Mending Fences

by Sherryl Woods

  “Emily, what’s going on? You sound upset.”

  “Well, of course, I’m upset. A boy I’ve loved like another son for ten years is accused of raping a girl and my kids seem to be all caught up in the fallout.”

  “Are you angry that Josh contacted these young women?”

  She sighed. “No, not really. It was something he felt he had to do and I know it was the right thing to do.”

  “Then it’s Dani you’re worried about,” he concluded.

  “I just think it will be incredibly upsetting to her to hear that Evan might have done this to other girls.”

  “Or, perhaps, it might make her feel less alone,” he suggested gently. “After listening to you, I have a feeling that’s what your son is hoping for. Or maybe he wants her to spend a little time around me, so she won’t feel threatened if I ask her a few questions.”

  “She’s not ready for that,” Emily said urgently. “I’m not ready for that.”

  “Okay, I get that, but why don’t we leave things the way they are?” Grady said. “I’ll come by the house to see Josh and we’ll play it by ear. I won’t ask your daughter anything about Evan, I promise, but if she brings him up, we’ll follow her lead.”

  Emily knew what he was saying made sense, and it was the way Josh had wanted it, as well. Maybe it would be for the best. “If you’re coming, you might as well have dinner with us,” she said grudgingly. “It might make things less formal.”

  Grady chuckled. “I’ve had more gracious invitations.”

  “If you think the invitation was halfhearted, wait till you see what I put on the table. Don’t count on the gourmet meal of your dreams.”

  “As long as you don’t lace it with arsenic, I’ll be happy,” he said. “See you around six-thirty. I’ll bring a bottle of wine.”

  “This isn’t a date, Detective.”

  “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have your daughter think it is,” he said mildly.

  Emily thought of how eager Dani had been to believe that the detective was interested in her. “Just don’t carry the charade too far,” she warned. “My daughter has a romantic streak. You could wind up walking down the aisle quicker than you get a straight answer out of her.”

  “You saying you’d cooperate if she got such an idea?”

  Emily sputtered at the outrageous suggestion, unable to form a coherent response.

  Grady laughed. “Okay, then, I think it’s a chance I should take. I enjoy living on the edge. How about you?”

  Something in his tone made Emily’s heart do an odd little stutter step. Obviously she hadn’t done an especially good job of tamping down her own fantasies where the detective was concerned.

  “Not so much,” she said. “I think boring and predictable pretty much sum me up.”

  “Bet I could prove you’re wrong,” he contradicted. “But we’ll leave that for another time. See you around six-thirty.”

  “See you,” Emily said, clutching the phone so tightly her knuckles had turned white.

  Despite her own very staunch disclaimer, tonight—set up to share potential evidence in a criminal investigation—suddenly felt very much like a date. What kind of idiot did that make her?

  15

  “Mom, can we go by the nursery this afternoon?” Dani asked as she and her mother left the school parking lot. “I know I’m still grounded, but couldn’t you make an exception for this?”

  Her mother regarded her with surprise. “Any particular reason you want to go today?”

  Dani wasn’t sure she could explain it, at least not so her mom would understand. “I just want to get some flowers, okay? I need to do something besides studying. I can’t concentrate, anyway. I’m not asking for money or anything. I still have my allowance.”

  “You like growing things, don’t you?”

  Relieved that her mom hadn’t said no immediately, Dani nodded. “I know it’s probably lame, but yeah, I do. There’s something about figuring out what colors look good together, and making sure that they get the right sun and fertilizer and stuff that makes me feel good.”

  “I’m really glad you have something that you enjoy like that, especially right now,” her mom said. “Let’s take a detour by the nursery. You want some new containers, too? I’ll spring for them.”

  “Really?” Dani said excitedly. “Last time, when Dad took me, I saw these really cool ones. They look like terra-cotta, but they’re plastic, so they’re not as heavy. They don’t cost much, either. I was thinking I could do one for either side of the front door. Maybe put in some vines and some purple and red impatiens. We need some bright colors out there. It’s kinda boring.”

  “Sounds great!” her mom said. “But we can’t take too long. We’re having company for dinner.”

  Dani shifted to study her mom’s face. They never had company, except for the Carters, and they only came over on the weekends. This was Wednesday night. “Who’s coming?”

  “Grady Rodriguez,” her mom said, patches of color in her cheeks.

  Dani took a minute to process that, trying to put a face with the name. When it came to her, she was stunned. “That’s the detective, right?”

  “Yes. I spoke to him earlier.”

  Dani wasn’t sure how she felt about that. It was cool that her mom finally had a date, and Dani could tell that she liked this guy, but Dani was uneasy with the idea of sitting down with a detective who might bring up all sorts of stuff she didn’t want to talk about.

  “Maybe the two of you should go out to dinner,” she suggested.

  “Why? Will you be uncomfortable having him at the house? Or do you not like the idea of me dating?”

  Dani hated that her mother could see through her so easily, though she was kinda off the mark this time. “It’s not that,” she insisted. “I know you and Dad aren’t going to get back together, and that’s okay. But you like the guy, right? You want to impress him?”

  “I never said that.”

  “But you do. I can tell.”

  “What does that have to do with going out?”

  “Mom, your cooking won’t impress anybody.”

  “Your dad always liked it well enough,” she retorted, though she was grinning.

  Dani grinned back at her. “Only because half the time he was so distracted that he didn’t even know what he was eating. Remember the time I tested him by asking how he liked the roast and he said it was great. We’d had fried chicken that night.”

  “I do remember, and you have a point,” her mom agreed, laughing. “Why don’t we stop at the market and pick up one of those ridiculously expensive, ready-for-the-oven gourmet dinners you and Josh like. Maybe lasagna?”

  Dani was disappointed she hadn’t convinced her mother to go out. “You’re going to get dressed up, though, right?”

  “I hadn’t planned on it.”

  “Mom, you can’t have a date in the same clothes you wore to school. That would be so tacky, like you don’t even care what he thinks of you.”

  “Clean jeans and a T-shirt,” her mother countered. “How about that?”

  “How about that sundress you bought in Sanibel?”

  “I’ll think about it,” she promised as they pulled into the crowded lot at the nursery. “Don’t take too long here, though, or there won’t be time for me to pick up dinner, much less change. We’ll be reduced to ordering takeout and I won’t even have a minute to put on fresh lipstick.”

  “Ten minutes,” Dani said, leaping from the car. “I swear it.”

  Her mom looked skeptical, but she didn’t say a word. Dani leaned back into the car. “Can I drive home?”

  For a minute she thought for sure her mom was going to turn her down, but then she nodded.

  “You can drive home from the market.”

  Dani beamed. “Awesome!”

  For the first time in what felt like forever, she felt as if everything in her life was okay. Hopefully Detective Rodriguez would be so caught up with making a good impression on her mom th
at he wouldn’t say anything about Evan and ruin Dani’s mood.

  It was nearly five o’clock when Grady finally caught up with Derek Dobbs after several days of trying. His secretary had said he was away on business, but she hadn’t been very specific about when he’d return, so Grady had been forced to call back repeatedly.

  “What can I do for you, Detective?” Derek Dobbs asked, sounding distracted.

  “Mind if I swing by your office for a couple of minutes? I’d like to talk to you some more about Evan Carter.”

  “Today’s not the best day. I just flew back into town this afternoon and there are a million things I need to catch up on. Can we do this in the morning?”

  “I’d really like to do it now,” Grady told him. “It involves your daughter, too.”

  “Dani?” he said, suddenly sounding as if he were giving Grady his full attention. “How does she fit in?”

  “I’ll explain when I see you. I should be there in ten minutes.”

  The building that housed the company Dobbs worked for was above an old hotel in the heart of Coral Gables. The pale stucco structure and red-tiled roof had been renovated and the hotel and office complex now towered over the street known as Miracle Mile. Jensen and Landry, which had global interests in everything from manufacturing to real estate, occupied the fourth and fifth floors of the building. The executive offices were on the fifth floor, behind two heavy mahogany doors.

  Grady gave his name to the receptionist in the waiting area, which was done in pastel tones that provided a subtle background for the vivid oil paintings of the Florida Everglades that decorated the walls.

  Two minutes later an attractive woman in her mid-forties came out to usher him back into Dobbs’s office with its panoramic view of Coral Gables and a sliver of the downtown Miami skyline in the distance.

  Derek Dobbs, wearing a perfectly pressed suit and pristine shirt that showed no evidence of his travels, stood to greet him. He looked every inch the corporate executive, from his recently trimmed hair to his polished Italian loafers. Despite his own designer shirt and pressed slacks, Grady felt vaguely unkempt in his presence. He had to remind himself that Emily had divorced this man, so he couldn’t be as perfect as he seemed.

  “Detective.” Dobbs greeted him with a handshake and gestured toward a small conference table off to one side. “We’ll be more comfortable over there. Would you like some coffee? A drink?”

  “Nothing, thanks. This won’t take long.”

  “You said it’s about Evan and my daughter.”

  “Let’s start with Evan. When we spoke before, you said he’d always been a decent kid. Since our conversation, have you thought of any instances when his behavior suggested he had a problem with women?”

  “Actually, I wasn’t entirely truthful when we first spoke,” Dobbs admitted, his expression contrite. “I was trying to protect a kid I’d known for years and I wasn’t entirely sure that what I’d observed was truly relevant.”

  “Understandable,” Grady told him. “So, what have you thought of since then?”

  “Lately, Evan has started mimicking his dad’s attitude toward his mom. Ken Carter is a bully. He’s especially demeaning to his wife. He pretty much ignores his daughter altogether. Evan started mouthing off to his mother, being so thoroughly disrespectful that my wife and I commented on the change. We warned our own kids that they were never to speak to an adult like that.”

  “How about with his sister or your daughter? Was Evan ever disrespectful to either of them in the same way?”

  “Not that I noticed. Oh, he teased them both unmercifully, but it never had the edge to it that he had when he spoke to his mother.”

  “Was he ever a little rough with them in the pool, for instance? A little too intense with the horseplay?”

  “Not when I was around,” Dobbs said. “He and Josh could get carried away the way guys that age do, but the girls usually steered clear of them when things got out of hand or Emily and I would call them on it.”

  “Did Evan listen to you?”

  “Always,” Dobbs said. “And he never said anything the least bit inappropriate to my wife. He never seemed to have the same disdain for either of us that he had for his mother. I figured that was his father’s influence.” His gaze narrowed. “I know you’re after something specific. Mind telling me what it is?”

  Grady acknowledged his perceptiveness. “Usually when a young man rapes a girl he’s dating, it’s not an isolated incident. I have reason to believe that your daughter may know more than she’s said to anyone about the kind of person Evan Carter is,” Grady told him, phrasing his statement carefully.

  Derek Dobbs’s expression hardened. “Meaning?” he asked, though it was evident that he’d already guessed exactly what Grady was getting at.

  “Look, there’s no easy way to say this to a young girl’s father, but I think Dani may have been victimized by Carter. Right now it’s nothing more than a hunch and I wouldn’t come to you with that if I didn’t think that getting to the truth is critical, not just for my case, but perhaps for Dani, as well. If that boy hurt her, she has to be dealing with a whole lot of conflicting emotions.”

  Derek was on his feet at once, pacing, his expression filled with rage. He paused in front of Grady. “You think that boy raped her? That is what you’re saying?”

  Grady nodded. “I can’t be one hundred percent certain, because she’s not talking to your wife or your son, but they both have their suspicions, as well.”

  The fury in the eyes of this man Grady would have guessed to be mild mannered was immediate and striking.

  “I’ll kill him,” Dobbs said flatly, wrenching his tie loose as if it were suddenly choking him.

  Grady winced at the heartfelt, uncensored response. “Look, I understand how you must feel, but you probably shouldn’t say something like that to me, even if you’re just blowing off steam.”

  Dobbs gave him a hard look. “You think that’s all it is, that I’m blowing off steam? No, Detective, I’m dead serious. If Evan laid a hand on my daughter—”

  Grady held up his hand. “Don’t finish that sentence,” he warned. “Let’s talk about a more constructive approach, a way to be sure he’s locked up for a good, long time.”

  “You want Dani to testify,” Dobbs concluded, his tone flat.

  “If she was a victim, yes, but first I need to establish what went on between the two of them. Did they spend a lot of time alone together?”

  “I can’t really answer that. I haven’t lived in that house for a few years now, but it’s entirely possible. None of us would have thought anything about the two of them being alone, any more than we would have worried if Josh was alone with Caitlyn.”

  “Have you noticed anything unusual about your daughter’s moods since this whole investigation began?”

  “Again, I’m not around her as much as Emily,” he said, clearly frustrated. “She’s been quieter than usual, I guess. Why ask me these questions, Detective. Ask her.”

  “I can’t,” Grady said. “Your wife is afraid it will be too upsetting for me to question her, and Dani is still a minor. I’d need parental permission.”

  Dobbs gave him a curt nod of understanding. “I’ll speak to Emily. And to Dani, too. They’ll cooperate.”

  “Thank you,” Grady said, relieved. “Let’s hold off until tomorrow. I’m going by there tonight and this may be a moot point. There’s always a chance Dani will say something without you needing to get involved.”

  “Do you want me to be there?” Dobbs asked.

  Grady shook his head, and it had nothing to do with the pseudo-date he and Emily were purporting to have for Dani’s benefit. “It’s going to be hard enough for her to open up to her mother or to an impersonal third party. Most teenage girls couldn’t bear to discuss this in front of their fathers. Right or wrong, they’re afraid their dads will be disillusioned with them.”

  “Even when they know that what happened is not their fault?” Dobbs s
aid incredulously.

  “They don’t always believe that, no matter how many times they’re told that it isn’t,” Grady said. “If we’re right about this, Dani will need your support, no question about it, but let’s take this one step at a time. I just needed to know I have your backing, if we need to force the issue.”

  “You have it,” Dobbs said. “But I have to tell you that sitting on the sidelines like this doesn’t suit me. Will you let me know what happens?”

  “Either I’ll call you myself or I’ll make sure that Emily does,” Grady assured him.

  When he walked out of the office, the shattered man he left behind was nothing like the confident, cool corporate executive Grady had met less than a half hour before. Despite whatever rivalry might come up between them, Grady felt bad about that.

  Although Grady had seen the formal family photos of Dani Dobbs, they hadn’t prepared him for the slender teenager on the front stoop, who was elbow deep in potting soil and surrounded by colorful flowers. She was wearing ragged jeans that had been cut off at mid-thigh, a faded T-shirt, and had her light brown hair pulled up with one of those elasticized bands that girls her age always seemed to have stuck in the depths of their purses. She greeted him with a mischievous smile that made her seem even younger than seventeen.

  “Do I need to ask you your intentions toward my mom?” she inquired with an impudent tilt to her mouth.

  Grady chuckled. “How do you think she’d feel about it?”

  “She’d probably ground me for another week, but I can take it if you’ll tell me what I want to know.”

  “Your mom and I have just met,” he said tactfully.

  She frowned slightly. “But you like her?”

  Grady heard the serious concern in her voice and nodded. “I do.” He leaned down and confided, “Don’t tell her, though. She’s a little skittish.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Grady resisted the urge to bring up Evan. It would blow tonight’s cover for his visit and he might never get Dani to trust him. “Since you look as if you’re a little busy at the moment, should I walk on in or ring the bell?”