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“No,” I answered her truthfully.
“Then it was Bailey or Rubinstein?”
I shook my head. “No, Noemi. It wasn’t either one of them.”
“Then who? Please, just get it over with. Who killed my father? And my mother! Dante, they were killed on the same night. Whoever caused that accident was responsible for taking both their lives.”
The tears started again.
“Sit down, baby girl.”
I tried to get her to cooperate but in her emotional state, I might as well have been trying to charm a cobra.
“No,” she pushed away from me. “I need answers, Dante. Please tell me which one of those men was responsible for my parent’s deaths.”
“None of them were.”
“Then who killed them!” she cried out desperately.
“Your mother, Noemi. It was your mother who caused the accident that killed them that night.”
Her mouth fell open, then closed, confusion and disbelief in her eyes. She struggled to understand what I’d said. She shook her head repeatedly.
“That doesn’t make sense with anything you’ve already said. Besides, I already knew that. My mother was drinking, and her drunk driving caused the accident.”
“No, Noemi. That wasn’t what happened. Your father’s guilt caused him to make rash decisions. I’m not sure of the specifics. There was no alcohol in your mother’s blood that night. At least, not enough to say that she had been driving drunk.”
“What are you implying?”
“What I’m saying is that your mother deliberately caused the accident after your father’s guilt led him to confess his affair with Lydia to your mother. I believe, but can’t prove, that he told her about McKenzie, afraid that she’d find out some other way.”
“No, she wouldn’t have done that. She wouldn’t have been happy, but she wouldn’t have killed him. She wouldn’t have left me and Willis alone like that. I don’t believe you.”
It was the first part of my tale she couldn’t come to terms with and I didn’t blame her. But I had proof. I picked up the folder from my desk and handed it to her. “There’s a copy of the coroner’s report and their death certificates. Have you ever seen either one of those documents?”
“No. Willis... Willis handled everything. I never wanted to look at them.”
I pushed the file into her hands. “Take your time.”
I left her alone on the couch to review the documents that would tell her what the police report and the coroner’s report corroborated during the investigation. The motivation was unclear to them, but crystal clear to those of us who knew the facts. Rachel Petrafuso had been driving the night she and her husband Gerald left a party at General Bailey’s home. Unbeknownst to Gerald beforehand, in order to keep his guilt in line, Bailey and Rubinstein invited Lydia to attend.
Their actions had the opposite effect. Instead of intimidating him into silence, I suspected that Gerald had a severe fit of nerves and admitted the affair to his wife. The police investigation showed that the accident had been deliberate. Rachel Petrafuso drove her car off the road, into the tree, causing a severe enough impact to end both her life and that of her husband.
I have no idea what happened in the car that night, what words were said, or why Rachel responded the way she did. There was one man who knew more intimate details about Rachel and Gerald’s relationship than I did, and it appeared he was good at keeping his secrets. Willis had never told Noemi anything about the truth behind her parents’ deaths and had managed to keep the facts hidden from her for nearly a decade.
Until a man in a knit cap decided she needed to know the truth which made no sense either, since he’d left her a note implying that I was responsible.
Like I expected she would, Noemi quickly put the information together.
“I can’t believe this.” Her hands shook as she put the papers down. “All these years, I thought... He let me believe... Willis had to have known the truth. He was the executor of their estate. He handled these documents. He knew what happened.”
“I can only say that I suspect that he knew your mother’s actions caused the accident. He wanted to protect you, Noemi. I can’t blame him for that. I would have done the same thing. I don’t know if he knew anything about McKenzie, Bailey or the affair with Lydia.”
Noemi surprised me when she stood up abruptly and started to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” I followed her to the living room.
She gathered her purse and started digging for something inside.
