Caught Red-Handed by Jan Burke Read Free Book Online Page A

with Chloe and Billy gone, he just didn’t seem to have the will to live. He pulled through, though. The war workers who lived here were laid off and moved on, and he moved back into the house. He went back to the store and went on with his life. He began to talk to me more about Chloe and his son, seemed able to cherish their memory instead of being beaten down by it.”
    â€œYou said Chloe was his first wife. Did he marry again?”
    â€œYes. Not right away, mind you. About fifteen years later, he met another woman. Monica.”
    She said the name with obvious distaste.
    â€œYou didn’t like her.”
    â€œNot in the least. She was an Amazon of a woman, and bossy to boot. But Jonathan was lonely, and had been for years. And I think she appealed to him on some—hmm, basic level, we’ll say. He was turning forty, and she made him feel, well, virile.
    â€œJust before Jonathan and Monica were married, Jonathan told me that he was going to hide all of his reminders of Chloe and Billy from his new wife. He said Monica was insanely jealous of their memory, which he couldn’t understand.”
    â€œCan you?”
    â€œOf course. Monica could see for herself that Jonathan’s heart still belonged to his first wife. How could she compete with a memory?”
    â€œBut Jonathan was aware of her jealousy?”
    â€œYes, even Jonathan could see that. He told me she had destroyed his favorite photo of Chloe. He decided he wanted to keep his reminders where Monica couldn’t harm them. Now, thirty years later, you’ve found the place where he hid them. Where were they?”
    â€œBeneath the loveseat.”
    Alice looked back to the corner of the garden where the loveseat had been. “I should have guessed. You’ve had the pieces taken away?”
    â€œYes, I’m sorry if it was special to you in some way.”
    â€œNo, not to me. But it was to Jonathan. He used to sit there with Chloe. An extravagance for newlyweds, but the house had come to him furnished by my uncle, so that loveseat helped them to make the place their own. In much the way you have, with this garden. Jonathan would have loved this garden.”
    â€œHow was the loveseat broken?”
    Alice laughed. “That was the time Monica went too far. They weren’t married for more than a year or two when they started having problems. She’d throw tantrums, and he just withdrew more and more from her. He’d come out to the garden.
    â€œOne day, Jonathan was sitting on the loveseat, doubtless remembering happier times. Monica came striding across the yard, carrying a sledgehammer.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYes, a big old sledgehammer. She lifted it up over her head and brought it down with all her might. Jonathan barely got out of the way in time. Busted the loveseat in half.”
    â€œWas she trying to kill him?”
    â€œJonathan told me he didn’t believe she meant to harm him, but I don’t think he was certain of that. In any case, they separated, and she went off to live with a sister in some other state. He divorced her. He was disappointed, but he didn’t seem overly bitter. Said that maybe he’d caused it by hanging on to his memories of Chloe. He lived here by himself until he died, about a year ago now. I miss him.”
    Alice looked away for a moment, then turned back to Leila.
    â€œIn the last ten years he was pretty much crippled up by arthritis, and he couldn’t take care of this yard. You’ve made it beautiful again, you’ve brought it back to life. As I’ve said, it would make Jonathan proud.”
    â€œThank you. It sounds strange, but I’m sorry I didn’t get to know him.”
    â€œYou would have liked him. I think he would be quite happy that you are the one who came to live here. I think Chloe and Billy would be, too.”
    They chatted for a while, and then Leila brought out a small box and loaded Jonathan’s