Uncover Persona - Chapter 11

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Emily set her purse down on the counter. She went to the table in the breakfast nook and flopped down in a chair. "God, I'm so glad that is over with," she said.

"Me too," Sonja agreed.

Ashley, Kim, and Mario joined Emily at the table. Fernando took a seat at the bar in the kitchen. Sonja took out the pitcher of margaritas she had made before they left to go to the funeral home.

Fernando hopped up and helped her get glasses down for everyone. He handed out drinks as Sonja poured them.

"Oh my God, this is just what I need," Emily said, taking a deep drink of the cool beverage.

"Now what?" Kim asked.

Emily shook her head. "I'm not sure. I checked the bank accounts, and there's enough money to make the bills for several months. We both had life insurance policies, so I guess I'll talk to our agent about getting that filed." She took another drink of her margarita. "I guess I need to go over the security of the property too. It's a little unnerving that someone walked into my backyard and killed my husband."

"Yeah, but that was not a random act, nor was it a regular murder," Ashley said. "Kenton had pissed someone off enough for them to come here and kill him."

"Yeah, but why just hit him in the head?" Emily said. "If you were going to kill him, wouldn't you shoot him, stab him, or hit him in the head with something hard enough to kill him to start with?"

"That's what I'm saying," Kim agreed. "If I were going to kill someone, I would want to make sure they were going to die right away, especially a good-sized man like Kenton. I definitely wouldn't want just to hit him hard enough to piss him off and wait for his reaction."

"True," Mario said. "Even as a man, if I were going to kill him, if I were going to do it with my bare hands, I wouldn't hit him just once and let him fall forward. I'd have hit him a couple of times and then held him down in the pool. I wouldn't have taken a chance on him coming to and getting himself out of the pool."

"I'm with Mario on that," said Fernando. "And trust me, there've been more than a few times over the years that I've wanted to kill him." He looked at Emily, "Especially over the way he treated you."

Emily got up and hugged Fernando. "I love you guys," she said, looking over the bar at Sonja. "I really don't think I would have lasted six years with him if it hadn't been for you two."

"Why did you stay with him?" Ashley asked. "I can't even believe you got with him in the first place. He was not even your type."

"I know," Emily said. "He was just so charming and so handsome. I couldn't believe he had picked me to marry over all the women he had been dating. I wasn't a big partier, and I've always been a bit shy. I really thought he had fallen in love with me. And for the first few years, it was really nice. I traveled with him and went to a lot of his functions. Neither one of us wanted children right away, but then he said he couldn't have any. I wasn't really all that disappointed, especially after talking to a few of the other wives who did have kids."

"Why did you stay after you started realizing that you weren't that in love with each other anymore?" Kim asked.

"I thought I was still in love with him, but I guess as we started spending less and less time together, I realized that I wasn't really in love with him because I didn't miss him. But I had become lazy."

"Lazy?" Sonja said, "You worked around this place all the time. You were constantly redesigning the gardens and planning meals around his parties. You are not lazy."

"I mean, it just became so easy living here and playing in the gardens that I wasn't interested in doing anything else. I was lonely sometimes, but I hadn't met anyone that interested me," she looked at Mario and grinned. "And I didn't have to worry about money, so instead of thinking about having a career or something of my own, I just made myself available for Kenton whenever he was around and lived the easy life of the housewife with a housekeeper and a gardener. It's a wonder I'm not hooked on daytime talk shows."

Kim nodded. "I could see that. Even though you weren't in love with him, he hadn't done anything to make you hate him. You didn't have to work if you didn't want to, so why rock the boat?"

"Exactly," Emily said. "I hadn't really liked my job as an administrative assistant, but that was what I went to school for. It was what I thought I wanted to do. But, after I got married, I thought, why to go out and get a job when my husband preferred me at home. We didn't need my income, and, like you said, he hadn't done anything to make me hate him until these past few months. When he started getting weird and kinky with the sex, that's when I really started questioning what was going on with him and what was going on with us. It hadn't been bad enough to think about leaving until the last time. And that time, he was a completely different person, like a demon." She shivered at the thought.

"What about Damon?" Ashley asked. "I've worked with him for months now, and I would never have guessed he was having an affair with Kenton. Sure they did lots of stuff together, but they never struck me like lovers."

"Clearly, they had to hide it," Kim said. "Based on how homophobic you said Walter Chase is. They could never let him suspect that they were sleeping together."

"True," Ashley agreed.

"I'm not really all that surprised about Damon being bisexual or even gay," Emily said. "He was a little feminine when we were growing up. But, his father was a very manly man. You know a 'Me, Tarzan: You, Jane' kind of guy."

"Yeah, I've met his dad," Ashley agreed, "A real charmer, that one." She rolled her eyes.

Emily nodded. "There is no way Damon could have ever come out as gay or bisexual. His dad would have killed him. That's probably why he decided to get married so young. And honestly, I don't think he married Carol because he loved her; I think he married her because her parents have money."

"I bet Carol was beyond pissed when she found out what was going on between Damon and Kenton," Mario said. "I've only met her a few times, but she seemed very insecure because of Damon not wanting her anymore. I bet she flipped out when Kenton told her Damon was sleeping with him."

"I wonder if she really believed him," Fernando said. Everyone at the table turned to the usually quiet man. "Think about it," he said. "You've been married to this man for years and think he's having affairs with women. Suddenly, he comes home and accuses you of having an affair with his friend. She denies it and says that she heard he was having an affair with the same friend. He either tells her that it was a bunch of crap and just Kenton trying to mess with him, or they both say that yes, they did have sex with Kenton, but it was a one-time thing."

"And then they have make-up sex so he can prove he's not gay, but he's all pissed off because his supposed best friend did this to him," Ashley said.

"Right, and then he comes here to confront the best friend and punches him in the head causing him to fall into the chair and into the water, but rushes off before he realizes that Kenton is completely unconscious and can't save himself," Emily said.

"That is a very good theory," Ashley said. "I'm sure it's one the police are pursuing. But if that is true, why not just admit it? Why are Carol and Damon covering for each other? We know that Damon was at Twister with Kenton that night. And another thing I don't get is Damon's strange behavior at the funeral."

"Yeah, and going ahead and going to the marathon in Louisville," Kim said. "Who does that when your best friend and lover has just been killed?"

"Well," Mario said, "If he wants to throw the police off, then that would be the thing to do. He and his wife made up, or so she thinks, and so she'll be his alibi, and then he acts like he's going about business as usual because of his friend, who had screwed over both him and his wife, deserved to die."

"But wouldn't you think his coldness would make the police suspect him even more?" Kim asked.

"Maybe, but if he acts too remorseful, they may think it's a sign of guilt, too. Either way, he looks like the most likely candidate for the murder," Ashley said. "I mean, I like Damon a lot. He's a really nice guy, but my money is on him for this. He has all the reasons and the opportunity. And, I'm with Emily; he probably clocked him and then walked away."

"But why wouldn't he just admit that if he didn't mean to kill him?" Sonja asked.

"Because it's still manslaughter, and he'd be looking at a very long time in jail," Ashley said. "Right now, they have no evidence whatsoever to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Damon did it, and he knows it. He's a lawyer. He knows they have to be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he did this."

"So the police's hands are tied unless they come up with some concrete evidence?" Kim asked.

"Yep, I'm afraid so."

"I don't know," Emily said. "Like you said, Damon is the most likely person to have done this. But he is a nice guy, and I think he got drawn into Kenton's games. I've known Damon all my life, and honestly, I just can't believe Damon would kill Kenton."

Fernando said, "If he's doing some of those wacky drugs like meth or crack, those change people." He pointed at Mario, "Remember your second cousin, Raymon Osborne. He got on that stuff and killed his whole family in Mexico over money. He wanted money to buy more drugs, and his father told him he wouldn't give him the money. He shot everyone in the house, and when the police caught him the next day, he acted like he hadn't done anything wrong."

Mario nodded, "That's true."

Emily sighed and drank more of her margarita. "I don't know. We might even be way off track. It might be someone involved with that land deal in eastern Tennessee. Didn't you say there were a few real whack jobs over there that had threatened to blow the company up?" she asked Ashley.

"Yeah, but I don't think those guys would have killed Kenton like this. They would have caught him out somewhere else and shot him, or beat him to death. It would not have looked like an accident."

Sighing again, Emily motioned for more margarita. "I know that it's going to hit me hard at some point that Kenton is really gone, but right now, I honestly don't miss him."

"I'll drink to that," Sonja said, raising her glass and touching Emily's. "He paid us well, but I don't think we would have stayed as long as we have if you hadn't been here."

Fernando nodded. "He was not pleasant to work for even if the pay was good. But once you came, working here became a good thing."

Emily got up and hugged them both. "How about we don't talk about this anymore tonight? Let's eat, drink, and be merry. Tomorrow will bring what tomorrow will bring."

"I'll drink to that," Mario said.

"Us too," Kim and Ashley said.

They all touched glasses and drank their margaritas. No one ventured out to the patio or even into the family room that led to the patio. They stayed in the kitchen eating and drinking until it was time to go to bed. Emily gave her bedroom to Kim and Ashley and went into the guest room.

Mario stood at the door. He leaned against the casing with his arms folded over his chest. "Did you two always have separate rooms?"

"No, Kenton was so funny about his stuff being just so that by the second year we were married, I had moved all my stuff to the guest room so I wouldn't have to hear about my stuff being in the way of his stuff."

He moved further into the room until he was standing behind her as she pulled down the sheets. "You know, you would never have to worry about that with me. I would let you put your stuff anywhere you wanted to."

Emily caught her breath and closed her eyes. His breath on her neck sent chills down her spine. She turned to face him. "Anywhere I want, huh?"

"Yes," he said, his dark eyes penetrating hers.

She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips. He let out a deep moan and pulled her into him for a deep kiss.

"I want to be with you," Emily said when she pulled away. "But not tonight, not on the day I buried my husband."

He held her to him and kissed the top of her head. "I understand. I'm going to sleep downstairs on the couch."

"Okay," she said.

He kissed her lightly on the lips. "We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

She nodded and watched him leave the room. She sat down on the bed with a sigh. Life had changed so much in a very short period of time. What tomorrow held was very uncertain, but she knew she wasn't going to have to face it alone, which brought a smile to her face.