“And was somebody poisoning her all this time?”
Cassandra stopped, sighed, and shook her head. “I don’t think so. But supposedly somebody was stealing from her, and somebody was trying to get her drunk. I mean, there was just always something.”
Doreen nodded. “Did your mom ever get any psychiatric help? Anything like that?”
“Yep, sure did. She went to see Dr. Weatherby,” she stated. “You can probably talk to him, although I’m sure he’d tell you that he couldn’t discuss anything with you.”
“They have a habit of doing that,” she agreed, with an eye roll.
“I’m sure they do.” Cassandra nodded. “But I can tell you there was nothing untoward about my mother’s death.”
“Well, an autopsy was never done.”
“Why? She was an old lady,” she stated quietly. “She was in relatively good health for her age, but, at some point in time, the body just stops. The fact that she went during her sleep is a godsend. I don’t think she would particularly like having her body chopped up at this stage.”
“On the other hand, maybe she would,” Doreen suggested in a droll tone, “because generally, when people say all those things that you report that she said, they’re looking for attention.”
“She was always looking for attention.” At that, Cassandra nodded.
“And what about Peter?” she asked.
Cassandra’s face thinned down and turned mean. “What about that little thief?” she asked. “If somebody poisoned her, it would be him.”
“Oh, so now she was poisoned?” Doreen asked.
“I don’t know if she was or not, but, if she had been, it would have been that worthless nephew of hers,” she spat. “He got all her money.”
“What money though? From my understanding she couldn’t make her bills on a month-to-month basis.”
“And I think that was just her way, always buying stuff for other people,” she noted quietly. “She certainly didn’t give me two cents in my world, hated the fact that I worked in a bar. And I’ve been here for so long,” she shared, “that I almost own the place outright. I don’t need my mother’s money. And she might have looked down on me for an awful lot of my life,” she added, “but, in the end, I still did okay.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Doreen stated. “It would be sad to think that she ended up going to her grave, ashamed and hating you.”
“I don’t know if she ever got over the fact that I was a stripper for a while,” she admitted. “And she certainly didn’t like any of the three husbands I had, … but, then again, if I’d been smart, I should have listened to her at least on that point. I’m not married to any of them anymore.” She rolled her eyes. “Talk about losers. But, hey, I picked them up in bars. So what do I expect?”
Cassandra looked around the bar and shrugged. “I own this, along with my partner now,” she stated, “and we’re doing just fine. But it would really piss me off to think that somebody murdered her.” She thrummed her fingers on the bar and studied Doreen for a long moment. “Do you really think there’s anything to it?”
“I don’t know,” Doreen admitted. “My grandmother is in the same retirement home, and I know that she feels terribly guilty after Chrissy’s death because she didn’t get anybody to look into it,” she explained. “So I promised her that I would.”
At that, the woman nodded slowly and stared off at some distant point behind Doreen’s head. “Well, if you do find something,” she stated, “I would really like to know. I did brush off my mother all those years, mostly because she was always making up stories.”
“And people tell tall tales because they’re looking for attention.”
“And that would have been her,” she agreed. “I was an only child. And I couldn’t give her what she wanted—that traditional happy well-adjusted daughter who goes to university, graduates, gets a well-accepted job, gets married, has three kids and the white picket fence with a grandmother attached,” she explained. “So she and I could never really connect in any way.”
“I’m sorry,” Doreen offered. “That would have been tough on you.”
At that, Cassandra laughed. “It was really tough on me,” she stated, “and I did eventually find a way out of that morass and to becoming myself.” She paused for a moment. “For a long time I felt guilty about my worldly choices.” She shook her head. “But it suits me. And I’m happy,” she noted, but a defiant note was in her tone. Then her shoulders sagged. “I am at least happy now,” she clarified. “But my mother would not have been happy with my choices, even at the end of her life.”
“And do you see any reason why Peter would have done something to her?”
“Because he could,” she replied bluntly.
At that, Doreen stared at her. “You need to explain that comment.”
“Peter was one of those guys who, if you wanted to go left, he went right. If you were designated as a bad seed, he would be the good seed. If you stole, he was the Goody Two-Shoes. But if you wanted to be the good girl, he would steal and make it look like you’d done it.”
Just something in the back of Cassandra’s voice had Doreen probing a little further. “Are you saying that, somewhere in your past, he did something wrong, and you got blamed for it?”
“Many times in the past,” she stated, with a headshake. “Peter comes from my uncle’s family. His parents were killed in a car accident a long time ago. Peter moved in with Mum and me, so he’s almost like a brother. And, in a way, I think Mum looked at him as her son. And, of course, since I was a complete write-off, he was a good thing.”
“Right,” Doreen stated. “And that’s very important to know, especially later when we look at the will.”
“Of course it is,” she agreed, with a slight hand wave, as if none of it mattered. “But I was the only one who was her blood, her direct line. Of course Peter was her nephew, so, in many ways, that counted too. Plus, her brother was the apple of her eye.”
“What about your father?”
“He took off years and years and years ago,” she shared. “Our family of three was pretty happy when I was younger, yet I don’t remember too much about those earlier years. Dad didn’t take off until I was about sixteen—about the time Peter came to live with us, I guess. Huh, never made that connection until just now. Anyway, I did talk to Dad about it at the time, and he told me how he couldn’t stand it anymore. He felt like he was choking. At the time I felt like I was choking too, so I understood. And I knew he wouldn’t like my life choices either, so, when he took off, I basically did the same thing.” She added, “I took off into my own world, and it was pretty tough on all of us.”
“I know,” she agreed.
“How would you know?” Cassandra snapped, looking Doreen up and down.
Doreen swallowed, raised her head, and faced Cassandra. “My husband of fourteen years had an affair and kicked me out and, after a couple months of lunch money handouts, cut me off completely. If not for my grandmother, I would be homeless.” Doreen ducked her head for a moment. “So, yes, I do understand. And I’m sorry you had to go through that. How did Peter react when your father left?”