Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans Page B

of some good.”
    â€œOr at least have good humor,” she said, suddenly laughing at her husband. She kissed his cheek and laughed again.
    David lay back in the plush seat. “Oh, MaryAnne, that laughter. How I need it.”
    â€œThen you shall have it.” MaryAnne fell laughing into his arms as David covered her face with kisses.

    â€œI confess that I find it difficult to take this affair seriously, and were it not for MaryAnne’s anxiety, I would, perhaps, not concern myself with it at all.”
    David Parkin’s Diary. November 22, 1913
    David received notice of the trial two weeks after his arrest and regarded it with little more concern than a coal bill. The trial had been set for the third of December and though it was not of any great interest to David, it provided ample fodder for the local tabloids, which increased circulation with sensational headlines: LOCAL MILLIONAIRE TRIED FOR MURDER.
    The city became caught up in the scandal and nowhere more so than at the bar Everen Hatt had frequented with his soul mate and mentor, Cal Barker.
    Everen Hatt’s disposition could not beblamed entirely on Barker. Hatt was a self-made loser even before he met the man; a year after Hatt’s parents died and he was taken in by his only living relative, the wealthy widow Maud Cannon. The widow learned with great distress of the shallowness of her nephew’s character and, with Christian resolve, set about to reform the boy, leading to squabbles that increased daily in frequency and rancor. It was months before she began to learn the extent of his depravity. He readily took from her with no thought of gratitude or obligation, and when she finally refused to further finance his incessant drinking, valuables began to disappear from around the house. She confronted him with the losses, to which he responded so violently that she feared for her safety and never mentioned the subject again, quietly hiding the pieces with the greatest sentimental value. So when a few years later he begged a sizable stipend with the promisethat he would leave her life forever, she gave him the money and considered it a small price to rid him from her life. Not surprisingly, he was not true to the arrangement and descended upon her at least twice a year for additional subsidy.
    So it was for nearly a decade. Hatt had enjoyed a sense of celebrity among his friends as a relative of the rich, with an occasional allowance to prove it. As the widow’s only relative, he, and Barker, erroneously assumed that Hatt would be the only heir of her estate and fantasized about the day when the old lady would die and they would live a glorious lifestyle of unlimited gratification. The fantasies filled the men briefly with delusions of wealth, but left them all the hungrier at the reality of their present circumstance.
    Growing increasingly impatient with the woman’s longevity, Barker had offered to hasten the happy occasion by helping the widow on her way. It was not a surpriseto anyone that Barker would make such an offer. Cal Barker lived his life in darkness. As a miner, his days were spent in the belly of the earth and his nights on the darker parts of its surface.
    He was married, though there was little evidence of his marital status, and he returned home just often enough to force himself on his wife, a plain-faced woman who feared the large man and tacitly accepted his abuse and neglect. She had borne four children which she provided the sustenance for through hiring herself out for domestic chores and occasionally from what was left of Barker’s wages after the gambling and alcohol had taken its due.
    Barker’s life of darkness was more than one of locale. He lived his life in sole pursuit of its baser desires, discovering that pleasures diminish with indulgence and become harder to come by. And as those who chase the unattainable do, hegrew meaner with age. Mean enough to kill a widow.
    Hatt, on the other hand,