by Raven Snow
“She’s fine,” Rowen said quickly, trying to reassure him. “It’s just… I spoke to Ty.”
“Oh?” Shane’s eyebrows knitted together. There was a frown on his face like Rowen had suddenly started speaking a language he didn’t fully understand.
“I also had a talk with your great aunt. You know. Marnie.”
“Oh.” Shane looked down at his desk. His fist clamped tight around his stress ball. “It’s not… Whatever you think you know… It’s not like that.”
Rowen opened her mouth to say something but closed it just as fast. She hadn’t expected Shane to indirectly confirm anything so quickly. She had expected him to play dumb. Maybe he was a bad liar. Maybe he was just tired of hiding. Whatever it was, it looked like he was trying to work up the courage to get something off his chest. Rowen allowed him a considerable length of silence to do just that.
“Can I trust you?” asked Shane. There was a need in his voice. He wanted to tell Rowen something. The way his hand opened and closed around the stress ball was telling. “I know you run a paper, and I know we haven’t known each other that long… But you’re family. I can trust you, right?”
“I don’t run the paper,” Rowen said reflexively. “I work at it, but it’s not my highest priority right now.”
Shane nodded like that made sense. She had left out the part where she would need to go to the police if he told her anything too incriminating. Maybe that was what he wanted, because he didn’t bring it up either. His gaze did shift to Eric, however.
“I’m with her on this,” Eric assured her. “If she’s family, then I’m family.”
A sad smile tugged at the corner of Shane’s mouth. “That’s nice. You two… You make a good couple.” There was a wistful quality to those words. He envied what they had, perhaps. “All right,” Shane began, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know what you’ve heard—Well… I guess I have a pretty good idea of what you heard, of what you’re thinking. You said you talked to my aunt, didn’t you? Marnie?”
Rowen nodded.
“It’s not like she says. I mean, I don’t know what she said to you specifically, but she saw a different version of things back when my mother died.” Shane released the stress ball to dab at his eyes with the heel of his hands. The ball rolled off the table and he fumbled for it. Catching the thing, he crushed it between his hands again. “At the end there… She wasn’t my mother anymore. I mean, she was technically, I guess. She wasn’t really there, though. She was gone. It was just her body left. Even the doctors said so. She just lay in that hospital bed hooked up to all these machines keeping her alive. It was awful.”
“I’m sorry,” Rowen said into the silence that followed those words. She meant it too. She could feel the anguish coming off of him in waves. Even after several years it still affected him.
“It was hard on everyone,” Shane continued, as if Rowen hadn’t said anything. “Dad was there all the time. It was having a serious impact on his health. He spent all his time at her bedside, in those horrible hospital chairs. He’d talk to her, read to her, watch TV with her. He did all that stuff like she was still in there, like she was going to come back to us. And it was costing us a small fortune to keep her there. New tests every week for the doctor to tell us things we already knew. Dad insisted on those tests, though. He wouldn’t listen to reason.”
Rowen wasn’t sure she could have listened to reason either, not if it was Eric lying in a hospital bed. God, she hoped she never had to experience anything like Shane was describing. She didn’t say anything when Shane lapsed into silence this time. He was at the crux of his story now. Rowen had an idea as to where it was going, but it wasn’t her place to say the words for him.
“I couldn’t take it anymore.” Shane fixed his gaze upon the desk. “I’d convinced Dad to go home. I almost never managed that, but I had this time. I was there with Kate. She was grounded and Lacie was out of town. If I’d left Kate at home, she would have done all the things she was forbidden to do. Anyway… That night was really rough. Between Kate’s complaining and Dad calling, Marnie visiting, knowing there were all these bills… I didn’t mean for them to rule it medical malpractice. I hate to think I ruined someone’s career because of that, but… I couldn’t tell the truth. Kate was asleep on the sofa when it happened. At least, I thought she was. These days, I’m not so sure.”
Rowen reached out across the desk and placed a hand on Shane’s. “I get it.” She couldn’t say that it had been the right thing to do, but she did understand why Shane had felt the need. “What happened then?”
“Things got better for everyone. I hate to say it, but they did.” Shane shook his head. “That’s how things went sideways, I think. I should have sat Kate down, talked with her. Things… got out of hand.”
“How so?”
“I think you know what everyone suspects.” Somehow Shane was able to meet Rowen’s gaze this time. “Lacie has never been afraid to speak her mind. Sometimes you’re just better off when a family member passes. I couldn’t really say anything to that, knowing what I had done.”
“You think Kate was the one to meddle with your father’s medicine and change the thermostat the night Bertha died?”
“The medicine was confusing, and we asked her to check the thermostat before leaving.”
“So you don’t think she killed them?”
“I think… Maybe she let nature take its course.” Shane looked back down at the stress ball. He’d dug his fingers in so tight that there were holes in the foam.
“Even if she didn’t directly murder them, that’s still neglect.”
Shane nodded. It seemed he didn’t have it in him to argue with Rowen. “I’m not sure she saw it that way, and I think it’s my fault.”
Rowen started to object before realizing he might be right. His daughter had learned this sort of behavior, that both Lacie and Shane had rubbed off on her in their own ways. Someone should have said something. Done something. Anything. “You know I have to go to the police about this, right?”
Again, Shane nodded. Rowen had been afraid that he would get angry and point out her earlier promise. “I know,” he said with another sad smile. “Let me do it though, all right? It should be me.”
“You’re family.” Rowen reached across the table and gave Shane’s hand a squeeze. “It’s the least I can do.”
Epilogue
Rowen milled around in the courthouse lobby. She was bored but restless. Reginald and Lydia had both left her alone. Ros refused to enter the women’s bathroom and, taking a cue from her brother, Sara refused to enter the men’s bathroom. That left Rowen waiting with a handful of adoption papers. She regretted not offering to take Sara to the restroom in Aunt Lydia’s stead. Someone was going to call them back. She felt certain of that. Now that Lydia and Reginald had stepped out for a moment, someone would call them back. They would miss their appointment and be forced to come back on a different day. Who knew when that would be?
“Rowen?”
The sound of Rowen’s own name gave her a start. For a moment there her heart fluttered in her chest, telling her she had been right to be anxious. They were being called back and her aunt and uncle weren’t there. Realization hit her a mere moment later when she realized it was her first name that had been said and that the one saying it was Coreen Trainer.
Coreen looked much like she had the last time Rowen had seen her. She was dressed less warmly now as the cold weather had let up. She wore a red sweater instead. There was a stack of papers hugged to her chest. “Hey,” said Coreen, offering her half-sister a small smile.
“What are you doing here?” Rowen hadn’t seen Coreen in weeks. She immediately hated that she had phrased her question as she had, despite being caught off guard. “I just mean… I haven’t seen you around in a while.”
Coreen laughed. She relaxed into the laughter, like it had broken the ice a little. “Yeah. I left town with Desmond for a little while.” She stopped hugging the papers an
d raised them up with a flourish. “I’m back because of probate court. Lacie is really dragging her feet.” It was Coreen’s turn to regret her words. She cringed. “Not that I don’t get it. I didn’t like what little I saw of her, but I feel bad for her too now, I guess.”
“She’s not having an easy time of things.” Shane had gone to the police like he said he would. Kate had denied everything for a while, but that hadn’t lasted more than a few days. The way Shane explained it, she had met with a mental health professional that was doing her good. She was still in legal trouble. So was Shane. Rowen hoped they both got the help they needed. Thinking of Kate had made her thoughts turn to Coreen more than once. “I’m sorry about the last time we met.”
“So am I.” Coreen shook her head with a long, low sigh. “We should have lunch again, after all this is behind us.” She waved the papers again.
“It should go through eventually. It’s yours. I’m sorry I ever hassled you about the will.” Rowen had never talked to Coreen after using the Ouija board. She had never talked to her about what Stella said—not that Coreen would necessarily believe her. Most likely, she was still very much a skeptic.
“Yeah,” Coreen said the word slowly, not necessarily accepting Rowen’s apology. It was like she had something else she wanted to say, like Shane.
It was then that a thought occurred to Rowen. “Hey, do you know someone named Stella?”
“Hmm?” Coreen raised an eyebrow. The subject of their conversation had changed suddenly and she hadn’t been ready for it. “No, I don’t think so… We had a grandmother named Stella, but she died before we were born. She was, you know, Bertha’s sister.”
“Oh.” So, the voice insisting upon Desmond’s innocence had been his own mother. “Desmond was there that night, wasn’t he? After he left my Aunt’s house, after Bertha was dead? He never said anything because people would think he took the will and—”
“I don’t know that there was a will,” Coreen interrupted. “But I knew… I know he isn’t a murderer.” Her mood had shifted suddenly. Her words were angry, defensive, but there were tears in her eyes.
“I believe you,” Rowen assured her. Desmond wasn’t a good person. Maybe he had been once and maybe he would be again, but right now he was dragging Coreen down with him. He was all she had ever known. Rowen fought the urge to hug her half-sister. It was too soon for that. She smiled at her instead. “Maybe we should have that lunch today.”
Coreen discreetly wiped away her tears and smiled back at her. “That sounds like a great idea.”
