CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Worth
When I ushered Mother into the condo, Auggie’s face lit up. “Hello!” she called out and came forward.
Mother’s face lit equally when she saw Auggie’s shape. “Worth! I didn’t know!” she exclaimed and hugged us both. “When is it due?” she asked, reaching out to touch Auggie’s blossoming tummy.
“About Christmas,” Auggie answered. She looked to me for an explanation.
“Mother will be staying with us for a bit. I’d like her to get to know you and it won’t hurt for you to not be alone so much,” I said and Auggie nodded and smiled in total approval.
“Auggie, I never had the chance to welcome you to the family. Well, such as it is,” she said, looking to Worth for approval.
“It’s fine, Mother. We know you have no part in this,” I assured her.
“Good. Auggie, will you call me Margaret?” She hugged Auggie again, for good measure.
“May I get you something, Margaret?” Auggie confirmed the gesture.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a cup of tea, would you? I’m chilled to the bone and although it’s probably not due entirely to the cold, Halloween is tomorrow, isn’t it?”
“Come in the kitchen and let’s talk while I brew it,” Auggie invited. “After all, it is the time of year for a good brew,” she joked.
My mother was enchanted with the condo. I could tell she liked it by the way she lingered in each room as we took her on tour, touching the carved trims and the marble baths. While her own home at the farm was quite comfortable, it was dated in the old money sort of way and I knew she missed having something new and open to her personal sense of design. The farm where she and Father lived had been in the family for generations. There was nothing new about it at all.
I was feeling rather satisfied with myself. Timing this morning had seemed so without options and now here I was, a solution on the table and the people I loved the most under my own roof. It was a contentment I’d never experienced and I thought about the children Auggie and I would be having and how our family would grow. My guiding motivation would be to never be anything like my father. He was the antithesis of a good parent, an abomination as a husband and a cunning and vile wolf when it came to being a human being in general.
We sat up and talked long into the night and I finally gave up, citing a need to get to the office early. Auggie climbed into the bed beside me. “I really like her,” she whispered, then turned, backed her bottom into me and fell promptly asleep. I lay there hard and wanting her for a very long time, the skin of her bottom caressing my throbbing penis. I didn’t have the heart to disturb her so I realized I would have to get accustomed to the yearning, for a few months at least.
I fell asleep peacefully.
***
The next morning, I rose early, patted Auggie on the bottom and left for the clinic. I had a first-thing patient but when we were finished, I checked with Patsy and she told me what I had hoped I would hear. Deborah Hunt had called to say she wouldn’t be in again and to transfer her patients to my workload. I sighed with relief internally, despite the extra work I didn’t really need right now. It was a white flag of surrender. The bitch was gone. I had won.
It was Halloween and leaves were blowing across the parking lot. Kids in costumes were going to the various stores that displayed signs offering treats. The sun was shining and the colors were splendid in their presentation. There was a festive atmosphere in the air and the juice bar was offering a selection of themed drinks based on apple cider.
I was in a jubilant mood and two of my clients had canceled for the end of the afternoon which gave me an early day after all. I was about to call Auggie and ask that she bring Mother in and the three of us would go to dinner when Patsy came up to me, her face solemn.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s someone out here to see you, Worth, and I don’t think it’s good news.”
She never called me by my first name at the office so I knew this was not going to be something I would find pleasant.
He was dressed in a police uniform and his face was grave. I felt my heart racing, unsure whether he’d come to arrest me for some trumped up charge by my father or perhaps to serve papers for Jervis. It was neither.
“May we,” he said, motioning to my office and I nodded, taking him inside. I took my seat behind my desk and he sat opposite me.
“Dr. LaViere, when was the last time you saw your father?”
“Why, what’s he done now?” I asked, perturbed that the old man was not yet finished with me.
“Could you answer the question, Dr. LaViere?”
My mind raced, looking for an angle and deciding whether I should play my ace in the hole. After all, the law was sitting in front of me.
“I saw him last night. We talked and then I brought my mother home with me for a few days for a visit.”
“Everything was fine with him then, sir?” he asked. This wasn’t about what I thought, clearly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m sorry to tell you, Dr. LaViere, that your father was discovered late this morning by someone who works at the house. He’s dead, apparently from a gunshot wound to the head.”