#7-9--The O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  “Tessa, we’ve got to go earlier,” he called out. “I have something to talk about with my brothers and sisters.”

  Tessa was measuring a wall and turned her head, a pencil between her teeth. She let go of the measuring tape, and it slid back together. She pulled the pencil away. “Well, why don’t you go, then, and I’ll finish up here and meet you over there?” she said, another reason she was perfect. She was the least needy woman he’d ever met.

  “Okay,” he said. “Oh, do you mind swinging by my place on your way and picking up those books I got for Eva? Apparently, I have to grab the beer now because Marcus has to stop and get something for Charlotte.”

  From the way she shook her head, he could see her amusement. “Books for Eva—you really are a softy for that little girl.” She walked over to him and slid her arms over his shoulders. She fit just perfectly, and he pulled her closer to him. “Of course I’ll pick them up. Where are they?” She angled her head, and he leaned in and kissed her, running his hand over her butt before stepping back and slipping his hand in his pocket to pull out his keys.

  “Living room, on the table. There’s two, just came out. Charlotte said she loves these early readers about ladybugs, and I just happened to…”

  She really looked at him as he unclipped his housekeys and set them in her outstretched palm. “Just happened to stop in a children’s bookstore to pick up books for your little niece? You don’t need to explain. I’ve seen you with her, all of you. You have a great family, Owen, and if I weren’t already completely head-over-heels smitten with you, you’d have totally sunk me with the way you notice the little things like that. I know all of you are trying to make sure Eva knows she’s not being forgotten. And, as you’ve said, this is a small town. The clerk at the bookstore mentioned to me how you made a point of having her search out any new books about ladybugs, so your secret’s out, Owen. You’re a hero to that little girl.”

  He rested his hands on his hips, wondering for a moment whether she was teasing him. All he could do was grunt, and she stepped closer and slid her arms around him. She hugged him and let out a soft laugh, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “Hero, seriously?” He gave her an odd look as he stepped back, shaking his head.

  “You can deny it all you want to, Owen, but I see who you really are.” She stepped back and jabbed her finger his way.

  Even though he knew she was teasing, she had no idea of the secret about his mom, and he wondered, if she really knew, would she still see him through those rose-colored glasses?

  Chapter Nineteen

  He left the beer in his van after pulling up in front of Ryan’s, seeing Karen’s practical four-door Honda also parked there. Then there was Suzanne’s project car and Luke’s pickup across the street behind the sheriff’s cruiser. Evidently, he was the last one there.

  He started up the walkway just as the door opened and Alison, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a baggy shirt, strode out in flip-flops Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was working a piece of gum.

  “Hey, kid. You going over to Marcus’s?” Owen said. He was about to rustle her hair but decided against it, considering the look she gave him.

  “Mom’s already there with Grandma and Charlotte,” she said. “Dad kicked me out and said I have to go over now because of the adult talk I’m not supposed to hear, so what gives? You think I don’t know something’s up when you’re all meeting over here? So what is it, a surprise or something, or is someone in trouble?” There she went, figuring out way more than she should.

  “Just something we need to discuss, is all, and nothing for you to worry about. Listen, I left a case of beer in the van. Could you take it over with you and shove it in the fridge? Oh, and I almost forgot—I picked up something for you.” He pulled out his wallet and lifted out a twenty-dollar gift card for the little shop in town that carried all the fashionable jewelry and accessories Alison loved.

  Her eyes lit up, and she practically landed on the card. “Thanks, Uncle Owen! So are you trying to buy my silence about something?”

  He had to give her credit: She always thought some angle was being worked. “Not this time, but consider it an IOU for one,” he teased. “I’ve got something for Eva, too. Tessa’s bringing it. Don’t forget to take the beer!”

  He started up the steps, watching as his niece shoved the card into her pocket and then pulled open the door to his van. He was glad he’d thought to grab something for Alison, considering the books he’d gotten for Eva. He pulled open the screen door, hearing voices inside.

  Marcus turned from where he stood in the kitchen. “It’s about time you got here,” he said.

  “You’re the last to arrive,” Karen called out.

  Owen took in Suzanne, who was leaning against the fridge, staring at her phone as if it held all the answers. Ryan leaned against the sink, still in his park ranger uniform, whereas Luke was in a white T-shirt and blue jeans, Marcus was in his uniform, and Karen, who’d called this meeting, stood in a navy skirt and a white sleeveless blouse. They all towered over her, as usual, but he realized there was something different. Right, her red hair, which was in a messy bun, now had a ton of blond highlights.

  “Had to stop and get the beer because the guy whose turn it was suddenly couldn’t,” he said.

  Marcus shrugged but didn’t smile. “Cravings,” he said. “Charlotte can’t get enough oranges right now. She ran out, so that took precedence over the beer.”

  “So what is this meeting for, again? I’m confused,” Ryan said.

  Suzanne didn’t lift her gaze to him, still staring at her phone. She wouldn’t look over to Karen, either. He could tell Suzanne wouldn’t be able to keep his little bombshell a secret much longer.

  “Well, I’m thinking we should put Suzanne in the hotseat,” Karen said. “Or do any of you boys want to help her out and spill whatever the hell is going on?”

  Karen had a way about her. He knew well that she wasn’t about to let any of them blow her off or walk out without giving her something. She was just too damn good at what she did. But Suzanne… He’d never figured her for the weak link.

  “I think you should tell them,” Suzanne said. “I told you all that we shouldn’t keep this from Ryan and Karen, and I know what Mom said, but it’s killing me not to say something to Harold, either. Believe me, he knows me well enough to know there’s definitely something going on. He asked me once, and I blew him off, saying it was nothing.” She gestured quite dramatically at them, an edge to her voice. “But you know what? That didn’t work. I can’t have secrets in my relationship with Harold. I don’t know how you all do it…”

  He could see this would only go from bad to worse until she said something. He’d never have expected Suzanne, of all of them, to be this rattled.

  “She’s right,” Marcus said. “They should know.”

  Luke hadn’t said anything yet. He just stood there, the silent observer. Ryan, apparently, had just figured out something pretty bad was happening, and he was now staring intently at Owen.

  “Someone say something,” Karen said. “Who’s it going to be?” She could be really bossy and demanding, and as she let her gaze land on Marcus, Luke, and then Owen, all he could do was pull his arms over his chest. “Owen?” she said.

  Owen gestured over to Marcus.

  “It really is Owen’s story to tell,” Marcus said, “but since he’s kept it a secret for so long…”

  “For eighteen years you knew something had happened to Dad!” Suzanne jumped in, cutting Marcus off. Owen could see how wound up she was. Karen and Ryan were giving him everything, and the shock on their faces said it all.

  “I kept a secret, is all, Suzanne—to protect Mom, to protect all of us,” he said. “I thought Mom had done something, but she didn’t. Let’s be clear on that.”

  Karen threw her hands up, and Ryan angled his head. Owen could sense the annoyance that was beginning to amp up between them all.

&nb
sp; “The night Dad disappeared,” Marcus began, “Owen went downstairs and found Dad’s office a mess. Mom had a knife with blood on it, and she wrapped it in a cloth and gave it to Owen, telling him to get rid of it. He did, burying it in the woods, only he didn’t realize someone saw him. Rita Mae was watching, and she dug it up and kept it. I know you all don’t know everything yet about the death of that boy, Jackson Moore, because the investigation is ongoing, but she tried to jam up Owen and me, and our family. I can see by your faces that you’re having some trouble with the details. After Owen and I went to the spot in the forest and discovered that Rita Mae must’ve dug up the knife, I insisted we talk to Mom, because…”

  “I thought Mom had done something,” Owen said, jumping in, because he needed to shut this down. “She didn’t, though. She told us. I mean, Luke, you were there when Marcus and I arrived, and Suzanne showed up shortly after. That’s the only reason Suzanne and Luke know. Mom recounted what really happened. She was upset, horrified that I thought she’d done something. She had found a scene in the basement office, but no Dad. There was blood on the floor and a knife, and it looked as if a fight had happened. She said Dad was gone, and she found a note in his handwriting telling her so, saying he wasn’t coming back.”

  Karen was leaning against the counter. In her shock, he knew she was having some trouble. “That’s everything?” she said.

  Luke, who had said nothing for so long, finally cut in: “Well…I’m not sure that’s everything, considering one of the things Mom said was that Dad had people coming over for the last while at night, when we were in bed. She said something was going on, but she didn’t know what. He wouldn’t tell her. She was pretty sure Dad had found his way into something bad.”

  “She didn’t say ‘bad,’ exactly,” Suzanne said. “But she said she’d expected to hear from Dad, and when she didn’t…” She gestured toward Karen and stopped talking for a second. “She didn’t want anyone to know. She specifically asked us not to tell you and Ryan, even when I insisted. I’m still having trouble getting my head around how she could just not look for Dad…”

  “Really?” Owen said. “Because I remember Mom explaining that clearly. She had six kids to look after, and she was basically gutted.” Owen gave everything to Suzanne, then dragged his gaze over to Karen. “I listened to Mom crying for I don’t know how many nights. I know what it did to her. At the same time, for eighteen years, I thought she’d done something. I picked up the slack because she was doing what she could for us alone, and none of you made it easy. Now, if that’s all, I’m heading over to your place, Marcus. We all need to go over before Mom and the others wonder and worry about what we’re doing. She’s going to ask, so come up with something. As far as telling everyone…” He shook his head. “You can’t. I think you all know that. It was a close call with Rita Mae.”

  Ryan pulled his hands over his face and swore under his breath. “So you said Rita Mae had it and you took care of it. What does that mean, exactly? Seems there’s holes here. Dad’s office would’ve been a crime scene, with blood on the floor and a knife and only a note. No one here finds that strange? Where is the knife now, the evidence that Rita Mae had, and how did you get it back? Is this something else that we need to take care of?”

  They were the O’Connells, and there was something about standing in this kitchen, just the six of them, that made Owen feel as though the weight on his shoulders had lifted. He could see the questions, though, that would likely always be there for each of them.

  “I burned the rag and cleaned the knife, then hid it basically in plain sight,” he said. “There’s no evidence left. Yes, Rita Mae gave it to me in an attempt to do the right thing after what I can only imagine was an attack of conscience. So let’s agree here before we leave that for Mom’s sake, for all of us, this is the last we’ll talk of this.”

  By the way Marcus was looking at him, he wondered if he agreed. “If any of this comes out, you all know my chances of keeping my badge are gone. Forget my re-election as sheriff. Suzanne, you can’t tell Harold.”

  “But…” Suzanne started, but Karen reached over without looking and touched her arm, gripping it.

  “Marcus is right, and so is Owen,” Karen said. He could see she was taking a minute to get her head around it. “You can’t tell Harold, just like Ryan can’t tell Jenny, and Marcus can’t tell Charlotte, and Owen can’t tell Tessa. Because it’s not just Marcus this could hurt. It’s Owen, and Mom too.” Karen let her gaze linger on Owen. “This stays between us. It has to—but at the same time, isn’t anyone curious about what happened? I mean, it’s Dad.”

  What was Owen supposed to say? He pulled in a breath. “You know what? For the first time since that night, I feel like I’m not having to keep an eye on everyone or pull you all out of trouble, so how about you do this for me? Leave it alone. I saw Mom’s face, and I know what this did to her. That’s something I’ll always carry. If Dad was involved in something, we covered it up. I’m thinking it was pretty bad, and I, for one, really don’t want to know.”

  He could see Suzanne considering, the way she was biting her lip. Karen, though, didn’t pull her gaze from him, and neither did Ryan.

  Luke shrugged. “Look, you all know I’ve looked, and I’m not about to put Mom through anything else. We have to drop it.”

  “Suzanne, you good?” Marcus said, and Karen tapped her arm again when she didn’t answer.

  “Fine, okay,” she said, and then Marcus and Ryan started to the door, and Karen dragged Suzanne behind her.

  Owen lingered a second with Luke. “You’ve been pretty quiet,” he said.

  Luke shrugged again as he playfully jabbed Owen’s shoulder. “Said all I need to, but at the same time, between you and me, there’s something about Mom’s story that doesn’t jive. I know there’s more, but I guess letting sleeping dogs lie is what we do.”

  Owen just took in his brother, seeing that Luke thought deeply about a lot of things and was likely seeing ghosts where there weren’t any, considering what he did in the army.

  “So tell me about you and this thing with Tessa,” Luke said. “Is it serious or not?”

  He started to the door, picturing Tessa’s sweet face. “You think I’d be bringing her around if it weren’t?”

  Luke inclined his head slightly, and an odd smile touched his lips before he gave a soft chuckle. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t. Just so you know, I kind of like her for you.”

  He stepped out of Ryan’s house, seeing his siblings ahead of them, heading over to Marcus’s. Owen looked over to his brother, who rested his hand on his shoulder, and said, “You know what? I kind of like her for me, too.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “I heard Marcus talking this morning with Charlotte,” Eva said. “He said adopting me isn’t as easy as it was supposed to be, and there’re a lot of problems. Am I the problem, Alison? I don’t want to be a problem. Will they still want me?”

  Alison pushed Eva on the swing at the playground down the end of the street from their houses. There were a few kids there, mostly older because of the time of day, getting close to dinner.

  The new kid at her school, a dark-haired boy named Brady, was across the playground, hanging out by the monkey bars. He wasn’t in her classes, and he’d never tossed her under the bus like some of the other kids, pointing fingers her way in the fallout of Jackson’s death.

  Yeah, she was still smarting over the fact that a grad prank could’ve come back on her, and she was still angry at those who had tried to accuse her, mainly Belinda, Hunter, and Amanda. Evidently, they had thought she was an easy target, being that she was aware of all the lies they had told, and they had ridiculed her one too many times behind her back.

  Even though Belinda was now having to face the music, being charged for her part in the crime that had led to Jackson’s death, Alison wondered whether she herself would ever shake that need for retribution. Anger was anger, and she still didn’t know why she’d been such an e
asy target for them.

  Then there was Brady, good looking and charismatic. Something about him had her giving him a second and third look, watching him where he was hanging out with Craig Lister, one of the jocks from school who’d never given her the time of day.

  She pushed Eva again. “Of course they want you,” she said. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not a problem. The only problem is all the hurdles Marcus and Charlotte are having to jump through, is all. That’s what my dad said, anyway. Marcus and Charlotte will make it happen. Don’t worry about it, Eva.”

  She knew, though, from listening to her mom and dad, that the problems with the adoption likely had something to do with the shooting at Marcus’s house, when Eva had almost gotten hurt.

  “Eva, if there’s one thing I know about Marcus, it’s that he knows how to fix things for all of us, and there’s no way they’re letting you go. You’re our family. It’s not you who’s the problem; it’s someone else making things difficult.”

  Who, she didn’t know for sure. She’d listened quietly more than a few times when no one thought she could overhear them, and she thought she’d heard mention of the state, the authorities, or maybe some bureaucrat.

  “Charlotte and Marcus love you,” she continued, “and they’d do anything for you. They won’t let you go. It’ll be okay.”

  She looked down at the girl she spent so much time with. Eva was the little sister she’d always wanted. At the same time, she was still looking around the playground. She remembered how PJ Moore had looked at her while believing she had some part in his son’s death. She knew he’d questioned most of the kids and threatened all of them, and she wondered when it would be her turn.

  That feeling had her constantly looking over her shoulder these days, all because Hunter had pointed the finger her way and said running naked around the school after popping pills had been her idea. That wasn’t how it had gone down, but a vengeful father couldn’t hear the truth.