by Maisy Morgan
“You’re quite all right. You have such a lovely home, Jaden,” Mary said.
“Right…” she said, dazedly heading over to the breakfast nook and sitting down. She had poured herself a cup of coffee, and she offered them one as well, but they both turned it down, not wanting her to jump back up again.
“How are you holding up?” Mary asked as she sat down across from the woman.
“As well as to be expected, I suppose,” she said, glancing off towards an archway that led into the family room. “Bradley, I think… well… I don’t think it’s sunk in with him just yet. He’s in there playing a video game. I feel awful. I yelled at him this morning for playing it too loud—my nerves are shot. I don’t need to be yelling at him right now. If he needs to cope by pretending nothing’s wrong, I suppose I need to let him.”
“Do you mind if I go say hello to him?” Mary asked.
“I’m sure he won’t mind,” Jaden said, waving her hand in the direction of the archway. “He adores your grandson, you know.”
Mary smiled and thanked the woman before getting up and slipping away from the breakfast nook. As promised by his mother, Bradley was seated on the floor in front of the television, engrossed in a video game. However, he must have caught sight of her in the reflection in the television because he politely paused the game and spun slightly on the floor to look at her. “Hey, Ms. Hopkins,” he said politely. “What are you doing here? Is Tripp with you?”
“No, Tripp got stuck manning my shop for me for a bit,” Mary said. “I wanted just to come in and check on you. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” he said, shrugging. “Everyone keeps asking me that, but I’m okay.”
“It’s okay if you’re not,” Mary said.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “I don’t know. I feel weird. I feel like I should be crying or something. I mean, I did a little bit yesterday, but I feel like I should have had some sort of big… I don’t know… blubbering fest or something. I feel kind of crummy about it, and I think it’s getting to Mom that I’m not… I don’t know… more upset acting…”
“Everyone reacts to these sorts of things differently, Bradley,” Mary said. “You don’t need to feel bad about how you’re coping.”
Bradley smiled slightly at her. “Thanks. I’m sure it’ll hit me later, or at least that’s what Mom keeps saying.”
“I’m sure it will,” Mary said. “But, when it does, just don’t shut yourself off. Talk to people. It helps.”
“You seem like you know what you’re talking about,” Bradley said, sitting up a bit straighter.
“Well, I’m a little older than I would like to admit,” Mary said. “It’s hard to get to my age and not have lost at least a small handful of people you care about.”
“You don’t seem that old to me,” Bradley said. “My grandma is in a wheelchair because of her arthritis. You look closer to my mom’s age than hers.”
Mary laughed. “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, I suppose.”
“You just don’t really look like someone’s grandma,” Bradley said. “I don’t mean to be nosey, but why does Tripp live with you and not his parents?”
“I think that’s a question for Tripp,” Mary said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Bradley said, shrugging. “Sorry.”
Mary sat herself down on the edge of the couch. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? About your dad, I mean?”
Bradley instantly looked uncomfortable. “Um… yeah, sure….”
“Have they told you what they found? The crime scene unit, I mean?” Mary asked.
“Mom told me,” Bradley said. “Someone stabbed Dad before shoving him off the roof.”
“Yes,” Mary said. “I suppose I want to know if you’ve ever heard or seen anything. If there is someone who would want to hurt your dad?”
“No,” Bradley said sharply.
“Do you know why he was up on the roof?” Mary asked.
“No,” Bradley said just as sharply, though there was a bit more annoyance in his tone this time. He suddenly turned his game off completely, pretending something important was on his phone. “It’s Stacey,” he said, and he excused himself from the room. She could hear him darting up the stairs.
She hoped she hadn’t set him over the edge. It was a lot for a seventeen-year-old kid to deal with. She returned to the kitchen where Officer Preston was conversing with Jaden; though he was good at hiding it, she could tell the conversation hadn’t gone much further than hers had gone with Bradley. “I don’t know if he had any enemies,” Jaden said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I mean, who would want to hurt him? He was a good man. A husband. A father. A good, honest businessman. He got along great with his business partners, with their wives—and all the kids loved him. Bradley’s friends always wanted to hang out over here, you know?”
Eventually, after not getting much more from Jaden other than the fact that her husband was a good man, Preston asked if he could go up on the roof to see if the crime scene unit had missed anything. They had been a bit rushed due to the number of children who had been on the property the night before, so Preston felt another set of eyes would be a good idea. The ladder, they saw, was already out. “I’m guessing your husband went up on the roof for a reason?” Preston asked as they stood out on the porch and he began ascending the ladder.
“I’m not sure why, honestly,” Jaden said. “Probably to go fix some lose shingles—maybe. He had mentioned them a few weeks ago, but honestly I thought he had already fixed them up.”
“We’ll take a look,” Preston said, already having reached the top of the roof. Mary decided to follow, despite Preston telling her it wasn’t necessary.
Once up on the roof, they began carefully walking around, looking for anything the crime scene unit might have missed. Mary, always the one with the keen eyes, found something near the chimney. “Preston, look! I know what made those little puncture wounds on Ken,” Mary said, waving Preston over.
He trotted carefully across the roof towards her, kneeling to see what she was pointing at. “Whoa,” he said, reaching for his back pocket for a plastic baggie he had brought along just in case.
“Nails,” Mary said. “Five of them… look there are some more over there. Someone stabbed him… with nails? There’s blood caked on them.”
After taking pictures of them, Preston placed the nails in a bag and he pointed around the roof. “You can see over there some additional blood spots. I think he might have been stabbed with the nails and then pulled them out himself.”
“Wait, how is someone supposed to get close enough to stab you with a bunch of nails?” Mary questioned. “You’d think there would have been some of those puncture wounds on his hands—because after you get stabbed with the first one, you think you would be blocking the person, right? I didn’t read the report, but I don’t believe there were any in his arms either?”
“They had to have used a nail gun to do it.”
“Of course!” Mary exclaimed. “Oh, dear… poor Ken. He was probably shot with the nail gun and then pulled the nails out himself in a panic, and that probably caused him to bleed out.”
“I think I agree with your hypothesis,” Preston said, looking around at some of the blood stains on the roof. He pointed out towards the driveway. “Looks like some friends are coming to visit.”
A few cars were pulling up. Some women were stepping out of the cars, each carrying a casserole dish. “That’s sweet,” Mary said.
“That’s Southern hospitality at its finest,” Preston said. “It’s like an unspoken rule. If someone you know dies, the first thing you do is bring a casserole to the family.”
Mary smiled slightly, wondering if she should also bake the family a casserole. No, she would make them some cookies—that was more of her specialty. “You’re going to have to teach me all the Southern cultural norms,” she said. “I don’t want people thinking I’m a rude LA liberal.”
Preston snickered a bit.
“I’m going to go search the family’s tool shed,” he said, already climbing down the ladder. Mary followed after him and he headed towards the toolshed in the backyard.
Mary headed back inside where she stood and talked with Jaden and her friends, church friends, who had come to visit after hearing about what had taken place the day before. One of the women went to work on rearranging Jaden’s refrigerator to make room for everyone’s casseroles. Another one of the women spoke up and said she brought a key lime pie, for Bradley, because he loved her key lime pie.
Preston returned from the toolshed moments later, shaking his head and saying there was no nail gun. “Nail gun?” Jaden questioned. “What are you looking for a nail gun for? You going to fix my roof for me?” she asked, joking somewhat which Mary felt was a good sign.
“No, ma’am,” Preston said, frowning. “I’m afraid, Jaden, that we believe a nail gun could have been the murder weapon.”
Jaden’s face turned green and her friends shot Preston and Mary filthy looks for getting her upset.
Chapter Ten
Mary had returned to the shop after the adventure to Jaden’s home with Preston, and she and Tripp continued working at the shop until late afternoon. She felt that he was acting rather sheepish all day, a bit more into his phone than he usually was, and he was giving her a bit of the cold shoulder. When they, along with Sweet Feet, returned home, he gobbled up his dinner quickly—hardly looking up from his phone once—before excusing himself to his room for the evening.
“Well,” Mary grumbled, putting everything in the sink. She knew Tripp was still a bit embarrassed about the party the evening before but she hadn’t been expecting the silent treatment from him. He seemed a bit more mature than that.
After doing the dishes and realizing what time it was, Mary scurried to her phone. Tonight was the night she had planned to speak with her daughter, having had to have set up a call time with the rehabilitation center in LA. She called the number, and the woman on the other line spoke with Mary for a moment, giving her an update on Lilly and telling her their rules and regulations for personal phone calls before patching her in.
“Hello?” a gentle voice came through the other line. “Mom?”
Mary exhaled, her voice a little shaky. She hadn’t heard her daughter’s voice in years. “Lilly!” she exclaimed, having to sit down on the couch to recollect herself. “Oh, baby, it’s so good to hear your voice.”
There was an uncomfortable laugh. “Thanks, Mom…” she said. “Mom, I’m so sorry...for everything.”
“You don’t have to start in on that now,” Mary said. “I’m just so glad that you’re okay, Lilly. I was worried I was going to get a call one day… that someone was going to tell me… oh, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“I know,” Lilly said. “And, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry…”
“I know, baby girl,” Mary said, wiping some tears that had formed in her eyes. “How… how are you? You’re in rehab… I’m so proud of you…”
“I can’t really take credit for it, Mom,” she said. “I, well, I met a guy. A good guy, actually.”
“Michael?” Mary asked.
“Guess he told you, huh?” Lilly asked, sounding slightly bitter. “And, it’s not Michael. It’s Matthew.”
“Matthew,” Mary said, smiling. “Guess he forgot the name.”
“I didn’t expect Dad to remember—he only spoke with him five times…” Lilly grumbled. “Sorry, I don’t really want to get off on a tangent.”
“Good idea,” Mary said. “Tell me about him? Matthew, I mean.”
“We met at a party… I was… well, I was looking for drugs,” Lilly admitted. “Being stupid. I don’t know, I ran into him and we started talking. He didn’t know I was using. I started dating him. He was so sweet. And he treated me so good. Then one night I didn’t show up. He knew something was wrong, and he came and found me. That’s when it all kind of came out because I had… I had overdosed. He got me to the hospital, and he stayed with me there. Next thing I know, he’s got me signed up for this rehab program. I told him I didn’t want to go, but he just talked me into it, I guess.”
“I’m so glad, Lilly,” Mary said. “You have no idea.”
“It’s been going really well, Mom,” Lilly said. “I feel better than I’ve felt in years.”
Mary again had to wipe tears from her eyes. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“I can’t believe Dad actually came through,” Lilly admitted.
“Do you mind if I ask about all that?” Mary asked. “I must say, I didn’t expect your dad to show up at my door after a fourteen… fifteen-year absence.”
“Yeah,” Lilly said, huffing. “The program I’m in, they wanted us to reach out to people. People we’ve wronged. I wanted to find you, but I guess all I had was our old home number. Matthew went looking for you for me, and he managed to track Dad down. He came to the rehab center, and we talked.”
“How did it go?” Mary asked.
“Not super great—but not terrible either,” she said. “You know Dad. He’s kind of a creep.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“But he told me he would find you for me,” Lilly said. “And, I guess he did, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking.”
“I should have stayed in LA,” Mary said. “Honestly, after two years, I didn’t know if I was ever going to hear from you at all. I was worried… well, honestly, Lilly, I thought you might have been dead.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lilly said. “For everything, Mom. I got in with the wrong group, and then I put you and my baby at risk. I don’t know if you are in contact with Aaron at all, but… do you think he’d let me talk to him? He’s got to be, what, fifteen now?”
Mary took a breath. She knew this was going to come up in conversation. “Lilly, I got to tell you something. You’ve got to promise me something though, sweetie. You’ve got to promise me you’re not going to let this set you back…”
“Mom, is everything okay?”
“Promise me, Lilly.”
There was a pause. “Okay, I promise. I’m getting clean, Mom, and I’m planning on staying that way.”
“That’s my girl,” Mary said, and she took a breath. “Aaron was killed in a robbery last year. Tripp… he’s with me now.”
There was a long pause, and she could tell Lilly was crying now. It was soft, and the only audible sound she was making was the occasional sniffle. “Aaron’s dead?”
“I’m sorry, Lilly,” Mary said. “But yes.”
“But Tripp, he’s okay? He’s with you?” Lilly asked. “I’m so glad he’s with you… I’m so glad…”
“Yes, he’s with me, and Lilly, he’s just beautiful. Looks just like his dad—got a little bit of your attitude…”
Lilly laughed. “I bet he does,” Lilly said. “Do you think… do you think he’d want to… to see me?”
“He does,” Mary said.
“Really?”
Mary smiled. “Yes, really,” Mary said. “We’ve already talked about it, but you must understand he wants to ease into it a bit.”
“Oh, I understand, Mom. I understand completely—I’m just glad he actually wants to meet me!” Lilly sounded so shocked and thrilled by this news, and it made Mary’s heart swell.
“He wants me to see if I can set up a video chat if that’s okay,” Mary said. “I’m afraid that with school just now starting and us being in a new state… oh, I want to come see you so bad, Lilly, but—”
“No, you take care of Tripp,” Lilly said firmly. “Please. Don’t worry about me. I’ve got a support system out here, Mom, really. You stay right there with Tripp, please.”
“I will,” Mary said. “He needs me right now. First year of high school, and after losing his dad, he needs some stability, you know?”
“I’m sure,” Lilly said, exhaling. “My poor baby… losing his dad… poor Aaron…”
“I know,” Mary said. “But Tripp is doing so
well. He’s such a strong kid. We adopted a cat, by the way.”
“A cat?” Lilly asked, laughing. “Always thought you were more of a dog person. What’s its name?”
“Sweet Feet,” Mary said, and the cat seemed to appear out of nowhere and jump up in her lap. “He’s named Sweet Feet because he was born with an extra toe on each foot.”
“That’s funny,” Lilly said. “Tripp is fifteen, right? I don’t want to be wrong…”
“He’s fifteen,” Mary said.
“Just had a birthday?” Lilly asked.
“That’s right—you’ve got it straight,” Mary assured her. “You won’t believe this, but this house we’re in, the old owners left behind this run-down Volkswagen. He’s trying to fix it up. A local officer we’ve befriended is helping him.”
“That’s awesome,” Lilly said. “So, he’s a little mechanic, then?”
“No, he’s terrible,” Mary said, laughing. “He’s a video game kid all the way. He wants to try out for a sport of some kind, but he’s not sure which yet. I bet he’ll opt for football; he somehow managed to make friends with all these older varsity football players, so I’m sure he’ll want to hang out with them.”
“You better believe I’m going to work really hard on getting my life together… I want to come see him play when he gets on a team… if he’ll let me, that is. I don’t want to push too hard, you know?” Lilly said. “I know I don’t deserve to be a part of his life. I would like to be. I should have been the whole time, though.”
“Just take it slow,” Mary said. “That’s what he wants.”
“I know,” Lilly said, and Mary felt that her daughter was smiling. “He really wants to meet me, Mom?”
“He does,” Mary said. “After we talk, I’m going to speak with one of the rehabilitation centers caretakers. He insists that it be a video chat. Said he wants to be able to see you the first time he talks to you—doesn’t want it to be on the phone, so I’ve got to see what I can do about setting something like that up.”
