Sins of the Fathers Read Free

placed both hands on her kitchen counter and announced to the pig, “This has got to stop. Anything would be better than this.”
    The pig smiled in sunny agreement. Perhaps he, like Katharine, failed to comprehend how much “anything” can cover.
    “I’m going,” she told him. “I’m going with Dr. Flo!”
    What she pictured was not Dr. Flo’s granddaddy’s grave. What she pictured was herself floating on wide Atlantic swells, away from decisions and choices and chaos. Excitement rose in her like bubbles in ginger ale. She had grown up in Miami and adored the sea.
    She dialed Dr. Flo’s number. “I’ll go with you on one condition. I’d hate to get that close to salt water without eating seafood, swimming in the ocean, and walking on the beach. If I can get my husband’s sister to let us use her cottage down on Jekyll Island, would you be willing to stay a couple of nights?” She held her breath.
    “We’re in the middle of a record heat wave,” the professor pointed out. “You won’t want to be out on the beach much. It was a hundred down there yesterday. I checked.”
    “We can look at the ocean from her air-conditioned living room, we can swim in the morning and just before the sun goes down, and we can take long walks on the beach after dark while sipping chilled wine. I’ll furnish the wine.”
    Dr. Flo hesitated for so long that Katharine thought she was going to refuse, but when she spoke, her voice throbbed with pleasure. “That would be marvelous. I no longer swim, but I love being near the sea.”
    “Bring your suit just in case,” Katharine advised. “The ocean should be like bathwater by now. You may get tempted.”
    Dr. Flo’s rich chuckle flowed down the line. “Warm or not, I don’t want to drown in it. I’ve had my three-score-and ten, but I still hope to live a few years longer.”
    Neither of them had any idea at the time how difficult that was going to be.

Chapter 2

    “Buiton’s res-i-dence.” The maid gave the last word its full three syllables, accenting the third.
    “Hey, Julia,” Katharine greeted her. “Is Posey there?”
    Julia’s voice dropped from formal to family in one second flat. “Hey, Miss Kat. She’s just leaving for her class. Lemme see can I catch her.” The phone hit the kitchen counter with a click. Katharine heard her booming voice progressing across the kitchen: “Miss Posey, oh, Miss Posey, Miss Kat’s on the line.”
    She got immediate results. “Sorry, I was already in the garage. I can’t talk but a minute. I’ll be late to class.”
    That didn’t worry Katharine. Her sister-in-law was invariably late, and she wouldn’t get out of shape missing an exercise or two. She went to aerobics every day, wearing a series of pastel spandex outfits with matching shoes. She even had matching headbands to hold back her lacquered blond curls. Exercise and Botox kept her looking a lot younger than her fifty-plus years, and people who met her were in danger of dismissing her as a pretty but aging bimbo unless they got a good look at her shrewd blue eyes.
    “The way Julia says, ‘She’s just leaving for her class,’ a stranger might think you’re a doctoral candidate instead of an aerobics fanatic,” Katharine teased, “but this won’t take but a minute. Is your beach cottage free for a couple of days? I’d like to go down tomorrow and take Dr. Flo Gadney.” Because they used it so seldom, the Buitons let a realtor rent out the house whenever he could.
    “Oooh-la-la. How’d you get so chummy with Dr. Flo?” Posey wasn’t an intellectual, but she appreciated Dr. Flo’s influence in Atlanta’s social and civic circles. She would enjoy dropping the information at various venues, “My sister-in-law is down at our place on Jekyll this week with Dr. Flo Gadney.”
    “We aren’t chummy, but she’s invited me to drive to the coast with her tomorrow. She has business down there and wants my advice on something.” Katharine dropped a modest