Dealing from the Bottom of the Deck
Just when you think you’ve failed your son, he’ll prove that he’s made of the right stuff. ~From the Mother’s Survival Diary of Melinda D.
Rabbit reeled inwardly at Nate’s bold words. No, he wouldn’t believe it. The kid was taking the heat for his mother again like he had at the park. No way had he shot and killed a man. He didn’t have it in him to take a life.
“Did you ever shoot anyone?” Nathan’s words the day they’d played basketball. The conversation returned like a punch in the center of Rabbit’s chest. The question about whether it hurt to get shot.
And the incident on the beach when they’d found the kayak. It hadn’t been just Rabbit ducking the explosions of the firecrackers. The boy had crawled behind a rock and stayed there, trembling, until Rabbit had brought him down from the ledge. The boy showed all the signs of a vet with PTSD, and Rabbit had missed them.
Oh, man… Rabbit’s knees buckled, and he dropped back into his chair.
Nate crossed the room and sat on the edge of the wicker love seat.
“Tell me what happened,” croaked Rabbit. His throat felt like it had sand in it. Why hadn’t he snagged a can of soda? He split a glance between boy and mom. “And this time, don’t leave anything out.”
“I was asleep,” began Lin. Her tear ravaged face seemed to have aged a decade in the past half hour.
Rabbit shook his head and held up a hand, stopping her. Hers wasn’t the story he wanted — needed to hear.
“It’s okay, Mom.” Nathan spoke quietly, with the dignity befitting an adult. He faced Rabbit. “I was walking to school when I saw Grandpa Weston driving real slow down our street. He always weirded me out. I hid in some bushes until he passed. Then I cut through the neighbor’s yard and went home.” He swallowed hard but quickly pressed on. “I knew Mom was going to try to sleep. I didn’t see him outside, so he must have let himself in. When I got in the house, JR was screaming, and Mom was crying. And Grandpa Weston was talking, saying real mean things. He said he could take JR right then and no one would blame him. He—” The kid choked. His face turned red and he visibly struggled for the next words.
“He was touching me,” continued Lin. “He said he could take what he wanted right there, but if I did it…” She drew a shuddering breath. “If I slept with him willingly, maybe let him send a few friends over… if I… if I c-co-cooperated…” She gulped. “If I did what he wanted, he’d make sure Doris left me alone about the c-c-custody.”
Bile rose in Rabbit’s throat. He’d witnessed more than his share of brutality, but it had never been so personal. He caught and held Nate’s gaze. “What did you do?”
“They didn’t see me. So I went into Uncle Jeff’s study and opened his safe. I got his gun and loaded it.” Nate sat up straighter. His voice took on a deadly sort of calm. “I thought I could just scare him away. But when I got back up there, he had Mom by — by the hair. He was holding her head back and telling her he could make it look like someone broke in and — and…” His jaw clenched and his ragged breathing came in harsh bursts. “He said he could kill her and no one would blame him because they thought he was away on business. It would look like a stranger did it, and he and Grandma Weston would end up — would get me and JR.” The kid’s voice broke as he stared at the revolver on the table.
Rabbit’s hands ached. Glancing down, he noted he’d balled them into fists. And his own breathing wasn’t too steady. No woman should have to go through that. No child should hear those things said to anyone, let alone his mother. Slowly, he regained control, unfurling his fists.
“I yelled at him.” Tears brimmed in Nate’s eyes, and he blinked furiously, but he didn’t stop speaking. “I yelled at him to get off my mom. He turned around, told me to get to school. I aimed the gun at him and he laughed. Told me I wouldn’t do it, that I was as gutless as — as my dad after being blown to bits.” The kid stopped fighting the tears, and they cascaded down his face, quickly saturating the front of his white T-shirt.
Lin reached for Nathan’s hand but he evaded her touch and settled his gaze on Rabbit instead. Her lower lip might have quivered but she sank her teeth into it and nodded once.
Never had Rabbit felt so over his head. He’d helped scared lance corporals face their first deployments, spoken words of comfort to units that had taken heavy casualties. But what could he say to a boy who’d been intentionally emotionally savaged?
“When did you pull the trigger?” Rabbit asked with as much gentleness as he could muster.
“He still had my mom by her hair and he p-pulled her off the bed by it. Then he dropped her on the floor and started coming for me. Mom screamed, and the gun went off. It just — went off. And when I looked down, Grandpa Weston was just layin’ there. His shirt had blood all over his shoulder and more was running out.” He shivered. “Mom came over and picked up the gun. She made me go change and take a shower.”
“Was he killed instantly?” Rabbit glanced at Lin for the answer.
A solitary tear rolled down her cheek as she shook her head and spread her hands. “I didn’t check at first.” Her voice shook. “He was down and not moving. I sent Nate to change while I got JR out of the room.”
“I killed him,” whispered Nate.
And your mother covered for you. Rabbit pushed to his feet. He could only hope his rubbery legs would hold him. Somehow, the strength came to him, and he laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong, kid.”
When Lin spoke again, her voice was little above a whisper. “I came back, and Evan was breathing and moaning. I put a towel against the wound, and that seemed to slow down the bleeding. He opened his eyes and cursed me out, but h-he didn’t get up. I thought h-he’d be okay for a few minutes longer. I threw Nate’s clothing in the washer. When he got out of the shower, I sent him to school with a note that we’d overslept,” Lin said in a small voice. “I got Nathan out of there. I couldn’t let them treat him like a criminal. But when I went upstairs again, he — Evan wasn’t breathing anymore. And he’d started bleeding again. I don’t know if he tried to move or… what. B-blood was everywhere.” She swallowed hard. “I panicked. I read once that they need a weapon to make murder charges stick. So I hid the gun in my neighbors’ garage. Then I called the police and told them I found Evan when I got out of the shower.”
Heaving a sigh, Rabbit turned to face her. “I’m guessing they didn’t believe you.”
Her lips twisted into a wry smile. “They told me not to leave town.”
And no wonder. He’d read the reports that were available to him. Nothing about her story matched the evidence except the fact that possibly she’d been in the bed at some point, and the man had been shot from the direction of her bedroom door. He had to go over the reports again. The feeling that he was missing something wouldn’t be shaken off. The back of his neck itched, and he studied her as he rubbed it. Her face had gone ashen, but her mouth was set in a determined line. She’d do anything to protect her kids, ill advised or not, and she’d take off with them again if she felt Nathan would end up in jail.
“You can’t run anymore,” he said, dropping his hand.
She pushed to her feet. Bright red invaded her cheeks. “I won’t let them take Nate away.”
“Mom… please…”
“Nate’s not going anywhere.” Rabbit said decisively. “But you have to stop running. Look at him. He can’t live like this. You’re stealing his future just by running away, keeping him in hiding. What kind of life is it to always be looking over his shoulder?”
Her breath caught in a sob.
His heart tugged, but he was done with the kid gloves. “Now, we’re going to retain the services of an attorney, and you’re going to turn yourself in. There’s no warrant for you, but you’re being sought for questioning in a suspicious death.”
Lin’s jaw dropped. “What… How do you know that?” she sputtered. She was angry, but her eyes held something that might have been hope for the first time since they’d sat down.
An old adage about facing the music popped into Rabbit’s head. He had to suppress the urge to laugh, which told him he was nearing exhaustion. “I did some checking after I found the revolver. I spent most of last night reading up on your case.”
“You knew? You knew all this last night and you went out with us today? Let me think everything was okay?” Her voice edged on hysteria.
Rabbit held up a hand in a stop gesture. “I didn’t have all the pieces. I had no idea how involved Nathan was.” He glanced at the kid and winced at his stark white face. Was he going into shock? “Come on. Let’s go inside and sort this out.”
Lin stiffened, so he draped an arm around her shoulders and let Nate lead them inside. She had no choice but to follow.
* * * *
“That man… Mr. um… Dickson?” Lin frowned. The name didn’t even sound familiar.
Peter nodded. “Dickson, yeah.”
“Do you think Trevor sent him? Or Doris?” Lin plucked a chip from her plate and crumbled it into dust.
“I got the feeling he was looking for someone,” murmured Trish. She and Peter shared a glance. “Not for a place to stay and he never mentioned any dog.”
“Then we have to assume he’s connected, that he’s found us.” Lin sighed. “He’ll call the police.”
“Then we’ll call them first,” said Pete in that maddeningly calm tone he’d affected over the last hour. Was he ever rattled? By anything?
They sat, six adults and a thirteen-year-old, around the shiny black kitchen table, half-eaten hotdogs on paper plates pushed to the center, surrounding Nick’s pistol like a fort. Peter had handed off Jeff’s revolver — murder weapon, she reminded herself — to Nick, who had briefly disappeared, presumably to lock it in a safe place. He’d returned with a laptop and opened it on the table in front of him. Trish doodled on a yellow legal pad, making spiral designs along the edges of the paper in blue ink.
Lin stole a sidelong glance at Peter as he glanced at Trish’s pad and nodded when she circled a word. Hard to tell from his expression what he thought, but he seemed to have settled into the leader role.
Nick’s computer beeped, and he cursed, earning a glare from his wife.
As they talked strategies and contingency plans, Lin felt as though she had lost all control over her life. But if she was being honest, she’d lost any semblance of control the moment she’d strapped her baby in the car seat and taken off into a life of running with her children.
She had become the interloper. The problem relative sent to the country for distant cousins to deal with. Only the people surrounding her were of no relation. And it wasn’t up to them to fix her life.
“I have to go back,” she whispered. Waves of dread licked at her nerves, chilling her from the inside.
“I hate to bring this up…” Trish rolled her lips inward for a moment but then took a deep breath and pushed on. “What about JR?”
Lin’s stomach knotted and threatened to toss back the two bites of hotdog she’d put in it. “I can’t take her back there. They’ll take her away, give her to Doris.”
Ashley swiveled in her seat and faced Peter. “If she’s not under arrest or charged with anything, can she sign JR over to someone? Temporary custody?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s family law. I have no clue about it.” He twisted his head to capture Lin’s gaze. “I think you should consider it, though. If you know someone who’ll take responsibility…?”
Lin’s world tilted under his stare. He thought it was going to go bad. She sagged into her seat and shook her head. “There’s no one. I have no one.”
“You have me and Dan,” said Trish.
“Absolutely,” echoed her husband. “Get that in motion first thing Monday, before you contact Mason PD.”
“This your visitor?” Nick spun his laptop, aiming the screen at Trish.
Angling her head, Trish squinted. “It might be.”
With narrowed eyes, Pete leaned in. “Yep,” he said after a cursory glance. “That’s dog man. John Dickson Investigations, Cincinnati, Ohio. Huh. Right area.” He stepped aside, giving Lin a view of the computer. “He look familiar?”
The man in the picture looked about her age. He wore a white and red sports jersey and a crimson Cincinnati Reds ball cap pushed back on his head to reveal an engaging smile. Longish brown hair shot at unkempt angles from beneath the cap. He might have been anyone’s dad about to take a kid to a ball game. But she couldn’t recall ever seeing him.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” Struggling to put the voice she’d heard at the B and B with his face in the picture, she leaned closer, brushing against Pete’s arm.
Unexpectedly, he flipped his hand over and captured hers, lacing their fingers together. With a started gasp, she angled her head back. Their gazes collided like a bolt of lightning, and he smiled. Some of the ice winding through her veins thawed.
Ashley yawned and stretched. Then she nodded at the end of the table. Nate had laid his head down and closed his eyes. An occasional light snore mixed in with his deep, even breathing. In his hand, he still clutched the last bite of a hotdog.
More of the ice melted. Lin had no idea how it would all work out, but somehow it had to. She sighed. It just had to.
“We’ll fix this,” murmured Peter in her ear. “We have to. Failure isn’t an option.” How had he known the exact right thing to say with such perfect timing?
After another squeeze of her hand, he released her and stepped over to Nathan. “Hey, kid, come on. You need to hit the pillows.”
With a sharply indrawn breath, Nate raised his head and squinted around the room. “What?”
“Up you go. You get to camp in the living room with Dan and me.” Pete tapped Nathan’s shoulder. “Your sleeping bag awaits.”
Cammie stood and stretched, ending on a yawn and a tiny squeak. Rubbing his left eye with the heel of his hand, Nate stumbled behind the two men as they left the room. Without a backward glance, the dog took up the rear.
“I get the man-chair,” announced Dan.
“I get the other man-chair,” echoed Nick, pushing away from the table. He exchanged a glance with his wife as he lifted his pistol from the center of the table.
“You two want to bunk in the nursery?” asked Ashley. “Or share a tub of ice cream in the master bedroom with the monitor on?”
Trish grinned and stood. “I’m up for the ice cream if you have strawberry.”
“Hmmm, I don’t…” Ashley walked to the black refrigerator and tugged open the door. “But I do have vanilla ice cream, bananas, chocolate, and whipped cream.”
“Close enough!” Trish headed for the steps.
Lin hesitated. “Can I— Can I come up in a little bit? I need some air.”
One of Ashley’s fine blond eyebrows rose. “I guess it’s been kind of an emotional night for you, huh?”
Lin nodded. “If you’re worried that I’m going to run—”
Ashley giggled. “I’m worried about a lot of things. You running and leaving your kids behind isn’t one of them.” She pointed to the back door. “I don’t advise leaving the deck. Once the solar lights go out, it’s hard to find your way back.”
The lights strung along the railing were already dimming as Lin stepped outside. The breeze had died down but humidity clung in the air. Across the beach came the gentle lullaby of the waves lapping against the shore.
She leaned against the deck railing and closed her eyes, pulling in a deep breath and releasing it slowly, willing her muscles to relax.
A pair of strong arms braced themselves on either side of hers on the railing, and she stiffened. “Do that again,” murmured Pete against the back of her neck.
“What?” Lin tried to turn but he was pressed against her, trapping her.
“Shh,” he whispered. His breath warmed her skin and sent arrows of awareness darting through her veins. “Just breathe. Half the time you forget to. So just breathe. In… out… Let it all go, just for a little while.”
Lin’s muscles tensed for an all new reason, but she couldn’t admit to that. So she opted for choice number two. “I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth from the start.”
“You’ve told me now. That’s all that matters.” He nuzzled her neck. “I’m going to be here for you, Lin.”
It seemed the most natural thing in the world to allow her head to loll back against his chest — that warm, tautly muscled wall of strength she wished could always be there. She shivered and he wrapped his arms around her.
“Want to go inside?”
She shook her head. “No… I— I can’t breathe in there. I know everyone means well but—” Realizing how that sounded, she blew out an exasperated breath and laid her hands on top of his at her waist. “I’m not trying to sound like the most ungrateful person in the world. I just want to stay out here a little longer.”
“Then let’s.” Without releasing her, Peter turned them around and started walking toward a padded chaise lounge deck chair.