The next day, Ian wanted to see his mom, but he found out that she was spending the weekend with some friends. On Monday, he couldn't talk to her until she came back from work. That left him with time to kill before he could drive to see her.
He decided to use the time to fill in some gaps in his knowledge about Lorna Hayes. When Ian tried to talk to him again, his dad got upset and told him to leave it alone. Ian backed off and tried other sources. He poked around in the archives at the town library and did some research online.
Lorna's story was something he heard about all his life, but he never paid much attention to it. Now he knew it was his story, and he wanted to know it inside and out. His dad might want to keep him in the dark, but other people in town didn't know he was Lorna Hayes' son. They would talk.
Ian went looking for Mr. Vinik. He considered asking someone else this time, but he already gave him an excuse for wanting to know about Lorna. Ian didn't want to start from scratch with someone else. He wasn't in the mood for telling more lies.
At the same time, he wasn't ready to go around town and tell everyone that Lorna Hayes was his mother. His own reluctance did give him a taste of why his parents had kept this from him, but not why they kept the secret for this long.
He met up with Mr. Vinik at Carlton's again and bought him a beer. Ian still couldn't legally order a beer for himself, though he really wanted one. He sat there with coffee and asked Mr. Vinik to flesh things out a little more for him.
"I wanted to know more about what happened to Lorna Hayes. Can you tell me about her boyfriend?" Ian had read what there was in old newspaper articles, but that wasn't much.
"Don't you go writing about him," Mr. Vinik warned him. "His people have money. And his wife's people have even more money. They'll drag you into court so fast..."
"I won't. I'm just curious," Ian assured him, but his attitude did explain why he found so little about him in the old articles. "Was he definitely the child's father or was that just a rumor?" That piece of information was really important to Ian.
Mr. Vinik confirmed it. "The police made him take a DNA test, and sure enough, that baby was his. He wanted nothing to do with that kid though. None of his people did. They just wanted to wash their hands of the whole thing, throw out the baby with the bathwater, you could say. Lorna's grandmother was more than happy to have him. She was a sweet lady."
"What was his name?" Ian asked. He almost expected to hear his own name in answer.
"She called the baby Luke."
Ian nodded and took a sip of his coffee to cover his reaction. That had once been his name, not Ian.
"And the father's name was Kurt Dufresne, right?"
"Dufresne is right. That name right there explains a lot. Not one of the Dufresnes was any good," Mr. Vinik said, shaking his finger at Ian. "They were all money-grubbing bastards from way back. Kurt's father was a state senator, you might have heard of him, Randy Dufresne. One scandal after another."
Ian nodded, but the first time he came across his name was in the articles about Lorna's unsolved murder.
"He served a few months for embezzling from some charity. That and being a state senator are his two claims to fame. His son only did one thing. He married the only daughter of Harry Litchfield. You know who he is, I bet."
"Everyone does."
"Darn right. Dufresnes were rich once, not as much lately. But the Litchfields, they are filthy, stinking, disgusting rich, rich enough to make you puke." Mr. Vinik slapped the table. Then he took a swig of his beer and continued. "Kurt's family didn't want some illegitimate kid messing up his chances to marry into that kind of money. Still can't believe that Litchfield girl would want him after what happened to poor Lorna. But, hey, who can figure out the female mind. Sure as hell not me."
After that Ian got a few more pieces of information. It all added up to Kurt Dufresne as the most likely killer. The thought of it made Ian sick. He hated the idea that this man lived in luxury after having killed his birthmother.
Kurt now lived in Mapleview. That wasn't good news for Ian if he wanted to confront the man. Mapleview was an exclusive community with security at every gate. Ian was determined to go there, but he didn't know how he would get in.
Even as he drove to see his mom Monday afternoon, Ian tried to think of a way to get into Mapleview. By the time he parked in front of his mom's brownstone in Hershing, he hadn't come up with anything. She wasn't back from work yet, so he just sat on the steps and waited.
When she arrived, his mom got out of the car with a worried look. She took slow, careful steps toward him.
"Your dad?"
Ian got up. "He's the same. I just wanted to talk to you," he said, seeing now what she was thinking.
His mom slumped over a little and put her hand on her chest with relief.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," Ian told her as they went up the steps to her place.
The second they were inside, his mom put a hand on his shoulder and took off her heels. All his life Ian had been telling her, "Just wear normal shoes."
"These legs were made for high heels. Just look at them," she would tell him.
At that point, Ian did everything but check out his mom's legs. "Mom, stop being proud of your legs. It's weird."
"They're my best feature. Ask your dad," she had said when they were still married.
That's when Ian would groan.
Then his dad would say, "Don't worry, son. I love your mother for her brilliant mind."
Ian stood in the hallway of his mom's place, amazed at how happy they all were once. Was that real?
"What's wrong?" his mom asked him. Both her hands were on his shoulders now.
Ian met her concerned gaze and answered her with one name. "Lorna Hayes."
His mom flinched away from him.
"Is it so bad that I know?" Ian asked her, seeing her reaction.
She looked at him strangely for a moment, and Ian wondered if there was something about this that he didn't understand. Then his mom shook her head. "No. Your father told you?"
"He did, but only because I heard something that made me ask him about Lorna. How could you keep this from me?"
His mom looked regretful. "Let's go sit," she told him. "My feet are killing me."
Ian almost told her that thing about wearing normal shoes. Without saying anything, he followed her to the living room decorated in cream and light blue and a few distressed things here and there.
His mom sat down on the sofa with a sigh. Ian took a seat next to her.
"It's not easy to shake up someone's whole world, especially when it's your own child. You're asking me why we didn't find it easy to take away your peace of mind?"
"But once I was old enough..." Ian said.
"You were still my baby. Just like you're my baby now," his mom said with tears in her eyes.
Ian looked down. He wanted to be mad at her, but she made that really hard. All his life his mom had been like that – tickling him when he was about to throw a tantrum, drawing funny pictures for him when he was grouchy. Now she took his hand.
"We should have told you. We put it off too long," she told him and squeezed his hand. "This is the worst possible time for you to find out. I'm sorry."
"I know I have to take it easy on Dad," he assured her.
"You want something to eat?" she asked him.
"No. I want to go back to Dad. Sorry I surprised you," Ian said and got up.
"If you want to rant and rave, vent at someone, I'm here. OK?"
Ian hugged her instead. "I love you, Mom," he said and left.
The next evening, Ian found time to go see Jacob. It was after dinner. Toby was busy with kindergarten homework, and Ian was sitting with Jacob in the living room. The TV was on mute, its light flickering over them.
Ian had already kept Jacob updated. He texted him the broad strokes, now he was filling in the blanks.
"I know it's crazy to think that I can figure out who killed her after all this time," Ian said, shaking his head. "One of the things I found out was the reason Lorna was out there so late. It was ten at night when she died. Her grandmother told the police they had a fight. Lorna went for a walk. She liked to go up to the bridge, the one I showed you. By the time she was killed she must have been on her way back into town. She was eight months pregnant. That probably slowed her down."
"How did the killer find her on a road at night?" Jacob asked.
"It's the main road into town. If Kurt or someone from his family was coming to see her, they might have just spotted her on the side of the road."
"So it was a crime of opportunity? The killer just got lucky?" Jacob sounded skeptical, but it was the only explanation Ian could think of.
"I looked up what I could about the case online. There was some publicity about it, but not too much about Kurt being involved. I think the local papers were afraid of his family. From what I could find, he had a flimsy alibi. Two of his friends claimed he was hanging with them at the time, but they might have easily lied for him. The police could never place him anywhere near Blystone though. Other than proving he was my father, they didn't have a case against him." Ian shuddered thinking of it again. How could he do it? Maybe it wasn't him. Kurt's father maybe?
Seeing how upset he was, Jacob rubbed his back. "With all of that, I can understand not wanting to tell a little kid about what happened to Lorna and who might have killed her." Jacob sounded a little too reasonable for Ian's liking. Noticing the dirty look he was giving him, Jacob said, "Sorry. I'm just putting myself in your parents' shoes."
"But later on, when I was old enough to be able to handle it, they should have told me."
Jacob shook his head. "I wouldn't be able to tell a child the story of his birth if it was like yours no matter how old he was. I don't hear you announcing the news to all of Blystone," Jacob pointed out.
Ian only grumbled. Then he told Jacob what else he had been up to. "I did some research on where Kurt is now. He's living it up. I don't know what kinds of answers I can expect from him, but I'm going to go see him. Any ideas on how I can get into Mapleview?"
"Mapleview." Jacob whistled. "I don't like your chances. Maybe try approaching him somewhere else."
Ian had been looking into that as well. "A bunch of companies have Kurt Dufresne listed as a board member. A board meeting is scheduled for next week at this commercial real-estate firm. If I stake out the place, I might catch Dufresne coming out from the meeting. But I didn't want to wait till next week."
"It's a better option than trying to get past security at Mapleview. Unless you think having security tell Dufresne his son is at the gate, will get you in?"
"I'm pretty sure that would keep me out, not get me in. I guess I'll have to wait till next week. Damn."
"Did you say a bad word," Toby asked. He had sneaked up on them. He was standing there holding a drawing.
"Want to show me your drawing?" Ian asked to sidestep the issue of the bad word.
Toby looked very excited about it. He ran over to Ian and showed him... something. Or three things? Thank God he identified them before Ian had to ask. "It's the horses!"
"Oh. Very nice. And those are stars." Ian pointed to the very big stars surrounded by dark blue lines. "I'm taking a picture of it. I'm going to show my dad." While Jacob admired the drawing, Ian got out his phone.
"You think your dad will like it?" Toby asked.
"Sure he will," Ian said as he snapped a few pictures of it.
"Give it to him," Toby said and offered Ian the drawing.
"Thank you," Ian said and gave him a hug.
Toby looked very happy. Ian decided to take some pictures of him holding the drawing. Toby smiled, held the drawing in one hand and waved with the other.