“Who knows?” Mrs. Turner said. “She came up pregnant just before Les graduated from high school, and my husband’s father said he was going to kill Les if he didn’t marry the girl.”
“But married or not, he left for Hollywood right after that,” Jeff said.
Mrs. Turner gave a one-sided smile. “Florence thought that if Les went to Hollywood she’d go with him as his wife, but Les’s mother had other ideas. She had to let the marriage go through because back then girls who were pregnant and single…” She shrugged. “It’s different from today. Anyway, Les’s mother took everything into her own hands. The night Les and Florence were married, his mother sneaked her son onto a train heading west. She told Les she’d take care of his wife and child and when he was famous he could send for them.”
“But he didn’t send for them,” Cassie said. “Instead, Ruth went after him.”
“She did. Soon after the wedding, she raided her mother’s cookie jar and bought herself a ticket to Hollywood.”
“And blackmailed Lester, who was Hinton, by then,” Jeff said, “into pretending he was married to her.”
“Exactly,” Mrs. Turner said. “But to be fair to Ruth, she managed Les’s career. He was a sweet boy, and if it had been up to him, he would have worked for pennies, but Ruth was a terror. She oversaw all his contracts. She was the reason he was ever made the star of any picture.”
“You’d think that someone from this town would have exposed it all,” Cassie said. “They saw the movie magazines, so they knew what had happened.”
“People can be real dumb,” Mrs. Turner said. “But the truth was that Lester wasn’t famous for years after he left home. He only had bit parts, and he was never in any magazines. He only got to be famous when he started making pictures with Althea Fairmont. Have you seen any of those old pictures?”
“Every one of them,” Cassie said. “Those two were electric on the screen.”
“They were,” Mrs. Turner said. “That was back in the days when they showed real passion in the movies. Now they don’t smolder and yearn. Now they take off their clothes and read each other’s tattoos.”
Both Cassie and Jeff laughed. “Why didn’t Florence go to Hollywood right after she had the baby?”
“Because Ruth paid her to stay away. I was a kid but I heard what was said. Lester’s mother told Florence that if she went out to Hollywood, Les would divorce her, and she’d have to come back to Hinton and take in washing like her mother did. But if she stayed here in Texas and kept her mouth shut, Ruth would see that she had money.”
“I doubt if Florence liked that idea,” Jeff said.
“Not at all,” Mrs. Turner said, “but she held to it until her mother died. Then Florence got an invitation to a party.”
“At Charles Faulkener’s house.”
“Right,” Mrs. Turner said. “He paid for her upkeep in a little house for a few months before she saw Ruth and Lester again. Mr. Faulkener made her lose weight and dye her hair platinum.”
“And when she did see them, she was killed,” Jeff said.
“Who do you think did it?” Cassie asked.
“Ruth. No doubt about it in my mind at all. Ruth loathed Florence. Hated her all her life. Florence was pretty and easy with people, and went after whatever she wanted. Ruth was big and clumsy and she wanted only one thing in life.”
“Lester Myers,” Cassie said.
“That’s right.”
“But she let him take the rap for the murder,” Jeff said. “When the chips were down, she let him hang.”
Mrs. Turner shrugged. “Who knows what happened? Ruth came back here right after the murder and she never left again. She bought that big brick house on the corner by the bank and lived there the rest of her life. As far as I know, she never so much as got on a train again.”
“What did she do with her life?” Cassie asked.
“She went to church a lot.” Mrs. Turner’s old eyes twinkled. “A lot of people said it was guilt.”
“And poor Hinton-Lester died just three years later,” Cassie said.
“Do you know anything about that?” Jeff asked.
“Nothing. I know that Ruth pulled the curtains to her house and didn’t come out for a year. She had her groceries delivered. When she did come out, she was an old woman, but she never spoke of her sister or Les. If she’d said a word, it would have been all over town.”
“When did she die?” Cassie asked.
“A long time ago. She didn’t live but about five years after Les passed away, but she aged a lot in those years. It’s my guess it was caused by guilt and grief.”
“Do you know what happened to her estate?” Jeff asked.
Mrs. Turner smiled. “You mean all that money she was supposed to have stolen from her rich husband? Oh, yes, we heard about that even out here in Texas. But if someone stole it, it either wasn’t very much, or someone other than Ruth got it. Her house was auctioned off, and all the money went to pay off her debts.” She looked at Cassie. “The gossip magazines used to hint that Les and Mrs. Fairmont were in love off-screen. Were they?”
“Oh, yes,” Cassie said. “Madly in love. Althea had a daughter with Hinton.”
“Then she’s related to my grandbabies.”
“Oh, yeah, about that,” Jeff said. “What happened to Florence’s baby?”
“She dumped it onto her mother, then when her mother died, my mother got the child to raise.” Mrs. Turner smiled. “I’m happy to say that the girl took after her daddy and not her mother. She was as pretty as a flower and as sweet tempered as well. She went to Texas State and married a man who was a preacher. They had three kids and seemed to be as happy as could be.”
“I’m glad,” Cassie said. “It’s good to hear that someone involved in this awful story was happy.”
“Just them,” Mrs. Turner said. “One of those three kids took after Florence and came back here to wait out her time.”
“And what happened to that child?”
Mrs. Turner’s eyes darkened. “I’d rather not say what that girl did, but she was too much like Florence. I raised one of her kids.”
“Then it was lucky you were here,” Cassie said, smiling.
Mrs. Turner sighed. “Maybe so, maybe not.”
“What’s wrong?” Cassie asked softly.
“The times may change, but people don’t. I have a granddaughter—or she seems like mine, but she’s descended from Les’s child—and she’s a throwback to him. She’s pretty and sweet tempered, and very smart. But…”
Cassie put her hand over the old woman’s. “What’s happened?”
“She’s about to have a baby.” Mrs. Turner shook her head in wonder. “Here it is in the time of free abortion, but the girl is a pro-lifer. She said she couldn’t bear to kill her own baby, so she’s having it. I wanted her to go to college, but she’s planning to raise the baby by herself. The boy that fathered it is long gone.”
“She doesn’t have to give up after she has the baby. She could put it up for adoption,” Cassie said.
“We’ve all told her that, and she agrees, but she wants the baby to be in her family, not given away to strangers.”
Suddenly, Cassie sat up straight in her chair. “How smart is this girl? Honestly?”
“She took some college tests and made it in the top two percent in the nation,” Mrs. Turner said proudly.
Cassie looked at Jeff and smiled. “I have an idea how to solve it all.”
Jeff looked at her with interest. “How?”
“Give me your phone. I need to call Althea.”
“She still alive?” Mrs. Turner asked. “She must be over a hundred now.”
“She’s alive and imprisoned in a huge house and she needs help setting up a library for budding young actors. She will be thrilled to help a descendant of her beloved Hinton’s. And there’s a fabulous university in Williamsburg that—” Cassie waited for the name.
“Lisa,” Mrs. Turner said.
Ca
ssie started punching buttons on Jeff’s phone. “Lisa can go to school there, earn money working for Althea, and as for the baby—”
Jeff grinned. “We know a couple who will take the baby. They’re not blood relatives, but they’re good people. Lisa could meet them. They want a child more than they want life.”
“Yes,” Cassie said, smiling. “And I’m sure that Roger will shell out for the college expenses. He can afford it, now that he’s given up his boat.”
Jeff laughed. “I’m going to miss that boat that I never went on,” he said.
Cassie stopped punching buttons. “You never went on the boat? But Elsbeth told me all about your last trip and the fish you caught.”
“I’ve never been fishing in my life,” Jeff said, looking down at his iced tea glass.
Cassie could only stare at the top of his head. “Are you telling me that you had your five-year-old daughter tell lies?”
“Yes and no,” Jeff said, his voice full of apology. “I just told her not to mention that we hadn’t gone on a boat and she made up the rest of it. She’s a great storyteller, isn’t she?”
Cassie narrowed her eyes at him. “There are going to be some big changes made in your house—my house. Do you understand me?”
“I look forward to it,” Jeff said, grinning. “Now call Althea and get this settled so we can go home and get married.”
Mrs. Turner laughed at them. Jeff was grinning, and Cassie was frowning at him. “The world never changes,” she said.
Jude Deveraux, Secrets
(Series: # )
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