Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Tru returned to Harry. “Your working theory?”
“With the persistent issues that have been happening at the lake, we’ve reopened the case on your mother’s and father’s murders. We’d just begun reinvestigating, but I’ll share, we had some concerns with the veracity of your uncle’s confession,” Harry informed him.
“Seems you’re a lot sharper tack than the imbecile who used to have your job,” Tru remarked.
Harry just dipped his head at the understatement.
“You probably want to know from the start,” Tru announced.
“If it’ll fill in the whole picture,” Harry replied. “Yes. Please.”
And that was when Tru put the puzzle pieces in place for all of them.
“As you now know, my dad was Roosevelt. He was also my sister’s, Kennedy.”
So Cade got one thing wrong.
No one was perfect.
Tru kept going.
“Jeff was Lincoln’s. They were…” He shook his head. “There really isn’t anything in normal society to explain what my parents were. Dad loved Mom, and they were committed to each other. Lincoln loved Mom, and they were legally married, but also committed to each other. Obviously, I’ve thought about it over the years, especially recently, since I’ve asked a woman to be my wife, and did it knowing I’d lose my mind if another man touched her, or she touched another man.”
Regardless he had little affect, at hearing that, Riggs was leaning toward liking this guy.
“Maybe it was because they were twins,” Tru kept on. “But they were two very different men. I just know, there was never any issue with both of them being with Mom.” He shrugged. “That isn’t to say there weren’t arguments, disagreements. They each had their own partnership with Mom. I’m engaged. I’ve had other relationships. That happens with a partner. It happens between siblings. But it was never anything big. As much as no one will get it, and we were all very aware no one would get it, primarily Mom’s parents taught us that, thus we kept it a secret, but it worked. We were a happy family.”
“So your maternal grandparents knew of this situation?” Harry queried.
Tru shook his head. “No. But they guessed. They called Dad and Lincoln unnatural. Said they’d made Mom the same. Sinful. Filthy. I’m sure there are pious people who are quiet about their faith who are good people. The ones who are the loudest, though, usually are not.”
Riggs couldn’t disagree.
“They had an arrangement,” Tru shared. “Lincoln had Mom in Seattle. She was with Dad when we were here. Lincoln had to come with her most of the time so it wouldn’t seem weird, so no one would notice. But he gave them their privacy when they were here. Even when us kids were. He had that in Seattle. Dad had it at the lake.”
And there was the explanation of why he’d built his house as he did, not to mention why Lincoln and Sarah spent six months a year in Seattle.
“The reason why your brother and sister contend she liked to spend more time with Roosevelt,” Harry remarked.
Tru nodded. “They were doing what Lincoln told them to do, though. So was I. Giving him motive.”
And there it was.
Lincoln didn’t pull the trigger.
Rus glanced at Riggs.
Riggs cocked his head to the side.
“So Lincoln was okay that your mom was with your dad when he was at your house on that lake?” Harry asked.
“Yes,” Tru answered. “It’s how it was. It’s how they worked it. It’s how they shared. Mom was all about making sure neither of them, nor any of us kids, felt like she had favorites. She knocked herself out to do that. She was the one who asked Lincoln to figure out how to make our dining room have a circular table in the big house, because we always had dinner together when we were at the lake, and she didn’t want Dad or Lincoln to have to give up the head of the table.”
That explained his dining room.
And maybe, if Lincoln thought like Riggs did, when he sometimes used movement in design to communicate emotion, that explained the circling back on itself of the winding staircases.
Sarah wound her way to and from each of them in a continuous cycle, always circling back to one after returning from the other.
Tru carried on sharing.
“She even wanted to have another baby, because Dad had two, and Linc only had one. She got pregnant after Jeff, twice. Miscarried both, the second baby deep into her second trimester. Losing him so late, it destroyed her. Her going through that, it wrecked Dad and Linc. She was so into making sure it was all equal between all of us, she wouldn’t hear of not trying again. So Dad and Linc both got vasectomies.”
A ghost of a fond, sad smile hit his lips, the first indication of any emotion from the guy.
“When she found out they did, it wasn’t an argument or a disagreement. That caused a fight. But it was two against one. She was outnumbered,” he said quietly.