The Mulberry Tree

“Yes, that would be like Luke,” Martha said, watching Bailey as she struggled with this news. “I told him he should treat you like an adult, and you two should go through the adoption together, but Luke said, ‘Frecks is too sentimental. She’d want to adopt a whole orphanage full of misfits. But I’m too selfish to stand more than one of them taking her time away from me, so I’m going to get her a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl.’ ”

“That sounds just like him,” Bailey said, blinking back tears. For months now she’d been carrying the burden that maybe Jimmie had been so despondent about her asking for a divorce that he had committed suicide.

“Feel better now?” Martha asked.

Bailey was too choked to answer, but she nodded vigorously. Yes, she felt better. She felt relieved of the heaviest burden she’d ever carried.

Martha motioned to Matt to hand Bailey a tissue from the box (elegantly covered in bird’s-eye maple inlaid with walnut) on the table.

Bailey took the tissue and blew her nose. “Then it really was an accident.”

“Oh, no,” Martha said. “Eva and Ralph Turnbull killed Luke.”

Bailey halted, the tissue halfway to her nose, and Martha looked from Bailey to Matt.

“Atlanta and Ray?” Matt asked.

“That’s what they call themselves now, but they’re still Eva and Ralph.”

“Turnbull,” Matt said. “Not Manville and not McCallum.”

“Heavens no!” Martha said. “Those two murderers are no kin to me or my son—and they were never related to Luke.”

It took Matt and Bailey a moment to digest what she was saying.

“Phillip said he didn’t think Atlanta and Ray were related to Jimmie.”

“Blackmail?” Matt asked.

“Yes. Blackmail. If Luke didn’t claim them as kin and give them millions, they said they’d tell the world about his childhood in Calburn. And if people learned of Luke’s early life, he might receive what he most dreaded.” She looked to Bailey to supply the answer to that riddle.

“Pity,” Bailey said. “Jimmie couldn’t bear for anyone to feel sorry for him.”

“Right.”

“There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Matt said. “Bailey told me about a ‘murder called suicide.’ Was he referring to his father’s death?”

For a moment, Martha turned and looked out the window, then she looked back at Bailey. “I don’t know if I should tell the story or not. Part of me wants to let the secrets die with Luke. He worked so hard and paid so much to keep his childhood from the world.” For a moment she was quiet as she blinked back tears. “When I heard of Luke’s death on TV—no one called and told me, because no one knew about me—I knew they had killed him. Luke made a lot of people angry.”

“Yes,” Bailey said. “I warned him about that. He sometimes cut people to the quick.”

“But then Luke had been cut so many times that it was all he knew,” Martha said. “Eva and Ralph found it easy to bribe someone who worked for Luke to tell them what he was doing. When they found out that Luke was about to adopt a child, they couldn’t allow that, now could they?”

“An heir,” Matt said.

“Right.” She looked at Bailey. “Your sister found out at your mother’s funeral that you didn’t know Luke had obtained your mother’s permission to marry. And Dolores knew that if you didn’t know about the paper, then you thought you and Luke weren’t really married. Shame on you!” Martha said. “How could you believe that someone like Luke would have overlooked something as important as that?”

“When I was married to Jimmie, I didn’t think about legalities much,” Bailey said in her own defense.

“So Atlanta and Ray and Dolores worked together?” Matt asked.

“No, I don’t think Dolores was any match for those two, but Dolores had a big mouth. Sorry, dear, but all one had to do was get her to talking about her younger sister, and Dolores told anyone anything.”

“She told Alex about the signed permission after knowing him only a day,” Matt said.

“Yes, and it cost her her life,” Martha said.

“Atlanta and Ray do it?” Matt asked.