by Raven Snow
“Still, I’m sure he needs to talk about it.” Rowen couldn’t imagine keeping that sort of thing a secret. It had to eat away at you. She was surprised Trevor had held it together this long. “But I’m not here to judge you. What you did was brave, regardless. Can you tell me what happened?”
Jessica nodded, wiping idly at the tears on her cheeks. “He had just gotten his learner’s permit. We were coming home, and he wanted to drive. I let him drive on those roads because there was almost never anyone on them.” She choked up a bit at this point and the tears really started coming down. “He was doing so well. He wasn’t even speeding until… Well, we saw the little girl. We saw Samantha, and I yelled at him to stop. I shouldn’t have yelled. I guess he hit the gas instead of the brake and… It was awful. It was so awful. I tried to take charge of the situation. I sent Trevor to look for help. I checked on the little girl, but she was gone. I called the police and told them what had happened, then the mother finally got out there and was breaking down and…” Jessica took a deep breath and squared her shoulders a bit. “I knew what I had to do. I told Trevor what he should say to the police.”
Rowen tried to wrap her head around how hectic all of that must have been for everyone involved. “And he was all right with that?”
“I’m not sure he knew what to think.” Jessica shook her head sadly. “I would have liked to sit down and talk him through it more. Maybe everything would have worked out better than it has. I didn’t get that opportunity, though. I did what I thought was best.”
“Would you come clean about the truth if that’s what Trevor wanted?” asked Margo.
Jessica winced at the suggestion. “I don’t know. He’s still just a kid. I’m not sure he knows what’s best for him.”
“Would you be all right with it if I talked with Trevor about this?” Rowen asked, because that was what seemed more urgent right now.
Again, Jessica hesitated. “If you really think that his life is in danger, I suppose you had better.” She looked down at the surface of the table. “And I imagine he does need someone to talk to. I’m not sure how he’ll react. Try to catch him alone. He goes to the hiking trail out behind the school sometimes. It’s not on school grounds or anything. If you catch him there in private, that would probably be best.”
“Sounds a little shady,” Margo muttered, looking over at her cousin as if to remind her of the Billy incident.
“Please.” Jessica seemed to have her heart set on this all of a sudden. “Just do this so that you don’t draw any attention to him.”
Rowen tried to consider their options. “We could set up an interview.”
Jessica shook her head. “Tommy would insist on being there. He’s a good man. I don’t want him roped into this. He’s got enough pressure on him right now.”
“He is their father,” Margo pointed out, earning herself a dirty look from Jessica.
“I’m very aware of that, thanks. I know him. I married him. He’s not as strong as he looks.”
Maybe Jessica was right. Rowen got the sense that she at least meant what she was saying. “We’ll try.”
Margo opened her mouth like she was going to object, but she closed it back. She would come along. This whole thing made her nervous, but she wasn’t going to abandon Rowen now that they were in the home stretch. She didn’t have to look happy about it though. It was exceedingly obvious that she disapproved.
“I appreciate this.” Jessica forced a strained smile. “I guess you can’t exactly call and tell me how it goes. All our calls are recorded, but… If you could visit me again or ask Trevor to…”
Rowen nodded. “We’ll keep you updated.” She reached across the table and gave Jessica’s hand a squeeze. “Hang in there… and keep yourself safe.”
Rowen and Margo both did their best to part ways with Jessica on a positive note. Even if Margo didn’t approve of Rowen’s plan, she was sympathetic to the situation. “What a hassle,” she complained as soon as Jessica had gone.
“Oh, hush.” Rowen elbowed her cousin. “At least we’re making progress here. It’s better than hitting a dead end.”
“We should just call Ben and tell him everything we learned.”
“No way!” Rowen couldn’t believe she was willing to turn around and spill Jessica’s secret so quickly. “We told her we wouldn’t. I gave her my word.”
Margo gave a big, dramatic sigh. “Fine, but telling would be the responsible thing to do.”
“Since when have we been responsible?”
“Point taken.” Margo glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Visiting hours aren’t quite up yet. Should we stay and talk with Grammy?”
“It would feel weird if we didn’t at least say hi, wouldn’t it?” Rowen was still hesitant to talk with her. Grammy was so off her game lately, it made her uncomfortable. Sure enough, when the correctional officers brought her out, it immediately became a great big elephant in the room.
“So, how’s the case going?” Grammy asked after the customary hugs. They all sat down across from one another.
“Fine,” Rowen and Margo both said in unison.
Grammy raised an eyebrow at the vague answer. “Found yourself any suspects yet?”
“Maybe.” Rowen was feeling more confident in her own theory after today. “We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess.”
“Oh?” Grammy smiled at that bit of news. “Time for dramatic confrontations, is it?”
“Hopefully just the confrontation part, sans drama.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Margo smirked. “I sort of like a little drama as long as Channel 2 isn’t there.”
Grammy picked up on Margo’s tone of voice there. “Did something happen with Channel 2?”
Rowen frowned at Margo for even bringing it up. She had hoped to avoid that line of conversation. “It’s no big deal.” She tried to downplay it. “They just did a segment on us to try and make themselves look good. It’ll pass. These things always do. We have something planned with them in the works. That could really help us out as far as our reputation goes. So, who knows? This could all work out for the better.”
Grammy wasn’t someone you could easily steer along in a conversation. “Who were you interviewing?”
“Billy Nielson,” Margo blurted, going ahead and ripping the bandage right on off.
Grammy frowned. She didn’t have anything to say in response to that just yet. She looked down at the empty space on the table between them, her brow furrowed.
Margo scrambled to try and make her feel better. “His parents didn’t complain or anything. We didn’t officially get in any sort of trouble about it. I mean, we went through the front desk at the school and all that. Channel 2 made it sound a whole lot skeezier than it actually was. That’s the kind of thing that they do.”
“You must really think I’m slipping.” Grammy looked up from the table and looked intently at her granddaughters. She didn’t look ashamed or accusing. She was just stating the facts. Rowen’s first instinct was still to deny it.
“No. It happens.” Rowen looked over at Margo who nodded in agreement. “I know I get things wrong all the time.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Grammy snapped. “And I wasn’t wrong on this. I can feel it.”
“What do you mean?” Rowen was starting to get a little nervous. Not knowing whether or not she could depend on Grammy’s advice wasn’t something she was used to. It made her nervous. She had known the Grammy she grew up with wouldn’t be in her life forever. It was still uncomfortable, watching someone begin to slip.
“I mean what I said.” Now Grammy was starting to get annoyed. “I wasn’t wrong. Maybe my skills are a little dulled in here, but I wasn’t wrong about this.”
“I believe you,” said Margo. It was unclear whether she meant she believed what she was saying or believed that Grammy believed it. Either way, she changed the subject, moving on to more mundane things.
The rest of the visit went all right, but Rowen was very aware of ever
y way in which her grandmother was different. It was distinctly uncomfortable and made her feel guilty just sitting there. She should do something, shouldn’t she? But what could she do? She supposed that she needed to let the rest of the family know. That wasn’t a conversation she was looking forward to having.
Rowen and Margo said their goodbyes. They hugged and headed to their cars. The walk there was spent mostly in silence. “I guess I’m going to tell our parents how Grammy is doing tonight,” she said before she parted ways with her cousin.
Margo just nodded. “Yeah, it kinda seems inevitable. Good luck with that.” She got in her car before Rowen could even ask if she would help. Rowen rolled her eyes. Why did these things always fall on her?
Chapter Sixteen
At least Eric was supportive. “You know you don’t have to come with me,” she told him as they drove together to the Greensmith house. “I know she’s not really your grandmother or anything. This is probably awkward for you.”
“It’s awkward for you too,” Eric countered from the passenger seat. “Besides, I’m part of the family, right? I’m a Greensmith. I think I’m technically allowed to be a part of family conversations.”
Rowen felt herself smiling at that. “Well, I won’t argue with you there.”
“Don’t worry.” Eric reached over and gave Rowen’s shoulder a gentle squeeze as she drove. “I’ll let you do the talking. I’m just there for, you know, moral support.”
“I appreciate it.” She really did. It was nice to know that she could count on her husband. Not that he had ever given her a reason to doubt him since they had been married.
Rowen parked the car and headed inside. Her family wasn’t expecting her, it seemed. Peony was out with Willow. Margo was pointedly avoiding the house, and no one knew where Norman had gotten off to. It seemed the rest of the family were having a movie night in the den.
“I wish you called ahead!” Aunt Lydia moved over to make room for Rowen and Eric on the sofa. “I would have made something!” She motioned sadly to the soggy pizza box on the coffee table. “With no kids here, we’re just sad bachelorettes.”
Nadine winced a little and bit sadly into a droopy slice of pizza. On her right, Tiffany gave Rowen an oddly strained smile. “Glad you’re here, Sweetie. What’s the occasion?”
“Just wanted to visit.” Rowen planned to ease into the topic of Grammy, but it didn’t quite work out like that. “Actually, I need to tell you all something.”
The sisters all exchanged troubled glances. Nadine lowered her pizza slice. “Is something wrong?” asked Lydia.
Rowen took a seat on the sofa. Eric sat down beside her. It was good having him there. Even without him saying anything, his presence alone was reassuring. “It’s about Grammy.”
Aunt Lydia’s hand flew to her chest. “Oh, my goodness? What happened?” She demanded, breathless.
“She’s fine,” Rowen assured them all, quickly. “Well, I mean she’s not fine, actually. The staff say her health has been… slipping. And she’s acting sort of strange. She’s not… Her skills aren’t like they used to be.”
Everyone was silent for several long seconds. The sisters all looked at one another again. “We know, Sweetie,” Aunt Lydia said, finally.
“You do?”
She nodded. “We’ve known for a while. We visit her all the time too, you know. And we’ve known that woman our whole lives, a lot longer than you. We’ve noticed.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Aunt Nadine shrugged. “It seems rude to, doesn’t it?”
“Why upset you?” Aunt Lydia agreed. “It’s not as if there’s anything you can do about it. It would have only made you feel more awkward around her, and that wouldn’t have been good for either of you.”
“But I needed to know!” Rowen wasn’t sure why she needed to know, but it felt like they should have said something, right? Shouldn’t they have told her?
“Things change,” said Tiffany, speaking gently to her daughter. “It’s a part of life. People leave you, kids move out, and… Well, I’ve been thinking of traveling again myself.”
Rowen stared at her mother. “You’re leaving?” She wasn’t sure why she was so blindsided by this. Her mother was a wanderer. She had noticed her acting strangely and growing restless this past week or so. She’d been drilling Margo with all those questions about travel. She just hadn’t wanted to think about it, she supposed. “You’re kidding.”
“We don’t approve, obviously,” Aunt Lydia chimed in.
Rowen tried to play it cool. She tried to keep her emotions inside, but they just wouldn’t stay there. A lot of anger and resentment was welling up inside her. She didn’t care what her aunts thought. This was about Tiffany and herself. “You’re just abandoning the family again?”
Tiffany frowned at that accusation. “I’m not abandoning anyone. I just need to stretch my legs, do a bit of soul searching.”
“Is that what you were doing while I was growing up?” It was a low blow to say something like that around the rest of the family, but Rowen did it reflexively. Tiffany opened her mouth to say something, probably some sort of excuse. Rowen didn’t want to hear it. She raised her hands. “Forget it. Do what you want.”
“Rowen,” Tiffany said, firmly.
But Rowen was already heading for the door. Apparently, coming here at all had been a mistake. She felt Eric following close behind her. She hoped her aunts and mother didn’t follow too. Rowen didn’t feel like having an argument. She just wanted to go home. “It’s Margo’s fault,” she blurted, once they were back in the car.
“What?” Eric sounded lost but concerned.
“She came back and started talking about all that traveling she’d done. She put that bug back in mom’s head.”
“You can’t blame Margo.”
“I don’t.” Rowen really didn’t, but she wanted to. She wanted people to be mad at right now. “I know I’m probably overreacting. I went in there, stayed for a minute, and then stormed out like a crazy person over my mom leaving town like I’m a child or something.”
“You’re fine.” Eric leaned across the arm rest and kissed his wife on the cheek. “I get it. She vanishes all the time. She hasn’t been there for a lot of your life, and you were just getting used to having her around.”
Rowen nodded and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. They were wet. “I don’t know why I thought she would stay this time. I didn’t even realize I thought that until just now.”
“You’ll be all right. You’ve been just fine without her in your life before. And maybe she’ll be back. Things change.”
“That’s the problem though, isn’t it?” Everything seemed to be changing lately. People were moving on, moving away, businesses crumbled. Rowen wanted things to stay the same. They had been so nice the way they were. That just wasn’t the way it worked, it seemed. Not even in Lainswich. “Let’s get home,” she said, taking a deep breath. After all, she had an eventful day ahead of her tomorrow. She couldn’t afford to let this get to her now.
Chapter Seventeen
“This is such a bad idea.” Margo sat in the passenger’s seat looking very, very uncomfortable. She kept fidgeting and twisting her short hair around her fingers.
“Calm down.” Rowen fished a fry from the fast food bag between them. They’d been waiting for a while now. They couldn’t go talk to Trevor until school hours were over, but they hadn’t wanted to miss him. They’d gotten there early and waited. They also hadn’t let Rose know, which was what Margo seemed to be most concerned about.
“She was mad last time. What makes you think she won’t be even angrier this time?” Margo had voted to just tell her, probably in hopes that she would have talked them out of going. Margo still thought this was a bad idea.
“It has to be done.” Rowen took another fry. “Why get her involved?”
“Because she’s involved whether we tell her or not!” Margo snapped at her, like that should be obv
ious.
Rowen couldn’t really argue with her on that one. It wasn’t like she had a good excuse for any of this other than it just felt like something she needed to do. “You can always go home, you know.”
Margo rolled her eyes and took a passive aggressive sip of her soft drink. She wasn’t going anywhere and they both knew it. She wanted to see how this played out as much as Rowen did.
School finally let out. Rowen and Margo sat in an adjacent parking lot, watching the kids like a couple of creeps. “Someone’s going to call the cops on us and we’re gonna deserve it,” Margo grumbled.
Rowen ignored her and kept an eye out for Trevor. He would be heading to the trail out behind the school. They had parked so they could see the trail head. There didn’t seem to be many people headed for it, so Rowen felt fairly confident they would be able to spot Trevor. Sure enough, there he came about fifteen after, a book bag slung over his shoulder.
“What now?” asked Margo. “We skulk along behind him until he’s alone?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s horrible.”
“But our intentions are pure.”
“Still.” Margo followed Rowen anyway. These weren’t technically school grounds, so it was fine for them to be walking out there. Not that Margo was wrong. It did feel pretty shady.
Rowen couldn’t keep it up for long. She didn’t want to sneak around behind him and hide. After a few minutes, Trevor glanced back. He spotted them both walking along the center of the trail. Rowen raised a hand as an awkward sort of hello. “What are you doing here?” he asked. He didn’t sound nervous, just confused.
“Your mom told us we could find you here,” said Rowen. Wow, that didn’t sound ominous at all.
“My mom?” Trevor walked toward them, suddenly very interested in whatever they had to say. “When did you talk to her? Did she find out about the interview? Is she mad?”
