“We can’t leave him in jail, Dad.” Lissa drew Roy’s glance.
“What do you suggest?” Roy pushed the chair gently, methodically, under the table. “Where do you think I’m going to come up with the cash for bail? The dead woman’s a U.S. senator’s daughter, for Christ’s sake. The goddamn politicians will be all over it. Bail’s bound to be sky-high.”
“Whatever it is, we just have to come up with it, that’s all,” Lissa said.
“Bullshit! You and Evan and your damn brother have already sunk the business into more debt than it ever carried when I was running it.”
“I guess it’s a good thing the bank takes my signature on the business checks the same as yours,” Lissa told him. “I can arrange bail for Tucker myself.”
Emily waited for Roy to forbid Lissa, but he didn’t.
“It’s just a loan, anyway, Dad, until the charges against him are dropped.”
“Ah, Liss.” Her name from Roy’s mouth was a sigh.
“Tucker is my brother, Daddy, and I’m going to help him. I don’t care what the politicians, or you, or anyone else in the whole state, the whole world, think. He’s not a murderer!”
“Take my advice—let the cops sort it out. I told you, I’m done.”
“Roy! What is the matter with you?” Emily spoke almost without thinking, but she was appalled. When was a parent ever done? Regardless of the trouble a child brought home, or their age when it happened, they still belonged to you. You couldn’t deny blood, or refuse it, much less be done with it. “There are other suspects. That stockbroker, what’s his name, Hite. There must be dozens more given the line of work the women were in. Or are you just that determined to believe your own son is responsible?” Emily threw Roy’s question to her from a few days ago into his face. A moment passed before she added, more quietly, “If that’s the case, I’m sorry for you.”
“Darren Coe could have done this,” Lissa said. “Mom? Tell him what Joe said.”
“Merchant?” Roy’s glance jerked to Emily.
She’d been afraid to mention Joe, but now that Lissa had, she was relieved. “He found a police report, Roy, that says Darren Coe assaulted Miranda and threatened to kill her the month before she was murdered. There may be more to it that will connect Darren to her death. I don’t know, but Joe’s looking into it.”
“Well, he’s looking in the wrong place. Coe’s a fucking hero in this town. Everyone looks up to him.”
“That doesn’t make him incapable of violence.” Emily crossed her arms.
“He did it to me, Daddy.” Lissa looked at Evan and apologized. “I didn’t tell you everything about that night.”
“What night?” Roy asked.
As Lissa explained, Emily moved to her side and took her hand, and when Lissa was finished, she reminded Roy of Holly McPherson’s accusations against Darren that had come only weeks after his attack on Lissa.
“That son of a bitch,” Roy muttered. “How does he get away with it?”
“Friends in high places, I think.” Emily was convinced of this. “His sister, Courtney, is married to a Houston city councilman, remember?”
“Jesus, Liss.” Evan sounded stunned.
Emily felt badly for him, for the shock this was, and the way he’d had to hear about it.
“Darren threatened to hurt Tucker if Lissa told,” Emily said.
“That’s no excuse, Momma. I should have said right away what happened.”
Emily gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Joe mentioned Tucker took photos of Miranda’s injuries with his cell phone so if we can just—”
“That’s all well and good,” Roy said, “but he was arrested for Jessica Sweet’s murder, not Miranda’s.”
“Where are they?” Evan asked. “The photos?”
“I’m hoping they’re still on his phone,” Emily said, “if that’s possible.”
“Where is it?” Roy’s gaze rested on Emily. “Did you ask him? Let’s have a look and then we’ll see.”
“He said he lost it, but—” Breaking off, Lissa found Emily’s glance. “Mom, I met this woman today.... You don’t know anyone named Revel, do you? Revel Wiley?”
Emily gave her head a slight shake. Not now. It was a prayer. “What was the attorney’s name Tucker mentioned?” she asked, and ignoring Lissa’s scrutiny, she looked at Evan. “Do you have his number?”
Evan had his phone out, scrolling the directory. “Yeah, here it is. Mickey Loomis.”
Roy made a gesture as if he was washing his hands of them all. He turned on his heel.
“That’s right,” Emily said to his back, “walk out on your own son, on your own family. It’s what you’ve always done.” She was as helpless to keep the caustic edge from her voice as she was to stem the consuming flow of her panic.
“Let him go, Momma.” Lissa’s voice was shaky. Tears glazed her eyes.
Emily pressed her fist to her mouth, listening to Roy’s uneven tread fade up the stairs. It was only a matter of seconds before the door to their bedroom slammed, and she felt the walls, the very floor under her shoes, tremble.
* * *
While Evan spoke to Mickey Loomis, Emily made coffee. It was marginally calming, going through the routine. Still, her brain was humming, anxious. She was aware of Lissa, taking sugar and cream to the table, and, that quickly, Emily knew she couldn’t protect Lissa, that she had only been fooling herself to think it was possible, or necessary, or even laudable. But motherhood wasn’t like other jobs. You couldn’t retire or quit, or turn off your feelings like a faucet when your children became adults. She’d made mistakes, grave mistakes; Emily knew that, too.
She filled Lissa’s cup. “Your father’s right. I interfered when I shouldn’t have, when it would have been better for Tucker if I’d forced him to manage on his own.” She kept Lissa’s gaze, seeing the question there: What did Emily want? She scarcely knew herself. Forgiveness, certainly. Understanding was probably impossible, unless you were a mother yourself, then maybe... But even Anna had trouble comprehending Emily’s motives. Anna would say she didn’t know what she would do if Tucker were hers, as if everything Emily did wasn’t suitable or right.
“Tucker isn’t easy, Momma, I know that.” Lissa stirred sugar into her coffee. “I love him, he’s my brother, but honestly, watching what you’ve gone through with him—it’s a big part of why I’m scared to have a child.”
Evan caught Emily’s eye. “Mickey’s talking to someone at the sheriff’s department right now. We should know pretty quick about Tucker’s status.”
Emily nodded and, holding up the carafe, asked if he wanted coffee. “Or pie. I could cut you a slice.”
“In a minute, maybe. Thanks,” he answered.
“Mom? What about Revel Wiley? You don’t know her, do you?”
Emily sat down. “I’m afraid I do.”
The look of utter astonishment on Lissa’s face might have been funny in other circumstances. “How—?”
“How do you know her?” Emily asked, even though she dreaded the answer, the one she knew was inevitable, that Revel had confronted Lissa with her demand for money in exchange for Tucker’s cell phone.
“You first,” Lissa said, looking somehow chagrined and worried and annoyed all at once.
“Your brother was arrested last fall, for stalking her,” Emily said, and she went on, making short work of the details. “I paid her off so you—so nobody would have to know. I don’t know what to think....”
“But how? How did you do all this without Daddy finding out?”
Emily said she felt as if Roy did know. “I think Revel has spoken to him, too.”
“Joe helped you, didn’t he? Who is he to you, Mom?”
Emily didn’t answer. She couldn’t imagine what either one of her children would m
ake of it if they knew she and Joe had once been lovers.
“Mom?”
She looked up. “Please don’t ask, okay? You’re better off not knowing.”
Lissa considered this for a moment, holding Emily’s gaze in a steady, penetrating way. It’s what Roy did, the tactic he used when he wanted to make someone talk. Emily knew it well; she’d been treated to it many times. She clamped her jaw.
Lissa gave up. “Well, what are we going to do? She says she has Tucker’s phone, that you have three days to pay her to give it back, or she’s going to give it to the police. Do you think she found the photos on it that Tucker took of Miranda? Because she knows Darren assaulted Miranda. She told me—”
“She told me what she found was proof he wasn’t in Austin. She didn’t mention anything else.”
Lissa held Emily’s gaze.
“What?”
“It’s just she didn’t look all that techie to me, as if she would know where to look for that kind of information on a cell phone. Evan thinks she’s bluffing.”
“Maybe he’s right.”
“But when she brought all that up, about Miranda, she said there were others. What if it’s true? What if Darren hurt Jessica Sweet? What if that’s the connection?”
“Tucker’s been booked,” Evan said.
Emily stared blankly at him, some corner of her mind registering that she had only the vaguest idea, a television idea, of what that meant.
“Happened a half hour ago.” Pushing his cell phone into his pocket, Evan sat next to Lissa. “There’s nothing we can do until morning when he’s arraigned, or at least Mickey hopes it will happen that fast. He said the state will probably ask for an impossible bail amount, but he thinks he can get it down—” Evan broke off.
Emily waited. Lissa said his name.
He met her gaze. “If it comes out that Tucker is in the habit of disappearing, it could go against him. It makes him seem like a flight risk.” Catching the glance Lissa darted in Emily’s direction, Evan paused. “What?”
“You aren’t going to believe this,” Lissa said, “but Mom knows Revel Wiley. Evidently, they’ve done business together.”
Evan frowned.
Lissa explained, her voice mixing aggravation with impatience.
As if I were a child, Emily thought, caught in some unfortunate misbehavior.
Evan blew out a mouthful of air. “Well, maybe they won’t be able to talk about that since the charges were dropped. Let’s hope they never find out how.”
“If she does have Tucker’s phone, don’t we have to get it back?” Lissa asked. “We can’t let her give it to the police.”
“You want to pay her five grand?”
Emily had seldom heard Even speak so sharply to Lissa or to anyone.
Lissa said, “No, but what if it can be used somehow to incriminate him?”
“The cops can and probably will pull Tucker’s cell phone records, anyway. It’ll take time. They’ll have to get a subpoena first, but they don’t need the phone or Revel to make it happen.”
“She alluded to other women Darren has assaulted. If we could talk to them, get them to go to the police—”
“No, Lissa. We aren’t going to do any of that. Tucker has an attorney, the police are investigating. We’re going to stay out of it and let the cops do their jobs.”
“Evan’s right, honey,” Emily said. “Tucker has been running with a rough crowd. It could be dangerous to get involved in this any more than we are already.”
“We can’t cave to blackmail.” Evan was firm about it. “Your mom’s already done it once, and it’s unfortunate, because if the cops find out, she could be in trouble, too.” He looked at Emily. “I’m sorry.”
She said it was all right, that she would take whatever was coming. Getting to her feet, she went to the window over the sink as if there was anything to see beyond the reflection of her own face, pale and drawn, in the glass.
“I’ll lay all of this out for Mickey when I see him in the morning,” Evan said. “Let him know what Revel’s up to and why. And that she’s looking for more money,” he added.
They shared a silence.
Evan broke it. “It should be fine.”
He was trying his best, Emily knew, to comfort them. And he was right, she thought. It would be fine, as long as Tucker was telling the truth, and if truth did prevail in the end. But as anyone knew, that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes what prevailed were the lies.
* * *
It was after midnight. Lissa and Evan had just left, and Emily was alone in the kitchen making a cup of chamomile tea when she heard the ceiling overhead creak. She glanced up. She had assumed Roy had gone to bed. What was he doing in Tucker’s room? She listened to his footsteps crisscross the floor; there was a sound as if furniture was being pushed around.
The kettle whistled, making her jump. Taking it from the stove, she poured the boiling water into her cup and carried it to the table. The noise from upstairs continued for several more minutes, long enough that she thought about going up, but then she didn’t move. She didn’t want to see Roy. She was too angry at him, still, and too exhausted to fight with him.
She couldn’t imagine what difference it would make.
Remembering later, how she sat there, oblivious and indifferent, she would be appalled. She would think if only she had gone to Roy then, it might have changed everything.
15
“I’VE NEVER HEARD my parents talk that way to each other. Have you?” Lissa looked across the truck seat at Evan. “Maybe I should have stayed.”
“Your mom didn’t want you to,” he answered. “Like she said, you need to rest, too.”
They were stopped, waiting for the light to change at the I-45 intersection. Lissa felt the intensity of Evan’s gaze and went still. He was going to bring it up, the possible pregnancy; she could sense it. How could he think that was important now when her brother, her entire family, was in such terrible jeopardy?
“What about bail?” she asked, preempting him. “Did Mickey give you any idea how high it might be?”
The light changed. Evan attended to his driving, the silence riding like a stranger in the space between them.
“There’s over a quarter million in the business account, but it might not be smart to take the bail money from there,” he finally said.
“Then what do you suggest?” Lissa glanced at him. His face was a geometry of light and shadow, his expression a puzzle. Before tonight she would have said of everyone in the world, she knew him best, trusted him most, but he had changed the rules on her without warning. How could he possibly think that was fair? And then he’d tried telling her what to do. Where had that come from? What would happen if they couldn’t agree? Suppose he left her? Now, of all times? Why was she even thinking in such terms? She scrubbed her hands down her thighs.
He was talking about taking out a second mortgage on their home.
“My parents should be the ones to do that. Their house is paid for,” she said.
“I doubt Roy would go for that,” Evan said, then darting his glance between the rearview and side view mirrors, he said, “Who is this bozo behind us?”
“What bozo?” Lissa looked over her shoulder.
“This guy—I think it’s a guy, the one driving that light-colored Camry. See him? He’s been following us. He’s made every turn, changed every lane.”
“Where?” Lissa couldn’t pick out the car Evan was talking about, but she wasn’t good at identifying cars.
“He’s dropped back. Maybe I’m nuts, but I could swear he pulled in behind us when we left your folks’.” Evan watched the rearview. “I think I’ve seen him before, too.”
“Who would be following us?”
Evan shook his head. “Hell
if I know. I’m probably crazy.” He looked at the mirror again. “I don’t see him now.”
Lissa settled back, her attention returning to her worry over her parents. “Dad acts as if he hates Tucker.”
“He doesn’t, Liss. You know better. He’s upset, and not just about Tucker. That was kind of a bombshell you dropped about Coe.”
Lissa said she knew it; she repeated her apology, and when Evan put his hand on her knee, her heart eased somewhat.
“I’d like to wring the bastard’s neck,” he said.
“I know.”
“The cops should be looking at him for these murders. Sometimes sick bastards like Coe escalate. They go on to commit bigger and better crimes. They’re like druggies—it takes a bigger fix to get their rocks off.”
Lissa had heard that, too. She said, “If we could get Tucker’s phone, find those pictures—”
“I meant what I said before, Liss. I don’t want you going anywhere near Revel, or Darren Coe, either. Your mother’s right, these people are dangerous. Let the cops handle them, okay? They know what they’re doing.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Lissa, promise me.” He squeezed her knee, adding emphasis. She promised.
“It keeps getting loonier and loonier,” he said moments later.
“I’m not sure I trust the police, Ev,” she said. “It’s like you say, why aren’t they looking at Darren? They should at least question him.”
“Well, maybe they are. Tomorrow, I’ll call Mickey and ask him if he knows whether Coe is a suspect.”
“You won’t tell him—”
“No. What happened to you is none of anyone’s business.” He looked at her. “You have nothing—nothing,” he repeated, “to be ashamed of.”
“You aren’t angry at me for not telling?”
He took her hand, kissed her palm. “Not angry, no. I wish you’d trusted me. I wish you didn’t feel you had to go through that alone.”
Safe Keeping Page 14
