Eddie continued.
“There was a problem, though. He couldn’t just leave without dealing with the business loans.”
“What problem?”
“Some of the debts were secured by your signature. He had also used your name on additional paperwork.”
I looked at him.
“Without my permission?”
“That’s what I believe.”
I turned another page.
There were copies of documents with my name at the bottom.
Some signatures looked familiar.
Others didn’t.
One had been dated on a day when I was working a twelve-hour shift at the hospital.
I remembered that day clearly.
I had come home exhausted.
Lamar had made me tea.
He had told me I needed to get some rest.
Apparently, he had also been preparing to steal my future.
I put the documents down.
“Where is the storage unit?”
Eddie gave me an address.
“It’s in Georgia. I can take you there, but I think the police should know.”
“Detective Walker already knows.”
“Then I’ll cooperate.”
He looked down at his hands.
“There’s something I haven’t told you.”
I waited.
“When Lamar first told me about the plan, I thought he was going to run away because the business was failing. I didn’t know Rhoda was involved.”
“What happened?”
“He told me he had a way to make the debts disappear. He said you would be taken care of.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Taken care of?”
Eddie looked ashamed.
“That’s what he said.”
I shook my head.
“Well, he certainly took care of himself.”
Eddie opened another folder.
“There’s one more thing.”
Inside was a copy of an insurance document.
It was not the bait shop insurance.
It was a life insurance policy.
The beneficiary section had been changed.
I read it twice.
My name was no longer listed.
Instead, the beneficiary was a company registered under a different name.
I looked up.
“What is this?”
Eddie explained that Lamar had been attempting to restructure several financial arrangements before disappearing. He didn’t know whether every document had been processed, but he had kept copies because he feared being blamed.
I handed the paperwork to Ione.
She looked at it and shook her head.
“That man didn’t just leave his wife. He planned every step.”
I didn’t answer.
I was beginning to understand that the worst betrayal wasn’t the affair.
It was the planning.
The months of pretending.
The lies told over breakfast.
The way he had kissed my forehead before going fishing, knowing he might never come home.
At noon, Detective Walker called.
“Mrs. Ashby, we’ve spoken with the authorities in Georgia. They’re aware of the documents you’ve provided.”
“Have they found anything?”
“We’re looking into the business account and the identity used to open it.”
“What about Lamar?”
“We’ve located a possible address in Marathon.”
My heart skipped.
“You’re going to arrest him?”
“We’re still establishing the facts. But I want you to stay somewhere safe and avoid contact with him.”
I thanked him.
When I hung up, Eddie looked at me.
“They know where he is?”
“Apparently.”
He nodded.
“Then he’s going to panic.”
He was right.
Because at three forty-seven that afternoon, my phone rang.
Lamar.
I stared at his name for several seconds.
Ione looked at me.
“Don’t answer.”
But I wanted to hear his voice.
Not because I missed it.
Because I wanted to know whether the man I had loved for forty-seven years still had one honest word left inside him.
I answered.
“Hello.”
“Roberta.”
His voice was strained.
“Where are you?”
“Why?”
“We need to talk.”
“We talked yesterday.”
“Not like this.”
I looked at the window.
Sunlight was coming through the curtains.
“Then tell me what you want.”
He breathed heavily.
“I know you’ve been talking to Eddie.”
“Yes.”
“That man is lying to you.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
I almost smiled.
“That’s an interesting thing for you to say.”
“Roberta, listen to me. Rhoda and I made mistakes. I know that. But the money was complicated.”
“Two hundred and forty thousand dollars complicated?”
Silence.
Then he said, “Where did you get that number?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes!”
His voice suddenly rose.
I held the phone away from my ear.
For the first time, I heard fear in his voice.
Not guilt.
Not sorrow.
Fear.
“Roberta, I can explain the money. But you need to stop talking to the police.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The same man who had let me bury an empty casket was now asking me to protect him from the consequences.
“Why should I?”
“Because we’re still married.”
I looked at the wedding ring sitting on the hotel desk.
“Are we?”
“Of course we are.”
“Then where were you when I needed a husband?”
He didn’t answer.
“Where were you when I sold the truck?”
Nothing.
“Where were you when the bank took the bait shop?”
Silence.
“Where were you when I sat alone at Christmas with two plates on the table?”
His breathing became louder.
“Roberta, I made a mistake.”
I laughed softly.
“A mistake is forgetting to buy milk, Lamar. What you did required a plan.”
He lowered his voice.
“Please. I want to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because I owe you the truth.”
I paused.
“Tomorrow. In a public place. And bring every document you have.”
He hesitated.
“All right.”
“And Lamar?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t call me sweetheart.”
I ended the call.
The following morning, I met Lamar at a small café near the marina.
Detective Walker had advised me not to meet him without notifying the authorities. He knew where I would be, and Ione sat at another table with a clear view of us.
Lamar arrived fifteen minutes late.
He wore a white shirt and khaki trousers.
His beard was neatly trimmed.
He looked healthy.
Comfortable.
Alive.
He sat across from me.
For a moment, I remembered our first date.
We had been twenty-four.
He had taken me to a little diner and ordered two hamburgers because I was too shy to tell the waitress I wanted something different.
He had laughed when I stole his French fries.
I remembered the first house we bought.
The first Christmas tree.
The nights we spent talking about retirement.
And then I remembered the empty casket.
“What do you want to tell me?” I asked.
He placed a brown envelope on the table.
“I want you to understand why I did what I did.”
I didn’t touch it.
“Go ahead.”
He looked down.
“The bait shop was failing. We had borrowed too much money. I thought I could fix everything, but the debts kept growing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to worry.”
I stared at him.
“You didn’t want me to worry, so you made me a widow?”
He closed his eyes.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Losing everything.”
I leaned forward.
“You did lose everything. You just made sure I lost it too.”
He rubbed his beard.
“Rhoda and I had been talking for a while. She understood the situation. She thought we could start over somewhere else.”
“And Clifton?”
“He was already gone.”
I looked at him.
“Clifton had been dead for years, Lamar. You were having an affair with his wife while he was alive.”
Lamar looked away.
I waited.
Finally, he said, “I know.”
“Did you ever think about what that would do to him?”
“I can’t change it now.”
“No. You can’t.”
He pushed the envelope toward me.
“There’s something in here that might help you.”
I opened it.
Inside were bank statements, property papers, and a handwritten letter.
The letter was addressed to me.
I began reading.
Roberta,
If you’re reading this, then things have gone differently than I planned.
I know you hate me. I understand.
I never wanted you to be left with nothing. I thought I could move the money, settle the debts, and come back later when everything was quiet.
But things got out of control.
Rhoda and I made decisions we shouldn’t have made.
I know I cannot ask you to forgive me.
Lamar.
I folded the letter.
“Is this supposed to make everything better?”
“No.”
“Then why did you write it?”
He looked at me.
“Because I want you to know that I never stopped caring about you.”
For a moment, I said nothing.
Then I asked the question that had been sitting inside me since the restaurant.
“Did you ever plan to come back?”
He stared at the table.
“Yes.”
“When?”
He hesitated.
“After things settled down.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“A month? A year? Ten years?”
He rubbed his face.
“I thought I could return under different circumstances.”
I nodded.
“So you planned to let me grow old believing you were dead.”
He didn’t answer.
I looked at the man across from me.
His face was familiar.
His voice was familiar.
But the person sitting there was a stranger.
Then I noticed something in the envelope.
A second document.
It was a deed to a small property in Georgia.
The owner was a company registered in my name.
I frowned.
“What is this?”
Lamar leaned forward.
“That property was supposed to be yours.”
“Why?”
“I bought it with some of the money.”
I looked at the amount.
The property was valued at approximately $180,000.
“Did you buy this using money from the bait shop?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“Some of it.”
I pushed the paper away.
“I don’t want a house bought with stolen money.”
“It’s not stolen.”
“Then explain it to the police.”
His face changed.
“Roberta, don’t do this.”
“I didn’t do anything, Lamar. You did.”
He grabbed the envelope.
“Listen to me. If you cooperate with them, everything could become worse.”
“For whom?”
“For all of us.”
I stood.
“No, Lamar. You don’t get to include me in your plans anymore.”
I walked away.
Behind me, he called my name.
I didn’t turn around.
By the end of that week, the investigation had expanded.
Detectives discovered that the business account had been opened using false identification documents and Clifton Gaither’s personal information.
They also found evidence that money had been moved through several accounts before reaching a property company in Georgia.
The authorities contacted Clifton’s family.
They were shocked.
Clifton had been a quiet man who had worked his entire life.
His daughter, Melissa, agreed to speak with investigators.
She told them that shortly after her father’s death, Rhoda had claimed she needed money to settle several outstanding matters.
Melissa had given her some old financial documents, believing they were needed for the estate.
She had no idea her father’s identity might later be used to open accounts.
The authorities began examining those records.
Meanwhile, Eddie provided the original business ledgers and the copies of documents he had kept.
