Fate Actually: Moonstone Cove Book Two

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  “What?”

  “Nothin’.” He shook his head.

  “No, not nothin’. I can see you’ve got some smart-ass comment or something you’re just dying to—”

  “I was gonna say at least Henry will have someone to watch Sesame Street with now.”

  Toni snorted. “Good one.”

  “Mister Rogers probably.”

  “I can’t even argue with any of these. He probably loves all those shows. He’s very…”

  “Wholesome?” Drew asked.

  “Like a Midwestern dairy product.” Toni nodded. “And that’s good. At least one of this kid’s parents is going to be up for the task.”

  “Oh, you’ll do fine. Just remind Henry—when he gives you shit about letting the kid listen to the Sex Pistols—that you don’t have to worry about toddlers repeating song lyrics for about two, maybe three years.”

  “I’ll tuck that bit of wisdom away,” Toni said. “Thanks, Drew.”

  “I’m full of fatherly advice.” He stretched his legs out. “Wish I knew more about this Danny Barba guy though.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t know about Danny because he’s a very normal, very noncriminal person. I do not know what is going on here, but I guarantee it didn’t start with him.”

  * * *

  Danny stared at the bloody shirt for a long time, not saying a word.

  “Mr. Barba?” Drew snapped his fingers in front of Danny’s face. “I understand your confusion, but if you could answer the question for me—”

  “I don’t know whose it is.” His face hardly moved when he spoke.

  Toni and Henry were watching from the couch. Drew was in the chair across from Danny, and Nico was sitting on the edge of his desk.

  “Danny, whatever is going on—”

  “I’m serious, boss.” Danny turned to Nico. “I didn’t hurt anyone. I don’t know whose blood that is.”

  Drew glanced at Toni.

  “You’re lying,” she said, leaning her elbows on her knees to get closer to Danny, trying to sort out the confusing mix of emotions coming off him in jagged, panicked bursts. “You’re telling the truth, but you’re lying too. You believe you didn’t hurt anyone. You really believe that.”

  Danny’s eyes darted to the bloody shirt; then he looked away.

  “But you know—or you think you know—who that shirt belongs to. You know whose blood is on it.”

  He snorted and looked at Toni from the corner of his eye. “What are you? Psychic or something? You don’t know shit.”

  Drew said, “I may not be psychic, but I know that this shirt looks like it belongs to someone who beat the shit out of another human being. And I know there’s more than enough blood on it to get a match. So whose is it, Danny? It’ll be better if you tell me yourself. Whit Fairfield or Marissa Dusi?”

  Danny went pale. “I’d never beat a woman.”

  “So you’re admitting you killed Fairfield then?” Drew nodded. “I mean, everyone said he was an asshole, right? Probably better that he’s dead. Who’s gonna miss him?”

  “I never said I killed that Fairfield guy!”

  “It’s either Fairfield’s blood or Marissa’s, Danny.” Drew scooted closer. “Nothing else makes sense.”

  “That’s bullshit.” Danny was on the verge of panic. “I want a lawyer,” he said. “Right the hell now.”

  Toni tried to sort through the emotions. There was too much. Drew’s calm focus was the easiest to ignore, but Nico and Henry were both tense and intent on Danny.

  “You.” She pointed to Henry. “And you.” She pointed to Nico. “Leave me and Drew alone with Danny.”

  Drew sat up straight. “Excuse me?”

  “Tell them to go out and wait with the other police.” The pressure was so great, she felt like her ears would pop. “Just do it.”

  Henry stood and motioned for Nico to go with him. He cast one more look at Toni before he left the room.

  She turned to Danny. “Breathe.”

  He took a deep breath. Let it out. The pressure in the room began to dissipate. Danny began to calm down, and she could sort through his feelings more clearly.

  Worry. Anger. Guilt. A lot of guilt, but anger too.

  “You’re angry with someone,” Toni said. “None of this was your idea. Someone pulled you in.”

  Danny refused to look at her.

  “You didn’t kill anyone,” she said. “But you know more than you’re telling Drew. You need to come clean.”

  Danny shook his head over and over. “I’m not gonna say another—”

  “You want to talk,” she said. “I can feel it. You want to tell him because you feel guilty. You know it was wrong. You know…” Toni blinked. “You’re the one who cut the tractor wires, aren’t you?”

  Danny froze.

  “You never meant for it to go this far.” She wanted to reach out and take his hand, but she knew she shouldn’t. Whatever he confessed to, Drew needed it to come from Danny, free and clear.

  Toni remembered what Henry had said. …it’s like that asshole crept into my head and knew everything. He played on every single thing I was most afraid of.

  “He pushed all your buttons, didn’t he, Danny? You needed the money for a good reason, and it was there. It wasn’t anything too big, right? Calling off a work crew. Fiddling with a tank. Cutting the switch on a tractor. No one was going to get hurt. Nico would be fine.”

  Danny started to nod. “Yeah.” His voice was broken. “No one was going to get hurt.”

  “Because you’re not that kind of person,” she said. “I know that. Henry knows that. He’s your friend. We know you wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.”

  The young man’s face fell and his eyes grew glassy. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “You need to tell Drew the truth.”

  “I can’t. I honestly don’t know whose blood is on that shirt.”

  Toni blinked. “You’re telling the truth.”

  “He’s what?” Drew sat up. “What now?”

  “I don’t know whose blood it is.” Danny spoke quickly. “I was the one who tampered with the equipment, okay? That was me. Fairfield told me to do it. My dad needs a knee replacement, and I’m trying to save up money for the copayment. So I needed the money, and Fairfield wanted stuff done. Not big stuff, okay? Nobody was going to get hurt. He just needed Nico to lose enough this season so that he’d sell that land, okay? I don’t know any more than that.”

  “Whose shirt is it?” Drew asked.

  “I don’t know whose blood is on it.” Danny pleaded with him. “Please don’t arrest me. I’ve never been arrested in my life. Please.”

  “How did it get in your car?” Drew asked. “Danny, I need more.”

  “I don’t know.” Tears rolled down his face. “I can’t tell you that. I didn’t beat anyone up.”

  “Truth.” Toni rubbed her temple. “But also a lie.” A headache was starting to pound.

  Drew went back to his first question. “Whose blood is on that shirt, Danny? We’re gonna find out soon enough. It’s already at the lab.”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Truth.” Toni frowned. What was going on here?

  “Tell me who the shirt belongs to.” Drew was insistent. “Tell me how it got in your truck.”

  “I’m telling you…” Danny heaved out a breath, trying to control his crying. “I don’t know.”

  “Lie.” Toni’s eyes went wide. “You do know whose shirt it is, but you don’t know whose blood it is.”

  Danny looked at her. “I can’t tell you.”

  Anger. Pain. Guilt. Frustration. Shame.

  Toni shook her head. “I can’t tell. There’s too much.”

  “Okay.” Drew stood and reached for Danny’s arm. “Danny Barba, you’re under arrest for charges I am going to have to sort out down at the station because I know your ass is lying.” He shot a look at Toni. “Stay here. I’ll tell Henry to come get you. You’re about a minute from passing out.”r />
  Chapter 26

  She fell asleep in Nico’s office, minutes after Drew took Danny out the door in handcuffs. She had no idea how long she slept, but when she woke, the sun was beaming in through the west-facing window and her body was stiff from sleeping so hard on Nico’s couch. She sat up and stretched carefully, taking a drink from the bottle of water someone had set on the coffee table in front of her.

  The door cracked open and Toni looked over, rubbing her eyes.

  “Hey you.” It was Megan. “You ready to go?”

  “Where?”

  “Your cousin is down at the police station, trying to talk to Danny. He’s got a lawyer in there, but he agreed to talk to Nico. Then I guess Nico came out and asked for you. We told them you weren’t feeling okay, but we’d call when you were awake.”

  Toni blinked. “So I need to go talk to Danny at the police station? And he has a lawyer, but he wants to talk to me?”

  “Yes. Baxter and Katherine went home—we’re gonna have to treasure hunt another day—but Henry and I stayed here to make sure you were okay.”

  Was she still sleeping? “Treasure hunt?”

  Megan cleared her throat. “I hear tell there’s caves in them there hills.”

  Toni felt like her face would crack when she smiled. “Right. The caves. Did Katherine and Baxter fill you in?

  “Yes. So wild, right? So after Nico went down to the police station to give his statement, it was just Katherine and me, Baxter, and Henry. It’s kind of cute actually. Baxter was very gently interrogating Henry for around an hour, and I don’t think Henry had any idea.”

  “It wouldn’t occur to him that Baxter was being anything but polite.”

  “I know. That’s what makes Henry so adorable.” Megan walked over, held out a hand, and took Toni’s. “How are you feeling?”

  She stood and realized that she actually felt better. Then she immediately felt guilty for sleeping in the middle of the day. “What day is it?”

  “Saturday.”

  “Oh good. I’m not missing work.”

  “You’re going to have to reconfigure that in your brain, little mama. You are growing a human in that body. When it wants to sleep, you’re gonna have to let it sleep.”

  “Henry said something similar, and I’ve been trying to ignore him.” She covered her mouth when a giant yawn hit her.

  “Don’t make me ask Katherine to look up the scientific literature on this topic, because you know I will and you know she will.” Megan guided Toni through the office and out to the loggia that led to Nico’s lavish home. “I love this place, don’t you?

  “It’s a very cool house,” Toni said. “His parents built it in the 1960s, but they wanted it to feel Italian. Nico’s dad is like mine is, and I don’t know how many generations in the US, but his mom grew up outside Salerno, so she wanted to make the house feel like home.”

  “It’s amazing. I feel like I’m on vacation just walking around the gardens.”

  “That’s why everyone wants to have weddings and baptisms and everything here.” She spotted her niece Beth and Henry on the patio outside the kitchen. “Is Beth helping you out?”

  “Yeah, Nico put her in charge while he was gone.”

  “She’s a good kid. Smart as a whip too.”

  “You’re telling me. She was wondering about you. Noticed the sleepiness, the mood swings. So she asked Henry—”

  “Noooo.” Toni froze. “He totally told her about the baby, didn’t he?”

  “Oh yeah. Fooooolded like a cheap suit. That man cannot keep a secret. You’re gonna have to be careful leaving him unattended around your mother.”

  Toni tried to quash the rising panic. “At least Beth can probably be quiet about it.”

  “I might have stressed to her that it was still very early and you did not want a lot of people knowing.”

  She patted Megan’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

  They walked to the patio, and Toni hooked her arm around Beth’s shoulders. “Hey, sweetie. Did you talk to your mom today?”

  “Yeah.” The seventeen-year-old girl was statuesque and gorgeous like her mother but with her father’s dramatic dark hair and eyes. “She’s doing okay, I guess. Is it bad that I’m suspicious? I felt so horrible after she was attacked, but now she’s, like, immediately pivoting to get something out of Dad.” Beth rolled her eyes. “I just can’t. She makes me tired.”

  “Try not to stress about it, okay? Maybe your dad can make her see sense.”

  “I just want her to, like, get a boyfriend—a real one—and move on already. This sucks so hard for Dad.”

  “Well, your dad’s got you and your brother,” Megan said. “So speaking from experience, he got the better end of the deal.”

  Beth gave her a small smile. “Thanks.” Her smile widened when she looked back at Toni. “And congratulations, Auntie Toni!” She whispered, “You’re going to be, like, the coolest mom ever. I promise I won’t tell anyone, okay?”

  She squeezed Beth’s shoulders. “I know you won’t because you want to borrow my Mustang for prom.”

  “Not just that, but definitely that.” Beth pointed at Henry. “He’s the one who told me.”

  Toni looked at Henry, who only grinned.

  “I’m allowed to be excited about our baby.”

  “Can you maybe be more quietly excited?”

  It was useless. He was so adorable she had a hard time mustering up the annoyance she knew he deserved. She walked over, and Henry stood and opened his arms.

  “You’re not to be trusted.” Toni leaned forward, rested her head on his chest, and allowed herself to melt as he rubbed her back and shoulders. “I don’t want to go to the police station.”

  “Then we’ll take you home.”

  “But I need to go,” she said. “If Danny wants to talk to me, I need to find out what he wants to say.”

  Megan jingled her keys. “I’ll drive. You relax. Let’s get you a cold drink and get this over with.”

  * * *

  It was dark when they finally rolled into the Moonstone Cove police station, and Toni saw Drew’s car in the parking lot along with some black-and-white cruisers.

  “I wonder where Nico is?”

  Megan shrugged. “Maybe he just wanted to get home.”

  They walked inside, and Toni walked up to the front counter. “Hey, Sharon.”

  “Toni, how you doing? You here to see Max?” The receptionist at the police department was a sweet older woman named Sharon who’d worked in the high school office when Toni was a student there.

  High school to police department. Toni imagined the police department was probably a little calmer.

  “No, I’m not here to see Max.” Her younger cousin was probably at home with his new wife and baby daughter. “I was told that one of Drew’s suspects wanted to talk to me.”

  “Let me call him.” She lifted the phone and dialed a couple of numbers. “Detective Bisset, Toni Dusi is here.” She nodded. “Uh-huh.” She frowned. “You sit tight; I’ll bring her back.” She hung up the phone and pointed to Toni. “Okay, you he wants in the conference room—I’ll walk you back—and anyone with you” —she turned her attention to Megan and Henry— “needs to stay out here. You got that?”

  Henry squeezed Toni’s shoulder. “Megan and I can hang in the front.”

  “Take your time,” Megan said.

  “No idea what Danny wants to tell me that he couldn’t say earlier,” Toni said. “Sharon, lead the way.”

  She walked back through a maze of cubicles to the small break room with glass walls where she could see Danny Barba eating something out of a white Styrofoam container. Drew spotted them through the glass and waved her in.

  “Thanks, Sharon.” He pulled out a chair for Toni as Sharon shut the door. “Our man here has consulted with his lawyer” —Drew gestured to the whip-thin woman with tightly curled hair and flawless red lipstick— “and Ms. Aguilar has advised him to speak with us about his associates. Thank y
ou, Ms. Aguilar.”

  “I’ve already spoken with the DA, and my client is prepared to be forthcoming about his role in all this. We are hoping to avoid jail time due to my client’s perfectly clear record.” She turned her eyes to Toni. “I honestly don’t know why he wanted you here, Ms. Dusi, but thank you for coming.”

  “No one was supposed to get hurt.” Danny shoved his to-go container to the side and leaned toward Toni. “You can tell them that. You know when I’m lying. You’re like a psychic or like one of those smart people on the TV who read people real well, right?”

  Toni glanced at Drew, then back at Danny. “Uh… something like that.”

  “So you’ll know. You’ll be able to tell Detective Bisset here that I’m not lying about this.”

  Toni could already feel the tension in the room building. Danny’s lawyer did not want him talking to Toni. Drew really didn’t want her in the room at all, and Danny’s wild, desperate hope weighed on her like a lead backpack.

  “Danny, I can tell him if you’re lying or not, but you need to just tell him the complete truth. Don’t try to hide—”

  “Is Miss Marissa at the hospital still?” Danny asked Drew. “I heard you had a guard and stuff with her at the hospital.”

  “She’s at a rehab center,” Toni said. “Why?”

  “The rehab center?” Danny asked. “Do they have guards for that?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” Drew said. “What are you trying to say, Danny? Is someone going to go after Marissa?”

  “I don’t know. Not for sure.” Danny squirmed in his seat.

  “Truth,” Toni said. “But there’s something else.”

  “I don’t know for sure,” he said. “I just, I mean I’m wondering if…” His voice dropped to near-imperceptible levels. “…maybe my cousin knows something. About Marissa, I mean. He knew about me and Fairfield. I think maybe he even told Fairfield about me. How I needed money and all.”

  “Your cousin?” Drew asked. “Who’s your cousin, Danny?”

  “Ruben Montenegro,” Toni said. She didn’t know how she’d forgotten. Maybe she just didn’t put it together because Ruben was so much older than Danny. They were nowhere close in school. Ruben was Nico’s age, and Danny was in his twenties. “Your mom and Ruben’s mom are sisters, right?”