CHAPTER 1
This is a sequel to Whiteone_Redones story Suspicion. That story needs to be read in order to understand this sequel. Whiteone_Redones invited readers to submit their own ending of his story. This is mine. I cannot hope to write as well as he, but everybody's got to try at sometime!
Kathy sat on the Patio and reflected lazily on her life. She felt the greatest sorrow about the ending of her marriage to Paul. He was a good man, and she had loved him dearly, yet she had also loved Karl since they were at High school together. She was convinced that Karl and she would have been together for all their lives had his family not moved to Germany. They had lost touch despite her constant letters to him. When Paul came into her life he earned his place in her heart with his kindness and constancy. When she was twenty-three and Paul twenty-four they married, and her happiness was complete three years later with the birth of first Jason and then two years after that, Christi, their daughter. Paul had a good job, and when the children were old enough she managed to get a top-management position. They both earned well and life was good.
Then Karl re-entered her life. Applying for a tendering position with her company, it fell to Kathy to interview him. Seeing his name, Karl Gerring, on the application shocked Kathy to the core, he did not know who he would meet until he entered her office. There was so much to catch up on, and they met for coffee, and then lunches. The sweetness of tender High school Love overcame them both, and with the need to complete the relationship that they had been unable to enjoy then, they became Lovers.
Paul found out, as spouses do, and Kathy had told Paul everything when confronted and asked if she could enjoy both their loves. With retrospect her logic screams at her, did she ever expect Paul to agree to share her? But logic was not a function she could employ at that time of romantic bliss. Paul divorced her in a 'No Fault' action. Later she married Karl, and bore him a Son, they called Andrew. That was five years ago, and those were five years of happiness, only marred by the sense of bereavement she still carried for Paul.
The Sun was warm, and she casually flicked through Cosmo. Karl was away on business for ten days, and she had taken a couple of vacations days to look after their Son. But Evelyn, her sister had called and asked if she could take Andrew, back to where she lived with Todd, her husband. Kathy's daughter Christi was staying with her, and she adored Andrew. As it would give all her children pleasure Kathy agreed. Since the divorce she had visitation rights with Christi and Jason, but they had tailed off. Christi was still pleased to see her, but she suspected that Jason used college as an excuse to keep contact at a minimum. So she had two days of relaxation, working out at the gym and no interruptions. She believed.
Her reverie was interrupted by the Door Bell. She walked through the Family room and into the reception, looking through the big glass panel as she did. At the door was a mature Lady, there was a slight smile on her face. A car was on the drive, and a younger woman was sitting in the Drivers seat. Kathy felt a distant memory of the face, but she couldn't place it. She opened the Door.
'Can I help you?' Kathy enquired politely. The woman's smile became wider. And she opened her arms to Kathy, who stepped back to avoid an embrace. 'Good Heavens,' she thought. 'the woman wants to embrace me.' The woman dropped her arms, but kept the smile.
'You don't remember me, do you?'
'Should I remember you?'
''Well it was years ago, and I have aged a lot more than you, Kathy. I am Anita Gerring, Karl's mother.' Kathy dropped to the floor in a dead faint.
She came to, on her sofa in the Family room. Both ladies were fussing over her, the younger one with a glass of water, and the older one patting her wrist. She was apologising profusely
'I knew I should have rung you, I knew, I knew. Oh dear, what must you think of me, please forgive me.' Kathy struggled to bring her thoughts into line. This woman claimed to be Karl's mother.
'You can't be Karl's mother!'
'Why not?'
'Karl's mother is dead!'
'Who told you that?'
'Karl did.'
'Well I can assure you that I am most certainly alive. Why he would say such a thing I don't know, but I suspect I can come up with a reason, but look at me closely, Kathy. I know it was over twenty years ago, but surely you can recognise me.'
Kathy did look closely, and gradually those little signs that lead to recognition combined to place the face. She nodded her head happily and sadly. She was pleased to see Anita Gerring, but disturbed that Karl would lie to her. She turned her attention to the younger lady, expecting that it would be Karl's sister, who she had never met, and about whom Karl rarely spoke. She tried to cull the name from her memory. It came to her.
'I assume that you are Jennifer.'
'No I am Samantha, Samantha Gerring, Karl's wife.' Kathy almost fainted again.
'Would you repeat that please?'
'I'm Samantha, Karl's wife.' Kathy unsteadily got up from the Sofa, and walked towards the big windows leading out onto the Patio. She turned and smiled icily at this woman.
'No, I am sorry but you are mistaken. I am Karl's wife. Kathy Gerring, Karl's wife.'
Anita looked at Kathy.
'Don't you mean partner? You can't have married Karl.'
'We married five years ago.' The look on both Anita's and Samantha's faces was troubled now. Samantha approached Kathy and took her hand.
'Kathy, I have been married to Karl for nine years. I was his second wife. He left me six years, and I haven't heard from him since. We never divorced.'
'Second wife?'
'Yes. Andrea, his first wife divorced him. I only found out recently that he beat her to a pulp, when she told him she was leaving him. He threatened me on more than one occasion, I counted it a good break when he left.'
Kathy shook her head.
'No! No you are making this up.' The look on Samantha's face told her that this wasn't a lie. She turned to Anita, who had a look of absolute sympathy for Kathy.
'Kathy, Karl is ill. Not physically, but mentally. A doctor could only give me a rough idea, as Karl would never submit to an Psychiatric examination. He has a horror of mental illness. The Doctor suspected that Karl was Paranoid, a violent paranoid. He ran away from Germany after his Father died, and I became ill. It was a simple case of Clinical Depression, but he called it insanity, and threatened to kill me if I had passed it on to him. I suspect that's why he told you I was dead. As far as he was concerned being insane is as good as dead. Kathy, we have come here to warn you.'
'Warn me?' Samantha reached into her bag, and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
'I think you should read this.' She handed the papers to Kathy, who immediately recognised Karl's handwriting.
There was a lot of rambling sentences, that didn't seem to connect with one another, but some stood out, as if he had clarified his thoughts, and could make them in to a sense. They seem to have been written over a few years. One early on stood out.
That bitch of a mother, she has the audacity to claim to be my mother, but she is sick, sick, sick. How can she be my mother when she is Mad. As far as I am concerned she cannot be my mother, I cannot possibly inherit her insanity. I deny her!
Kathy turned over the page, and then another sentence jumped to her eyes.
I know that slut of a wife, Andrea is cheating on me. But she is damned clever, I looked hard but I could never catch her. Even the P.I. I got couldn't find anything. He was useless. Bloody nerve, threatened to sue me when I wouldn't pay him. I told him, do the job and you will get paid. Still I got even with the Slut. I thoroughly enjoyed punching and kicking her. It was a lovely sound when my fist smashed her Jaw.
Kathy was getting concerned now. Then she saw her name.
I know where Kathy is. I have searched for years to find her, and now I know where she is. She's married, but that doesn't matter, I'll get her. If her husband doesn't like it I will give him a kicking, that should do the trick. Kathy will be with me. I know she loves me, she will always love me. If she can't see the sense in that, I shall have to kill her. She's mine, always has been and always will. If not with me, then there will never be anyone. I'll see to that.
Kathy read this last sentence twice and looked up at Anita and Samantha. This was Karl's handwriting without doubt, and her beloved childhood sweetheart and husband had vowed to kill her.
'If all this is true, why have you waited so long to get in touch with me?' Anita answered.
'Karl has always been secretive. When you wrote to tell him that it was all over between you, I didn't know for months.'
'Pardon!' Kathy could not believe that his mother had said that.
'I never sent such a letter. I was writing every week, despite the fact that he rarely replied. In the last letter I got he expressed his undying Love for me, and that we would be together one day. I never heard from him again. When a letter I sent was returned 'addressee unknown' I took that as a sign that we were finished. But I never wrote to tell him that it was all over, never!'
'Oh dear, Kathy. That's Karl all over. He doesn't say anything, and when he does he twists it so that it is other people doing him harm. He covers his trail, moves and doesn't let anyone know where he is.' Kathy started to understand what she was saying. When she started her affair with him, Karl had magnanimously agreed to share Kathy with Paul. 'As long as I get some time with you Kathy, my Love, that's will content me.' When Paul had understandably refused, Karl took the opportunity of subtly twisting his words. 'See he can't love you as much as I.' Anita was still speaking.
'It took us months to find you. Samantha got in touch with me, just after she found those papers, she managed to contact Jennifer, and through her got in touch with me. I had never met Samantha, although I did know of her existence. Not from Karl I might say. So together we started to track you down. We eventually got your location from the Crestview High School directory, it was simple, but we didn't think of it at first. I suspect that Karl did it the same way.' Samantha then asked a odd question.
'Tell me Kathy, you don't have a home computer do you?'
'No, why do you ask?'
'Let me guess. When the subject was raised, Karl was so against the idea, vehemently so, that you dropped it.'
'Yes. That exactly it. How do you know that?'
