Holmes spoke at last. “Ask him about thepictures.”
I complied. “We found a picture in yourbackpack as well as a newspaper clipping about a young woman whosebody was found in a well near Chicago. It’s the same woman, isn’tit?”
Tessa jumped in. “She was your sister, wasn’tshe?” Tessa had pulled out the notepad, which now containedscribbles that resembled the Gregg shorthand she’d learned in highschool and once explained to me.
Parton frowned. “Yeah. How did you find thatout?”
“At the library,” Tessa said.
I took over. “The San Francisco librarycarries copies of the Chicago Tribune, and we not only foundan article like the one you tore out, but a follow-up article withanother picture of the woman and her name. By that time we knewyour name was Parton, so it wasn’t a big stretch to figure outAdele Parton Andrews might be your sister and that she might havebeen married to Andrews.”
Parton lowered his head and wiped his cheekwith his arm, as if hiding tears. “Yeah.”
After more silence, while I let him recover,I went on. “The picture we saw in your backpack is very similar tothe one the newspaper printed the next day and identified as thewoman found in the well. In both photos she’s wearing a veryunusual necklace that Holmes...that is, we... think is made ofamber and resembles a curled-up sleeping cat.”
Parton glanced over at me and a tiny smilelifted his lips for a second. “How did you get hold of it?”
Since we didn’t, I couldn’t answer that, so Ihedged. “We just want the facts. We know now that Andrews diedbecause of his fall on the marble fender. In fact, Tessa got bloodon her skirt from that same place. And we know you shot at him,even though the bullet went wild. What we don’t know is why youwanted to kill him.”
Parton took a deep breath and looked up atme. “I’ll tell you why, and then I’m leaving.”
“No problem,” Watson said.
I looked at the others and saw them noddingtheir heads.
Parton took another breath. “Okay, but it’s along story.”
Holmes rose from his position by the tableand advanced to the sofa. He sat at one end, leaned his headagainst the back rest and closed his eyes. However, he managed tospeak to me.
“So long as Istill have time to watch Pygmalion before I retire atmidnight. I saw Mr. Shaw’s play in London and am overjoyed to knowit has been made into a film.” He grinned.
Chapter 10
Parton stared at his hands in his lap for afew moments before beginning. “As I said when I came in, my name isParton. It’s Lawrence Parton and Adele was my sister, my twinsister, actually.
“As you can imagine, we were very closephysically and emotionally. Our relationship became even morepronounced for two reasons. First, our parents had no morechildren, and, second, our mother died when we were only five yearsold. Our father, we were told later, suffered from grief, became analcoholic and could no longer take care of us.
“One aunt, who had never married, took usinto her home in a suburb of Chicago where we lived until we wereeighteen. Aunt Emily was kind enough but had no parenting skills,and we were as happy to leave as she was to see us go.
“We wanted to go to college so we found onewe both liked, but I won’t tell you which one, and got an apartmentoff campus so we could be together.”
Watson had begun to roll his eyes, and Isuspected he thought something incestuous went on. Parton squashedthat idea right away.
“Our mother had taken out an insurance policyand the money stretched enough to cover living expenses, plus weboth got scholarships and part-time jobs. We liked being togetherand Adele and I took turns cooking and cleaning up. She found aboyfriend very soon, and I had my pick of pretty girls for Saturdaynight dates.” He paused and shook his head, as if remembering.
“That lasted the whole year, and then I gotthe stupid idea of joining the Army Rangers.”
“Doesn’t sound stupid to me,” Watsonsaid.
“I didn’t think so at the time, but if Ihadn’t done that, Adele might be alive today.” He wiped a tear fromhis face before continuing.
“You see, I did it for the wrong reasons.Guys always teased me about living with my sister. Made me feellike some kind of sissy. But Adele okayed anything I wanted to do,and she had a great boyfriend I thought I could trust to take careof her. So I signed up and went to Georgia for training. Theydidn’t let me come home very often, and we couldn’t afford flightsback and forth to visit.”
He paused again and I poured a glass of waterfor him from the pitcher I had placed on the table earlier.
“Then Adele’s boyfriend got a footballscholarship to a really good college and left town.”
“Did Adele find another boyfriend?” Tessaasked.
“Yeah, you guessed it, but not right away.She just worked and studied and went to school for the next twoyears. She adopted a kitten from the humane society so she wouldn’tbe so lonely, and that Christmas I sent her the necklace with theamber pendant that resembled a cat. She said she loved it and woreit all the time.” He looked around at us. “You can see why I’d liketo have it back.”
I confess I found tears filling my eyes andwished we really had the necklace so we could give it to him.
“After I was sent to Iraq, Adele finally metsomeone else. She told me all about him in the e-mails she sent orwhen we could talk on the phone.”
“That was Andrews?” Watson asked.
“Right, Gerard Andrews. He seemed really goodto Adele at first and wanted to marry her right away, but I askedher to wait until I could come home and meet the guy.” He took along gulp of water. “He had learned how to be a magician and wantedthem to go on the entertainment circuit together. She would be hisassistant. You know, the pretty girl who hands the magician thingsand gets sawn in half, or seems to.”
“So did she do that?” Tessa
