The Perfect Couple

by Brenda Novak

  Colin couldn’t help glancing toward the stairs. He had all his toys ready, was eager to see how long Zoe could survive what he had in store for her, how she’d react to the pain and degradation—and now this. “Can’t it wait?” he said.

  “No.”

  Son of a bitch! Something was obviously wrong, but Colin didn’t want to hear about it right now. It probably had to do with his little sister. Paddy had been trying to reconcile with Courtney for the past two years. He wanted to apologize and make up, but she either avoided his calls or changed her number.

  Paddy was getting so damn soft in his old age, Colin thought. Where was the man who used to let Tina beat on him at the drop of a hat? There were times he’d even held Colin down for her. A man like that deserved to reap what he’d sown, didn’t he? He couldn’t start whining at this late date; it wasn’t fair.

  “Okay, what’s up? Spit it out,” he said.

  “I’m sorry. I—you’ll have to apologize to Tiffany for me. I’m not even sure I should’ve come here, but…”

  Colin realized he’d pulled his shirt on wrong side out and corrected it. “But what?”

  “I just saw something on television that has me…concerned,” he admitted.

  He’d seen something on TV? Who gave a rat’s ass about that? “If this is about politics—”

  “No. It’s about you, Colin.”

  “What does anything on TV have to do with me?”

  “I hope nothing.”

  Colin slouched on the sofa. “You’re being really cryptic, you know that?”

  His father waved toward the stairs. “Could you get Tiffany to come down for a minute? I think she should be in on this.”

  “Tiffany’s not interested, Dad. She’s waiting for me in bed, okay? She’s not coming down just because you saw something you didn’t like on TV. Now, explain what’s going on or get the hell out of here, because you just interrupted some of the best sex of my life.”

  Paddy’s chest lifted as he drew breath. “A boy was found wandering in the woods.”

  Colin hadn’t expected his father to connect him to Rover. In his obsession with Zoe and his irritation over being interrupted before he could even touch her, he’d almost forgotten his last pet.

  Fear suddenly offset his irritation, but he wasn’t stupid enough to show it. “I saw that myself, a couple nights ago. Poor kid. Has he come out of his coma?”

  “No. They’re not sure he ever will.”

  “That’s tragic. But…” Colin gestured as if Paddy had him at a loss. “I don’t understand. You came all the way over here to tell me some sad story about a teenage boy?”

  “They showed a map, pinpointing where the boy was found.”

  “And?”

  “It was right by Mike’s cabin.”

  Colin’s erection had long since disappeared. He adjusted himself, acting as though he wasn’t worried, but he was. He had reason to be. “Who’s Mike?”

  “My friend from work, remember? He took over management of the lawn-mower shop when your useless stepbrother got mad and walked out on me.”

  “Oh, right. Mike.”

  “I set it up for you and Tiffany to rent his cabin a couple years ago because I already had Sheryl’s family staying in mine. You wanted to go camping for a week.”

  Colin maintained a carefully neutral expression. “Wow! The kid was found by Mike’s cabin? What a small world. I hadn’t realized. But then, they didn’t get specific in the segment I saw.”

  “They’re appealing to the public for help.”

  “Good idea.”

  Paddy peered at him more closely. “That doesn’t mean anything to you?”

  “Why would it?”

  “The boy insisted the person who hurt him lived in Rocklin.”

  Colin shrugged. “Maybe he does.”

  His father lowered his voice. “Colin, I’m here because I’m afraid you had something to do with the disappearance of that boy.”

  The adrenaline pumping through him allowed Colin to react with the proper amount of indignation. “You think I’d beat up a child?”

  He’d expected Paddy to get defensive in return. As much as his father had changed over the years, he still had a temper when sufficiently provoked. But he didn’t react with anger. His voice had a pleading quality to it. “I don’t want to think that,” he said. “To be honest, I can’t imagine a worse scenario, but the man who hurt him insisted on being called Master. As soon as I heard that, I felt like I’d been shot.”

  “Are you serious? God, will you give me a break?” Colin managed a laugh. “Maybe I made Courtney call me Master when we were young, but I was just playing around. That doesn’t make me the son of a bitch who hurt this kid.”

  “Playing around? She didn’t think it was any fun.”

  “It was normal brother-sister stuff.”

  His father didn’t comment.

  “Come on!” Colin said. “I’m not the only one who’s ever used the word. What about domination freaks? It could be anyone. How would I even have come into contact with this boy?”

  He knew before he’d finished speaking that he’d said too much. The answer was obvious, and his father spit it out immediately.

  “He went missing from my neighborhood.”

  The regret in his father’s body language made Colin’s knees go weak. On some level, Paddy knew. He didn’t want to face it, probably because he didn’t want to shoulder any responsibility for what his son had become. He’d been so proud of Colin, especially since Colin had graduated from law school.

  But, in his heart of hearts, Paddy knew. And the truth made him sick.

  Colin jutted out his chin. “I didn’t do it.”

  “You have a connection to where he was taken and where he was found. And…”

  “And what?” Colin snapped, going on the attack. “You believe Mom, don’t you! You believe I have a cruel streak.”

  “I’m not sure what to believe.”

  “Even if I wanted to kidnap somebody’s kid, how would I do it with Tiffany around? Whoever it was kept that kid for what, two months?”

  A tear caught in Paddy’s eyelashes. Colin had never seen his father cry before. He didn’t know what to do, what more he could say, but he couldn’t let the encounter end like this or his father would go to the police.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “They didn’t say how long Master had the kid,” Paddy replied.

  Shit! He’d done another line of coke after Tiffany had left and wasn’t thinking clearly, wasn’t handling this well. His father was growing more convinced of the truth. How was he going to get out of this?

  Sweat soaked the underarms of Colin’s T-shirt, made the cotton stick to his back. “They did in the segment I saw.”

  He’d forced enough calm into his voice and manner that a flicker of hope returned to his father’s eyes. “They did?”

  “Yes! How would I know that otherwise?”

  “But what about the girl who’s gone missing? They showed her mother. She looked exactly like your neighbor.”

  Son of a bitch! How had he recognized Zoe? Paddy and Sheryl hardly ever came over. But Colin and Tiffany had lived next door to Lucassi and Zoe for nine months. It was certainly conceivable that they’d bumped into each other at some point.

  Should he say the person on TV wasn’t his neighbor? That was what he wanted to say. But it would be far too easy to disprove. And then he’d be in the untenable position of being caught in a lie.

  Raking his fingers through his hair, he clicked his tongue. “Right. That happened earlier this week. Can you believe it? Someone snagged the kid from her own backyard. Zoe was just here, by the way, helping me organize a big search for tomorrow. The other lawyers at the firm and some of the support staff are going out with us.”

  “Why do you need to look for her?” his father asked.

  Colin’s muscles ached from the tension. “Because she could be in danger. You just told me yourself—someone took her.
”

  “Was that someone you, Colin?”

  “No!” Colin wasn’t willing to give up yet. He could lie his way out of this just as he had out of every scrape in the past. His mother was the only one who could see through him when he made shit up. She’d tried to beat the devil out of him, but that’d just heightened his desire to hurt and maim. “I know it seems like quite a coincidence. But it wasn’t me. If I’m not at work, I’m with Tiffany. I could never get enough time alone to snatch one kid, never mind two.”

  “I thought of that,” Paddy said. “The whole ride over here, I told myself I had to be crazy to be feeling such fear. It couldn’t be you. Not my son. For the sake of holding my marriage together, my family together, maybe I let your mother get a bit too harsh when you were little. I feel bad about that. But Tina’s been out of the picture for a long time, Colin. You could’ve gotten some help. I offered, more than once, to pay for a therapist, but you always insisted you were fine. You pointed to your grades in school, your law-school diploma, your happy marriage, your lovely home. And I figured anyone who could achieve all that had to be fine. But we both know how Tiffany worships you. She’d slit her own wrists if you told her to.”

  With anyone else, Tiffany’s presence in his daily life would provide a foolproof alibi. But this was his father; Paddy had had a front-row seat to the way they interacted.

  “You’re underestimating Tiffany,” he said. “She’d never go along with kidnapping and…and attempted murder!”

  His father wanted to believe him. That was why he’d come over, to convince himself that his suspicions were unfounded. “You’re sure it’s her I’ve underestimated?”

  Colin grabbed his arm. “Are you kidding me? You’re just like Mom. Full of false accusations. Always thinking the worst.”

  His father didn’t like being compared to Tina. Rocking back, he searched Colin’s face. “You didn’t hurt those kids? Tell me the truth, Colin. I can’t help you if I don’t know the truth.”

  Paddy’s doubt made it possible for Colin to breathe again. He gave a skeptical-sounding laugh. “Relax. I haven’t hurt anybody,” he said. But then Samantha started kicking and screaming upstairs and, even with the added insulation, Colin could hear her calling, “Help! Help me! Please! They’ve chained me to the floor. Call my mom! Please help me.”

  Colin’s father’s ashen complexion made it obvious he’d heard her, too. “Good God,” he whispered and broke away, headed for the stairs.

  Paddy thought he could save her. He thought Colin would just stand there and let him pass.

  “Not so fast,” he said and shoved his father so hard he fell, striking his head on the corner of the wall. A gash on his forehead oozed blood and left him dazed. He blinked up at Colin as if he couldn’t quite focus, but the sight of him lying there didn’t bother Colin in the least. He felt only relief. “You never should’ve married Mom, you know that? She was a mean bitch, even if she was a helluva lot smarter than you. And you shouldn’t have come over here alone,” he added. Then he smashed his head with the base of a lamp.

  When he was sure his father was dead, Colin leaned back on his knees, winded but wildly exhilarated. Killing an adult wasn’t much different from killing a kid. “You’re not so big and tough these days, are you, Dad?” he said, then he grimaced at the dent he’d created in the brass lamp. “Now look what you made me do. That lamp was expensive.”

  Dropping the makeshift weapon onto the carpet, he listened for Sam. He hated her at that moment, hated her more than anyone in the world. He’d kill her in the most painful manner of all, he promised himself. But the house was quiet. As far as he could tell, Zoe hadn’t responded to her daughter’s calls, which probably meant she was still in a stupor. And Sam had either given up or given out. Either way, he could take care of them later. He had to deal with Paddy first.

  Breathe deeply. He shut his eyes in an attempt to overcome the adrenaline rush causing his hands to shake. Everything was okay. He’d had a close call, that was all. But he’d saved the day. All he had to do was dispose of his father’s body and he’d be fine.

  But how?

  Standing, he paced back and forth across the carpet. He’d drag his father into the garage, out of sight, and clean up the blood. As soon as Tiffany returned, he’d have her drive Paddy’s car to the pool hall the old man visited almost every weekend. Then, later, when the neighbors were asleep, he’d drive his own car into the garage, put his father’s body in the trunk and take it into the mountains to bury. Tomorrow, Paddy Bell would be just another missing person.

  He pivoted and made another pass. Would that work? It should. Paddy hadn’t told Sheryl what he suspected; Colin was sure of it. He wasn’t the type to share information like that until he was absolutely certain. But if his stepmother knew Paddy was coming over here, Colin could face some questions.

  It wouldn’t matter. She’d never seriously believe he’d hurt his father. It was her son she’d blame. A notorious hothead, Glen Hagen had busted up the business partnership he and Paddy had going when he walked out of the lawn-mower shop they owned together.

  Yes, Glen would get the blame. If Sheryl or anyone else placed Paddy in the neighborhood, Colin would simply say he stopped by on his way to see Glen about patching up the rift between them. She knew Paddy wanted to make peace with Glen. These days, Paddy didn’t like being at odds with anyone.

  All Colin had to do was pull himself together, be more careful—be smart.

  But no sooner had he dragged the corpse into the garage and started to clean up the blood than someone knocked on the door.

  * * *

  As he stood on Colin Bell’s stoop, waiting for a response, Jonathan checked his phone again. Nothing. While emergency crews cleared away the three-car pileup that’d kept him sitting in traffic for twenty minutes, he’d sent three texts to Zoe—but she hadn’t returned a single one, and she wasn’t answering when he tried to call.

  What was going on? It didn’t make sense that she wouldn’t keep her phone handy, just in case he had news.

  When Colin finally answered Jonathan’s knock, he opened the door a crack. Jonathan could tell he didn’t really want to be bothered. But his smile was as friendly as ever. “Sorry for the wait,” he said. “I was in the garage.”

  Colin nodded. “No problem. I’m looking for Zoe. Have you seen her?”

  “She was here for dinner.”

  “How long ago did she leave?”

  His eyebrows knotted as if he was thinking hard to come up with the correct time. “’Bout an hour ago.”

  “Did she say where she was going?”

  A drop of sweat trickled down from his temple. Jonathan would’ve thought he’d been working out, but he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and he wasn’t wearing shoes. Had he just finished exercising, stripped off his clothes to hop in the shower and put them back on at the sound of the doorbell? If so, it was no wonder he didn’t want to be interrupted….

  “She mentioned she was tired,” he said. “But maybe Anton saw her heading to her car and waylaid her. They broke up, you know.”

  Jonathan peered at Lucassi’s empty driveway. “Her car’s not there.”

  “Maybe they left together.”

  That possibility didn’t make Jonathan feel much better. Perhaps he was wrong about her. Perhaps she’d go back to Anton, regardless of all her talk about a “loveless relationship.” Maria had returned to Dan, hadn’t she? And he was the man who’d broken her nose and her arm—and eventually killed her.

  “I guess they could have,” Jonathan said. “Thanks.” But he managed to contact Lucassi on his cell phone only five minutes later, and Lucassi swore up and down that he hadn’t seen Zoe since she’d left his house last night.

  CHAPTER 24

  Tiffany’s knees buckled when she saw her father-in-law’s body. Covering her mouth in horror, she slid down the inside wall of the garage, staring at the pool of blood fanning out from his head. “He’s dead,” she said through
her fingers. That was obvious. The minute she walked into the house and caught him cleaning up, Colin had said as much, and this was proof. But seeing wasn’t necessarily believing. Since they’d married, Colin had been somewhat ambivalent about his father. Sometimes he blamed him for not stopping the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother. Other times he seemed to forgive and forget. But Tiffany had always had a soft spot for Paddy, who, unlike Colin’s mother, had been kind to her from the beginning. If he knew they were coming over, he kept her favorite cookies on hand. “The ones with the M&M’s,” she thought distantly.

  “Get up!” Colin growled. “I need your help.” She didn’t move, so he gave her a little kick. “Come on. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

  She blinked, then focused on her husband. “What’s wrong with me?” She tried to control her voice, but it went shrill anyway. “You just killed your father! You’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison, just like my brother!”

  “Shut up!” he cried. “Do you want someone to hear you?” Raising his fist, he loomed over her as if he’d hit her, but she didn’t cower. She was too bewildered to be afraid of him.

  “Why, Colin?” she murmured, struggling to come to terms with what she saw. “Why would you do such a terrible thing? I—I loved him.”

  His lips curled back from his teeth. “Oh, give me a freakin’ break, will you? You hardly knew him.”

  As always, she’d taken off her shoes when she entered the house. The air in the shut-up garage retained the heat of an unseasonably warm day, but her bare feet felt like blocks of ice on the cool concrete. “I did too know him.”

  “Only how he was in later years. He wasn’t so nice before. He always took my mom’s side. When I was in high school, she tried to have me institutionalized, and he nearly went along with it.”

  “No, he left her. That was the last straw, he said.”

  “He almost went along with it before he left her.”

  She reached out to touch her father-in-law, fingered the rough calluses that distinguished his hands from anyone else’s. It took actual contact to convince her it was really him. His face was barely recognizable after what Colin had done. “So…that’s why you did it? Because…because you’re still angry about the past?”