The Serpent's Tooth by John Osipowicz

Author:John Osipowicz [Osipowicz, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-02-17T04:30:00+00:00

A tall gaunt woman with coat-hanger shoulders was just clearing away the dishes from a large wood table when I was led into that area by her assistant. “Marietta, here’s a gentleman to see you.” the young assistant said.

“Ah, a gentleman caller. I’d better start playing with my glass menagerie of animals.”

“So you know Tennessee Williams,” I said.

“Not personally, but anyway what can I do for you?”

“I’m inquiring about a girl who lived around this area twenty years ago, by the name of Lysette. She lived with the Potter family.”

“Never heard of her.” And Marietta walked into the kitchen away from me with an armload of dishes.

I followed her. “I talked with the Potter family, and they said you were a close friend of Lysette’s.”

Marietta was silent for a moment. “Maybe I was, but that was a long time ago.”

I got right to it. “When she ran away, where did she go?”

“I have to start making the beds in the cabins. If you’ll excuse me.”

“No, I won’t excuse you. Why are you being so evasive?”

“Why do you want to find her?”

I didn’t think I’d get anywhere if I told her the truth about investigating a murder.

“It’s complicated, but I’m trying to trace her for the benefit of her birth father.”

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place? I did know that the Potters were Lysette’s foster-parents, but she never said anything about her real father. But I’m always glad to help people have a little camaraderie. That’s why I run this place. I like to see people mix with their fellow creatures. I never married myself, and this is as close as I can come to some family sharing.”

It seemed to me that Marietta was inventing a little here, but I didn’t know why. Maybe the real truth was Marietta had kept this secret for over twenty years and she was dying to tell someone about it. “You have to promise you won’t tell the Potters. She hated them, and didn’t ever want them to find her.”

“I won’t tell them. So where exactly did Lysette go?”

The serious look on Marietta’s face seemed to tell me that Lysette was dead, but something totally different hit my ears.

“She shacked up with a guy.”

“But she was only twelve?”

“Believe me, Lysette was very advanced for her age. This guy was fifteen and he was a runaway, too. He had stolen some money from his parents, and took off. So for awhile they lived off that money until he lied about his age and got a job. He lived near Wilmington. I did visit them a couple of times. His name is Archie Sailor. I just saw his name in the paper a couple of days ago. Now, he runs a farm in the country down there, where he breeds horses. One of his horses finished third in this year’s Kentucky Derby, and so there was an article about him.”

I thanked Marietta, and took another step into Lysette Branch’s strange odyssey.

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