Bingo! We set a time to meet tomorrow evening at her house and she gave me her address. That would give me time to get Thor home and taken care of before meeting her.
###
After another hectic day at Roasted Love, I took Thor home and prepped myself for meeting Marianne. When I arrived at the Andrews home the next evening, a petite lady with touches of grey in her hair met me at the
door. Delicate hand shook mine with a slight force to it. We entered a small living room that was both comfortable and practical. A few books were strewn on two different end tables. A healthy deep green fern set next to the compact brick fireplace. We sat across from one another.
"Why did you want to talk about Michael and my son?" she asked.
"Michael was just...so private about his life," I said. "But he kept a photo that included your son. I thought maybe if I learned more about Michael's early life...I could deal with his passing better."
"I actually have a couple albums that have photos of the two of them..." she said. "I got them out when you said that you were coming over."
She opened one of two albums on the coffee table and pointed to a picture. Michael and John were young in the photo, maybe six or seven years old.
"Michael was very close to John from the time they first met in second grade. I thought he was closer to him than he was to his own brother James."
"Did the three of them ever hang out together?" I asked.
"They did much later when Michael and John were in their teens. Then when James started in politics, John was with him a little more of the time. He was very interested in working for political parties and jumped at the chance to help James in his elections. Michael did a lot that way, too, but I always thought it was to help his brother out. I don’t think he had any real interest in politics."
She smiled as she showed me more pictures of the boys. There was one of a handsome John sitting in the campaign office with James hovering over his shoulder. Both were youthful and ambitious looking.
"James Simms owed a lot to John when it came to winning elections. You probably know John had terrible problems with asthma. There were times he had to take time off from the campaign office. He went for experimental treatments in hopes of a cure."
Her eyes were wet and I knew she thought of the death of her son.
"He was too young to die," she said.
I agreed with her and offered sympathy.
"Did Michael visit here in your home after your son’s death?"
"That’s the thing of it. He came by the day before he was killed at his coffee house. He said he dropped by to ask for forgiveness of me and handed me a check. It was the first time in a long time that he had been in this house."
I sat up straight and asked her what she had to forgive him for.
"That’s just it. I had no idea why he was asking my forgiveness. I think he was still crushed to the bone that he wasn’t there to save John. The paramedics did all they could but it was too late. He was in the campaign office alone at the time. Maybe Michael felt responsible for not being there." She took a deep breath and I waited.
"I believe James found him and called 911 that day," she said. "I believe that’s what I was told, but later one of the policemen told me he thought a woman in the office found him. Or it may have been Michael who told me that. I never questioned it since John’s sudden death hit me so hard. At the time, I didn’t really care who found him."
I made a mental note about who may have found John the day he died. That was something to ask Daniel about.
"Was the check a big one?" I asked.
"It was a good amount and I tried to give it back to him but he refused to take it back. Honestly, I thought his days of giving money to others had long passed. I knew he had become a bitter man about so many things. I was sorry to see the change in him. I kept the check and donated it to the Asthma Awareness Group in his name."
"That was very generous of you."
"I will always remember the good in Michael. His bitterness caused him to stay aloof from everyone who crossed his path. Both Simms boys were good at heart but I feel strongly that John’s death affected Michael in a way no one could understand." She smiled and looked me in the eye. "You know those two brothers were opposites. They both had Alpha personalities but they were very different from one another."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Michael pretended that he was apathetic toward people, but he had true empathy for others not as fortunate as he was. He had a hard time attaching himself to any one person though except for John. Their friendship endured."
"What about James? What is he like?" I asked.
She shook her head and breathed deeply. "I haven’t seen James face to face for a long time. He seemed filled with anger most of the time. Somehow this trait allowed him to control others. He is a person who likes to show his power over other people. His constituents don’t always see the real Senator, you know."