Mending Fences

by Sherryl Woods

  Emily regarded him with shock. “You’re not talking about Kelly Hernandez, are you? I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  “I don’t get it,” Derek said. “Why is that such a big deal? It must happen all the time.”

  Emily shook her head. “Not like this. No one ever understood why she was in school one day and gone the next. I’m not even sure the principal knew why she left. She seemed as shocked as the rest of us. No kid willingly transfers during senior year, Derek.” She turned to Josh. “That had something to do with Evan? You’re sure about that?”

  Josh nodded. “Almost sure. I would have mentioned it sooner, but I just found out yesterday. One of her friends—Beth Ann Summers—goes to school at Boston College now. She just heard about what was going on here and that I’d been asking questions. She called and told me something had happened when Kelly went out with Evan, but even she didn’t know exactly what, only that Kelly didn’t ever want to set eyes on him again. The next week her parents sent her away to private school somewhere up north.” He looked at his father. “You see, Dad? This has to stop.”

  Derek closed his eyes, appearing to have aged ten years in the past few minutes. When he opened them again, he said with unmistakable reluctance, “Okay, then. Call Detective Rodriguez.”

  “Only after I’ve spoken to Marcie,” Emily repeated.

  “No,” Derek and Josh said in unison.

  “Ken will have that boy out of the country tonight if he gets wind that there’s more evidence against him,” Derek said.

  Emily thought of all the years of friendship she and Marcie had shared, all the confidences they’d exchanged. She owed her this warning, especially when Marcie was already convinced that Emily had turned on her. It wouldn’t make up for what was about to happen, but maybe in some small way it would show Marcie that she still valued the friendship they’d shared through the years.

  But Derek and Josh were right, too. She couldn’t take a chance on Evan fleeing.

  “I’ll get her to stay here till Detective Rodriguez has what he needs,” she compromised. “She won’t have a chance to warn Ken or Evan.”

  “At least call Rodriguez first, let him talk to Dani, and then decide what to do about telling Marcie,” Derek pleaded. “We can’t take a chance on blowing his whole case by letting Evan get away. Can you imagine how Dani would feel about that, if her testimony came too late?”

  Emily saw the sense in his suggestion and nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “I’m going up to see Dani,” Derek said, starting from the room.

  “No,” she said urgently. “She made me promise that you’d wait until after she sees Grady.”

  “But I just want her to know we’re behind her,” he said. “And I need to reassure myself that she understands what’s coming next, that she’s strong enough to deal with it.”

  “Please, Derek, just take my word that she’s ready. I know you need to see her,” she said sympathetically. “But she’s scared to see you right now. It was really important to her that you wait.”

  He regarded her with a hurt expression. “Scared to see me? Why?”

  “She’s afraid you’ll be disappointed in her or pity her or look at her differently. She can’t take that right now. If you fall apart, I think she’s terrified she’ll lose her courage and stay silent.”

  “But—”

  Emily cut him off. “We have to let her handle this her way, Derek. She’s trying so hard to make the right choices, but none of this is easy on her. Please don’t make it harder than it has to be.”

  He looked as if he wanted to argue, but eventually he sighed. “Fine. I’ll wait, but I need a drink. I’ll be in the study when the detective gets here. Tell him I want to see him before he speaks to Dani.”

  Josh moved to his side. “I’ll come with you, Dad.”

  “You don’t need to do that.”

  “Yes, I do. It’s too late to start making business calls. You’ll go nuts without something to distract you. We can talk about how much medical school is going to cost.”

  To Emily’s relief, a faint smile touched Derek’s lips.

  “Yes, that will definitely provide a distraction.” He held out his hand, which was still wrapped in the towel. “Maybe you’d like to bandage this up for me, see if you can improve on the job your mother did.”

  “Is that supposed to be some kind of test?” Josh asked suspiciously.

  “I just want a bit of evidence that you have what it takes to be a doctor,” Derek teased him. “We should probably make sure you don’t pass out at the sight of blood the way your mother does.”

  “Very funny, Dad.”

  “I thought so.”

  Emily watched them go, then picked up the phone. Drawing in a deep breath, she dialed Grady’s cell phone number.

  When he answered, he sounded wide-awake, though it was well after midnight. There was a lot of chatter in the background as well, and it didn’t sound as if it was coming from a TV.

  “Having a party, Detective?” she inquired innocently. “It’s a little late for a weeknight, isn’t it?”

  “Emily? Hold on. I can barely hear you. I’ll go someplace quieter.”

  She heard some muffled sounds and then the noise of traffic passing by.

  “Where are you?” she asked when he finally came back on the line.

  “I stopped for Cuban coffee and ran into my uncle and some of his friends. You know Little Havana, this is just the shank of the evening in this neighborhood. What’s up? Why are you calling so late?”

  “It’s Dani,” she said quietly. “You need to come over here, Grady.”

  “Twenty minutes,” he said tersely. “You okay?”

  Grateful that he understood without her having to say the words, she murmured, “I’m holding it together.”

  “How’s Dani?”

  “Stronger than I ever imagined she could be,” she said honestly. “Hurry, though.”

  “Hang on, Emily. I’ll be right there. Is Josh home?”

  “He’s not out trying to hunt down Evan, if that’s what you’re asking. He and Derek are keeping each other in check for the moment. I can’t guarantee that’ll last.”

  “I’ll use my flashing lights. That ought to cut a few minutes off the trip,” he said.

  Emily hung up without another word. However fast he got here, it wouldn’t be fast enough to suit her. And sadly, once he was here, the nightmare wouldn’t be over. It would be just beginning.

  21

  Grady made it to Emily’s neighborhood in record time, but just down the block he pulled to the curb and cut the engine so he could collect his thoughts. For a few weeks now it had been so clear to him that Dani could be the key to his case against Evan Carter. He’d done everything he could think of to earn her trust, to make sure she knew she could tell him the truth. Now that the time had apparently come, he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it. Like Emily, a part of him wanted to pretend nothing had ever happened to Dani, to keep her out of court, to let her heal. He was thinking less like a cop and more like a protective dad. Naomi had already called him on it and now he could see plain as day that she’d been right.

  He reached into his pocket for his billfold and drew out the picture of Megan that was always with him. The picture was worn, the colors fading, but her smile was as bright as ever. All these years after losing her, she was as alive in his memory as if he’d seen her yesterday. The guilt was just as fresh, as well.

  Studying her green eyes, he tried to imagine how she’d look today at Dani’s age. She would have her mother’s long, lithe figure, silky brown hair that fell to her shoulders and that same radiant smile. She’d deserved to grow up, to achieve whatever goals she’d dreamed of, to meet a boy and fall in love, to live happily ever after. Wasn’t that what every father’s daughter was entitled to?

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you, baby,” he whispered. “I will never forgive myself for that.”

  He felt a faint whisper of
a breeze against his cheek, even though the windows were closed and the air-conditioning was off. It was as soft as the touch of a tiny finger. A thousand times through the years he’d thought he felt that same touch. For a man who dealt in cold hard facts and concrete evidence, the possibility that this was anything more than wishful thinking on his part didn’t exist. Tonight, though, he wanted to believe that Megan was there with him, that she understood that his quest for justice for Lauren Brown and for Dani was about her, too.

  “Love you, baby,” he said quietly before slipping the picture back into his wallet.

  He couldn’t dwell in the past. Not tonight, when just down the street another young girl needed him. This time he would be there.

  Emily had gone out to the front stoop to wait for Grady right after she’d run upstairs to tell Dani that he was on his way. She’d taken along water for the newly planted containers, then remembered belatedly that Dani was adamant about not watering them at night.

  “Flowers don’t like wet feet overnight,” she’d told Emily a dozen times. “They need water in the morning, so they’re ready to face the day.” She always added dire predictions about what would happen if her edict was violated. Given Emily’s black thumb and Dani’s green one, she had to concede that sticking to the rule made sense.

  Now, as Emily sat on the step to wait, the watering can beside her, she noticed the car pulling to the curb down the block. The lights remained on and the driver stayed inside, even though the engine had been turned off.

  Curious, she stood up and walked down the driveway to get a closer look without leaving the relative safety of her own yard, where light spilled from the windows and the front door was cracked open. She clutched the portable phone in her hand, though she doubted the signal would reach that far from the house.

  She’d walked only a few yards when she recognized the car that Grady had parked at her house a half-dozen times or so. Why on earth would he be parked down the street now? she wondered. Was he trying to be discreet, hoping Ken Carter wouldn’t notice? Even as she considered that possibility, though, she remembered that she hadn’t even had a chance to tell him that Ken had been spying on them. That was bound to stir up a ruckus best left for another time.

  Needing to see him, she kept on walking. When she reached the car, she tried the door, but it was locked. Seemingly lost in thought, Grady didn’t even notice her until she tapped on the window. His head jerked up and he stared at her in shock.

  “Open the door,” she mouthed.

  When the lock clicked, she slid into the passenger seat, then took a long look at him. He looked almost as shaken as Derek had earlier.

  “What are you doing walking around by yourself at this hour?” he asked irritably. “I don’t care how safe this area is, it’s not smart.”

  “I saw your car. Why are you parked all the way down here?”

  “I just needed a minute to get my thoughts together,” he told her.

  She saw then that there was a faint sheen of dampness on his cheeks. He’d been crying? Alarmed, she reached out to touch his face, but he pulled away. “Grady? What’s wrong?”

  A muscle in his jaw worked, but he remained stoically silent for so long she thought he wasn’t going to tell her. “Grady, talk to me, please. I’m your friend. You can tell me about whatever’s upset you.”

  He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, he glanced at her, then turned to stare straight ahead. “Remember I told you a while back that there was something in my past that I’d tell you about someday?”

  She nodded, then realized he probably couldn’t see the motion. “Yes.”

  “Okay, then, here it is, in all its ugliness. Once I say this, I doubt you’ll look at me the same way.”

  “There is nothing you could say that would change my opinion of you,” she insisted.

  “We’ll see,” he said direly. “I had a daughter, a sweet, beautiful child named Megan. If she’d lived, she would be Dani’s age now.” His voice was flat and measured, reciting facts, but struggling to keep his emotions in check. “She drowned, and it was my fault.”

  Emily gasped, horrified by the loss, but not accepting his role in it as readily as he apparently had. “Oh, Grady, how awful.” She couldn’t imagine what that must have done to this sweet, sensitive man she’d grown to care so deeply about. Whatever blame he was heaping on himself, she had a hunch he didn’t deserve even half of it. “What happened?”

  “Emily, are you really sure you want to hear this now? We should go to Dani.”

  “Something tells me you need to say this now and a few more minutes won’t matter. Dani knows you’re on your way. Tell me.”

  In the same oddly unemotional voice, he described the night that Megan had died after apparently jumping or falling into the deep end of the pool, hitting her head and drowning as he slept nearby. At six she’d had a couple of swimming lessons, but apparently that hadn’t been enough. Or maybe she’d been dazed by the blow to her head. She’d panicked. She’d tried to call out, but wound up swallowing water. Inside the house, his wife had heard her cries, but assumed Megan and Grady were playing in the pool. By the time she’d realized something was wrong and run outside, Megan had been underwater for several minutes, an eternity.

  “But you didn’t even know she was outside,” she exclaimed when he’d told her everything.

  “I should have known. Kathleen told me she was coming out.”

  “Did you hear her? Was she standing right there in front of you when she said it? Did she have any idea whether you’d actually heard her?”

  “No,” he admitted. “Apparently, she hollered out the door when Megan came out. At least that’s what she told the police.”

  “So, she had no idea you were asleep?”

  “No.”

  Emily could only imagine the need of both parents to cast blame. She couldn’t judge the woman who’d lost her precious daughter that night. Nor could she accept that the responsibility was totally Grady’s.

  “Then your wife was at least partially responsible,” she said firmly. “She should have made absolutely certain that you knew that Megan was outside, but the truth is, hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’m sure she blamed you out of her own sense of guilt, but the reality is that it was a terrible, tragic accident.”

  “No!” His tone was emphatic. “I was to blame. There are no excuses for what I allowed to happen.”

  “Oh, Grady, no,” she said softly. Then, suddenly getting it, she said, “Making up for that is what drives you as a cop, isn’t it? That’s why this case is so personal, why you’ve been so concerned about Dani. You see your daughter in her, in all the girls who’ve been victimized.”

  He nodded, his focus still straight ahead. “It’s harder this time, though. I’ve actually gotten to know Dani. I really do care about her and about you.” He finally turned toward her. “I’m probably not the one who ought to be talking to her tonight. I should have called Naomi, let her handle this.”

  Emily laid a hand over his. “You’re the only one Dani wants to talk to. She trusts you, Grady. She has faith that you’re going to make this right.”

  “What if I let her down?”

  “You won’t. With everything that’s happened, I may not know much lately, but I do know that.”

  His lips finally curved slightly. “You’re good for me, you know. I don’t deserve it.”

  “You deserve a whole lot more than I’ve been able to give,” she responded. “One of these days, when things get back to whatever passes for the new normal, maybe we can change that. I’d like to try.”

  His smile spread. “I’d like that, too.”

  “Let’s go see Dani,” she said. “Maybe tonight will be a new beginning for her, too. Maybe once she’s finally spoken out, she’ll start to get her life back.”

  “I have to warn you that it will get a whole lot messier before it gets better,” he said, his expression grim.

  “She’s re
ady.”

  “Are you?”

  She thought about it, then nodded. “If my daughter’s strong enough to face this, then I have to be.”

  Grady squeezed her hand. “And you’ll have me. I’ll do what I can to make it easier. I will do everything I can not to let either of you down. I promise.”

  She trusted him to keep that promise. In fact, to her surprise, she trusted him completely.

  His talk with Emily had given Grady the time he needed to compose himself and the reassurance that together they’d handle whatever came next. Still, it broke his heart listening to Dani sob out the details about the night Evan had taken advantage of her.

  They were alone in her room. She hadn’t even wanted her mom beside her as she’d told him about the night Evan had raped her.

  “I…” She swallowed hard. “I have this,” she said, handing him a diary after she’d told him everything that Evan had done to her. “I wrote something that night. Maybe it will help.”

  Grady flipped through the pages till he came to the final entry and saw the underlined words. I DID NOT WANT IT!!! The force of her pen had almost ripped through the page. No jury looking at it would doubt the stress a young girl had been under when she wrote it.

  “What’s in the rest of the diary?” he asked. “Mind if I look?”

  She looked faintly embarrassed. “It’s just stuff, about school some of the time, but mostly about Evan. I had this huge crush on him, but there was nobody I could tell. Josh freaked when he kinda guessed. He didn’t want me to see Evan, but he wouldn’t tell me why. I figured it was just because Evan was older. And Caitlyn acted really weird when she figured it out, so I had to keep stuff mostly to myself.”

  “Couldn’t you have talked to your mom?”

  Dani flushed. “I was afraid if she knew she’d keep me from spending so much time over at his house.” She regarded him earnestly. “The diary will help, won’t it?”