#7-9--The O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  “So she dug it up and had it, then?” Marcus said. “What did you do with it? And we are talking about…?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, the knife, the bloody cloth. It’s cleaned, burned, nothing left. I’m not that same stupid kid, so… I guess Rita Mae told you everything about her part, how she helped him get the body in the closet. What’s going to happen?”

  Marcus said nothing for a second. “I have to call PJ and tell him. Then I’ll figure out what charges to pile on those kids. Every one of them played a part, but it could’ve been so much worse. Harold has Belinda on a misdemeanor with the prescription pills. It seems several kids were ripping off prescription drugs from their parents. Jackson picked a pill out from a literal candy dish that was being passed around. None of them knew what they were picking, from amphetamines to opioids. It’s amazing, the pills that fill people’s medicine cabinets. Jackson’s reaction was quick. Then the kids ran when he died…”

  Marcus just shook his head. “They really did leave it to Hunter to clean up. It’s going to be a shitshow, with the charges. I figure a lot will plead out with community service. As for Hunter and Rita Mae, there’s tampering with a body. Rita Mae is an adult, so for her it’s a class-three felony. She did come forward, though. I’ll talk with the DA.”

  Marcus didn’t say anything else, and Owen wondered what he was planning to do. He was still having a hard time getting his head around the fact that he’d just been handed something that could’ve blown their world apart, but this time he’d made sure it wouldn’t fall into anyone else’s hands.

  “Harold told me the idea to point the finger at Alison, according to Belinda, came from Amanda.”

  Owen just took in his brother. For a second, all he could think was how glad he was that his niece was a misfit instead of hanging out with those kids.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Marcus said and started walking up to the door.

  “You going to call everyone over now that Luke’s home?” Owen said.

  Marcus rested his hand on the front door and looked back to him. “After we talk to Mom and figure this out,” he said. Then he opened the door and stepped inside.

  Owen could hear voices in the kitchen: Luke and his mom, then her laughter. Dammit! He wished he didn’t have to kill that mood.

  He followed Marcus in and took in the surprise on his mom’s face, her joy at seeing them. Luke had shaved, and his long hair, which he’d kept in a ponytail, was gone. Owen almost didn’t recognize his brother. Clean-cut and handsome. Holy shit!

  “So you’re home for how long?” he said.

  Luke just rolled his shoulders and took in the beer in front of him, and Owen wondered what that was about. “A bit,” he said. “So what’s up with you two?” He made a gesture of looking at his watch. “It’s, like, not even the middle of the day. Don’t you two have jobs?”

  Owen’s mom was giving him everything as if she’d figured out something was up. Just then, the back door opened and Suzanne strode in.

  “Hey, you all! What’s going on here? Saw both your vehicles out there in the middle of the day. Mom, I just spoke with Karen, and she suggested we pick up Jenny and Alison, as well, before heading out…” Suzanne was in the fridge, pulling out an Italian soda. She twisted off the cap, turned around, and took a swallow before saying, “What’s going on here?”

  All Owen could think was that this was no longer just a talk with his mom. This could be the worst thing imaginable.

  “We came over to talk to Mom about something Owen told me about,” Marcus said. “It happened years ago. We wanted to talk to just Mom, but we were waiting for Luke to get back first.” He hesitated, running his hand over the back of his head, a motion he did when he wasn’t comfortable.

  His mom was watching him, and he could see the confusion, as if she didn’t understand what this was. From the expression on Suzanne’s face, he could see his sister had just figured out that their impending discussion could pose a problem.

  “Should I call Ryan and Karen?” she said, holding her phone. Owen could see the alarm as his mom rested her hand over Suzanne’s.

  “No, don’t call. I can tell just from looking at your face that this isn’t just about dropping by to see how I am. Marcus, you know, don’t you?” she said, then dragged her gaze back over to Owen.

  Luke was watching him with intensity, and Suzanne was looking from him to Marcus, confused, as if waiting for someone to say something.

  “I told Marcus about that night Dad disappeared,” Owen said. “We wanted to talk to just you, Mom, but since Luke and Suzanne are here…” He gestured helplessly, because for a moment, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was betraying her.

  His mom shut her eyes, and Luke pushed his beer away and narrowed his gaze. “What the hell is going on? You know something?” he said, sounding accusatory.

  “Luke…” His mom reached over and touched his arm, a warning.

  “Mom, I never asked what happened downstairs in Dad’s office,” Owen continued. “From the mess, it looked like a fight had happened. The knife you gave me had blood on it, and you wrapped it in a cloth and told me to get rid of it. I remember your face and how upset you were, so I did. I buried it in the woods. But then someone found it…”

  “Holy fuck!” Suzanne shouted, her hands on her face. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her so shocked. “What the hell, Mom?”

  Luke said nothing, not pulling his gaze from their mom, who seemed unusually calm as she stared down at her fingers. “Who found it?” was all Luke said. Of course, he was ready to take care of whatever needed to be cleaned up. That was just what he did.

  “Rita Mae,” Marcus said, “but Owen managed to get it back and took care of it. He cleaned it up this time, so it’s not as if something will come out now about it. We handled it. But the thing is, Mom, this has been an eighteen-year secret. Owen knew something happened, and he said nothing to any of us. Did you kill Dad?”

  Owen wondered if he’d ever get the image of his sister’s shocked face out of his mind.

  “No!” his mom said. “Is that what you thought?” Her blue eyes flashed, and hurt came through in her voice as she pressed her hands to her face.

  “Well, what was I to think?” Owen said. “Dad’s office was wrecked. You gave me a bloody knife, and I hid it…”

  “And did you see a body?” she said, cutting him off, leaning in. It had been a good many years since he’d seen that kind of fury in her eyes.

  He hadn’t, of course. No one said anything as they took each other in, silent in the fallout of the bomb that had just been dropped.

  “What happened, Mom? You have to tell us,” Marcus said, his voice calm, reasonable.

  Their mom sighed and glanced down at her hands. “This stays between us,” she said before flicking her gaze over to Owen. “I’m sorry, Owen. I put this on you. I don’t know what happened to your dad, and that’s the God’s honest truth.” She lifted her palm in the air and shook her head. “Your dad had been acting strangely for some time, and I suspected he was involved in something I likely didn’t want to know about. Men I’d never seen before had started showing up late, but that night, there was something different about it.

  “I knew he was downstairs, and I knew someone had been there with him. I thought I heard something, not anything loud, just some noise that didn’t sound right or didn’t belong in our house. I’d been about to get ready for bed, and I went downstairs to his office and saw the mess—the broken lamp, the books and stuff knocked over, papers everywhere. It looked like a fight had happened.

  “Then I saw the knife on that old wood floor, and there was blood, a lot of blood. I heard you coming down, Owen. I heard your voice, and I panicked because I didn’t want you to see it, but you did. You saw the mess in the office. I grabbed an old handkerchief of your dad’s that was there and wrapped the knife in it, and all I could think was getting you out of there, so I told you to hide the knife. I honestly don’t know what happened
or whose blood it was, because no one was there when I went downstairs.

  “You did what I asked, and that gave me a minute to pull it together. After you left, I found a letter on his desk. It was in your dad’s handwriting. I picked it up and read it, and it just said, Goodbye. Don’t look for me. I’m sorry. That was it. I knew he’d left. The blood…” She shook her head. “I don’t know whose it was, and I don’t want to know. I realized then that I had never really known your father. He’d left me, left us. So I cleaned up the blood and his office. Owen, you never said anything, and I was grateful for that, but he left, and yeah, it wasn’t easy. Maybe I thought he’d call or I’d hear from him, but I never did.” She rested her hands on the counter.

  Owen wasn’t sure whether the shock he was seeing on Suzanne’s face mirrored his. Luke said nothing, but he could see he was having some trouble getting his head around it, and then there was Marcus.

  “So you never tried to find him,” Marcus said.

  “And where would I start? I had six kids! As I said to you all those years ago, it’s just us now. He left us.” She patted the counter again. “We should get going so we can meet your sister and Jenny and my granddaughter.”

  He could see his mom was still rattled, but he could also see her determination to shake this off as she turned back to him and took in Luke and Marcus, as well. Owen could see the way his mom had held it together for all of them.

  “I see that you still have questions,” she said. “You know what? I may have wondered for years, but I don’t anymore, so if it’s all the same to you, I want your word that Ryan and Karen won’t know.”

  “Mom!” Suzanne spat. “You can’t be serious. They have a right to know.”

  His mom stepped back from the counter and took in her daughter. “Do they? Now that I’ve told you what happened, can you just leave it be?” She reached for her purse at the back door. “Luke, there’s hamburger meat in the fridge, if you could make up some patties for burgers tonight. Owen, if you can, pick up beer and wine for Karen. Marcus, Charlotte has been really tired as of late, so I told her I would pick up Eva on my way home and bring her over, and that way she can have a nap before coming over tonight.”

  His mom somehow managed to herd Suzanne, who was still trying to get her head around what she’d heard, out the door. The fact was that their mom had basically shut them down.

  “So what are we going to do?” Luke said.

  Owen just took in the now closed kitchen door of the house he’d grown up in. He shook his head as he stepped back. When his phoned dinged, he pulled it out and saw it was a message from Tessa: Are you coming over tonight?

  He couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips. He felt as if a weight had been lifted from him as he texted back, No, thought you could come and meet my family. Then he pocketed his phone and took in Marcus and Luke.

  “Nothing, Luke,” he said. “We’re going to do absolutely nothing.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “So this is where you grew up,” Tessa said.

  Owen closed the passenger door of her compact. He still couldn’t believe she’d talked him into letting her drive because his plumbing van, as she put it, was a work vehicle. He knew she was still trying to figure out how to get her head around Rita Mae’s involvement, what the kids had done, and how senseless Jackson Moore’s death had been.

  “This is it. Thought you’d been here before?” he said.

  She walked around the front of her compact, wearing a blue jean jacket, her long blond hair hanging loose, her face natural. Her blue eyes were striking. He slipped his arm around her and stopped for a minute before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips.

  “Nope, you never wanted to bring me home, remember?” she said teasingly. Whatever had been there between them way back, they had been doomed and just never happened. Damn. He was glad that he had a second chance.

  “Hmm, well, just a warning about my family: They can be a handful at times, but we’re a good bunch.” He opened the front door, seeing surprised faces turn from the living room. His entire family was there, and he hadn’t told anyone he was bringing Tessa. “Hey, everyone, this is Tessa. She’s…”

  Tessa raised a brow as she took him in, and no one said anything. He let a teasing smile touch his lips and could see she was amused, waiting for him to finish.

  “She’s my girlfriend,” he finished, not pulling his gaze from her, for the first time feeling as if he wasn’t all about his brothers and sisters. “Right?”

  She pulled in a breath and rolled her eyes teasingly, then said in a low voice, “I suppose, Owen O’Connell. It only took you how many years?”

  He thought he heard someone chuckle at her smart mouth, the hint of teasing she gave right back to him. He just shook his head as she shrugged, and he didn’t let her go.

  He kissed her again and linked his fingers with hers, then led her down into the living room, where his family was, knowing he’d likely hear about it all night, considering Tessa was the very first woman he’d taken to meet them.

  Secrets and Lies

  It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

  Mark Twain

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Your phone has been ringing nonstop from inside,” Tessa called up to Owen as she strode out below where he stood on her roof, patching a leak she’d discovered that morning after the overnight rain.

  He was hammering in new shingles to replace the ones that were missing, and he pulled out the two nails he had held between his lips as he took in Tessa. Her hair was tucked behind her ears, and she was staring at his cell phone. He could hear the ringtone from where he was.

  “It’s Karen,” she said, then pressed the answer button before he could say anything. “Hi, Karen. Yes, it’s Tessa. Owen is on my roof right now, patching a leak for me…” She flicked her gaze up to him. So much about his relationship with Tessa was settling into something he hadn’t expected. “Sure, of course.” She held out the phone. “She says it’s important and can’t wait.”

  Of course it was, he thought as he tucked the nails back into his pouch and climbed back down the ladder to where Tessa was standing, one hand resting on the rattling extension ladder as he hurried down. He took the phone from her, seeing her curious expression. Just being here with her filled him with a sense of wholeness he hadn’t even known he was missing. She said nothing.

  “So what’s so urgent?” he said into the phone before leaning down and kissing Tessa. She walked away with a smile.

  “Owen, is there something going on?” Karen said. “And don’t lie to me or blow me off or tell me it’s my imagination, because I’ve picked up on something, and I thought it was about the kid who died, Jackson, but I just cornered Suzanne not less than ten minutes ago downtown, and do you want to know what she said?”

  He slid the phone away, wanting to bang his head against the wall. “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me,” he replied.

  He watched Tessa go back into her work-in-progress house, knowing she was still getting measurements together for the cabinets after having painted all the walls in the kitchen. He had encouraged her in his bossy tone, as she’d put it, to order the damn cabinets so he could help her finish the reno. She never pried about what he was thinking or feeling or what was going on with his family and him.

  “You’re damn right I’m going to! She said nothing,” Karen replied. “But don’t think I don’t know when something is going on. I do, even though you hide everything. I called Ryan, and he said if there is something, he’s out of the loop. Luke, well, you know him. He’s not talking. Then there’s Marcus, who used to spill everything, given time, but not since taking over as sheriff. I figure that has something to do with all the responsibility resting on his shoulders, running this town, protecting everyone, and dealing with the idiots who are causing problems. But you know what?”

  He wanted to sigh again. “What,
Karen?” He wondered why he expected Tessa to come back out of the house. He realized that was something Lori would’ve done, gotten in his face, asking a million questions about what Karen wanted, but not Tessa. There was so much she still didn’t know about him.

  “Although Suzanne can hide things at times, there’s one thing about her that I do know. When she’s acting strangely, and she is, I know something’s up. I see her at Mom’s with you and Marcus and Luke, whispering. I cornered her and got nothing, but for a minute, I know she wanted to spill. So this is how it’s going to work: We’re all heading to Marcus’s tonight because Mom wants to make sure Charlotte has some time off her feet, so we’re going to help plan the nursery for the baby and do whatever else Charlotte needs. After all, she’s carrying the grandbaby Mom has waited forever for. We’re going to meet across the street at Ryan and Jenny’s first, and you’re going to spill whatever this hush-hush thing is that has Suzanne so weirded out. Let’s say in an hour.”

  He knew she wasn’t asking. The bossiness in her tone told him she’d make his life and everyone’s a living hell until they told her the one thing he knew his mom wanted none of them talking about. “You know, Tessa and I weren’t coming until later, since we have a few things to do around here…”

  “It’ll keep,” Karen said. “See you in an hour.” Then his sister hung up.

  Owen sent a quick text off to Marcus: Just got a call from Karen. Been ordered to meet in an hour at Ryan’s! He waited a few seconds and then saw three dots.

  Yup, same. Seems Suzanne’s the weak link. See you there—and pick up the beer. I have to run to the store and grab more oranges for Charlotte.

  He didn’t know why he felt relieved, maybe because this was the first time in what felt like forever that he didn’t feel as if he were carrying the weight of the family.

  As he unlocked the ladder extension, let it slide down, and set it back at the side of the house, he took a deep breath. He strode into the house, taking in the fixer-upper at which he was spending more time than his own place, all because Tessa Brooks had stolen his heart.