AFTER CLOVIS DID a quick reconnaissance sweep and left, I suggested to Beth that we both go to bed, but she would have none of it. The throb in my leg was becoming more insistent, but rather than take a pill, I filled my wine glass and told Beth I was self-medicating. She rolled her eyes, but didn’t scold.
I sank into one of the comfortable chairs and propped my sore leg up on the coffee table. Beth sat on the sofa with her legs tucked under her. I figured she wanted to talk about the wedding announcement, but she threw me a curve.
“That Brenda’s a hottie,” she said, smiling with guileless innocence. “What did y’all talk about before we got there? Are you going to see her again?”
“We talked a little, mostly about the hotel.”
“Do I have to drag it out of you?”
“If you don’t mind, I find talking to you about her a little awkward. I don’t know what to say. Yes, I do find her attractive. But that’s it.”
“Dad, it’s okay if there’s more to it. It’s been long enough! It’s okay to start looking. It means you’re moving ahead, getting a life.”
“You do know that I don’t need your permission.” It was both a statement and a question.
“Of course you do.” We both laughed at that. Most men don’t need to consult their daughters about their personal relationships. I knew she meant well, but I always got antsy when Beth brought up the subject of women, and tonight was no exception.
It had been three years since Angie had died. Friends in DC were always trying to set me up, and I’d taken a couple of women out more than once. They were nice enough, but Angie had been the only woman I ever wanted or needed. Yet I had to admit that Brenda had started me thinking. Although I doubted she’d given me a second thought.
Beth took pity on me and changed the subject. “I talked to Jeff a while ago. He’s worried. Your near miss already made the Internet, and he thinks I need to come back to school. I told him about Paul and Clovis, but he didn’t buy it.”
“If I were Jeff, I’d be worried too. I know I am! Clovis says you’re safer staying here, but I think he wants to keep all his chicks near the nest. I’ll talk with him again tomorrow. I love having you here, but the first and foremost consideration has to be your safety. Look, honey, I didn’t expect any of this. I thought I could get Woody a lawyer and we could just go home. Usually I can get my arms around the issues in a case and come up with a game plan pretty quickly. But it’s not that simple this time. For one thing, this is a murder case, and it’s Woody. The issues are blurry and the facts make no sense. We also have one huge problem—the elephant in the room.”
“The elephant?”
“Woody shot Russell on national TV. We all saw it. It’s hard to get past that elephant, no matter why he did it. We all want to make sense out of what he did, but you can’t get around the crime itself.”
“So the ‘why’ doesn’t matter?”
“It only matters if it can reduce a sentence or prove that he was insane at the time. If that’s the case, he might get sent to a mental institution instead of prison.”
“Do you think he was insane?”
I’d thought about what Woody had said to me. If the sheriff hadn’t interrupted us, I would have asked him if he had been about to take his own life. And if so, why? He said that he wanted to shock Russell, but the gun went off. If that were true it might mitigate the punishment, but it wasn’t insanity. The part that troubled me even more was why Woody would want to kill himself, if that was in fact his plan, and why he needed to shock Russell in the first place.
“No, I don’t think he was insane, but I really don’t know enough yet. I need to get some sleep. Hopefully I can wake up with a clear mind in the morning and concentrate on what I came here to do.”
“Can I ask you one more question?”
“Sure.”
“The nurse said that, after all you’ve been through, this would seem like nothing. What did she mean? I’ve wondered about your scars, but you never wanted to talk about them, so I stopped asking.”
Maybe it was the wine that loosened my tongue, or maybe it was just time to tell her. “The short answer is, something did happen a long time ago. The scars represent a part of what happened, but there’s a lot more to the story. Let me do what I can do to help Woody and Helen, and then, I promise you, before we leave Little Rock, I’ll answer your question. Okay?”
“I guess so,” she said reluctantly. She appeared to mull it over a bit and then said, “Let me help you change that bandage.”
“It won’t gross you out?”
Again with the rolling eyes, “Remember that EMT training I had in high school? You’re lucky you have me here.”
“That I am. The bandages are in the sack the nurse gave me. It should be in my room.”
Watching her change the bandage, I mused, “Well, we’ve certainly had some excitement this weekend. You got to meet Helen, I was almost run over, and we’ve been invited to a wedding in London, not to mention the whole Woody thing, which I can still hardly believe. We can’t say it’s been a boring trip.”
“There you go, all done. I’m just glad you’re okay. It sounds stupid, but in a way, this has been pretty cool. I feel like I have you back.”
“What do you mean?”
“I love you, Dad, you know that, but you needed a change. You’ve been mourning Mom and just … going through the motions for so long, with everyone—with me, even. If she could, Mom would say the same thing. Now suddenly you’re dodging cars, yelling at the press, making new friends, and you’ve even noticed a woman. It’s enough to make me bet you’ll find a way to help Woody.”
“All things considered, I’d rather be flying off to Napa with the lovely Ms. Warner.”
“Whoa,” she said, “TMI!”
“Go to bed. I love you.”