Read Online Unbreathed Memories by Marcia Talley - Free Book Online

inside breast pocket, turned to a blank page, and smoothed it open on the tabletop. Officer Williams remained standing by her chair and regarded my father coolly. “Your daughter believes you had something to do with Dr. Sturges’s death.”
    If it had been me, I would have shouted it, but Daddy’s voice remained calm and steady. “That’s perfectly ridiculous!”
    “Mrs. Cardinale claims that Dr. Sturges invited you to come to her office last week in order to assist with her therapy.” Officer Williams sat down, laced her fingers together, and laid her hands on the table in front of her.
    Daddy looked thoughtful and began chewing on the knuckle of his index finger. A sure sign of nerves. Something was getting to him.
    “She says you became angry during the session. She says you lost your temper.”
    Officer Williams hadn’t taken her eyes from Daddy’s face and, with the long practice of a commanding officer, he had traded her gaze for gaze. But now he looked away. “I wasn’t there.”
    “Are you telling me that your daughter is lying?”
    His head snapped around. “Of course she’s lying.”
    “You saw her this morning,” I reminded the officers. “Georgina was a mess.”
    “True. But in this case, we have a corroborating witness. The housekeeper claims she heard raised voices.”
    My father shrugged. “Sturges is a shrink. I imagine voices get raised in that office all the time.”
    “But, sir, your name appears in her appointment calendar.”
    I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “Daddy?”
    I caught his eye, but he looked away. His shoulders sagged. Clearly the interview wasn’t going the way he had expected. “Get me a cup of coffee, would you, honey?”
    I emptied the dregs from the coffeepot, thick as syrup, into his cup. My heart raced. When I returned to the table, he was sitting down at it. Anyone coming in just then would think we were about to play a hand of bridge.
    Daddy took a sip from the cup I gave him, grimaced, and said, “OK. I’ll admit that I attended that damn-fool therapy session. But that was the only time I was ever in that loony woman’s office.”
    Duvall made a notation in his notebook. “Just that once?”
    “Yes.”
    Officer Williams leaned forward. “Tell me, what was it that made you lose your temper?”
    “I’d rather not say.”
    The two officers exchanged glances. “I think it’d be fair to tell you, sir,” Officer Williams continued, “that your daughter told us all about it.”
    My father’s face grew pale beneath a sheen of sweat. “If my daughter were completely sane, she wouldn’t be seeing a therapist, now would she?”
    “I’ll ask you again, sir. What was the argument about?”
    Daddy closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. When he opened his eyes again, I saw that they were pooling with tears. “That damn therapist was supposed to be helping my daughter get well. Instead, she was filling her head with nonsense.” He took a deep breath. “It’s all a pack of lies.”
    “Lies? What kind of lies?”
    Daddy looked at me, desperation in his eyes. “Don’t tell your mother,” he pleaded.
    I grabbed his arm and shook it. “Don’t tell her what?”
    Daddy took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. The silence roared in my ears. When Daddy finally spoke, I thought at first that I’d misunderstood what he’d said. “That woman has Georgina convinced that I sexually abused her.”
    “What!” My head swam.
    A tear ran down his cheek and dripped, unchecked, onto the front of his shirt. “How can she say such a thing?”
    I sat there, too dumbfounded to speak.
    “Exactly the question I was going to ask, Captain Alexander. Why would your daughter say such a thing?”
    “She’s delusional, Officer.” He swiped at his cheek with the back of his hand. “I’ll admit I went there for the therapy session. I thought maybe it would help. But then, they bushwhacked me. Georgina looked me straight in the eye and accused me of all