Page 21 of Lorna's Savior
Annie looked at the others. She seemed to be the one in charge, so he waited for her to begin. “First, Kristen has been gone for three months, well, one month now, or a little over one. She went on a cruise. We’ve only come in today to make sure everything is okay. After we leave here, we won’t be back.”
“You’re quitting?”
“Yes. I can’t speak for Lori or Murphy, but I only stayed here on account of Miss Lorna.”
“Us too,” Lori spoke for her and Murphy. “What do you need to know?”
“First, Mr. H. is concerned that Mrs. H. might have remarried and not informed him. I don’t know if you know this, but if she does, then he’ll stop paying the mortgage on this place, and her alimony support. I’m here to see if you know of any men she might have shacked up with, or married in the last twenty-eight years?”
“Can you hold that thought?” Lori jumped to her feet and hurried away. She came back with a thick leatherbound notebook. After settling back at the kitchen table she grinned at Andy. “Since I’m the chef here, I like to write down the food preferences of the people who have lived under this roof.”
“Wow, I never thought of that. Can you share with me?”
“Of course.”
“Before you do, why are you doing this?”
“Because, we’re doing this to protect Lorna. If it wasn’t for her, I would have left a long time ago. Now that she’s moved out, I can now quit working here with a clear conscience.”
Andy nodded and pulled a pad of paper and pen. Then, at the last minute, he pulled a voice-activated tape recorder. “Do you mind if I record this?”
“Not at all.” Lori grinned. “It’s about time someone took Mrs. Kristen Hepplewaite down a peg or two.”
“Okay, then. What do you have to tell me?”
“First, when Lorna was around four, came the first husband.” Lori flipped through her notebook she’d pulled from a kitchen drawer. “His name was Paul Lewis, a lawyer from Chicago, and his diet was gluten free. Before you even ask, I have absolutely no clue where Kristen found these men.”
“But I do know,” Annie grinned. “That she married them all at the same little chapel in Las Vegas.” She giggled. “I’m sure I can even dig through her papers to find that information.”
“Appreciate that, but let’s wait until after I get these names. But, first, do you know if these gentlemen went back to where they came from?” His statement had the others snorting a laugh.
“I don’t know if they’re still there, but I drove them to the airport myself. After Kristen tossed them out on their ears.”
“Okay, thank you, whatever information you have, I’ll take. I can always do some more digging.”
“Okay, next was Wade Rafferty. He was a stuntman from Vegas. No diet restrictions.” Lori looked at the others and laughed. “Do you remember when he taught Lorna how to ride her bike with no training wheels?” She looked at the others, and they burst out laughing. They turned to Andy to explain. “Wade was a great guy. Out of all the men, he was the only one that spent any time with Lorna. He taught her how to ride her bike, an electric scooter, and he even took her rock climbing.” Andy grinned. “How was she with all that stuff?”
“Good, until she fell off her bike. She ended up with three stitches over her left eye, and a broken wrist. God, you should have heard Ms. Kristen carrying on. Their relationship didn’t survive after that.”
“They broke up over a small accident?”
“Yes, Ms. Kristen threw into a rage for him harming Lorna. He couldn’t apologize enough for that happening. He was gone three weeks after it happened.”
“That’s when Ms. Lorna changed.”
“How?” Andy frowned at them.
“After Wade, whenever Kristen brought a new father home to her, that’s how she introduced her new men to Lorna—as her new father—but the first man she brought home after Wade, was Randall Fife. He was an accountant from Philadelphia. Lorna, I believe she was eight at the time, looked this Randall guy directly in the eye, and informed him that he was not her father, and would never be. That he was only an itch her mother needed scratching, that he was not to try to engage her in any conversations, and to leave her alone. That his relationship was with her mother and not her, then she informed them that it wouldn’t last beyond two years.”
“Wow, that took balls.”
“Yes, but I think it was her way of protecting herself. She had really, really liked Wade. I overheard her call him Daddy once. That was the beginning of the end.”
“Damn, so who came after Fife?”
“Henry Leslie. He was a rancher from over in Wyoming. His diet restrictions were meat, potatoes, and eggs for breakfast. Nothing else. He had hamburgers or steak, every type of potato imaginable to man, and add eggs at breakfast, and he was fine. No vegetables, no salad, nothing but meat and potatoes.”
“Next?” Andy didn’t know what to say.
