by Willow Rose
I leaned back in my chair while the story came together for me. “So, the siblings didn’t get anything?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Not a dime. They had grown up in luxury, so their father figured it was time for them to learn how to earn a decent living on their own. That’s what he wrote in the letter. Laura had never known who her father was, never had any of his money, now he was giving her everything. I guess he tried to make amends for not letting her know he was her dad all those years. Laura was baffled, to put it mildly. She read the letter, but didn’t understand. How could he be her father? She already had a father. She ran out of the house crying, and I ran after her. John Platt died shortly after, we later learned. Good thing for him, I think. Otherwise, the siblings would probably have started a riot. They tried to fight Laura with all their big lawyers afterwards, trying to declare that their dad was dying, and therefore not in his right mind when he made the will. After several months of going back and forth, the judge decided they didn’t have a case and closed it. Laura was rich and, in time, came to accept the fact that she had been the result of an affair. Her mother confirmed it was true, and they didn’t speak for a long time, but she forgave her eventually. Laura and Brandon bought the house in Snug Harbor and moved here shortly after they were married. She sold John Platt’s old house, but wanted to stay in the town. She liked it here, she told me. I didn’t see her much after she moved, since I live north of Orlando now, and I work full time, but every now and then, we would meet and catch up. But she was never really happy. She had Ben, and he was the joy of her life, but she kept talking about how Brandon was drinking and gambling her money away on the casino boats, acting like this big shot with her money. She wanted to leave him, but then she was pregnant again and decided to stay for the children. I met with her the week before the baby died. She said she was going to leave him, this time for real. That she was going back to the Tampa area and start over with the kids. Brandon’s drinking had gotten worse, and he was still gambling a lot. In a few years, he had spent more than a third of her money. She was still certain he loved her, and maybe he does. I don’t know him well enough to say he doesn’t. But he also loved the money, and that’s what went so wrong. After the baby died, I went to the funeral and Laura had a black eye. She told me in confidence that Brandon had slapped her, that he blamed her for the child’s death. They fought about that a lot, she told me. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t checked on the baby during the night. It was her fault, he told her. And she believed him. She felt so guilty, she told me. So much it hurt. I said she should leave him, that now was the time to go, and she agreed, but she never did. Instead, she lowered herself to his level and took up drinking. The last time I spoke to her was three months ago, and she was so drunk on the phone I could hardly understand what she was saying. Now…I can’t believe she’s gone. What’s to become of Ben?”
I shook my head with a deep exhale. I was starting to wonder that myself.
Chapter Twelve
January 2015
Shannon heard her daughter’s voice calling in the distance. Then the door slammed and the voice came closer, even though it was all still drowned in a heavy daze.
“Moom? Moom?” the voice became shrill and clearer.
Shannon tried to blink her eyes to be able to see, but it hurt too much.
She felt a hand in hers, then someone pulling her arm.
“Mom? Please, wake up, Mom, please?”
Shannon growled something, trying to speak, but her lip hurt. She blinked again, and soon an image emerged of her daughter looking at her with terrified eyes.
“Mom, are you all right? Speak to me, Mommy!”
You gotta say something. The girl is scared. Seeing you like this. Say something to calm her down.
Shannon opened her eyes wide and looked at her daughter. Her beautiful Angela. The love of her life. The only beautiful thing in her life. The one thing she had done right.
“Hi, sweetie.”
“Mommy. What happened? Are you hurt?”
With much effort, Shannon sat up on the kitchen floor. She leaned her head on the cupboards behind her. So much pain.
“Mommy must have fallen,” she said, and felt blood on her fingers when she touched her face.
“Again?” Angela said.
“Yeah. Again.”
“You’re so clumsy, Mommy,” Angela said. She grabbed a towel and wet it. Then she put ice cubes inside of it and handed it to Shannon. She did it with such expertise and experience that it terrified Shannon.
“Thanks, sweetie,” she said.
“Where is Daddy?” Angela asked. “Do you want me to call him?”
“No. No. Don’t disturb him. I’m fine. Really. I just need to…to rest my head a little bit.”
Angela sat down next to her. “I’ve been thinking,” she said with that grown-up voice of hers.
Too grown-up for a six-year-old.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be left at home alone anymore. You get hurt all the time. I think it would be best if there was someone with you. Last week it was the stairs, remember?”
Shannon drew in a deep breath. She remembered too well. And so did Angela, apparently. She was getting too old. It wouldn’t be long before she figured out what was really going on.
Did you really think you could hide it from her forever?
She didn’t. But she had hoped it would get better with time. She had hoped Joe would get better, that it would all blow over and he would stop being so angry with her. For a long time, she had tried to change it by changing herself, by being nicer and staying away from things that made him angry, but now she knew it didn’t matter how she behaved. It wasn’t going to change.
“You know what? Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Maybe you and I should take a trip somewhere soon. What do you say?”
Angela’s face lit up. “That sounds awesome, Mom.”
Shannon sighed and grabbed the edge of the kitchen counter. She pulled herself up, while her daughter tried to help her. She had been thinking about doing this for many months. Now was the time.
“I better go do my homework,” Angela said, and jumped for the stairs.
Shannon stopped her halfway up. “Hey, sweetie.”
“Yes, Mom?”
“Not a word to Dad, all right? Not a word about the trip, okay?”
She nodded while biting her lip.
She knows. Oh, God, she knows, doesn’t she?
“All right, Mom.”
Chapter Thirteen
January 2015
It was dark before I made it back to the motel to pick up the kids. I had missed dinnertime, but my mom had made a plate for me that she heated in the microwave of the small restaurant that was attached to the motel.
The place was called Motel Albert. They had named it after my dad, Albert Ryder, since it was his big dream that had come true. It was located right between A1A and the beach. The rooms were small, but not too shabby. The restaurant at the end of the building had a deck on the beach side where people could sit, have a hotdog or a fish burger, and watch the waves and the dolphins if they were lucky. I loved the place and so did my kids. They could play on the beach for hours and hours nonstop. They were like fish in the water, and I had slowly started to teach them how to surf as well. Abigail was by far the better of them, since she was the daredevil and never afraid of anything, whereas Austin was a lot more careful type. Emily refused to even try, but I kept asking her anyway. At sixteen years of age, everything is lame, apparently. I wasn’t giving up on her, though. I had surfed all of my life, and I wanted all of them to have the gift of surfing in their lives as well. I never missed a good swell. The waves in Ft. Lauderdale, where I grew up, weren’t as good as they were here in Cocoa Beach. This was heaven for me, and I hoped it would be for my kids as well.
“Tough day, huh?” my mom, Sherri Ryder, asked when I reached for a second portion of fish tacos. She had made them herself, and there was no better on the beach. She knew I
couldn’t stop eating when I had a lot on my mind. I used to be a lot bigger when I worked back in Miami. Since I moved to Cocoa Beach I had lost around twenty pounds, just because I surfed more and ate healthier. Plus, I rarely stressed, so I didn’t overeat. I wasn’t in the best shape of my life, but it was getting a lot better. I looked good, I believed. Still had all of my hair, even though my mom thought it was too long and curly for a man in the force.
“Yes,” I said. “I mean, I know this stuff happens everywhere; it’s just so shocking to see it here in Cocoa Beach.”
I sipped my beer, made by the local brewery that my mother had a deal with. I enjoyed the local beers. I had one more. The twins came rushing towards me, closely followed by their granddad, who was skipping to keep up with them. He became such a child around them. It amused me. At the age of seventy-five, he was still very agile. He had always taken very good care of his body. He’d been running for most of his life. I hadn’t been good to myself over the years. I hoped to have half of his health in ten years.
“Daaad!” they yelled.
I looked at my dad, who was smiling from ear to ear. There was nothing in this world he enjoyed more than spending time with the twins. “They’re too fast,” he said panting. “We were playing tag in the back, and I can’t catch them.”
I laughed and made room for him to sit next to me on the wooden bench. We were sitting outside on the porch, overlooking the dark ocean. The sun had set an hour ago, but I could hear the waves. They were picking up. We were supposed to get a really big swell later in the week. I, for one, hoped I could get time to catch some.
“Where’s Emily?” I asked.
“She’s in the TV room watching some show I don’t understand half of,” my mom said. “Why are vampires such a big deal now?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “I don’t know, Mom.”
“Anyway, she says you let her watch it, but I really don’t think young girls should watch things like that.”
“It’s her thing, Mom. Let her,” I said.
My mother didn’t look like she wanted to. “I’m just saying it,” she said shaking her head. “She needs to know how to be careful what she fills herself with.”
“So, you had a tough day, I hear?” My dad interrupted. “We saw it on the news.”
I nodded while removing some lettuce from between my teeth. “Yeah, I noticed the choppers earlier. I bet they’re all over it.”
“What about that poor kid?” my mom asked. “How is ever going to get through life?”
It was typical of my mother to think about the kid. Kids had been her whole life. She was a kindergarten teacher for twenty-something years and adored all children. A lot more than she adored adults.
I wondered how much they had said about the case on the news. Had they told people that the body was partly dismembered? Weasel had been in charge of making the statements and had called for a press conference the next day. At City Hall, they were terrified that this was going to affect tourism. I couldn’t blame them. The tourists meant everything around here. Especially at this time of year. The snowbird season. It meant jobs. It meant security for people. Ever since they stopped the Space Shuttle program, thousands of people had lost their jobs and the real estate market had plummeted. People lost a lot of money on their houses. They recently started a new project out at the Space Center, and they were still launching rockets every now and then, but the area had been bleeding for years. It wasn’t only people who had worked on the shuttle that were hurt. Everyone else was too. Hundreds of thousands tourists would usually come to watch a launch, and that meant a lot of money for the hotels, the restaurants, and shops. It helped a little that the cruise ships were booming, but the prices on houses were low, and lots of people were still out of work. My parents had felt it too. They used to have the motel packed several times a year when a shuttle was launched, and now they barely made ends meet.
“I don’t know, Mom,” I said and finished my beer. “We can only hope for the best.”
“You’ll catch him,” my mom said. “You’ll get the guy, and then everything will go back to normal again.”
I chuckled. My mother had such great confidence in me; it was sweet. She never did like the fact that I was a detective or on the police force. Especially not when I worked in Miami. She feared for my life every day. I couldn’t blame her. I didn’t want any of my kids in the force either. But I happened to like my job. Not today, but most days.
Chapter Fourteen
January 2015
“I think we’ll head home now,” I said, and kissed my mom on the cheek. “Thanks for dinner; it was great, as always.”
“We need to change a light bulb in room one-eleven. Could you do that before you leave? You know how your dad is with ladders. I don’t like him climbing on them.”
“I got it,” I said.
I found a new bulb in the cupboard behind the bar, then grabbed the ladder and went into room one-eleven and changed it. I did all I could to help out around the motel. My parents were getting older, and it was harder and harder for them to keep up with the maintenance. It was the least I could do, with all the help they gave me. As my way of saying thanks, I devoted my weekends to helping them out. That way, the kids got to play with their grandparents too, so it was a win-win.
I looked at the twins, who were drawing on one of the tables in the restaurant. They were sitting underneath it and drawing on the bottom. Luckily, my parents hadn’t noticed. I cleared my throat.
“Abigail, Austin. We need to go home. Emily?” I called through the window.
“What?” she answered.
“We’re going home.”
“Finally,” she said.
I heard the TV shut off, then the sound of her dragging feet across the ground. She came out. She looked odd with her big army-boots and black outfit in this heat.
I smiled. “How was your day?”
She shrugged indifferently. “Fine, I guess.” She grabbed her backpack and put it on. I wanted to give her a hug, but was afraid it would come off as awkward. Instead, I turned to face the twins. “I said we were leaving.”
“Aw, we were having so much fun,” Abigail said.
Austin crawled out from under the table and walked to me. “It wasn’t my idea,” he said, and handed me the crayon. “I know,” I said. “Abigail. Get out from under there, now, young lady.”
“Wait a second. I just need to finish this.”
Was she kidding me?
“Abigail. Now.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. Six years of age and already a teenager. “All right, all right. I’m coming.”
We walked to the car and greeted one of the guests of the motel. Harry was his name. He had been a guest for a month or so now. A snowbird. We had a lot of those. They came down from the north and stayed all winter.
“Nice evening?” I said, as we passed him.
He nodded and smiled at the children. “Yes, indeed. Gonna be a beautiful day tomorrow, don’t you think?”
“Definitely.”
No one discussed the weather as much as snowbirds. They came to keep warm in the winter, while the snow and cold roamed up north and made it miserable for people. Harry petted the children on their heads, then went on towards the beach. An older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, who were also regulars and came every winter, got out of their car and walked towards the rooms. I nodded in greeting as I passed them, and we talked about the weather as well before they disappeared into their room. I was so happy for people like Harry and the Millers. They were the ones who let my parents earn enough money to be able to keep the motel.
I put the kids in the car and drove next door to the place where I had rented a condo. It was also right on the beach, and in walking distance of my parents’ place. It was in South Cocoa Beach, in the more secluded part of town. I, for one, loved it here. Arianna hadn’t liked it much. She thought it was too small…nothing really happened here, she always said.
That was
what I liked about it.
“Can we watch TV before we go to bed, Dad, please?” Abigail asked with big pleading eyes.
“Okay,” I said, as we walked towards the complex. I opened the front door and let the munchkins storm in and fight over who should hit the button for the elevator. “But only for half an hour,” I said on the way up, when they had finally quieted down. Abigail had naturally won the fight. She always did. She was the big sister and had beat her brother into this world by fifty-eight seconds. She had been beating him ever since.
“Aw,” Abigail pleaded. “Can’t we say one hour instead?”
I sighed and opened the door to the condo. I looked at my watch. It was going to be late. “Okay.” I said. “If you brush your teeth and put on your PJs first.”
The kids didn’t hear that last part before they stormed inside and threw themselves on the couch and turned the TV on. Emily went to her room and shut the door without a word, while the theme song to SpongeBob filled the living room. Each of the twins grabbed an iPad and started playing while watching TV.
The new generation of multitaskers.
I shook my head and sat next to them, and soon after, the iPads were put away and I had both kids on my lap.
Chapter Fifteen
September 1984
She never told anyone what had happened to her. She was too ashamed, too scared of what would happen if she did. So, Annie kept it to herself. She didn’t remember much. She couldn’t recall the details, but she believed she had been raped. She just wasn’t sure if it had all been a dream. She had woken up in the grass by the lake the next morning, but hadn’t been able to remember what had happened. But, as the days passed, little by little, she remembered bits and pieces. She knew she had been with Tim. And she knew she was badly bruised when she woke up. She covered the marks with make-up and stayed away from her friends for weeks afterwards. She even avoided Julia and told her she wasn’t feeling well. She didn’t want to have to answer her questions. She didn’t want anyone to know how stupid she had been.
