Page 79 of Is Anyone Listening?
"We wish we knew," Katherine said.
"Margaret told me there were rumors that my father and grandfather got in a fight and during that fight, my grandfather fell to his death. She suggested that my grandmother sent him away, and that’s why they never spoke again. But my grandmother said that my grandfather's death was an accident, and that it was ridiculous for anyone to think that David killed his father. But she didn't offer me a better explanation for why they're estranged."
"Richard and David were fighting in the months before his death," John said. "Richard wanted David to work in the family business. David wanted to leave town and go to college. Richard said he was deserting his family. David said he wanted to live his own life, that kind of thing."
"But there's no way David killed his father," Katherine said. "I agree with Ellen on that."
"At least not on purpose," John said. "It could have been an accident that occurred while they were fighting."
"I'd like to believe my father isn't a killer. But if he had done something to his dad, I don't understand why my father would be so angry at my grandmother. It seems like she should be the one who is furious and resentful for what he'd done."
"That's why I never bought into that story," Katherine said. "I thought there was something else going on with David. He had a lot of problems around that time."
"What kind of problems?" I asked curiously.
John and Katherine exchanged a brief look, then John said, "David was sweet on a girl named Lily. She was two years younger than us. Very pretty."
"But she had a hard family life," Katherine said. "Dad had a drinking problem. Mother had to work to make ends meet, and sometimes Lily and her mother looked like they’d taken a few punches, but they'd never told that to the sheriff, when he was called out a few times."
"Did my father go out with this girl?"
"David wanted to take her out," John said. "But Tom Holloway had staked his claim, and Lily seemed caught between them."
I was surprised by his words. "My father was in a love triangle with the sheriff?"
"Well, Tom wasn't the sheriff then; his dad was. And Tom was a troublemaker. Rumor has it that his dad used to knock him around, which is why he usually came out swinging when someone tried to cross him," John said.
"Tom told David to stay away from Lily," Katherine continued. "But David didn't want to listen. He was in love with Lily, and after his dad died, I think David was a little out of his mind. He was pressuring Lily to break up with Tom, and Tom was telling her that she couldn't leave him. I think Lily was scared of both of them. They were eighteen; she was sixteen. She was out of her depth."
I felt like they were describing someone passionate and romantic, and that didn't sound at all like my father. "What happened? Who won?"
Katherine's smile turned sad. "Nobody. Lily ended up taking her own life."
I clapped a hand to my mouth. "Oh, my God, the girl who committed suicide, who drowned at the beach below the inn—her name was Lily? That's the girl my father was mad about?"
Katherine nodded. "Yes. She left a note by her clothes on the beach, saying she was sorry, but she couldn't go on anymore. She didn't mention David or Tom, and everyone knew her home life was bad, so she had a lot of reasons to be unhappy beyond them."
"And that's when my dad left?"
"Pretty much right after the funeral," Katherine said. "I think it was too much for him, losing his dad, all the rumors swirling around him, and Ellen was also in a bad place, which is understandable since she'd just lost her husband. The next thing we knew, David was gone, and Ellen said she didn't know when he'd come back."
"For years, we thought he was just at college somewhere," John said. "But we never knew where. Katherine and I moved to California to go to college and live a different life, so we lost touch."
I was less interested in John and Katherine's story than I was in my father's. "Did anyone stay connected to my dad? This is a small town. Didn't he have friends?"
"We all scattered after graduation, and David didn’t seem interested in talking to anyone from here."
"And Ellen doesn't talk about him at all," Katherine said. "I once asked her about him. It was probably at least ten years ago now. She said she didn't know what he was up to, and she would prefer that I not speak his name to her. So, I didn't. She's a little on the intimidating side."
"I'll say," I muttered. "She just found out I'm her granddaughter last night, and I'm not sure she knows how to feel about that."
"She has to be happy," Katherine said. "I'm sure she misses David. And now she has a granddaughter."
"I didn't tell her who I was when I first got here. I actually also came because I have a podcast that investigates true crime stories, and my friend and I were looking into Natalie Warren's disappearance. The fact that it happened at my grandmother's inn made it a story I had to follow."
"I heard something about a podcast when I went to the market this morning. I didn't realize that was you."
"That was me."
