Due Justice

Chapter 20

Tampa, Florida

Wednesday 3:15 p.m.

January 20, 1999

George glared her into silence just as Dr. Carolyn Young walked by us. She was dressed head to toe in black and had a veil over her face. She walked up to the closed casket and knelt in front of it. From the back I could see her shoulders shaking. She stayed there so long one of the ushers went up to her and helped her to a seat in the front pew--the one usually reserved for family--which was empty.

It seemed all of Tampa society filled Sacred Heart Church for the occasion. Cilla and O’Connell Worthington were there, Fred Johnson, Christian Grover, Sheldon and Victoria Warwick, even Kate. Probably the first time that many Tampa WASPs had gathered in a Catholic Church since the mayor remarried ten years ago.

The priest who delivered the glowing eulogy was a young man who obviously hadn’t known Dr. Morgan. If he knew anything about Morgan’s less illustrious accomplishments, he refrained from mentioning them.

After the service, I watched a small group gathered outside around Carolyn Young at the bottom of the steps. “You’d think she was the only woman he ever screwed,” Dr. Aymes said with disgust, “instead of just the last one.”

“Carolyn Young and Michael Morgan were having an affair when he died?”  I felt like the dim-witted straight man in a comedy team. Things everyone else took for granted kept coming as revelations to me. I took solace in the rumor that Tommy Smothers was the smart one.

“Willa, you’ve got to get out more.  Carolyn Young was in love with him for years. Their affair was current, but her lust wasn’t. In the old days, you had to stand in line to screw Michael Morgan. I’ll bet he slept with every woman in that church.”  Dr. Aymes turned to look first straight at Kate and then pointedly toward Cilla Worthington.

Cilla hadn’t heard the comment, and Kate returned Dr. Aymes’ stare, although she blushed deep crimson. Then Kate looked away while Aymes was still staring at her.

“You’re just trying to make me jealous, Marilee,” George, ever the gentleman, said as he took first Kate’s arm and then mine. He started down the steps, pulling us along. “But it’s much too pretty a day to dwell on it.”  We dropped Kate off at home and then went back to Minaret.

Later in the day, I was in the den when I heard voices. I recognized George and I thought I recognized Chief Hathaway with him. I folded up the newspapers and turned on the television.

George and Ben came into the room and Ben seemed less angry with me than the last time I’d seen him. After asking me how I was feeling, Ben sat down in the same chair he’d taken last time and George offered to get us both some fresh coffee, leaving the two of us alone in the living room. Now, wasn’t that convenient?

“I’ll come right to the point. Someone trashed both Dr. Morgan’s and Carly Austin’s apartment, in the same way, obviously looking for the same thing. I don’t think they found it. Dr. Morgan is dead, but Carly Austin isn’t, which is not to say she won’t be if I don’t find her before the killer does. If you have any idea where she is, you need to let me know that so that I can keep her from getting killed.”  He spoke calmly, rationally, but not convincingly.

I looked at Hathaway closely. He’s probably been a cop too long to betray his true intentions, and I wasn’t at all sure whether I believed he was trying to help Carly or arrest her. I knew he was waiting for my analysis to conclude that even if he arrested her, she’d be better off than if her pursuer found her first. The wheels in my head were still turning, albeit slowly. Maybe I would live after all.