Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
I sat in the lounge chair on a perfectly gorgeous day on a particularly incredible stretch of Costa Rican beach and watched the couple frolicking in the ocean.
They weren’t young—on the contrary, most would say their best years were behind them, physically anyway.
But the extra weight, emerging gray hair, and the bits of sagging skin didn’t deter them.
And they were clearly in love. Even a staunch realist like me could see it.
I could hear their laughter as it drifted over the surf and up the beach and I lay back and enjoyed the cool breeze on my skin. I was in no hurry. After all, there was nothing to accomplish here besides assuaging my own curiosity.
When the couple finally tired of water play, they trudged out and headed up the beach toward the rented bungalow just behind me. They didn’t even notice me sitting there until they were only feet away.
I sat up and smiled. “Afternoon, Mildred. And this is Jasper, I presume.”
Mildred’s jaw dropped and Jasper gave her a panicked look.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“It’s what I do. And I wasn’t certain, so I came here to find out.”
“Are you going to tell Carter?”
“Tell him what? That you’re cavorting with a dead man in Costa Rica? Last time I checked, that’s not against the law. To fake your own death, maybe, especially if there’s insurance payouts and the like. But I’m guessing Jasper didn’t have any part in his narrow miss with the Grim Reaper.”
Mildred looked at Jasper, who sighed.
“We might as well tell her,” he said. “If we don’t, she’ll just keep poking at it and that will only keep the spotlight on the whole mess.”
He gave me an apologetic look. “My uncle was an FBI agent. I have some experience with the type.”
Mildred nodded. “Then we might as well move over to the table. The least we can do is hash it out over margaritas and a charcuterie plate.”
“Fine by me.”
I headed over to the small dining area on the porch and took a seat. Mildred and Jasper came out a few minutes later with drinks and a plate of cheese, crackers, and sliced meats.
“We’ve been living like bachelors,” she said as she sat the tray down.
“You get no judgment from me,” I said as I popped a piece of pepper jack cheese into my mouth and tested the margarita. “This is great.”
“A local gave me her recipe,” Mildred said. She stared at me for a couple seconds, then blew out a breath. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“In the movies, they always say ‘at the beginning,’ but I don’t plan on staying long enough to hear about the past twenty-plus years of your life. And I have pretty good guesses for most of it, so maybe just the highlights.”
“Okay, but it’s still going to take a while. You’ve already heard about my father and mother and my childhood—at least enough to know why I left as soon as I could.”
I nodded. “And I know why Jasper stayed behind, and I credit him for taking those responsibilities on despite what it cost him. I figure Eleanor stayed because she had the upper hand with your father and then she didn’t have to pursue a career to support herself.
Plus it gave her the opportunity to edge you and your mother all the way out and leave her with complete control.
What I don’t understand is why you ended up married to her, Jasper.
I heard there was a pregnancy, so I get it from that angle, but why get involved with Eleanor in the first place? ”
Jasper frowned. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t.
Not in the beginning. We were at a party together and I was drunk.
I blacked out completely. Woke up the next day at the cabins, in bed with Eleanor.
She was going on about how great the night was and how she was glad I’d finally come to my senses and picked the right sister. I just wanted to get out of there.”
“But then she claimed she was pregnant.”
He looked miserable. “I guess I could have washed my hands of it all. Said I’d pay support and that was it, but I’m just not made that way.”
Mildred nodded. “Responsibility is Jasper’s religion.”
“Anyway, Eleanor had been feeding me a bunch of lies—at least, I know they are lies now—about how Mildred had moved on and had found a new guy that she was serious with. And how she was never coming back to Mudbug.”
“When Eleanor told me about her and Jasper, that’s when I decided I was never coming back,” Mildred said.
“You both played right into her hands,” I said.
They nodded.
“So I had a rushed marriage to Eleanor, and her father bought us a house,” Jasper continued. “Then about four months in, Eleanor started complaining about stomach cramps. She made an appointment with the doctor and when she came home, she said she’d miscarried.”
“Then why not end the marriage then?”
“Because by then her father had bailed out my dad’s business. It was written up as a loan, but he’d claimed it was a gift and that when it came time for payments to start years down the road, he’d just tear up the contract and we’d be solid.”
I shook my head. “So you went from being leashed by Eleanor to being led by her father.”
“Yes. The years went on and eventually, he kept his word and tore up that contract, but by then, Mildred had graduated and started her career. She’d never once set foot back in Mudbug. I’d tried to contact her a couple times hoping to apologize and explain, but she wouldn’t take my calls.”
“If only I would have,” Mildred said sadly. “Maybe all of this would have turned out differently.”
“But why stay with Eleanor all those years?” I asked. “Even if Mildred was no longer in your life, you could have divorced Eleanor after the debt was forgiven and made a new life for yourself.”
He shrugged. “Guilt maybe. I guess I felt like I had gotten what I deserved for cheating on Mildred. I mean, I broke up with her before she left because I didn’t want to hold her back and I couldn’t see any way for myself to get out.
But it was still wrong to marry Eleanor.
I should have just agreed to child support and tried to get on with my life. ”
I nodded. “But Eleanor was never pregnant, was she?”
Mildred’s eyes widened. “No, she wasn’t. But neither Jasper nor I knew that at the time.”
“How did you find out?”
“My mother sent me a letter,” she said. “She was so sick there toward the end and felt guilty that she’d never told me.
But apparently, way back, she figured out somehow that Eleanor had faked the entire thing just to get Jasper to marry her.
But by the time she figured it out, Jasper’s dad had already taken the loan.
So she saw no point in telling either of us.
It just would have caused more damage and I’d already made my decision to stay away. ”
Jasper nodded. “But when Dora got ill, it kept weighing on her, I guess. She wrote the letter and asked me to mail it to Mildred. That was a couple days after I took Dora to that lab for the bloodwork.”
“I’m sorry the lab fumbled Dora’s bloodwork,” I said.
“I will admit that I was angry about that when Mildred told me,” he said.
“But after I calmed down, I realized that even if they’d done everything they were supposed to, they still wouldn’t have gotten it completed before I ‘died.’ So to speak.
The truth is, Eleanor was hell-bent on getting rid of both of us because she thought she was about to get the life she deserved with that phony yoga guy. ”
“Tell me about your death,” I said.
“I needed to get away to think. I had my suspicions about what was going on with Dora, and truth be told, I think Dora did as well. I was dreading having those suspicions confirmed and trying to figure out how to handle it all. Mind you, even if we’d known what was happening, I don’t know that Dora could have been saved.
There was so much damage by then. And to be honest, even though I’m certain she suspected, I don’t know if she could have handled it all laid out.
Her heart was weak and I think suspecting but remaining in denial and having the proof right there in front of you are two different things. ”
He took a moment to draw in a deep breath.
“I took my boat out, thinking that getting out on the water would bring me some sort of wisdom, I guess. I was so distracted, I didn’t notice the leak and that’s on me.
When I started up the boat to leave my fishing spot, I realized I hadn’t latched my cooler properly and headed up to the front of the boat to do so.
I opened it to make sure the ice was covering all the fish, and that’s when it blew. ”
His voice shook as he continued. “If I hadn’t been hunched behind that lid—the cooler was practically a deck box, so it took the blast without shredding.
I was blown clean out of the boat and into a piling, but that lid saved my life.
I fell into the water and drifted down a little until I hit the bank.
I barely managed to crawl up and then blacked out.
A bit later, I came to. I was sore but didn’t feel like anything was broken.
I was pretty skinned up and had some burns though. ”
“How did you get back to town?” I asked. “And how did you disappear after that?”
“I started walking up the bank. There’s an old hermit that lives off that bayou.
He keeps to himself, but I’ve talked to him a time or two when I was out.
I made it to his place, and he helped patch me up—let me stay several days until I was stable.
Then I asked him to take me to Mudbug late one night.
I hid in the shed next to the garage until the next day when Eleanor left with Dora. ”
His eyes teared up. “I could see Dora had been crying and it about killed me that I couldn’t console her.
But exposing myself wouldn’t do either of us any good because I had no doubt that Eleanor had rigged my engine.
I maintained that boat myself, and two things can’t go that fast at the same time. Not with someone like me as an owner.”