Murder in the Rue Ursulines

“I’m just trying to find her.” I replied. “Do you know how I can get hold of her?”

“I haven’t talked to her in years, and good riddance, thank you very much.” She sighed.

“Mrs. Zorn-”

“What has she done now?” The voice was resigned. “I can’t say as I’m surprised to hear she’s done something else. Lord, what a trial that child has been to me, she’s been nothing but trouble since the day I got pregnant.” She gave a great heaving sigh. “Them pro-life people can carry all the signs they want to, and I know it’s a sin and murder and all, but I should’ve had an abortion, is what I should have done. If I knew then what I know now…”

Whoa. “Mrs. Zorn-“

“You know, I got pregnant when I was in high school.” She went on as though I hadn’t said a word. I got the feeling she’d just been waiting for an audience to come along. Now that she had one, she was going to cut loose and let it all hang out. “Her daddy didn’t want to marry me, of course, but his daddy and my daddy made him do the right thing by me. And back then I thought abortion was murder, the nuns said so and the nuns were supposed to know, so I had that damned baby. Talk about being punished for your sins for the rest of your life! The marriage was a mistake-he made it clear he thought I got pregnant just so he’d have to marry me. Wasn’t that a nice thing to say to me? His wife? The mother of his child? And then he went and got himself killed in a car accident.” She made it sound as if he’d done it deliberately, to punish her. “So, what has she done now? Something terrible, I’ll bet. I was probably too easy on her. I should have beaten some sense into that girl. I don’t care what Father Manion said, it says right there in the Bible you spare the rod you spoil the child.”

Oh my God, what a horrible woman. I broke into her tirade. “I’m, um, actually just looking for some background information-“

“Well, what do you want to know? Speak up. You want to know what she was like? She was a horrible child, always causing trouble. She cried all night when she was a baby. I used to pray for guidance, for some relief, but no, she would just scream and scream and scream.” She sounded aggrieved, like the baby had done it just to spite her. “And it didn’t change as she got older, you know. She was always a handful. Always into everything, always getting in trouble-and if she didn’t get her way, she would just scream and throw a tantrum, no matter how hard I spanked her. I could never believe a word that came out of her mouth. She lies as easily as she breathes. She believes her lies, even when you catch her at them, catch her red-handed, she’ll look you right in the face and lie to you all over again. Like that time she claimed she was raped.”

“I beg pardon?” My mind was reeling. This woman should have never been allowed to have a child. My sympathy for Karen was growing.

“I said, like the time she claimed she was raped.” Irene went on, her tone making it clear she thought I was an idiot. “I broke my butt working two jobs to pay for her to go to the college over in Emporia. She wanted to go to college, of course-getting a job and working hard wasn’t good enough for her, you know, even though she wasn’t a good student-she never was much good at anything, to tell the truth, wouldn’t even do her chores around the house, to help me out so I could come home from work and just relax, you know? I worked hard. And she could just drive there-even though the car I got her of course wasn’t good enough for her- and live at home to save money, so of course I sent her to Emporia State.” Her voice clearly showed she thought I was an idiot. “It’s only about ten miles down the road. But that wasn’t even good enough for the ungrateful little bitch.” She let out a heavy sigh. “And then after she was caught in her lies there, she dropped out and went to work. Wasted all that money, and you think she offered to pay me back? Of course not, not Little Miss It’s-All-About-Me.”

I interrupted her, before she launched into another tirade. “You said she claimed she was raped?”

“Yes, I said it twice, I believe. Aren’t you listening to me?” Her voice rose in agitation. “She went to some damn fool fraternity party. I told her and told her, those fraternity boys are nothing but trouble, everybody knows that. Find some nice Catholic boy, I told her, but oh, no! She couldn’t be bothered with a nice boy. Probably had some damned fool idea one of them rich boys would marry her. Huh. There’s only one thing rich boys want from girls like Karen, and it isn’t to marry them, I can tell you that.” She paused for a moment, and I could hear her breathing into the phone. I was about to ask another question when she started talking again.

“The Sigma Pis, I think it was. She came home early one morning and told me someone drugged her at a party and some boy raped her in his room while some other boys watched! How my heart broke for my poor baby! I was furious. So Monday morning, I marched right into that dean’s office and filed a complaint. Had to take the day off from work, and for what? More of her lies. Turns out she’d been stalking the boy, telling people they were in love, and threw herself at him at the party. There were witnesses. And not just the boys, either. Some of the girls at the party said so, too. Everything she’d said to me was a lie. That boy just didn’t want her, and she wanted to make trouble for him. I have never been so embarrassed in my life. Turned out she was doing all these things for him-and sleeping with him, and she made up her mind that he loved her and was going to marry her-and it was all in her head.” She snorted. “If only she hadn’t been too old to spank!

“The dean threatened to expel her…I lost a day’s work so I could go be humiliated. That was when I was done with her, you know. I told her to pack her stuff and get out of my house. And do you think she was even sorry? She wasn’t.” She sighed. “I’ll carry that boy’s name with me to the grave. It was Ricky-Ricky Osborne.” She made another noise. “I think he was from Newton? Such a nice, handsome boy he was. Very respectful to me, and apologetic. And once he got those braces off his teeth, he’d be a real lady-killer. I suppose that’s why Karen tried what she did.”

“Thank you, Ms Zorn, you’ve been very helpful. Do you have a picture of Karen you can fax or e-mail to me?” I crossed my fingers.

“I don’t have a fax machine and I don’t have a computer.” She whined. “I guess I could have my brother do it. Where should I send it to?”

I gave her both my e-mail address and my fax number.

“If you see her you tell her to call her mother. I haven’t talked to her in at least ten years, and my health isn’t good.” She whined. “I’m ready to let bygones be bygones.

“I’ll do that. Thank you, Mrs. Zorn.” I hung up the phone.

I went to a search engine for private eyes, and typed in KAREN ZORN, OLPE KANSAS, and the year of her birth. My phone rang as I waited for the results to come up. It was Paige. I flipped it open. “Hey, Paige, you’re not going to believe…”

“I just quit my job.” She interrupted me. Her voice was shaking. “That fucking bitch Coralie…”

“What the hell happened?” I didn’t know what to say. Paige loved her job.

“She killed my story, that’s what. That has never happened to me once in all the years I have worked at that fucking newspaper. And when I asked her why, she told me that it wasn’t in the quote paper’s best interests to run a story so critical of Frillian unquote. I told her to shove Frillian up her ass, and then I quit.” She sighed. “It was a matter of time, really, and better to quit now than keep being driven insane by her incompetence.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Crescent City magazine offered me their editor-in-chief position earlier this week.” She exhaled. “I told them I’d think about it-thank God I didn’t just say no. Anyway, how did things go with the trainer?”

I filled her in on everything I’d uncovered thus far, and when I finished, she said grimly, “So our Freddy is a rapist? Can’t wait for that bitch Coralie to find out about that.”

“Accused rapist.” I corrected her. “And possibly a murderer, to boot.”

“Well, I didn’t get anything of use out of either the maid or the massage therapist.” She replied. “They liked Glynis, thought she was really nice, blah blah blah. They didn’t much care for Rosemary, though. There was nothing specific, really, they just didn’t like her. What’s next?”

“Well, I’m waiting to see if Loren calls me back.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Chanse.” She warned. “You should give all of this to Venus and Blaine and let them handle it. Don’t go meet with Frillian. They’re dangerous, obviously.”

“Okay.” I said noncommittally. “What’s next for you?”

“I’m going to go interview Rosemary, I think.”

“Okay, well call me when you’re finished. I’m curious to know what you think of her.”

“All right, later.” She hung up.

I turned back to my computer. The information on Karen Zorn had finished loading. She’d been listed at her mother’s address until she got an apartment in Emporia-right around the time of the rape accusation. Well, that