Chapter 7 #3
“Thank you.” He was being so nice that it was hard to equate this man with the one who had been hounding him to death when he first started.
He wondered if something had happened in addition to the dog knocking him down.
When he finally closed his eyes, Falkner left the room and headed to the lounge again to make notes on his new patient.
~*~
Doone didn’t understand why she was being questioned in the case against her mother. Well, she actually had an idea, but nothing concrete. Sherman, Falkner’s dad, said that he’d go with her, and she was glad for the company. He was just as confused as she was as to what was going on.
“Ms. McFarlen, it’s been brought to our attention that you gave your mother a car.
You’re not in trouble over that; it’s just that she sold it off not three days after you gave it to her.
Was that the intention all along? For your mother to sell the car for cash?
” She explained how it was getting harder daily to keep up with her mom, so instead of missing work all the time, she had the car put in her name so that there’d be no trouble with her owning it.
“Yet she sold it. I’m confused if you want to know the truth. ”
“So was I. In the event that you’ve not met my mom, she can be very demanding.
And when she wanted to do something, she didn’t care if I had to miss work or not.
So, as I know she has a driver’s license, I thought that this would solve her problems of getting around and me not missing so much work.
” He asked her if she knew that she’d sell it.
“I had a feeling that she was going to do something to the car, but since I’ve been able to borrow one from a friend of mine, it mattered little to me what she did with it. ”
“Good for you. But there is the matter of her not claiming the car as income. She had plenty of time to claim the car and even the cash that she got for it when she sold it. There are rules in place that she must abide by in order to live in the houses that we have provided to people, much like your mother.” She said she was to understand that her mom had stashed the money in the house, along with the money she got from the joint account with her dad.
“Yes, that’s something else that we’re looking into.
That’s quite a bit of money there that she didn’t claim on her paperwork.
Had we known about it, I dare say she wouldn’t have been able to get into the housing that she currently has. ”
“I didn’t know about it either. There are quite a few things that I’m only just finding out when it comes to my mother.
” He said that he was as well. And a great deal of it was against the rules concerning her living arrangements.
“What will happen to her now that you’re finding these things out?
Will she have to pay all the money back for what she took from the agency? ”
“That remains to be seen. We’re still gathering evidence.
And there is quite a bit of it to find, too.
Someone let her slip through the cracks, and we don’t like making those kinds of mistakes when it comes to government housing.
” She asked if they’d be in trouble, as she would hate that.
“We’ll take care of it. There is no reason for you to worry about anything.
Without your help in this and that of your attorney, Mr. Dixon, I doubt we would have caught her.
That’s just between the two of us, however. ”
“Yes, I understand completely.” He told her that she might be called in to explain the car and why she’d given it to her mother, but didn’t foresee any issues with that. “I was just trying to save my job. I love what I do and didn’t want to jeopardize it because of my mother being so demanding.”
“Yes, well, we’ve had a couple of run-ins with your mother since she’s been arrested.
You were right in saying that she’s demanding.
And she certainly loves that word deserves.
She wants what she deserves a great deal.
” He laughed, then told her he was sorry.
“I shouldn’t be talking to you about your mother this way.
It’s unprofessional, and I do apologize for that. ”
“Thank you, but I agree with you, so no harm done.” She looked over at Sherman when he cleared his throat.
As he talked with the other man, she thought about her mother and all the things that he’d been able to find out about her.
She’d been acting this way since before her dad had married her.
Why he had, she was still trying to figure out.
He’d told her that it was charming at first. How she wanted things to be just so.
Then, after a while, it had turned annoying and caused a great many fights between them.
Then the lump was found in her lung, and she went crazy trying to figure out a way to get it taken care of.
He just couldn’t stand it any longer and left her.
But he’d never divorced her. He still loved her, he told her, and that was something that didn’t come along twice in a lifetime.
“She might be annoying as hell, but there was no reason for us to be divorced. It just didn’t seem right.
Then, when you started doing what she wanted, I tried to get you to come and live with me, but you wouldn’t have it.
I suppose that I should blame that on Meggie as well.
She filled your mind with poison about me, and that was the end of it.
I’m so glad that you called me when you did.
I might well get the divorce now that I’m thinking straight.
There is something wrong with your mother, honey, and the sooner she gets help, the better. ”
She’d asked him if he thought that she’d get better.
“I mean, she’s been like this for as long as she’s been a kid.
I don’t see her changing her ways now, do you?
” He shook his head and said that it might well be too late for her.
“That’s really sad if you think about it.
She and I could have had a great relationship now that I’m older.
But she ruined that with her demands and deserves.
I wonder why she thinks that she deserves things.
I mean, it’s not like grandma and grandpa had any money for her to want things like she did.
We might never know what started her on the path that she’s on. ”
They had talked about her mom for the rest of the evening.
Dad was going to go to the courthouse with her in the morning to be there when she married Falkner.
She was about as excited about that as she was about anything else that had happened in her life.
She couldn’t wait to be Mrs. Doone Dixon.
When Sherman poked her in the arm, she turned to look at him.
“You all right?” She told him that she’d never been better.
“That’s good news. We have everything cleared away for your mother’s day in court.
It should be an easy one, if not for the fact that I think your mother is going to be causing trouble.
If that happens, then they’ll just take her back to jail and go on with the trial.
I don’t know how they’ll find her anything but guilty, but stranger things have happened. ”
On her way home, she decided that she was going to order some Chinese food for dinner.
It was something that she and Falkner both enjoyed, and since they’d both worked today, it would be an easy meal that they could have.
She was going to order extra so that she could have some for lunch tomorrow after the wedding.
Giddy with excitement, she ordered the food and sat down to wait for it to be delivered.
When Falkner arrived home just as the food was at the door, they both sat down in their dining room and enjoyed the feast. She should have known there wouldn’t be any leftovers when she ordered. They were both about starved.