Chapter 7

Paul had enjoyed his vacation with his in-laws. He felt they’d had a pretty good time, as well. They had covered over two thousand miles, but nothing had been rushed. There had been no stress from traffic, and no problems with ‘road butt,’ aching backs, or numb legs. They’d definitely seen a lot of things, stayed in some nice places, and talked to a bunch of very friendly people.

Less than a week after returning from the vacation Paul had returned to his apartment after work, only to be met by a somber looking detective from the police department. He had been informed that Judy had been murdered in her house, that afternoon. He had nearly collapsed where he stood.

Annie was in jail charged with murder although they’d probably plea bargain it down to manslaughter. No one was quite sure exactly what happened the day that Judy was killed. The Connors, the neighbors across the street, had heard the screams coming from the house and called the police. The police found Annie standing over Judy’s limp body with a broken chair in her hand.

He’d been shocked. Of course, he went through all of the what if’s trying to figure out if he could have done something to prevent her death. He had known that Annie was becoming increasingly abusive, but to have the violence escalate to murder so quickly surprised him. Was it his fault? If not, why did he feel so guilty?

He had talked to Judy right after returning from his vacation. She didn’t make a big deal out of Annie being violent. Of course, getting her to admit something like that was virtually impossible. Annie could do no wrong. Even if she did, Judy always said there was ‘a good reason’ as to why she did it. He didn’t know if Judy had been hiding something or if things had been relatively calm. He just didn’t know what was really going on there.

The detective had been very polite about informing him of Judy’s death, but there had also been a few awkward questions. Why wasn’t he living at the house? What was the relationship between Judy and Annie like? Had he talked to either one of them in the past few days? Paul invited the detective in and told him the whole story.

After the detective left, he called his in-laws. Needless to say, they were crushed by the news. As he had, they had hoped that the tough love approach they had been giving her, would wake her up to what was happening. Had it been too little and too late, or had they taken the wrong approach? It was one of those questions that could follow a person to the grave.

Judy’s funeral took place three days after he had been informed of her death. It had been a small quiet affair. In addition to him, only her parents, his parents, the Connors, and the manager from the burger place attended it. He had been surprised that the manager of the burger place had shown up. One didn’t normally think of the manager of a fast food place actually caring about the people who worked there.

That so few people attended the funeral wasn’t surprising. The fact was that Judy didn’t have time for friends. She was too busy worrying about Annie, to take the time to keep friends or to make new ones. Fifty years of life, and all she had to show for it was that her immediate family, a neighbor, and her boss were the sum total of people who cared about the fact that she had died. It was a sad commentary on her life.

It was an even sadder day when Paul returned to the house. It was the first time he had entered it since moving out. He looked around the empty living room. The only things in there were a few photographs on the wall. It was more disturbing to see the room empty like that than he had imagined it would be. At one time, it had been filled with furniture.

He went into the bedroom that he had once shared with his wife. There was just a box spring and mattress combination in the middle of the room. There wasn’t a head board or bed frame to keep the mattress off the floor. There wasn’t any kind of furniture there. It had all been sold off.

Judy’s dresses were hanging in the closet. Among the clothes hanging in the closet were her uniforms for the burger place. They were neatly pressed. Her undergarments were in neat little piles on the floor.

A tear escaped at the thought of how she had been living the past year. It must have been rough on her. She had to know that it hadn’t needed to be that way.

Next to the mattress was a stack of photo albums. He picked up the photo album on the top of the stack. It was the oldest one there. He opened it and looked at the pictures of him with Judy. He removed them from the album. There were no other pictures he was interested in taking. He took them out to his car.

Carl came from across the street. He moved like an old man, older than he had been just a few months ago. It was as if recent events had aged him or taken something out of him.

“Hi, Carl.”

“Hi, Paul. I’m sorry about your wife.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s a real shame.”

“I know. I tried to warn her, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“You weren’t the only one who tried to warn her.”

Carl had talked to Judy a couple of times after Annie had hit her in the past. He had tried to convince her that Annie was just a bad kid, and would end up hurting her. Now she was dead.

“I know,” Paul said with a sigh.

“Are you going to sell the house?”

“Yes. There’s no way I could live here,” Paul said.

“I can’t say that I blame you. I wouldn’t want to live there,” Carl said looking over the house.

Paul nodded his head in agreement. What could he say? Personally, he felt that the place was cursed.

“No one will want to buy house that’s the scene of a murder,” Carl said.

“I know. I thought about tearing it down, but that would cost a fortune.”

“You’re right.”

“I’ll sell it cheap. I just hope a young couple doesn’t buy it,” Paul said.

“Why?”

“I’d feel guilty if the wife went crazy like Judy, and ended up like she did.”

“I didn’t think about that.”

Paul said, “I want to thank you for all did. I know you tried.”

“I did very little.”

“You did a lot. You were here for her.”

“Do you believe in evil?” Carl asked.

“A lot of people believe in evil,” Paul answered cautiously.

“What about you? Do you believe in evil?”

“I believe in monsters,” Paul said.

“I believe in evil. Evil is better looking than a monster. You can come face to face with a monster and know you’re in trouble. Evil is subtler than that. It’s attractive and seems well mannered. It draws you into its grasp before you even know it.”

“I suppose so,” Paul said.

Carl said, “The facade of evil isn’t ugly. It’s pretty or handsome. I guess it is human nature to believe beauty over the earned character of an aged face. The Lord knows that people make that mistake all of the time.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that God fearing people don’t know how to deal with evil. We pray to God; but he plays by the rules while evil doesn’t. Our instinct is to get out a gun and send the devil back to hell, but our civilized God fearing side says you don’t deal with evil that way. You’re supposed to expose evil to the light; which is just poetic way of saying that you have to strip away the illusion of beauty, so that the rotten core inside can be seen. See the lies, and the truth shall set you free.

“It’s up to us to see beyond the beautiful facade to the grotesqueness that is hidden beneath. Seeing it, we turn our backs on the devil. You can’t argue with him. You can’t make him become good. You have to turn your back on him. It’s a simple incantation, ‘Get thee behind me Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’”

Paul wasn’t a religious person and this discussion was making him uncomfortable. He didn’t think saying that to Annie would have made one whit of difference in how things turned out. He said, “I’ve heard that expression before. It’s from the Bible, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so,” Paul said trying to be polite.

Knowing Paul didn’t agree with him, Carl said, “Annie was and still is a beautiful girl. She always has been, but she is evil. I think that she had her claws into Judy ever since since she was a baby. There’s nothing anyone could have done to save Judy. Her eyes couldn’t penetrate the facade of beauty to see the rotten core beneath. She let Annie’s beauty override her common sense. Judy had to turn her back on the devil, but she never did.”

Paul said, “I don’t think that Annie was inherently evil. Judy spoiled Annie. She grew into a monster because Judy wouldn’t guide her into growing up into a human being.”

Carl said, “I’m saying that the evil in Annie fooled Judy, and kept her from raising Annie to be a good person. You’re saying there was a character flaw in Judy that caused her to create a monster. I think you’re blaming the victim.”

Paul said, “I know it sounds a lot like blaming the victim, but Judy contributed to her own death, nearly as much as Annie. She helped turn Annie into a monster by rewarding bad behavior. I tried to stop the process, but Judy had access to Annie twenty four hours a day. Me, I was at work. The moment my back was turned, Judy undermined everything I tried to do. I’d send Annie to the corner for a time out and Judy would tell her to go play outside. I would cut off her allowance, and Judy would slip her the money. She just couldn’t say no to Annie.

“Annie grew into being a monster. Judy kept thinking that she had control over it. She’d feed the monster a treat, and it would calm down for the moment, but the treats had to be bigger and better than the last one. The monster was growing and its appetite was getting larger. When it reached the point where Judy couldn’t provide a big enough or good enough treat, the monster turned on her. When that happened, well ... we’ve seen the result.”