Blowout

the summer, a big barbecue at the house. The Barristers brought in all kinds of help. They really did it up right.”
    Savich, still rubbing Sean’s back, said, “So they approved of their firstborn son’s marriage?”
    “It appears so, but I can’t be sure. I’ll need to go deeper. The couple moved into the big house with the two brothers and the parents.”
    “Ouch.”
    “Wasn’t so bad. As you know from firsthand experience, that house is huge.”
    “You got any feel for how she got along with her brothers-in-law?”
    Sherlock turned to see him rocking slightly in his chair, Sean held tightly against him. She smiled. Such a familiar sight, it made her want to grin like a loon. She cleared her throat. “I’m reading between the lines in all this stuff—articles on the family, biographical info on the brother, everything the Pittsburgh office could pull together. The second brother, Derek was his name, was two years older than Samantha. He unexpectedly left home three months after Townsend and Samantha married. He joined the army, went to Vietnam and was killed within three months. The family was devastated.”
    “Do you think he had the hots for his brother’s wife?”
    “There’s no hint of anything like that, naturally, but it could explain his abrupt and unexpected departure. He was twenty-two, had just graduated from Penn State, was going to start training in his father’s bank, but he up and left and joined the army.”
    “How about the youngest brother?”
    “Jonathan. He was seventeen at the time, a senior in high school when Samantha and Townsend were married, and he remained living there until he went to Dartmouth that fall. He was a wild one, big into drugs—well, but a lot of people were back then.”
    Savich rose. “Give me a moment. Our boy is out. Let me go put him down.”
    When Savich came back, he leaned down and kissed the back of her neck. “What happened to Jonathan?”
    “He lives in Boston now. He’s very well-off, has three boys of his own, all married with children, and he’s still married to his first wife. He seems fine financially and psychologically, as in no public fits or aberrant behavior.”
    “Okay, the parents. What happened to the senior Barristers?”
    “Now that’s really strange. Both of them drowned in a boating accident on Lake Klister. That was one year to the day after Townsend married Samantha.”
    “Was there any suspicion at all of foul play?”
    “None that I’ve been able to see. One day they were there, hale and hearty, then the next day they were gone—there was no sudden storm or squall, nothing to explain why both of them fell out of their boat, other than talk of lots of booze. Evidently the senior Barristers liked their martinis, and they liked to be on the lake fishing while they drank—so it could be that simple. The belief is that one of them went overboard, the other went in to make a save, and both drowned.
    “Townsend took over everything. Problem is that Townsend wasn’t the businessman his father was. But Samantha was. She began taking over very quickly. Then she got pregnant in 1966 and gave birth to Austin Douglas Barrister on August 14, 1967. Within a year she was running the whole show. It appears from the records that Townsend Barrister became something of a drunk, was arrested a couple of times on DUIs—out of the local area, so it couldn’t be kept out of the regional press, but still he had enough influence to have the charges quashed.
    “It wasn’t in the local paper, naturally. Townsend also took up gambling, went to Las Vegas every two or three weeks.
    “On August 14, 1973, on the very same day that they’d been married, the same day the senior Barristers drowned, the same day Austin Douglas Barrister was born, Samantha died as well. There was a huge party for Austin on the grounds of the house, a big barbecue for his sixth birthday. Samantha was running around seeing to everything. Townsend was manning the bar, probably drinking pretty steadily, and everyone seemed to be having a good old time, until they found Samantha. Here’s a quote from the Blessed Creek Weekly Journal: ‘Samantha Barrister’s body was discovered on the floor of her second-floor bathroom at three o’clock in the afternoon by one of the guests, Mrs. Emmy Hodges, who said she’d wanted to use the facilities and thought that Samantha’s bathroom would be free. “She was lying in blood,” said Mrs. Hodges, “it was under her,