Vic and Brad went to the basement bar for a drink, while Jason went up to suite eighty-five to see his mother in law. On arrival he found Glenda to be agitated. “Mum, you don’t seem to be yourself, is it Malinda’s passing still troubling you, I’m again trouble now I see you, so could be visa versa, god I loved her mum?”
“I will never get over that. It’s something else, something only her and I knew. She wanted that you never were to know, with what’s happened I think you must be told.”
“Nothing you tell me will make me love her any less than I do. If you’re worried about that then, don’t be.”
“She was embarrassed about her own selfishness I believe. She wanted everything when she was young, fame, money and she wanted you. You had everything she wanted except money and she loved you so much. She wanted no one else’s child but yours. You must think back to where you were around the seventh of November eighty-eight.”
“I wouldn’t remember mum, dates and times were never important to me then, I just played the next gig.”
“I would suggest you were in Sydney with a band, Malinda saw the band advertised and knew you were in it. She told me how she planned to go to the show disguised as much as she could. She had some professional people make her up. I know she told me she put her hair up and wore a blonde wig. She was devastated when you chose to take another girl away with you, although she had not confronted you at that time. She didn’t give up and followed you to your hotel, it was in Darlinghurst. You waited in the foyer of the hotel while the girl went across the street to a chemist. Malinda confronted her there saying she was your wife and what did she think she was doing with you. The girl fled from the chemist and ran off down the street. She then went to the foyer and told you that a girl in the chemist across the street had left a message with her to give to you, before she had walked off towards Kings Cross. Do you remember any of this?”
“Yes ... She handed me a piece of paper saying, sorry, changed my mind. She had blonde curly hair and was wearing glasses. We had a couple of drinks in the foyer bar, then went up to my room. We made love several times during the night. When I woke in the morning she was gone. There was something about her touch, I never saw her body, it was dark all the time.”
“So it’s true, she told me that was what she had written on the note she gave you. She wrote it herself. How old is Tammy?”
“You know she’s seven in two day’s time on the seventh of July.”
“How long is it from early November to early July?”
“Well it’s er... nine months.”
“Jason, Tammy really is your daughter, she was conceived that night.”
“She said Tammy was her first husband’s.”
“Her first husband was in America from early October to late December that year. When Tammy was born he worked it out for himself. They had been separated for a few months, when he crashed his light plane in California and was killed. Malinda was about to file for divorce. An investigation into the crash found nothing wrong with the plane. He was also under scrutiny from the FBI for some reason. Some say he committed suicide; Malinda seemed to think that was the case.”
“She could have told me.”
“After all this she was ashamed of herself, especially when she got tangled up with Morgan against her father’s will. Her father John, he suffered a lot while she was with Morgan. Some of his opponents in Canberra tried to use her association with Morgan to bring him down in Parliament, John only just managed to survive.”
“I’ve always felt so close to Tammy, we can hear what each other is thinking when we are close together. I’m so glad you told me this mum, it’s answered a question I had about something I read not long ago. A simple blood test to match our D.N.A. should clear this up so I can tell Tammy the truth.”
“That won’t be necessary. Malinda left Tammy’s birth certificate in a safety deposit box in our vault at home. I was sorting things out there last week and found it with some other valuables she had left with us. Here are the things; the birth certificate is in here.”
Jason opened a brown envelope bearing the Australian coat of arms in the left hand corner. It contained a birth certificate giving this information.
Name of mother: McDonald, Malinda Jade.
Name of father: Brinkly, Jason Robert.
Name of child: Tammy Malinda Jade.
Jason looked up from the certificate into Glenda’s eyes. “So much suffering for this. There is a reason, I’m not completely sure of it yet, but things seem a little clearer now. Thank you so much mum.” Jason took the box of valuables under his arm. He asked Glenda to join him in the bar for a drink. She declined as she was tired and had an early flight on the morning. Jason spoke briefly of Geoff Harrison and how he had agreed to join his organisation on the board. Glenda was pleased Geoff had accepted his offer, but thought John her husband would object. She informed Jason that Geoff had been a part of John’s law firm for some years and he could expect some dissatisfaction from him. He bid her farewell and joined Vic and Brad in the bar. He immediately ordered three large cigars from the barman and thrust one each in Brad and Vic’s mouths. He held one in between his teeth but didn’t light it.