Twenty
"I can see that's news to you," Stacey said, laughing humorlessly
at Alex's dumbfounded expression.
' 'Yes,'' she replied in a hollow tone.' 'No one's mentioned
that."
Stacey's composure, always intact, deserted her. Flattening
a hand on her meager bosom, she cried out, "Do you have
any idea the damage you're doing?"
"To whom?"
"To me," she shouted, pounding her chest. Immediately
she dropped her hand and rolled her lips inward, as though
mortified by her outburst. She closed her eyes momentarily.
When she opened them, they were filled with animosity, but
she appeared to have regained control of herself.' 'For twenty-five
years I've had to live down the generally held belief that
Junior Minton married me on the rebound from your mother.''
Alex didn't state the obvious, but guiltily lowered her eyes.
"I see that you hold to that belief, too."
"I'm sorry, Miss . . . Stacey. May I call you Stacey?"
"Of course," she replied stiffly.
"I'm sorry that my investigation has distressed you."
"How could it not? You're dredging up the past. By doing
so, you're airing my dirty linen for all the town to see.
Again."
"I had no idea who Junior's first wife was, or that she
even lived in Purcell."
"Would it have mattered?"
"Probably not," Alex answered with rueful honesty. "I
can't see that your marriage to Junior has any bearing on the
case. It's a peripheral association that I can't help."
"What about my father?" Stacey asked, switching subjects.
"What about him?"
"This petty investigation of yours is going to cause him
embarrassment. It already has."
"How so?"
"The fact that you're questioning his original ruling."
"I'm sorry. I can't help that, either."
"Can't--or won't?" Stacey held her arms straight at her
sides and shuddered with revulsion. "I abhor people who
trample on the reputations of others for their own personal
gain."
"Is that what you think I'm doing?" Alex asked, taking
umbrage. "Do you think I devised this investigation to advance
my career?"
"Didn't you?"
"No," she answered, firmly shaking her head. "My
mother was murdered in that stable. I don't believe that the
man accused of it was capable of committing that crime. I
want to know what really happened. I will know what happened.
And I'll make the one responsible pay for making me
an orphan."
"I was prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, but
I see it's only revenge you want, after all."
"I want justice."
"No matter what it costs other people?"
"I've already apologized for any unhappiness it causes
you."
Stacey made a scoffing sound. "You want to publicly
crucify my father. Don't deny it," she snapped when Alex
started to object. "No matter how much you deny it, you're
leaving him open to ridicule. At the very least, you're accusing
him of making a serious error in judgment."
To deny that would be a lie. "Yes, I believe he made a
bad judgment in the case of Buddy Hicks."
"Daddy's got forty impeccable years on the bench that
vouch for his wisdom and integrity."
"If my investigation is petty, as you call it, it won't affect
his record, will it, Mrs. Minton? A lofty judge couldn't possibly
be brought down by a lowly public prosecutor with
nothing except spite and vengeance for ammunition. Evidence
would be necessary to support my allegations."
"You don't have any."
"I believe I will before I'm finished. If your father's reputation
suffers as a result ..." She drew a deep breath and
raised a weary hand to her forehead. Her expression was
earnest, her words heartfelt. "Stacey, I don't want to ruin
your father's career or besmirch his tenure on the bench. I
don't want to hurt anybody's feelings or cause any innocent
bystander grief or embarrassment. I only want to see justice
done."
"Justice," Stacey sneered, her eyes narrowing with malice.
"You've got no right to even speak the word. You're
just like your mother--pretty, but shallow. Single-minded
and selfish. Uncaring of other people's feelings. Unable to
see beyond your own superficial desires."
"I take it you didn't like my mother very much," Alex
remarked, her voice laced with sarcasm.
Stacey took her seriously. "I hated her."
"Why? Because Junior was in love with her?"
Alex reasoned that if Stacey were going to hit below the
belt, she might as well, too. It worked. Stacey fell back a
step and groped for the dressing table to support herself.
Reflexively, Alex extended a helping hand, but the judge's
daughter recoiled from her touch.
"Stacey, I know that Junior married you only a few weeks
after my mother was killed. You must realize how odd that
strikes me."
"It might have seemed sudden, but we'd been dating for
years."
That surprised Alex. "You had?"
"Yes. And for most of that time, we'd been lovers."
Stacey threw that piece of news at Alex like a dart, sharply
and triumphantly. All it served, however, was to make Alex
pity her more. She had the full picture now of a plain girl,
hopelessly in love with the affable and handsome football
hero, willing to sacrifice anything, including her pride, to
have even scraps of his attention. She would do anything to
keep him near her. "I see."
"I doubt it. Just like Junior, you're blind to the truth."
"What is the truth, Stacey?"
"That Celina was wrong for him. Like everybody else,
she constantly compared him to Reede. Junior always came
out in second place. I didn't care how he measured up to
anybody. I loved him for what he was. Junior didn't want to
believe it, but in spite of your father and you, Celina would
have always loved Reede."
'' If she loved him so much, why did she marry my father?''
That question had been plaguing Alex for days.
"Celina and Reede had a falling out the spring of our junior
year. As soon as school was out for the summer, she went
to visit cousins in El Paso."
"That's where she met my father." Alex knew this much
of the story from her grandmother. "He was going through
boot camp at Port Bliss. Soon after they were married, he
got shipped to Vietnam."
Stacey sneered, "And after he died, she wanted to take
back up with Reede, but he wouldn't have her. That's when
she kindled Junior's hopes. She knew he'd always wanted
her, but he never would have pursued it, on account of Reede.
It was disgraceful how she played up to Junior, involving
him with her pregnancy. She might have toyed with the idea
of marrying him, but it never would have happened as long
as Reede Lambert drew breath.
"Your mother kept Junior dangling by a thread of hope.
She made his life miserable. She would have gone on making
him miserable if she had lived." The former Mrs. Minton
drew a choppy breath that caused her shapeless chest to stagger
as it rose and fell. "I was glad when Celina died."
A spark of suspicion leaped into Alex's eyes.' 'Where were
you that night?"
"At home unpacking. I'd just returned from a week's vacation
in Galveston."
Would she lie over something so easily checked? "You
married Junior right away."
"That's right. He needed me. I knew that I was only a
panacea for his grief, just like I'd always known when he
made love to me that it was Celina he really wanted. But I
didn't care if he used me. I wanted to be used. I cooked his
meals, took care of his clothes, nurtured him in bed and out."
Her expression changed as she lapsed into a private reverie.
"I overlooked the first time he was unfaithful to me. I was
crushed, naturally, but I could understand how easily it had
happened. Whenever we went out, women flocked to him.
What man could resist such a strong temptation? The affair
didn't last long before he lost interest.'' She clasped her hands
and studied them as she spoke softly. "Then there was another.
And another. I would have tolerated all his lovers if
only he'd stayed married to me.
"But he asked me for a divorce. At first I refused. He kept
on and on, telling me that he hated hurting me with his affairs.
When I was left no option, I granted the divorce. It broke
my heart, but I gave him what he wanted, knowing, knowing," she repeated with emphasis, "that no other woman
would ever be as right for him as I was. I thought I'd die
with the pain of loving him too well."
She shook herself out of the reflective mood and beaded
on Alex. "And I still have to stand by and watch him move
from woman to woman, all the time searching for what I can
and want to give him. I had to watch him dance and flirt with
you tonight. You! My God," she sobbed, tilting her face
toward the ceiling and pressing her fist to her forehead, eyes
squeezed shut. "You want to ruin him, and he still can't see
beyond your pretty face and body."
She lowered her hand and glared at Alex. "You are poison,
Miss Gaither. I feel the same way about you tonight as I did