Once a Family

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “He was smoking a pipe out in the barn. There was more than just marijuana in it.”

  Like Pavlov’s dogs, they’d all been trained from the womb to know what certain smells meant. And the consequences that would result.

  “I’m guessing Tatum didn’t know?”

  He’d have guessed the same.

  He’d have been wrong.

  But there was no good to come from bad-mouthing one sister to another. Or disillusioning Talia any further, either.

  “I asked her if she’s ever used drugs. She said no. I believed her,” he said. “I still do.”

  For the time being. Too much time with the punk kid who seemed to have more influence over Tatum than Tanner did, and chances were, Tatum would succumb eventually. He’d heard Harcourt pressuring Tatum to “try it” Sunday, when he’d passed the barn on his way back out to the vineyard. Hell, if he hadn’t broken his clippers, he wouldn’t even have known the two were home.

  “She used to write to me about some girl named Amy. They told each other everything. Girls do that. Call her.”

  Talia’s “Amy,” Melissa Winchell, had helped Tanner find his sister in Vegas because she’d been worried sick about the choices Talia was making. As far as he knew, the two of them hadn’t spoken since.

  But then he hadn’t known that Talia and Tatum had talked to each other during the years he’d been searching for Talia, either. So maybe Melissa and Talia talked, too.

  Melissa used to stop by the farm now and then. Just to keep in touch.

  “According to Amy, Tatum ditched all her friends when she met Harcourt.”

  “This guy’s got a real hold on her.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m guessing the police know about him?”

  “They do. The Harcourts like Tatum. They cooperated. I got the idea that this kid’s a problem for them, too. If he knows anything, his father will get it out of him.”

  “So I can expect a call from the cops, too?”

  “They asked about her family.”

  “I’m guessing you couldn’t wait to tell them what I do for a living. How I’m such a horrible influence on my baby sister that we can’t be in the same room together?”

  Okay, so maybe his stance had been a bit harsh on that one. He was willing to rethink it if she would. As soon as they got Tatum home.

  “No, sis. I told them Tatum idolizes you and gave them your cell number.”

  A long silence followed. “And you’re giving me a heads-up that if the cops call, it’s not me they’re after.”

  “Something like that.” He loved her. “And to tell you that Tatum’s missing.”

  “In case she comes calling.”

  “In case she comes to harm. You have a right to know that she might be in danger.” At the moment, he’d give his vineyards, his house and the rest of the money he had in the bank if Tatum would show up on her sister’s doorstep.

  Show up anywhere. Alive.

  “It’s not like her to just leave. She didn’t take her retainer or any of her things, which indicates that she didn’t intend to be gone long, and Harcourt’s at home with his folks.”

  And Morris and Brown had asked for her DNA.

  “Do I have your permission to call her?”

  Instincts honed by Talia’s proven lack of trustworthiness almost choked him as he said, “Yes. But I’m pretty sure her battery’s dead. Her phone goes immediately to voice mail and the charger was here.”

  “She can get another charger.” Talia’s dry response made him feel a little better. For no apparent reason. “And it’s also possible that she’s sending the line to voice mail when she sees who’s calling. Or maybe she has the phone off to conserve the battery. I’ll keep trying, just in case.”

  “Thanks, sis.”

  “How much cash does she have on her?”

  When Talia had left at eighteen, she’d taken all of his money that she could get her hands on. Close to five hundred dollars.

  “I gave her fifty on Saturday, as I do every week. I don’t know if she spends it all every week, or if she’s saved up. She hasn’t accessed our joint account.”

  “You’re still keeping your name on everyone else’s accounts, huh?”

  “She’s fifteen, Talia. And I also put money in that account for her. Anyway, the punk could have spotted her a thousand easy.”

  “I’m sure the cops will find out from his parents if he did. Surely they’d know if he suddenly withdrew a thousand bucks.”

  “Unless he got it selling drugs and then they won’t know.”

  “You’re telling me she could be anywhere.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You need me to come home?”

  Tanner had a flash of memory―Talia, back when her hair was still long and blond, sitting at the kitchen table with him and Thomas, laughing so hard she spit mashed potatoes on a bowl of peas....

  “Not yet,” he said. “Hopefully she’ll be home tonight and I can tan her hide for putting us all through this.”

  “Tanner?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I suggest you don’t touch a hair on her head. If you want her to speak to you once she turns eighteen, that is.”

  He’d never hit Tatum. Ever. He’d used the words figuratively. But he’d slapped Talia once. He was seventeen at the time and she’d been ten and had been using words he’d only ever heard come out of his mother’s mouth when the woman was high on something and chasing her next lay.

  Talia’s eyes had opened wide, filled with tears, but even then she’d been too tough to let them fall. He’d been more appalled at his action than she had. Had apologized over and over.

  Clearly she’d never forgiven him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “WE KNOW WHO you are, Tatum.” Sedona waited until they were seated in the Garden of Renewal, a professionally planted utopia on the grounds of The Lemonade Stand, designed with aesthetics, sound and scent in mind. The rock waterfall in the middle of the garden offered a comforting white noise that tuned out sounds from the world beyond.

  “My brother found me and told you, didn’t he? And now you’re going to make me go home.”

  “No. Someone reported you missing to the police. You’re all over the news.”

  “Oh.”

  “You didn’t think anyone would miss you?”

  The girl’s head was bent as she leaned over, her elbows on her knees, hands on her arms, and rocked.

  A defensive posture that was far too familiar to Sedona. She saw it a lot in her line of work.

  “I didn’t think,” Tatum said. “At least, not about that part.”

  “So tell me what you did think about.”

  Tatum sat upright, her eyes glistening with tears. “I had to get away from him, Ms. Campbell. I was online this morning and read about The Lemonade Stand on someone’s Facebook page. I knew I’d probably only have one chance to get here, so I grabbed my purse and left. I didn’t even bring my retainer.”

  She was watching and listening for the “tells” because she didn’t have much time.

  “Had to get away from whom?”

  “My brother. I was off school today and he was going to be out working so I thought it was my chance.”

  “What about your parents? Have you talked to them about your brother? Won’t they help you?”

  “Tanner’s my guardian. He’s my brother. Our mother took off when I was five. She gave Tanner custody of all three of us kids. He always said that was the one decent thing she did for us before she left. Otherwise, we’d have been split up.”

  Okay. Unexpected. Sedona slowed her mind down, reassessing.

  “What about your dad?”

  “I have no idea who he is. My older sister, T
alia, said he was a drug dealer, just like hers and our other brother, Thomas’s. Tanner wouldn’t say. I just know that we all four have different dads and none of them hung around. Tanner’s was pretty decent, I guess. He died when Tanner was little.”

  “You have three older siblings?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And this Tanner, he’s the oldest?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You have a sister named Talia and that was the name on the ID you gave Lila when you first arrived.”

  “Yeah. It was hers. I found it in some stuff she left behind.”

  “So she’s gone, too?”

  “She’s a stripper in Vegas and Tanner won’t let me see her. Like he’s afraid I’m going to get stripper cooties or something.”

  A picture of a drowning man began to form in Sedona’s mind. A man desperate enough to use force to keep his youngest sibling in line as she tried to take control of her own life?

  Right alongside that vision was a depiction of a young woman who was more alone than Sedona had ever been.

  “So there’s you, Tanner and Talia. What about the fourth sibling?”

  “Thomas. He’s in New York. Has some fancy job to do with money but I wouldn’t even recognize him if I saw him. He headed for college the fall after mom left and never came back. He had a scholarship to an Ivy League school back east.”

  “How old were you then?”

  The gorgeous teenager shrugged her slumped shoulders. “Maybe five.”

  “Do you and Thomas ever talk?” Just how isolated was this girl?

  “Sometimes. When Tanner makes me. I mean, I don’t really know the guy, you know? We had a druggie mother in common and that’s about it.”

  “But Thomas calls?”

  “Maybe like on Christmas or something. Mostly Tanner calls him. Sometimes he answers and sometimes he doesn’t. Tanner leaves messages. Thomas doesn’t return them.”

  No hope of support there.

  “Are any of your siblings married?”

  Was there any family that could take this girl? To keep her out of the system?

  “Nope. And if Tanner has his way, I won’t ever be married, either.”

  Not liking the sound of that, Sedona made a mental note.

  “So what makes Tanner angry with you?”

  Tatum shrugged again.

  “Tatum?” She waited for the girl to look at her. “I can’t help you if you aren’t honest with me.”

  “That makes Tanner mad,” Tatum said. “When he thinks people are lying to him. But he lies all the time, you know? He says that he’s there for me, but he’s not. He’s always out in that precious vineyard of his, leaving me alone in that big old house. And when I try to find my own life, my own friends, and to be a part of their families, he gets mad and ruins everything.”

  “Like what? Can you give me an example?”

  “Like...I have a boyfriend.” Tatum’s entire countenance changed. The girl’s eyes brightened, her cheeks softened. “He loves me, Ms. Campbell. Me. He doesn’t care that I have druggie parents who took off. He doesn’t think I’m any less because of that.”

  “And other kids do?”

  Tatum’s eyes grew shadowed again. “Some do. They say things when they think I don’t know or can’t hear them. They did that to Thomas and Talia, too.”

  “How do you know? I thought you and Thomas seldom speak?”

  Maybe she spoke with her siblings more than she realized. Maybe they cared enough to step forward. Maybe Thomas had a significant other. Was part of a family Tatum could join.

  “Talia told me. She said that I wasn’t supposed to listen to them. And that I wasn’t to let Tanner suffocate the life out of me, either.”

  “She said that.”

  “Yes.” Tatum nodded. “Exactly those words—not to suffocate the life out of me.”

  It was tough to form a picture of a family, to get a realistic sense of the dynamics, in a half-hour conversation with a distressed teenager. And yet...she was hearing enough to know that Tatum’s problems were real.

  “When did Talia tell you that?”

  “The last time I spoke to her.”

  “Was she living in Vegas then?”

  “Yes.”

  A stripper feeling she’d been suffocated? Because the older brother had tried to save his sister from a dangerous and potentially unhappy life choice?

  For a second, Sedona pitied the man. A seemingly young man who’d had the well-being of three younger siblings thrust upon him.

  He could be forgiven for making some mistakes.

  Sitting solemnly on the bench beside her, Tatum shuddered and Sedona could only imagine what the girl was remembering.

  Mistakes were forgivable. Hitting a defenseless fifteen-year-old girl was not.

  “I asked you why you thought that if your brother had his way, you’d never get married.”

  “Because he hates Del,” the girl said, her voice impassioned. “That’s my boyfriend,” she offered as an aside. “He went off on him on Sunday, and there was this huge fight. He says Del can’t ever come back, I can’t ever see him again and I’m not allowed to talk to him, either. He took my phone and left me with this flip thing with no data plan so I can’t even text.”

  “Why doesn’t he like Del?”

  Hands clasped tightly, Tatum shook her head. “Because he thinks we’re gonna sleep together, I guess. He caught us out in the barn.”

  “Are you sleeping together?”

  “No.” A new note entered the girl’s voice.

  “Tatum, I’m not your judge. I’m the one who has to know the truth so I can best defend you.”

  “We haven’t had sex,” Tatum said. “I’ve never... But he wants to. He was trying to talk me into trying it when Tanner suddenly showed up.”

  “Do you want to?”

  The darkening night was cool, but she and Tatum both had sweaters and were enclosed in a thick circle of trees surrounding the several-acre garden. The orange-and-golden California poppies on the outskirts of the garden hadn’t yet closed for the night.

  “Yeah, I want to. Sorta. I mean, I want to be...you know...together and all. I just, I mean, Tanner’d kill me and...”

  Sedona wasn’t a juvenile counselor. But being a family lawyer specializing in divorce and family arbitration meant that she often found herself in the role of counselor. She’d had some training.

  She also remembered being fifteen....

  And she had decisions to make. Every hour that law enforcement personnel were searching for Tatum, an endangered missing child who wasn’t missing at all, they were being taken away from other important work.

  The scent from the flowering plants in the beds close by wafted around them. Sedona focused on those flowers for a moment, seeing some color but mostly shadows within the soft glow of strategically placed landscape lighting.

  “Does Del know you’re here?”

  “No.” Tatum shook her head. “I...” The girl’s voice faded and Sedona sensed her inner struggle.

  “You love Tanner,” she said now. The brother might be overprotective. Was possibly abusive. But he’d been the only parent this girl had known.

  “Sometimes, I guess.”

  “And you love Del.” Or she thought she did.

  “Yes. I do.” There was no doubt that Tatum believed the words. And maybe they were true. It wouldn’t be the first time a love that was born in high school lasted a lifetime.

  She had to look no further than her own parents to see that.

  “Does Del know that Tanner hit you?”

  “No.” No hesitation there.

  Time was of the essence. The bottom line was that Tatum had had the courage to reach out for help.

&nbs
p; “Do you think Del is the one who reported you missing?”

  “No. I messaged him on Facebook this morning to tell him I loved him and that I was leaving but I wouldn’t say where I was going. I didn’t want him to have to lie when his dad asked him about it.

  “I know Tanner turned me in. It’s just like him. He did it to Talia, too, the first time she ran away. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I just found out the name of this place and then called a hotline to find out more about it and knew today was the only chance I’d have of getting here.” There was absolute conviction in Tatum’s reply.

  “You mentioned the first time Talia ran away. There were more?”

  “The second time she took off, she was eighteen and he couldn’t do anything. She’d left a note saying she was moving out so she wasn’t, like, in danger or missing or anything. But for years he couldn’t find her. When he finally did she was in Vegas and there was nothing he could do to her.”

  “Did he hit Talia, too?” Sedona kept her tone soft, unthreatening. And tried to stick to the facts, not giving rein to any of the emotions that were creeping up on her.

  In a small voice, Tatum said, “Yes, he did. The big kids always hid everything from me like I was too dumb to know what was going on. But one time after Thomas left and Talia and Tanner were in this really huge fight, Talia screamed at him to get away from her and said he’d gotten away with slapping her face once but that if he ever touched her again she’d report him.” The girl frowned.

  And Sedona could only guess at what Tatum was feeling in that moment.

  “Is that why she ran away?”

  “I don’t know. I was only seven.”

  “So you really don’t know her, either?”

  “Talia was like my mother until Tanner drove her away. And she still kept in touch with me. In secret. Until Tanner threatened her or something and made her cut me off.”

  “How long has it been since you’ve had contact with her?”

  “Almost a year. He caught me talking to her last summer. He’d just found out from an old friend of hers where she was in Vegas and then, just my luck, he comes in from the vineyard and hears me saying her name. Next thing I know, he’s off to Vegas and when he comes home he tells me she won’t be contacting me again.”