The House Guests

by Emilie Richards

  “I made a ton, hoping he couldn’t finish it,” Cassie said.

  “He was eyeing the leftovers earlier, but he said he was going to save his appetite for whatever they serve tonight after hours.”

  Cassie dished up her plate, although she wasn’t sure she’d be able to eat anything with what lay ahead. “They’ve been doing Saturday-night feasts there for years. When I was a little girl, if I was staying with my grandparents for the weekend, Pappou would take me to the Kouzina on Saturday nights, and they’d have a plate ready for me in the kitchen. There was so much laughter. A lot of the conversation was in Greek—probably everything they didn’t want me to know. Those were some of the best memories of my childhood.”

  “Your parents didn’t mind?”

  The question pointed out their new relationship. Savannah wanted to know more about “her” family now, as if she finally realized the way she fit. The question was also the perfect lead-in for what Cassie needed to tell her.

  She scooped food on her plate and watched Savannah do the same. “Both my parents were alcoholics. Some of the time, to be honest, they didn’t know where I was. But the larger family made sure I was taken care of. I owe them a lot.”

  “That’s why you don’t drink. Right?”

  “It’s probably an overreaction, but it’s my way of establishing a boundary between who they were and who I am. And it’s no sacrifice since I never began. But addiction is a terrible thing.” She was feeling her way now. “When I was small, my parents, especially my mother, managed their lives most of the time. They were very young when I was born. I think my father hoped to travel and see the world, and instead he was saddled with a baby and a wife he probably wouldn’t have married otherwise. Yiayia says he was a charming little boy who gradually changed into the bitter, angry man I remember.”

  “Do you blame yourself? I mean for being born?”

  It was a surprisingly mature, insightful question. Savannah was definitely Mark’s daughter.

  “I probably did when I was too young to understand. Once I left home, I saw the way addiction latches on to someone and makes it impossible for their better nature to shine through. Which is not to say my father couldn’t have changed. He could have. But for him, blaming others became a way of life. That would have been as hard to give up as alcohol.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “It’s not always like that, though. Some people struggle hard to overcome whatever has hold of them, and they still can’t shake it loose. No matter how hard they try.”

  “You don’t think they’re just weak?”

  “We can’t know what it feels like to need something as badly as my dad and mom needed to drink.”

  “Helia’s brother had to go into treatment. Drugs and alcohol. But he’s out now. He has a job, and next year he’s going to start taking college classes. Her foster parents are letting him fix up a little apartment over their garage, so he can move in and not pay rent while he goes to school.”

  Cassie was thankful for people like Helia’s foster parents. “I bet he’d be the first to tell you it’s going to be a hard road back. The temptation is always there to relapse, because once you know something can take you away from your problems or pain, you always want to do it again. Whether it’s alcohol, gambling, food...drugs.”

  “This is kind of a depressing subject.”

  Savannah was ready to move on and now Cassie had to. “I’m afraid we’re talking about it for a reason.”

  Savannah looked up. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve, you know, smoked weed. But I didn’t like it.”

  “Savannah...”

  “Mo-om.” Savannah grinned. “Concentrate on my last sentence. I didn’t like it.”

  “Don’t develop a taste, okay?” Cassie had smiled, too, but now she sobered. “Look, I have something else to tell you, and it’s not going to be easy. You and I have had some serious problems here, and I think they’ve been compounded by not coming clean with each other. We’ve talked about the Pfeiffer problem, and you’ve been up-front about why the weekend of the field trip is still off-limits. So I think we’re squared up there. But I have something to tell you, and I know it will make you unhappy. If there was some good way to keep it from you, I probably would. Only it’s time we faced things, head-on, and dealt with them. Together.”

  Savannah looked troubled. “Are we leaving Tarpon Springs?”

  “No. We’re here for the long haul.”

  Cassie took a deep breath, still wondering if she was making a mistake but unable to think of a way to stay silent. “Secrets in families almost always come out. That’s one of the big dangers of keeping them. Even if they don’t come out for a long time, they corrode relationships. And there was a secret in our family, one I’ve just learned. I should have known sooner, but I closed my eyes to it. It’s about your dad.”

  Savannah pushed her plate away. “You’re scaring me.”

  “I know. But I want to prepare you a little.”

  “Is this about the fight you had before Dad died?”

  Cassie knew there was no going back now, that this conversation was inevitable. “The fight you overheard was about money. I had just discovered that your dad emptied and closed our savings account. He didn’t expect me to find out because he handled our finances. That afternoon he was very upset that I wanted to know what happened to the money.”

  “Did he tell you?”

  Cassie wondered again how she could have allowed Mark to walk out the door that day without giving her an answer. “It turned out to be worse than that.” She explained about the investment account. “So far I don’t know where all that money went, either. But I do know where some went. And that’s the hard part, Savannah.”

  Savannah backed up. “Our money’s all gone?”

  “I still had his life insurance. That’s how we bought this house.”

  “What about our condo? You sold that and made money, right?”

  Cassie explained about the extra fees. “This is very hard to understand, I know. And it’s hard to believe. But the next part is the worst.”

  Savannah looked as if she wanted to put her hands over her ears, but after a moment she sat up straighter. “Just tell me.”

  “I talked to Valerie in New York. She finally leveled about why your dad left the practice. Remember when he injured his back?” She waited for Savannah to nod, and then slowly she let the story of Mark’s addiction unfold, trying to stress how hard it was to control and how easy to get his prescriptions refilled.

  Because Savannah remained silent, her face growing pale, Cassie moved on to Mark’s final days. “He went into rehab secretly for a while, but in the end, it didn’t work. He was addicted, and a lot of what we saw at the end of his life, the irritation, the lack of interest in us and what we were doing? That’s what caused it. He was making mistakes at work, and he was also paying a nurse at Riverbend to get drugs for him.”

  Savannah stared at her. “Drugs? He spent all our money on drugs?”

  Cassie explained how she’d learned about Ivy’s involvement. “Amber’s helping me look through our financial records. But the money that went to Ivy was a small part of what’s gone. I don’t know if we’ll ever know what happened to the rest of it.” She didn’t mention the possibility of blackmail, since Savannah already had enough to handle.

  She waited for her daughter to speak, but when she didn’t, she finished. “I’m telling you not just because I want you to know what your dad was going through, but because I need your permission for something. I want to report what happened to the New York police. There needs to be an investigation. Ivy has to be stopped because she’s going to continue stealing drugs from hospitals and selling them. And I want to go to the medical board and report what went on at Church Street. Your dad’s colleagues should have turned him over to people who could help. If they had, t
hings might have turned out differently. I don’t think they should get away with it, but I don’t want the consequences for you to be so terrible you can’t live with them.”

  Savannah rested her head in her hands. “I can’t believe this. He was a doctor. He should have known!”

  “As strong and smart as he was, the drugs got hold of him and wouldn’t let go.”

  “You want me to decide what to do? Really?” Savannah lifted her head so she could see Cassie’s expression. Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s why you told me?”

  “I want to go to the police, but I’m not going to do it if you don’t want me to. I don’t know what will come out if they start an investigation. It’s possible nobody here will ever know. But you’ve been through enough, and I’m not going to add to it without your permission.”

  Savannah didn’t answer.

  “It’s a lot to think about,” Cassie said. “You don’t have to decide right away. Let everything settle. But I wanted you to know that nothing you did caused the changes we saw. Your dad hid his addiction because he was trying to protect us.”

  “He shouldn’t have hidden it.”

  “And that’s why I decided I couldn’t hide it. Because this secret has caused enough damage.” Cassie wondered if she should get up and leave Savannah alone, but Savannah stretched out her hand and suddenly she was crying. Cassie circled the table to hold her close.

  “If he’d just told us!” Savannah said at last. “Maybe he promised somebody he wouldn’t tell.”

  That seemed odd to Cassie, but Savannah went on. “If he did, he shouldn’t have.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Savannah pulled away and grabbed a napkin from the holder on the table to wipe her eyes. “Sometimes people promise other people they’ll keep a secret, even when they know it’s a bad idea.”

  “I can’t imagine who he would have promised.”

  “It works that way sometimes. You tell somebody you’ll keep something to yourself, but you know you shouldn’t.”

  Cassie sat back. Somehow, they were no longer talking about Mark, and whatever they were talking about was so important Savannah needed desperately to tell her, despite the revelations she’d just heard.

  “You have something you want to tell me, don’t you?”

  Savannah looked miserable. She didn’t move, didn’t speak while Cassie waited. Finally she shook her head, but she met Cassie’s eyes. “It’s not about Dad. Not my dad. It’s...”

  “Not your dad?”

  “Will’s dad. And it’s about lies, and not telling somebody who you love what’s going on!”

  For a moment Cassie couldn’t breathe. When she could, her words came out in a rush. “I think you need to tell me anyway, sweetheart. Because now we both know how dangerous secrets can be.” She decided to go on. “And this one could be very dangerous. I need to know.”

  Savannah began. “It’s all my fault. I didn’t think it was fair that Will didn’t know who his father was.”

  Cassie listened as she told her story, but as Savannah explained about the trip to Georgia, and later the DNA test, and finally that Will’s uncle Darryl had contacted him and Will was tempted to see him, Cassie felt like someone had slugged her in the chest.

  “Has Will talked to him? Has he told this man where he lives?”

  “He says he hasn’t. He used a fake name, and he told his uncle he lives in Georgia, in Blayney where we went to look for Roger Hart. He figured that would be safe.”

  “This is not my secret to keep or tell. Amber will have to do that. But I can tell you that Will’s uncle must never, never know where he lives.”

  “How was Will supposed to know that? Amber kept everything about his father a secret. Didn’t she understand how messed up that was? That someday he would go looking on his own?”

  “She was wrong, but she was protecting him.”

  “The way my father was protecting us?”

  “Different story, same terrible mistake.” Cassie got to her feet. “I have to tell Amber. She’s got to know.”

  “Will’s going to kill me for telling you.”

  “You did exactly the right thing. You may have averted a disaster. I have to go now, but you stay here. Lock every single door and don’t answer if anybody knocks.”

  “But he doesn’t know where Will lives!”

  “Savannah, the man is a sheriff. He has untold access to information. We have to be sure Amber and Will are protected.”

  “They’re going to leave, aren’t they? Slip away and never come back.”

  “I don’t know.” But Cassie was afraid that slipping away might be the best solution. Because the alternative, that Darryl Hawken discovered where Amber and Will lived and came to find them, was terrifying to consider.

  45

  AMBER’S FATHER ALWAYS SAID confession was good for the soul but bad for the reputation. He’d been wrong. Tonight, after her talk with Cassie, her soul felt bruised, and if she had a reputation, it was for being someone no one could count on for the long haul. That wasn’t going to change.

  Recounting the horror of the night Billy was murdered hadn’t lessened her burden. She hadn’t told the whole story, and in addition confession hadn’t made her feel safer. Darryl Hawken was a county sheriff, and she was an itinerant waitress. Which of them would anyone in authority believe?

  Roxanne stepped into Amber’s path and waved her hand at the far wall of the dining room. “We’re supposed to finish adding up the night’s totals, but you’ve been staring at that mural like you’re trying to transport yourself to Santorini.”

  Amber couldn’t manage a smile. “I was connecting the grease spots in my head to see if there was a hidden message.”

  “The only message you’ll find is that we need new decor. Tonight I’d be especially pleased with a real computer system instead of these two antique registers we’re tackling.”

  “At least we don’t need a new cook. Tonight the food was perfect.” Amber lowered her voice. “Buck was gone, and Yiayia left you alone in the kitchen for most of the evening?”

  “She went off for a little while.” Now Roxanne lowered her voice. “I think she was with Buck.”

  “So that’s heating up?”

  “Well, he hasn’t left for Greece. He’s dragging his feet. Mama said she’s helping him shop for presents to take to his family.”

  “On a Saturday evening?”

  “She won’t admit it, but she’s worried. He told her he’s getting too old to work so hard. I think she’s afraid he’s not coming back.” Roxanne fluttered her eyelashes. “Unrequited love.”

  “Maybe she changed her mind, and she’s encouraging him.”

  “We can only hope.”

  Now Yiayia was back in the kitchen working on tonight’s feast. She was at her best when food leaped out of the refrigerator, ready to be eaten. By the time she assembled, combined, reworked and heated, there was usually so much to choose from that the staff had leftovers to take home.

  Amber would miss the feasts and everyone at the Kouzina. Leaving Cassie and Savannah would be harder than it had been to abandon her own family. And Travis? She’d known there was no hope for a long-term relationship, and she’d made certain to remind herself every time they were together. Unfortunately the reminder had been as hollow as an echo. She was well on the way to falling in love with him.

  None of it mattered, because she and Will had to move on. As she’d recounted her story, she had realized she couldn’t stay any longer without putting the lives of her friends in jeopardy.

  Roxanne cocked her head. “You hear something?”

  The front door was locked, but when they turned to look Travis was at the plate glass window overlooking Dodecanese Boulevard. He tapped again to get their attention.

  “Well, looky who’s come calli
ng,” Roxanne said. “I think I’ll let you get that. I’ll just need you to verify when I’m done at the register stand. Then we’ll lock the cash away until Nick gets here.”

  They had already cleared the cash register at the bar, and Roxanne would leave the smallest bills in the one by the office for Tuesday, when they reopened. The two women had already counted and added up the credit card receipts, but Roxanne would do a recount, just to be sure.

  She went to let Travis inside. He had told her he was coming, but she’d assumed he would enter through the kitchen, where Will was helping Yiayia.

  “No parking left in the alley and there’s a car blocking the back entrance. I parked down the street.” He kissed her quickly before he stepped inside.

  “Nothing stands between you and a good dinner.”

  “Dinner was the other reason I came. You were the first.”

  Amber made sure Roxanne couldn’t hear. “You mean you haven’t already eaten your way through Tarpon Springs tonight?”

  “No, but tomorrow night you and I celebrate. You’re looking at the Sentry’s new full-time food critic.”

  “Hey!” They kissed again and Amber stepped back. “That’s wonderful. You’re glad?”

  “I’ll be doing a fair amount of traveling, but this will be home base. I can’t imagine a job I would love more.”

  Amber was delighted. She’d expected him to get the job, but it was nice to have it confirmed. “Just don’t mention it to Yiayia.”

  “It won’t be that long before people figure out I’m Dallas Johnson.”

  “You’d better give her a good review before they do.”

  “She’d better give me a reason to.”

  They moved away from the door, and Amber locked it behind them. “I have to help Roxanne. You can make yourself comfortable out here or go lend a hand in the kitchen.”

  “I’ll see what Yiayia’s up to.”

  “Will’s there with her now. Buck’s probably coming later, maybe Cassie and Savannah. Nick Andino shows up sometimes before he takes our receipts to the bank. Other staff wander in.”