“Laura, you can't be serious!”
Her sarcasm turned to indignation.
“I can't believe you have the gall to come here with a story like that!“
”That's your daughter, Laura! How can you blow this off?”
“Kitt, I am going to ask you to leave my house,” she said icily. “I'll follow you and bring Kari home. And she won't be visiting anymore.”
“No way is she coming back here until you and I work out a solution.”
“Don't push me. I've had just about all I'm going to take from you.”
“I'll tell you what I told Jeff. You want to get her out of my house—you get the police to do it. Before she comes back here, a lot of things are going to have to happen.”
“You want me to call the police?”
“Go right ahead. You can present your case, and I'll present mine, and we'll go from there.”
“You would do this to your brother, after all he has done for you?”
“Ah yes, all he has done for me. I'm still recovering from that. Well, I'm touched by your concern for Kari. Why bother about a kid when you can be feeling sorry for yourself, right?”
“I am concerned. I am concerned that she's being brainwashed into destroying her father!”
“Have it your way.”
“This is blackmail!”
“I don't care what it is. Kari says she's not going back here. Maybe she can move in with your parents or something. In the meantime, you also have Lita and Tony to worry about. When Jeff comes back, you're going to have to have some protection in place for these kids.”
“Let's not get theatrical.”
“This is serious, Laura. It's not just going to go away.”
She did not follow him home. He drove home along a circuitous route, not anxious to face Kari. What could he tell her? Sorry, babe, Mom didn't ask how you were. How could Laura not care? Did she really think he'd coached Kari? Why? To listen to her, his retirement had been exclusively aimed at ruining them. Funny, he'd thought it was Jeff who had messed up his life.
Kari took one look at him and turned away. She went to her room without asking any questions, and Kitt sank into a chair, absently petting Thor, who was aching for a run.
“Sorry, boy, we can't leave Kari just now.”
Dealing with Laura wasn't the only problem. Kari refused to see a doctor. She knew something he was just finding out, that a physician was required to report a diagnosis of child abuse to the authorities. That she balked at putting her father in prison was understandable. He didn't like the thought himself, but the need for a physical was urgent, and there was the safety of the other children. This had been going on for several months—that much he'd got out of her. Why did she protect him? What sort of twisted loyalty had kept her silent at her own expense?
Forcing the issue was a risky option. She said she wasn't pregnant. What about diseases—who else had Jeff been messing around with? Nothing would surprise him anymore.
He grabbed the phone book. The answers had to be somewhere, a hint of where to turn and what to do next. Maybe Laura just needed some space. She used to be a good mother.
He knocked on Kari's door.
“Come on, kiddo, we're going to get something to eat.”
She came out, her eyes suspiciously red, but she came without objection, although she ate nearly nothing and played with her food.
“We should give Mom time to get used to this, Kari,” he told her. “Why don't you just stay with me for a while until we can decide what to do.”
She nodded.
“Good. We'll work it out. And you think about getting help, okay? Somebody you can talk to.”
“I don't want to talk to anybody.”
“Everybody needs somebody to talk to sometimes, and you've been through a lot.”
“I can talk to you.”
“I'm glad you can talk to me. But we need someone who knows how to help you.”
“Don't make me, Uncle Kitt. Please don't make me.”
“Just think about it.”
The new year came, and nothing changed, except that he learned the children were staying with their grandparents for a while—for reasons, Laura stressed, that had nothing to do with his accusations. There was nothing left to keep them here, thanks to Kitt, and they were looking around for a new place and career moves without the kids underfoot. Her parents were happy to have them.
Career moves indeed. The IRS was pressing charges; Jeff would be lucky to stay out of prison. But the children were safe. Laura didn't fool him—she had doubts.
He had enrolled Kari in the nearest junior high school with Laura's grudging permission. Laura had made it clear Kari couldn't stay with her parents; they had their hands full with the little ones. Right. Not to mention that Kari might talk.
Everything in him rebelled against the way he was extracting Laura's cooperation, but he saw no other. It was blackmail. Good people dealt with each other through reason and compromise, not force. Adults talked. They didn't threaten and they didn't bully.
But when he looked at Kari he knew he couldn't reason with evil, and he wouldn't compromise on a child's safety. How far did you go to protect a child? Where could you stop?
Jeff came back to town, and Kitt went to see him, but their meeting was as unproductive as the last one. A hundred times he'd gone over it in his mind, how to talk to his brother. But Jeff denied wrongdoing and Laura was emphatic. This sort of thing did not happen in their family. She was Kari's mother, she would have known.
Late at night, when Kari was asleep, Kitt sweated out his doubts. What if Jeff wasn't guilty? What if she was just getting back at them? His certainty washed away in the weariness of the night. Still, neither Jeff nor Laura called his bluff.
After two weeks a school counselor called him in. He listened uneasily to the litany of complaints. Kari's grades were slipping; she didn't turn in homework, she was sullen and uncooperative. Was something wrong at home?
What did you say? Well folks, she doesn't want this generally known, but Dad's been getting a little too close and now she's staying with her no-clue uncle to keep safe. He hadn't learned a whole lot yet about sexual abuse, but he figured they'd have to report it, and Kari would freak out. You had to wonder, though, how she was ever going to get help. Tell her over and over she had nothing to feel guilty about, and she still acted as though the whole thing was her fault. Nonsense, he'd told her. You didn't do anything. What could she have done? Hold off a grown man? A man with power over everything in her life? He'd violated her, not she him. Time to put it behind her. He might have talked to the furniture for all the good it did.
“Of course there is,” he told the counselor. “That's why Kari is staying with me for now. Her parents have stuff to work through.”
“You're her guardian?”
“Just her uncle. But she can stay with me as long as it takes.”
“Maybe I should speak with her parents.”
“Good idea.”
Maybe this lady could get through to them. A roundabout way to get some counseling going, perhaps. Encouraged, he drove home. Kari was spending the night at the home of a friend from her old school, so he took a long hike with Thor. The young dog bounded through the powdery snow on the upper trails, and rushed at him with puppy exuberance. They rolled through the white stuff together and for the first time in weeks Kitt felt the weight of Kari's problems slide off his shoulders. They ran and slid down some of the gentler slopes, climbing over cliffs and scaling half-frozen creeks.
During an early-morning workout he'd come to a decision. Sooner or later Kari'd be ready for therapy, and in a few months she'd be all right. Wimbledon and the U.S. Open could give him a stake if he did some serious training in May and June and played a busy schedule during the summer. Rick said he could get some short-term endorsements. With that and some prize money, he'd be set. A few months of tennis for an education. He'd step up his physical regimen and play some tennis at the university. Wit
h Kari's problems and his own under control he could start moving ahead. Laura would have some time to get used to the truth, and take steps to protect her children, and Jeff—well, Jeff.
A lawsuit was out of the question for Kitt, but not for the IRS. They were set to do some nasty things to Jeff. Moreover, from the pamphlets he'd read it appeared that the process of working through her trauma would require that Kari report her father to the authorities. Somehow, in those first days after Kitt's discovery of the abuse he had deliberately blocked that thought, but the days were wearing on, and you did what you had to do.
Small stirrings of pity for Jeff welled up from somewhere deep inside him, but when he got home Kari‘s eyes were swollen, and his unspent anger extinguished all softer feelings toward his brother as he watched the wreckage of the joyful little sparkler that had once been Kari.
“What happened, babe? I thought you were going to spend the night?”
She sobbed a few times. Jeff had come to see her at the Williamses’ house, told her she had to go home. A school counselor had called and told him Kari wasn't doing well, and shouldn't be living with her young uncle.
“She did, did she. And what happened?”
“I said I wasn't going home. He went to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Williams, and I ran away.”
He squeezed her hand and for a while they were silent.
“He says I'm imagining things. He says I've heard too many stories. Is that what he says to you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe him?”
“No.”
“You're not just saying that?”
“If I believed him, I'd have told you to get a grip and go home.”
She took a deep breath and Kitt looked at her sharply. “Are you still worrying about that?”
“Dad kept saying I made it up. He said I probably had nightmares, and that all he did was cuddle me like when I was little. Uncle Kitt, how can I just imagine that? I was afraid—”
“Afraid of what?”
“Afraid you'd believe him. Sometimes I want to believe him myself.”
With a little more help from Jeff, she might start to question her sanity.
“Kari, we've got to get some help with this. I can arrange for something, somewhere.”
“I'm all right. I'll be all right if I can stay with you. Don't make me go to anybody!”
“Do one thing for me then.”
“What?”
“There are at-home AIDS tests out now. If I get one, will you take it?”
She stared at him in consternation.
“An AIDS test?”
“Yes. Just to be sure.”
“I know about AIDS. How could I have it?”
“I don't think you do. Just want to make sure.”
“You mean I could have got it from Dad?”
“It's not likely, but I'd feel better if you took it. I saw a commercial for it. Nobody even knows your name. You send it in and you get a number. Then you call for the results and just give them the number.”
She was silent for a while.
“Please, Kari?”
“Okay.”
When Kari was asleep, he called Jeff.
“So now you're trying to mess with her mind,” he told his brother angrily. “Don't try it again, or I will go ahead and take action against you myself. For once in your life take me seriously, Jeff!”
Rick was ecstatic at the news that Kitt was seriously considering playing Wimbledon. Kitt made no commitments, but his mind was made up. After the bills were paid all he had left was the condo and one car, the furnishings and the piano, and money that wouldn't last a year. The only way he could quickly earn the kind of money that would see him through the next four to six years was playing tennis. When he ran the trails with Thor that night, the decision weighed heavily on his mind. Playing tennis after school was one thing. Going back on the professional circuit was another, a defeat of sorts. What about a scholarship? Grades so far had been good. Any chance he could make it without leaving school?
On the court, for a few hours at a time, he didn't have to think about Kari or Jeff. From here the tour seemed simple, secure. The managed life, the money, the approval. No questions more serious than how to return MacMillan's serve.
A message from MacPhie cheered him up. He was going to be in town in about a week; could they meet for dinner? Good old Jack, it would be great to see him.
It was almost a week before he managed to persuade Laura to come and talk to Kari, and as soon as he saw them together he knew it was a mistake. He had tactfully eased himself out of the room in spite of Kari's pleading looks, and gone for a walk with Thor. By now he was fairly confident that neither Laura nor Jeff would dare strong-arm her out of his care. Intimidating them was nothing to be proud of, but for now no better solution presented itself.
The two of them sat across from each other as he had left them, and he would have bet good money that not a hug or a touch had been exchanged since he left. Kari wore her obstinate look, and her mother was stern and angry.
“Well?” he said, disappointed at the standoff.
Laura shot him an icy look and turned to Kari. “I want to talk to your uncle for a minute. Will you excuse us, please?”
The way she dashed out of the room gave Kitt an idea of the extent of the calamity. He glanced expectantly at Laura.
“Kitt, this thing has got to end. I have put up with it this far because I was making allowances for the turmoil in our lives. She may well be acting that out this way. But it's getting out of hand. She needs to come home.”
“Look, Laura.” His voice was stubborn. “I haven't been looking for more complications in my life, and I sure wasn't looking for a kid to raise. But I'm not sending her back into the trouble she ran away from.”
Laura stood up, her dark eyes moody. She sure wasn't mellowing. The opposite, most likely. Walling herself in, out of reach. Almost as damaged as Kari.
She stood, tense and ceremonial, by the fireplace. If eyes were the window of the soul, the shutters were closed. Kari had sought protection. Laura sought ignorance.
“Think about the publicity if you report this fantasy to the police. You're not exactly an unknown. It would be on the front page.”
“So?”
“With you in the middle of all this, our names would be all over the tabloids, even the regular press. Everyone would know. We'd never live it down. Think of what it would be like for Kari!”
“She's a juvenile and a victim. Her name wouldn't be published.”
“Big help if they identify her father! Or you. We would have to leave this city, this state!”
“Isn't that what you said you were going to do anyway?”
“Kitt, this isn't even local. It would be on the news. It would be in every grocery store checkout line.”
“So what do I do? Tell Kari to suck it up?”
Laura was probably right. He could see the headlines now. But could you let this go just to keep your name out of the paper? Was that why she wouldn't come forward? How did you get a handle on all these crises? He could talk to a lawyer, see what the chances were to keep Kari's identity secret. She didn't need the notoriety.
“Kitt, be serious. You want your name dragged through the papers? Count on it that they'll ID Jeff as the brother of the famous tennis player and so on.”
“Nobody likes it, Laura, but what do you suggest? Send her back for Daddy to play with?”
“Have we come so far that you actually believe Jeff would molest his own daughter?”
“Have we come so far that you actually believe Kari would make this up?”
“Would it satisfy you if we got counseling for her?”
“No, it isn't enough. And it would still lead to the same end, Laura. A counselor would have to make a report.”
“Kitt, I am taking her home.”
“You are not.”
“Don't try to bluff me. Kari is my daughter. Her place is at home, with Jeff and me.”
>
“Her place is where she's safe.”
“Will you stop feeding her fantasies? You're not telling me what to do with my own child.”
“Somebody should. You should've been on her side.”
“You don't know what you're talking about. She is rebellious. It's a stage.”
“Bull.”
“She runs to you because you lap up anything she dishes out. She knows she's got you around her little finger.”
“That's crap. She's been betrayed by one parent, and you're falling all over yourself to make it two!”
She paced furiously through the room, and he said nothing, waiting for her next move.
To his surprise Laura backed down. She sat down, and with a forced calmness listened as he laid out his proposal. Kari would stay with him for the rest of the school year. Laura would visit and arrange a medical evaluation. They would both try to steer Kari toward counseling. Laura would take steps to see that the little ones stayed with her parents while she dealt with Jeff. If she had protection in place by late spring, he'd send Kari home, play Wimbledon and the hard-court season, and offer some financial help for the children.
The corners of her mouth were turned down, and her voice dripped with venom.
“Apparently bankrupting us isn't enough. Before I'm done I will have you in jail for blackmail and kidnapping.”
He shrugged.
“Maybe you should have a little more faith in your daughter. When you visit her—”
“If Kari wants to talk to me,” she interrupted him coldly, “she knows where I am. But I won't be coming here. Not until I'm ready to take her back and have you arrested.”
She didn't stop to say good-bye to Kari and slammed the door behind her.
Kitt drew several deep cleansing breaths. Think the point through. You can't slug your way out of this one.
The coming years seemed bleak and long. It was beginning to look as if it would take more than a few weeks of nurturing for Kari to heal. Recovery might be a matter of months. A year even. Evil didn't isolate its target for a clean, surgical strike, leaving the rest of the world untouched and unhurt, whole and healthy and ready to cure. The very people who should be there to help Kari through the healing days and years were struggling at the center of their own denial and anger. Jeff, who had brutally acted out his despair, removing himself perhaps forever from the healers in his life. Laura, who wouldn't allow anything, even truth, to shatter the façade of her perfect world. Her friends, who didn't rise above gossip and giggles. And he? What could he offer her before he'd got a grip on his own future? Was there going to be time for him, ever? Where would he find space to work out his own life?
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