“I’m going to try to help him, Zoe,” said Kevin.
Zoe threw her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his pinstriped suit jacket. Britt felt a little stab of envy for the attorney, whom Zoe clearly saw as a white knight, in contrast to her aunt, whom she now saw as the enemy.
“Why don’t I escort you two back there. May I?” he asked the guard.
“They have to be searched,” said the guard.
Zoe looked anxiously at Britt as the guard summoned a female counterpart.
“It’s all right,” Britt whispered. She obediently presented her bag, and allowed herself to be patted down. Zoe followed Britt’s example. In a few moments, the guard nodded, and then led the three of them down the dim corridor to the visiting area. He indicated a molded plastic chair in front of a Plexiglas partition.
“You sit down, Zoe,” said Kevin. “He’ll be very glad to see you.” He turned to the guard. “Can you bring my client back out?”
The guard nodded, and spoke into a small two-way radio which hung on his belt. Zoe sat down and tried to peer into the darkened area beyond the Plexiglas.
Britt sighed and turned her back on the cubicle, speaking in a low voice to Kevin. “What’s he saying? He didn’t do it, right?”
Kevin frowned. “He’s not saying a whole lot. I’m trying to explain to him that I can’t help him if he doesn’t tell me the truth. I know he’s concealing information, but I’m not sure why.”
“Because he did it,” Britt muttered.
“Here he comes,” said Kevin in a warning voice.
“Dad!” Zoe leaped from the plastic chair and pressed her nose and her flattened palms against the barrier.
“Sit down, miss,” said the guard, approaching Zoe.
Alec nodded and Zoe sat down in the chair. Alec, his gaze riveted on his daughter, settled himself in the matching chair opposite hers. His complexion was sallow, and the lines in his face seemed more sharply etched than ever. His gray eyes were sunken. His pale, muscular upper arms bulged from the short sleeves of the blue jumpsuit he was wearing.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he said, and for a moment, his eyes glistened.
“Are you okay?” Zoe asked.
Alec shook his head. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be out of here in no time. I promise.”
Don’t lie to her, Britt thought bitterly. But Zoe greeted this promise with complete faith. “Today?” she asked.
“Maybe not today,” Alec admitted. “But soon. Are you okay, honey?”
“I’m all right,” said Zoe. “Dad, why are you in here? You didn’t set those fires.”
“It’s a mistake, honey. Soon, they’ll realize that they made a big mistake.”
“Mr. Carmichael’s gonna help you,” said Zoe.
“I’m sure he will,” said Alec. “Meanwhile, you have to be brave. Okay? And do what your Aunt Britt tells you.”
Britt stared at him in disbelief.
“I want to stay here with you,” Zoe pleaded.
Alec smiled ruefully. “I don’t think they’d let you do that.”
Kevin leaned over and spoke into the wire mesh opening in the Plexiglas. “Alec, I’m gonna have to take off. I’ve got to get to the hospital to see what’s happening with Vicki.”
“We should go too, Zoe,” said Britt, avoiding Alec’s gaze which she could feel, scrutinizing her through the Plexiglas.
“Kevin,” said Alec, “can you take Zoe with you?”
Kevin shrugged. “Sure. No problem.”
Zoe began to weep. “I don’t want to leave you here, Dad.”
“Zoe,” he said. “I need you to be brave. Do your homework. Get your rest. Please. I promise you everything will be okay. You’ll see. Now, go along with Mr. Carmichael.”
“But I came with Aunt Britt.”
“I need to talk to Aunt Britt. You go see how your friend, Vicki, is doing.”
Zoe sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Okay. I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too. Now go on.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Kevin. He put a hand on Zoe’s shoulder. Reluctantly, Zoe rose from the seat, pressing her hand to the Plexiglas. Alec fitted his large hand to hers from behind the shield. Then Zoe turned away, and hid her face.
“I’ll pick you up at the hospital,” Britt whispered. Zoe did not look at her, but followed the guard, and Kevin Carmichael, out of the visitors’ area. Britt turned and looked down at Alec Lynch, who was still in his seat, staring at her grimly. He indicated the chair and Britt sat down, holding her satchel on her lap in front of her with her bandaged hands and leaning away from the glass. She returned his gaze coldly.
“Disappointed?” she asked.
“About what?”
“That I’m still alive,” she said.
“You can’t really believe that I was responsible for that fire,” he scoffed. “Why would I…?”
“You threatened me. You killed my sister.”
Alec sighed and ignored her remark. “Britt,” he said. “I haven’t got much time. Let’s not waste it on these empty accusations.”
“Empty?” she cried. “Obviously the police don’t think they’re empty.”
“Are you done?” he said. “I need to ask you a favor. I need you to stay with her. Stay with Zoe.”
Britt shook her head in disgust. “Alec, how long are you going to keep this up?”
Alec’s gray eyes reminded Britt of a malamute. They studied her with detachment, almost shaded from view by his black eyebrows. “Keep what up?” he asked.
“She’s going to find out,” said Britt. “Right now she believes in you but when this gets to trial, she’s going to hear the truth and find out what you did. Meanwhile, she’s going to be ostracized by everyone for defending you. Haven’t you hurt her enough? Why don’t you be a man and admit what you did? Instead, you’re asking a child to have faith in you when you know you don’t deserve it. It’s despicable.”
Alec glared at her. She could see the muscles in his jaw working. Finally, he said, “I am trying to protect her. Whether you believe it or not.”
“Oh, right,” said Britt. She pointed a finger at him. “Does it make you feel good to have your daughter sticking up for you, fighting your battles out here because she believes your excuses?”
Alec did not respond to the insult. “Look, they’re going to take me back there in a minute. I need to settle this. Will you do it? Will you take care of her?”
Britt shook her head. She had no intention of abandoning Zoe, but she didn’t want Alec to think, for one minute, that she was flattered by his ostensible trust in her. “I will stay with her. I will do it for the sake of my sister,” she said. “I will do it because Zoe is my niece and I want to do all I can for her. I will do it for her sake, not for yours.”
“I don’t care why you do it,” he said.
The guard approached Britt and said, “Time to go.”
She got up from the chair. “Gladly,” she said. She turned back to Alec, who was rising from his chair beyond the shield, with another guard at his side. “As long as it’s clear,” Britt said.
“Your opinion doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “Only Zoe matters.”
Britt shouldered her satchel and snorted in disgust. “You should have thought of that before you ruined her life.”
When Britt arrived at the hospital, she found Zoe, scratching answers in a grammar workbook and eating a bag of potato chips in the lounge just across from Vicki’s room.
“How come you’re out here?” she asked Zoe. “Is Vicki okay?”
“The doctor’s in there with them,” said Zoe.
Britt nodded, and glanced at her watch.
“What did my father say?” Zoe asked.
Britt hesitated. “He was just…worried about you. I told him I was going to be staying with you.”
“You are?” said Zoe, surprised.
“Yes.”
“What about your job and everything?” Zoe asked
.
“Let me worry about that,” said Britt.
Zoe sighed and nodded. “Okay.”
At that moment a bespectacled Asian-featured woman wearing a lab coat with a stethoscope in the pocket emerged from Vicki’s room.
“That’s the doctor,” Zoe whispered.
Britt nodded. “Oh. Okay. I guess she’s finished in there. Let me just tell the Carmichaels we’re leaving.”
Zoe nodded glumly and began to gather up her books and papers. Britt crossed the hall and stuck her head into Vicki’s room. Vicki was lying in the bed, attached to monitors, her huge stomach covered by a thin blue blanket. She was sipping from a plastic cup through a straw. In the dim room, at the foot of Vicki’s bed, Kevin and Caroline stood, holding hands, watching her. They looked up at Britt when she stuck her head in the door. “How’s everything going?” Britt asked. “I saw the doctor leaving.”
Vicki sighed, and Caroline gave Britt a stricken look. “Touch and go,” said Caroline.
Kevin released his wife’s hand and walked over to where Britt hovered, in the doorway. “We just spoke to Dr. Yasushi. Vicki’s got something called preeclampsia,” he said. “Dr. Yasushi says it’s common in pregnant women who are either very young or very old to be pregnant. The blood pressure gets out of control. Unless it subsides, it means they’ll have to do a caesarean section soon. They’re just trying to hold off as long as possible.”
Britt winced. “That’s tough,” she said. “How’s Vicki taking it?”
Kevin glanced back at the bed. “She’s hanging in there.”
“Well, we’re going to go,” she whispered. “Thanks for bringing Zoe back, Kevin.”
“Glad to do it,” he said. “What did Alec want to talk to you about?”
“Just wanted to be sure I would stay with Zoe.”
“Doesn’t sound like the request of a man who wanted to kill you,” Kevin observed.
“Look, it’s your job to think he’s innocent. Personally, I’m not rooting for either of you. No offense.”
Kevin nodded absently. “None taken. Look, I asked Zoe to go over to our house and feed Kirby. I don’t know when we’ll get home.”
“Oh, sure,” said Britt. “We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about it. I hope everything is okay here.” Britt waved to Caroline and Vicki, and squeezed Kevin’s hand. Then she withdrew from the room. “Come on,” she said to Zoe. “I hear you have a cat to feed.”
Zoe nodded. “I hope they aren’t mean to him in there,” Zoe fretted.
At first Britt was confused, thinking Zoe was talking about the cat. Then she realized that she was referring to her father. Britt couldn’t bring herself to agree. “We’d better be getting home,” she said, although the word sounded fake and foreign to her ears. Zoe gathered up her coat and bookbag as if she hadn’t noticed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Britt pulled into the Carmichaels’ driveway behind Vicki’s red Toyota. “Ill just wait here until you get the cat fed,” said Britt. Zoe, who already had the car door open, shook her head. “No, you can go home. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
“It’s kind of isolated out here,” said Britt, looking at the woods and fields which surrounded the Carmichael house. In the near distance, the low mountains surrounding Mt. Glace looked lavender in the gloom.
“It doesn’t bother me. I used to live out here, remember?” said Zoe.
Britt frowned. “I can wait for you. It won’t take that long.”
“No. Go home. I have to find the cat first,” said Zoe. “He might be out in the woods. You never know. And then I need to play with him for a while. In case he’s nervous or lonely with Vicki being gone.”
Britt hesitated. It was clear to her that Zoe wanted to be left on her own for a while. Maybe she just needs time to think, and nuzzle the cat, Britt thought. They say that petting animals is good for relieving stress. But she just wasn’t comfortable leaving her alone out here. It was too desolate. Still, Zoe didn’t need to know that. She could pretend to leave, and then wait right nearby.
“Okay,” said Britt slowly. “Okay. I’ll… go do some errands in town. Call me on my cell phone as soon as you’re done. Do you have the key?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “Yes. Of course.”
“All right,” said Britt. Zoe did not look back as she bolted from the car and walked up the porch steps to the Carmichaels’ front door. Zoe unlocked the door and went inside, closing the door behind her without even glancing back at Britt.
Britt backed out of the driveway, and made a great show of zooming off, but she only went as far as Zoe’s former home, where she parked out in front. She put the car in neutral and left the engine running so she could have heat. Though she tried to avoid looking at it, her gaze was drawn to the burnt-out shell of the house and she felt her spirits droop. When she had imagined Alec being arrested, and Zoe becoming her charge, she had just assumed that Zoe would be willing to leave this place and start her life over in Boston. She thought that Zoe would turn on her father once she learned what he had done. And surely a move to the big city would seem glamorous and exciting to a budding teenager.
But now Britt was faced with a different reality. At least for the moment, Zoe seemed determined to believe in her father and not to leave him. She was going to trust her fathers word over any legal accusations. It shocked Britt that a child could be so implacable in the face of the police and the law. It took guts, and a willful blindness as far as Britt was concerned. She could only hope that this was a temporary reaction and that Zoe would come around before long. But she didn’t feel optimistic about it. Zoe had rejected the possibility of Alec’s guilt completely. And she resented Britt for accepting it so readily. The growing affection between them seemed to have vanished.
Meanwhile, time was getting away from her. Donovan had told her days ago that he expected her back at work. I’d better let them know it’s going to be a little longer, she thought. She rummaged in her satchel, picked up the phone and punched in the number, asking for Nancy’s extension when the operator answered.
“Hey,” said Nancy, sounding delighted to hear from Britt.
“I have to stay,” said Britt without preamble.
“You have to stay there? In Vermont?” Nancy asked.
Britt sighed and gazed out the car window at the blackened ruins of Greta’s house. “My brother-in-law’s been arrested.”
“Oh my God,” said Nancy.
“I have to stay with my niece,” said Britt. “She’s all alone here.”
‘“Well, sure you do,” said Nancy.
“Even though she hates me now,” said Britt. “She shakes her head at everything I say.”
“Kids that age do shake their heads at everything adults say. It’s how they communicate.”
“That’s reassuring,” said Britt.
“Besides, why would she hate you?” Nancy asked.
“Because she knows that I think her father is guilty.”
“Do you really?” Nancy asked. “Do you think he did it?”
“Nancy, he tried to kill me,” said Britt.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“It’s a long story. He threw me out of their house, and then he set fire to the place I was staying.”
“Oh my God, Britt. Are you okay?”
Britt winced as she flexed her bandaged hands. “I’ll live. Luckily I woke up in time to get out of there.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Nancy. “Is he insane? Why would he want to hurt you?”
“He knew I didn’t believe him. I kept on bugging the police about him.”
“Obviously you were right.”
Britt sighed. “It would seem so.”
“I hope for his sake he’s got a good lawyer,” said Nancy.
“Well, their former neighbor is a criminal attorney who used to practice in Boston. Apparently he was pretty high profile. He’s agreed to defend him.”
“In Boston. Really? What’s his name?
The lawyer.” Nancy asked.
“Carmichael. Kevin Carmichael.”
“Kevin Carmichael. That rings a bell for some reason.”
“I guess he was involved in some big cases.”
“Well, there are so many lawyers,” said Nancy.
“Anyway, now I am stuck here,” said Britt. “Will you tell Donovan for me? Or do you think I should call him? I know he won’t be happy.”
“What’s he going to do about it?” said Nancy. “You have to stay with the child. She needs you right now, more than Donovan Smith does. You take all the time you need. That child has to come first and he will just have to understand. I’ll make it clear to him,” she promised.
“Yeah, I suppose. Thanks Nancy,” said Britt. All of a sudden she heard a series of clicks in the receiver. “Nancy, there’s another call coming through on call waiting. I told Zoe to call me…”
“Say no more. I’ll break the news to Donovan. Let me know what’s happening.”
Nancy hung up, and Britt hit the flash button so that she could speak to the other caller.
“Hello,” Britt said.
“Aunt Britt!” Zoe’s voice was breathless.
Britt sat up straight in the car seat. “Zoe? What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know. There’s some strange guy out here. He’s lurking around in the trees behind the house. I’m scared.”
Britt’s heart started to pound. “Zoe. Listen to me. Don’t be frightened,” she said. “Lock the doors. Are all the doors locked?”
“Yes,” said Zoe in a small voice.
“Can you see the man from where you are?”
“He’s sort of hidden in the trees.”
“Okay, don’t panic. It’s probably nothing. You stay right there. I’m right next door. I’m here by your old house. I’ll be there in a minute. Don’t let him in, no matter what. You hear me? Don’t let anybody in but me.”
“Okay,” said Zoe.
“I’ll be right there. You just stay put.”
“Hurry. I’m scared,” said Zoe.
Britt put the phone down, and jerked the car into gear.
Britt pulled into the Carmichaels’ driveway and rushed up the steps to the front door. “Zoe,” she called out, banging on the door. “It’s me. It’s Aunt Britt. You can open the door now.”
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