess it had come off of her when they pulled her body out. I picked it up, and a piece of stained glass that lay next to it. Don’t ask me why. I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now. The policeman walked me home. On the porch step, he handed me Jonathan’s pocket watch and little bag of marbles. Billy had been carrying them.”
    After a moment, Leila said, “And Jonathan? What became of him?”
    â€œHe was devastated, of course. I worried for a while that I would lose him, too. He wasn’t quite recovered when he returned, and