Chocolate Cake and Margaritas Anyone?

"What have I done?" Kim sat looking out her kitchen window at the calm, iron gray water of Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Watching the lazy sailboats coming in for the day was always soothing for her in times of stress. Today, though, it couldn't provide the comfort that she was seeking.

Kim had just left the Harbor Passage funeral home. She had been making final arrangements for the funeral of her deceased husband, Lonnie. Lonnie had passed away at home three days ago. He had been complaining of his chest feeling tight all afternoon. At first it had seemed like indigestion and he hadn't wanted to go to the emergency room, despite Kim urging him to go. That evening, around 8:00, Lonnie had suddenly clutched his chest, cried out, and become unresponsive. Kim had immediately called 911, and had begun CPR. When the ambulance had arrived, they did everything to try and get his heart to beat, but he was gone. A partial autopsy had been done, and his death was ruled a natural death due to cardiac arrest. Lonnie had a history of heart disease.

Everyone was shocked and devastated. Kim had called her best friend, Cassie, and asked her to come right away. Cassie had dropped everything and immediately left her home in Otter Cliff, Maine. Otter Cliff is a little over three hours away, near Bar Harbor. She was expected to arrive at any time. The two had been friends for over thirty years, and knew everything there was to know about each other. Somethings they knew, no one else would ever know, it was better for their health that way.

This was not Kim's first time becoming a widow. Thirty years ago, Kim had discovered that her first husband, Bart, had been keeping a mistress that he met at work. Kim had filed divorce papers immediately, but before the divorce became final, Bart had been found in his bed with a gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled a suicide, and Kim had walked away with his $150,000 life insurance payout. Strangely, Bart had not yet changed his beneficiary. Lucky for Kim, Bart was a good liar, but a complete idiot when it came to business matters.

Last month, Kim's husband Lonnie had received a strange and unexpected text message. He had been in the bathroom when his phone alerted to a new message. Kim had picked it up and noted the message alert was from a number she didn't recognize. Considering that Lonnie's job involved him traveling most of the time, she didn't think much of it at the time. Then, when she told Lonnie he had a text, he had picked up the phone, and seeing who it was from, he had a strange look on his face, and suddenly found an excuse to leave the room to view it. Kim had instant red flags pop up in her mind.

When Lonnie had come back into the room, Kim had asked "who was that?". "Oh, it was a new guy from work. He wasn't sure, uh, how to run the new machine, so I'm going to go in and show him real quick." Lonnie hadn't looked her in the eye during the entire explanation. "No one else knows how to show him?", Kim asked suspiciously. "Um, I don't think so. I guess the other guy that knows how to do it is on vacation, or something."

Kim had let it go at the time, but made a note to get hold of his phone when he was sleeping that night. She knew he wouldn't catch her. Once he was asleep and snoring, a bomb going off wasn't likely to wake the man up.

Later that night, after they went to bed, Kim quietly got out of bed and grabbed Lonnie's phone off the bedside table. She crept downstairs and went into the living room. Lonnie didn't know, but she knew his password. She had seen him tap it in several times, and had memorized it. These were just some things a women picks up after being burned before. The betrayal and humiliation when a spouse cheats on you, is something that never leaves you. It becomes second nature to be wary and to never take something at face value. Kim had sworn she would never go through that again.

Kim opened Lonnie's phone and went straight to his text messages. When she saw what was written, she suddenly felt like her veins were filled with ice water. The text that had come in when Lonnie was in the shower said, "hey, I miss you. I thought you were coming over last night. I tried calling, but your phone went straight to voicemail.". Lonnie had responded, "I know. I'm sorry. I tried to get away, but Kim wanted to go out to eat last night, and I couldn't think of anything to get out of it. I promise to get there tonight. I miss you too." Kim thought back to the previous night when they had went out for Chinese. Lonnie had seemed quiet, but Kim hadn't been too worried about it because she knew he had been working quite a bit of overtime, and was probably exhausted. Now, she wondered had he really been at work, or had he been going to see the little tart that had sent him the text. Tonight, he had been gone for several hours, and then came up with the excuse that he had caught up on his work emails after showing the employee how to work the machine. Kim let it go.

Kim wrote down the number that had texted. There was no name attached to the number contact. The next day she had called Cassie and told her what was going on. Cassie took the number and told Kim she was calling it. Whoever it was wouldn't know Cassie's number, or trace it back to Kim. Cassie had called the number and had told the woman that answered that she was a government employee and was contacting people from the 2020 census that appeared to have a discrepancy in their recorded address, and the address that had already been on file. They were a little surprised when the woman didn't seem to find this odd, and answered Cassie with her name, address and verified the phone contact.

Cassie had come to Boothbay Harbor, and she and Kim had gone to the address the woman had given. They had driven through the neighborhood, and found a place to park a few houses down from the woman's address. Anytime someone had driven by, Cassie had put her phone to her ear as if she had pulled over to take a call. They had waited for a couple of hours before they saw the door open, and a woman looking to be in her thirties, came out and left in her car. Keeping a car length behind her, Kim and Cassie followed the woman to an Olive Garden that was tucked in behind the local mall. They watched as the woman left her car and walked over to a man waiting on a bench in the front of the restaurant. It was Lonnie. The two embraced, and walked hand in hand, into the lobby.

Kim had turned to Cassie and calmly said, "he is dead.". Cassie nodded her head. "Are you sure you want to go through this again? You were pretty upset when I shot Bart. I was afraid it was going to be the end of our friendship. You are the best friend I have ever had. If I do this again, I have to be sure we are still going to be ok." "We will be fine.", Kim had replied.

The morning of the Monday Lonnie died, Kim told him, "Cassie and David are in town. They are coming here for lunch. Any chance you can leave at lunch time and come eat with us?". "Hell yeah! No way I'm going to miss seeing my sexy man!". Kim laughed. Lonnie and David had a strange, and interesting relationship. They made plans for him to arrive at noon, and Kim said she would have some type of Mexican food ready for lunch. She knew the entire group loved Mexican, and it was something they all would agree on. "You can have one margarita can't you, even if you go back to work?", Kim asked. "Yeah, I can have one.", Lonnie replied. "No one will say anything. Just don't make them strong.". Kim had smiled to herself and thought, "oh, it will be strong alright.". Cassie was an ICU nurse and had pretty much unlimited access to all kinds of interesting, and deadly, medications. Medications that couldn't be found on toxicology reports. Medications that were easily disguised in alcoholic beverages like margaritas. It was going to be an interesting, and productive lunch date.

Cassie and David arrived a little before noon, and Lonnie soon followed. They sat down to a delicious lunch of chicken enchiladas, rice and beans, a slice of scrumptious chocolate cake for dessert, and, of course, the promised margaritas. The couples laughed and visited for a while. Cassie soon told David they had better head home, they had over a three hour drive, and she didn't want to get home too late because she had to work the next day.

About two hours after Lonnie had returned to work, he called Kim and told her he thought he was having heartburn from the Mexican food. Kim told him to take some Tums, he would probably feel better. When Lonnie got home from work, he told Kim he didn't want supper. He just couldn't shake this heartburn, and he thought his chest felt tight. Kim got him some ibuprofen and they went into watch some television. Soon after is when Lonnie clutched his chest, and the events of the evening cumulated in Lonnie's death.

Now, Kim sat looking out at the cove. "What have I done?", she asked again. She looked over at Cassie, who was sitting with her. "You haven't done anything.", Cassie told her. "That's why we do it the way we do. Now, six months from now, when David finally 'succumbs to his liver disease', I won't have done anything either. That's the way we planned it. I can't believe Lonnie finally gave us a reason to put our plan into action. What an idiot." The two women looked at each other. Each thinking of their plans for the life insurance money. They were finally going to see Ireland, maybe Germany and Italy too. There was no need to rush. Cassie had plenty of vacation time built up. Life was about to get very good indeed!

THE END

Casandra Lobberecht

July 16, 2021