“Hey, Carol, can you remind me how you met Joe? I was trying to remember earlier today but was murky on the details.”
She paused while wiping down a plate, looked up at me, and actually smiled. “I was one of his first clients after he’d moved to Vancouver and opened his law practice.”
“That’s right. Why did you need a lawyer again?”
“I was waitressing at this little café not far from where he’d rented an office. We had an instant connection. He came in every day for about a week and made sure to always sit in my section. I kept thinking he was going to ask me out, but he took his sweet time. Well, I got fired from that café because the owner got handsy with me, and I wouldn’t put up with him. Then he stiffed me my final paycheck. I guess Joe got word of what happened, tracked me down through another waitress, and knocked on my door. I lived in this really dumpy garage apartment. I was so embarrassed. I was dirt poor back then. My father had left when I was just a kid, and my mom struggled with alcohol while I was growing up. I’d basically been on my own since I was sixteen, barely able to make ends meet. Joe was my knight in shining armor. He offered to help me legally with getting me my final paycheck and possibly even more. When he was done threatening legal action with the café owner, I had more than six months’ worth of pay to carry me through for a while. But I never needed it. Joe and I fell for each other and quickly got married.”
“That must’ve been a whirlwind.”
She smiled again. “Those early years were definitely a wonderful whirlwind. Joe was so charming and such a free spirit. We moved around a lot the first couple of years. We went all over, never staying in one place for very long. Joe only wanted to rent for a while so we were never too tied down.” She kind of chuckled. “We even moved overnight one time.”
This caught my interest. “Why?”
“Joe came home one day and just said it was time to go. He told me he found this cute little place to rent in a town about two hours away. He really wanted it. But we had to go the very next morning, or we’d probably lose it.”
“Why the rush?”
“I don’t know. He was just urgent about it. We spent all night packing up our things and were on the road by sunup the next day. It was crazy back then but exciting. There was always something new around the corner. But then two things happened around the same time that made us settle down. I got pregnant with Taylor. And my mom, who had come down to Texas with her loser boyfriend, got really sick. We made the move here so I could care for my mom. Joe didn’t really want to move back to Texas, but he did it for me. My mom probably lived several more years than she would have without me here with her. So I felt blessed by that.”
I decided to probe more aggressively. I didn’t have all night to dance around this. I knew Taylor would be hollering down for me shortly.
“Carol, when y’all were in Canada, did you know a guy named Daniel Gibson?”
I watched her very closely to see if there was any hint of recognition. Had Joe told her about his other life? But Carol didn’t flinch. “No, that name doesn’t sound familiar.”
Joe had kept that secret from Carol for more than thirty years. Why? It seemed cruel to me. But did my father-in-law have a good reason?
“What about someone named Greta Varner?”
This time I got a definitive response. A quick flash of her eyes that let me know Carol recognized the name. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
“Who is she?”
Carol sighed, took a glance down the hallway toward the stairs, as if she was making sure no one else could hear our conversation. “Just someone from Joe’s past.”
“Carol?”
“Greta was Joe’s first wife.”
I tried to feign surprise, even though I’d already made this discovery. “Joe was married before you?”
Carol nodded. “Just briefly.”
“Did you know that before you got married?”
She shook her head. “No, I found out a few years later. I was cleaning out his dresser one day when he was at the office, and I found a wedding band in a small jewelry bag with a date engraved inside. When I confronted him, he admitted it was his and said it was all a big mistake. And he was too ashamed to tell me about it.”
So Carol was not completely in the dark. But she didn’t seem to know that Joe was married to Greta under the name Daniel Gibson.
“Did you ever meet her?” I asked.