Standing in the Shadows

by Shannon McKenna

23

  “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” Barbara said into the phone. “I’ll be there first thing Monday. This is exactly what I needed.”

  “I’m sorry it’s only a temporary position, Mrs. Riggs, while the office manager is out on maternity leave,” Ann Marie said. “But you know the organization so well after all those years of volunteering. We’ll all put our heads together and come up with something else when she comes back. Everyone will be so happy to see you. We’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you all, too. See you next week, then. ’Bye, now!”

  She hung up the phone, floating with relief. Things were moving again. Her girls were safe, that horrible Novak was burned to a crisp, and Billy Vega was dead too, thank goodness. She was shedding no tears for him. She wasn’t having those awful spells, and Erin’s life was shaping up nicely. All was looking orderly and positive.

  The doorbell buzzed, and she peered out the peephole. Erin’s pretty little nurse friend, Tonia. At this hour, on a weekday. How odd. She opened the door. “Hello there, Tonia.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Riggs. I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

  “Not at all,” Barbara said. “Come on in. Let’s make some tea. You’re just in time to help me celebrate. I just got a job! I’m so excited.”

  “That’s so fabulous,” Tonia said. “Where?”

  “The literacy center where I used to volunteer. It’s just temporary, but it’s perfect to start with. Their office manager is about to have a baby. It’s been a while since I’ve done much typing, but I can practice on their computers after closing time. I’ll catch on.”

  “That’ll be so great for you.” Tonia followed her into the kitchen. “Look, Mrs. Riggs, I can’t stay long, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about. I’m meeting Erin later on this afternoon.”

  “Oh, really?” She filled the kettle and put it on the stove.

  “Yes. Connor made her promise not to go to Mueller’s home unaccompanied.” Tonia rolled her eyes. “Silly, if you think of it. Not that I mind. But for heaven’s sake. She is a grown-up, after all.”

  “Yes, Connor is very protective,” Barbara said. And that suited her just fine, she thought privately. Protection looked very good to her right now. Particularly for her precious girls. She was all for it.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Mrs. Riggs. Connor’s protectiveness. If you can call it that.”

  The edge in Tonia’s voice made Barbara uneasy. She finished rinsing the teapot and set it down. “Yes, dear? What about it?”

  Tonia hesitated. “Connor makes me nervous,” she blurted. “He’s so jealous and possessive. He’s even hostile and suspicious of me.”

  “Ah, I see,” Barbara said cautiously.

  Tonia’s blood-red fingernails flashed as she gesticulated. “I’ve seen women get involved with men like that. That’s always the first sign of trouble, when a guy cuts a woman off from her girlfriends. It’s a classic technique of abusive, controlling men.”

  Barbara opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

  “Family’s the next step,” Tonia went on. “Snip, snip, and voila, she’s totally isolated and in his thrall. Then he gets to work breaking down her self-esteem. Making her think she’s nothing without him.”

  “Oh, my goodness. Really, Tonia, I don’t think that Connor—”

  “The problem is, she’s smitten with him, and I can see why. He’s a very attractive man. Handsome, charismatic, compelling. And I mean that literally. Compelling, Mrs. Riggs. He thinks she belongs to him.”

  Barbara’s spine stiffened. “Ah. I see. Well. If he thinks that, he is very, very wrong.”

  “And it makes me nervous, to think of how angry he must be at your husband,” Tonia said. “Sorry to bring up a painful topic, but I’m sure you don’t want Erin to pay the price for that.”

  “Oh, but Connor would never take that out on Erin,” Barbara said faintly. “He seems to really care about her. That’s the impression I got.”

  The teapot was whistling. Tonia smoothly shouldered her out of the way and seized the kettle. “Here, let me. Sure he cares about her.” She poured boiling water into the teapot. “He’s obsessed with her. Did you know that he practically kidnapped her at the airport last weekend?”

  Barbara sank down into a chair and frowned, bewildered. “Erin told me he went with her, but she didn’t say anything about—”

  “She didn’t tell you all of it, and I’m not surprised,” Tonia said. “He just showed up at the Portland airport, where she was supposed to meet Mueller’s limo driver. She never got the chance. Connor dragged her to his car, drove her to a motel, and…well, you see the results, hmm? He got exactly what he wanted, didn’t he?”

  Barbara stared at her, horrified. “Erin’s such a sweetheart,” she whispered. “She can’t bear to disappoint anyone. I hate to imagine, if she were all alone, and pressured by someone forceful and…”

  “Compelling,” Tonia supplied.

  “Compelling.” Barbara shuddered. “Oh, God. I hate to think of it.”

  “Exactly,” Tonia said. “I see we’re on the same wavelength, Mrs. Riggs. Maybe you should call around to other family members and friends, and Connor’s former colleagues. Make everybody aware of the situation. Discreetly. Did you know that Connor has a family history of mental illness? His father. A sad, awful story. Paranoia, delusions, social alienation. He raised his sons up in the hills, in total isolation. No one knows for sure what happened to the mother.”

  “Dear God.”

  “Heaven only knows what that crazy man did to those poor boys,” Tonia went on. “Or maybe it’s better not to imagine.”

  “I was always nervous about his background, but I had no idea—oh, God. I have to talk to Erin. I have to call her. Right away.”

  “Be careful.” Tonia poured Barbara a cup of tea. “She’s under his spell. Don’t be direct, or you’ll just create resistance. We need to act quietly. Activate a support network for Erin. Soon. Like, right now.”

  “Yes, you are so right,” Barbara said. “I’ll get right on it. This instant. Thank goodness you told me this. I had no idea.”

  Tonia smiled broadly and raised her cup. She clinked it against the one Barbara held in her trembling hand. Barbara’s cup wobbled, and tea splashed out onto the tablecloth. “Go, Mom,” Tonia said. “Erin’s lucky to have a mother like you.”

  Barbara thought of the last few months. Her mouth tightened. “Hardly,” she said. “But I’ll do my very best for her from now on.”

  The doorbell rang again. Her cup clattered into the saucer, sloshing yet another brown wave of tea onto the table. “Who on earth?”

  “I’ll get it,” Tonia offered. “You stay comfortable.”

  “No, that’s all right.”

  Tonia followed right on Barbara’s heels as she went to the door. Curious as a cat, that girl. Barbara had noticed that the first time she’d met her. She peered out the peephole. It was Connor’s brother, Sean, and Cindy’s strange-looking friend Miles, burdened with shopping bags.

  She opened the door. Sean’s grin coaxed an instant smile out of her. “Hi, Mrs. Riggs. I’m a taxi service for Miles, here,” Sean said. “He was hoping to visit with Cindy. She doing OK?”

  “Oh yes, she’s much better, thank you,” Barbara said. “She’s upstairs. I’ll call her. Come on in.”

  Miles’s face was purpled with bruises, and he had a white bandage over the bridge of his nose. He was carrying a paper shopping bag full of videos, a saxophone case, and a big, dripping bunch of freshly picked wildflowers, mud dripping copiously from their roots. “I, uh, brought Cindy some stuff,” he said. “X-Files videos, and flowers. And her sax. If she wants to, you know, like, practice.” He held out the flowers to her.

  Barbara smiled at him. “That’s sweet, Miles. I’ll call Cindy.” She turned up the stairs. “Cindy? Hon? Come downstairs. You have guests!”

  She turned back to Tonia. “Tonia, this is Connor�
��s brother, Sean McCloud, and Cindy’s friend, Miles. Sean, this young lady is Erin’s friend, Tonia…I don’t remember your last name, dear.”

  “Vasquez,” Tonia said, sticking out her hand to Miles, and then Sean in turn. “I’m glad to meet you.”

  Sean held her hand for a moment, and his face went thoughtful. “Wait a minute. I know you.”

  Tonia dimpled. “Oh, no. I’m sure I would remember.”

  “No, really. I never forget a face. Particularly not a cute one. None of us McCloud guys can. It’s a weird family trait. One of the many. Hold on…it’s coming to me.” He scowled up at the ceiling, snapping his fingers. “Bingo!” he exclaimed. “You’re a nurse! At the clinic. Right?”

  Tonia blinked at him, her mouth dangling open. It was the first time Barbara had ever seen her at a total loss.

  “What clinic?” Barbara asked.

  Sean shot her a wry glance. “The clinic where my brother spent two months in a coma, remember? That clinic.”

  Cindy saved her the embarrassment of a reply by appearing at the top of the stairs in a baggy sweatsuit, rubbing her fist in her reddened eyes like a little girl. She stumbled down the stairs, shy and hesitant.

  “Miles brought you flowers,” Barbara said. “Isn’t that sweet?”

  Cindy gave Miles a wan smile. “Thanks. They’re really pretty.”

  Miles gazed up adoringly. “I, uh, brought you some, uh, other stuff, too,” he stammered. “Some vids. Your sax. You know. Stuff.”

  “That’s cool,” Cindy said. “You want to come up to my room?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure.” He looked around at the rest of them. “’Scuse me,” he mumbled. He bolted up the stairs after Cindy.

  Sean turned back to Tonia. “I know I saw you at the clinic a couple of times. That uniform actually looked good on you.”

  Tonia’s laugh sounded forced. “Thanks. You have to forgive me for not remembering you. It was a long time ago.”

  “A year and two months,” Sean said. “To be precise.”

  “I thought Erin said you worked at Highpoint,” Barbara said.

  “I do,” Tonia said. “I’m sort of a butterfly. I flit from job to job. Well, um…I’d better be on my way. And that matter we discussed, Mrs. Riggs? Really, it’s urgent. Get right on it, please.”

  “Oh, I will,” Barbara said fervently. “Thanks for stopping by.”

  “Lovely to meet you,” she called back over her shoulder. “’Bye.”

  There was a long silence after Tonia left. Sean’s green eyes were so much like his brother’s. Bright, direct…compelling. Dark, fluttering panic threatened to unravel her. She steadied herself against the wall.

  “Hey, Mrs. Riggs. Are you OK?”

  How ironic, an offer of help from one of the few people on earth she could not share her problem with. “I’m fine, thanks.”

  “You sure? Can I help you out with anything? Anything at all.”

  The concern in his face made her feel ashamed for lying to him. She forced herself to smile. “Just dandy, and thanks for asking.”

  “OK, then. I’d better be on my way, too. Things to do. Glad that Cindy’s doing better. You take care, now.”

  “Thank you, I will,” she said.

  Sean bounded down the walk and got into his mud-splattered Jeep. Barbara reset the alarm and stumbled back into the kitchen. She grabbed the cordless phone, sat down, and stared at it.

  Both of her girls had been threatened by violent men. Erin six months ago by Novak and Luksch. Cindy by Billy Vega. And now her innocent, eager-to-please Erin had been swept off her feet by an unbalanced, controlling man with a family history of mental illness.

  Her sweet girl who tried so hard, who deserved the very best.

  It was unendurable. She was done with sitting around and doing nothing. It was up to her to protect her children, in any way she could think of. And Tonia’s suggestion was a damn good place to start.

  She dialed a number she had thought she would never dial again.

  “Would you please beep Nick Ward for me?” she asked the switchboard operator. “It’s urgent.”

  The slam of a car door jerked Connor out of his stupor. He twitched open the kitchen curtain to make sure it was one of his brothers. Not many people knew how to find the ramshackle, hand-built house out in the hills that Eamon had left to his sons, and the McCloud brothers liked it that way. It was a sure refuge from the weirdness of the world. Only their closest friends knew where it was.

  It was Sean. This was going to be exhausting. He looked down at the bottle of Scotch on the table. His attempt to drown his sorrows in alcohol was as much of a failure as the rest of his life currently was. Instead of blunting emotions, like liquor was supposed to do, it had just blurred his capacity to think clearly. The emotions had partied right on.

  He didn’t need Sean to scold him for sulking. He was already scolding himself, but there wasn’t enough oomph behind it to break his paralysis. The kitchen door creaked open. He didn’t bother to turn.

  Sean’s distinctive smell wafted into the room. Expensive citrus aftershave and well-tended leather. God, his brother was vain. But he loved him, even when Sean drove him nuts. The whiskey was making him maudlin. He buried his face in his hands and braced himself.

  “I’ve been looking for you all morning.” Sean’s tone was accusing.

  “You found me,” he replied.

  Sean was silent for an unnaturally long time. “I went by your house. Did you know that you left it unlocked? It’s not a bad neighborhood, but you did get robbed a few months ago, remember?”

  He gestured carelessly with his scarred hand. “If somebody wants my stuff, they’re welcome to it.”

  Sean made a sharp sound under his breath. “Oh, Christ, not again. What bug has crawled up your ass this time?”

  “Leave me alone, Sean.”

  “I tried Erin’s place, but no one was home. And I tried to call you, but the phone’s off, of course. Why should today be any different.”

  “I gave the phone to Erin.”

  Sean sighed in frustration. “I don’t know why you keep getting rid of them. You know we’re just going to get you a new one.”

  Connor shrugged. “Where’s your faithful sidekick?”

  “Miles? I left him down in the city. He wanted to worship at Cindy’s shrine. He’s fried. It hurts my heart to see it.” Sean circled the table, studying his brother. “Miles is a good guy,” he went on. “I’m thinking of hiring him. He could deal with the techno-nerd side of my business, and leave me free for the fun stuff.”

  “Good idea.” Connor tried to sound enthusiastic.

  “I think so, too. Only condition is, I have to teach him how to fight.”

  Connor made a neutral sound.

  “I know,” Sean said. “It’s going to be a job. His muscle tone is about on par with Puffy the Marshmallow Man.” He pulled out a chair, sat down and waited. “Out with it.”

  Connor rubbed his stinging eyes. “Novak is dead, they say. Blown up yesterday. Someplace near Marseilles.”

  Sean tapped his fingers, waiting. “Am I missing something?” he asked. “Is that not what we were praying for? It that any reason to sit alone in the dark with a bottle of scotch?”

  “It’s great news for Erin and the rest of the world,” he said wearily. “It’s only bad news for me.”

  “Why?”

  Connor winced at his brother’s sharp tone. A headache was gathering like storm clouds in the back of his skull. “Because it means I’m seeing and hearing shit that’s not there,” he said. “I saw Georg on that highway. I heard Novak’s voice on the telephone. Now Billy Vega gets beaten to death, my cane disappears out of the trunk of my car, and you know what? I’ve got this really scary feeling that it’s going to turn up somewhere with Billy Vega’s blood all over it. I am up shit creek without even a fucking boat, let alone a paddle. And they tell me Novak’s dead. What do you say, Sean? What’s wrong with this picture?”

  Sean�
�s face was rigid. “They can’t pin Billy Vega on you. No way.”

  “Sure they can. If Novak’s dead, I’m looking at several unpleasant possibilities. Brain damage from the head injury that they didn’t notice before they cut me loose, that’s the most appetizing of the lot. Worst case scenario? I’ve snapped. I really am going nuts. Like Dad.”

  “Don’t say that.” Sean’s voice shook. “Don’t even say the words. You are nothing like Dad. Nothing.”

  “Who knows? Maybe I did kill Billy and I don’t remember doing it,” Connor said wearily. “Anything’s possible.”

  “You didn’t even know his address, asshole!” Sean yelled. “We never told you! You were too busy dealing with your girlfriend’s family!”

  Connor shook his head. “Maybe if I’m lucky, I can plead insanity and end up in a padded cell instead of—oof!”

  Sean grabbed him by his shirtfront, hauled him up off his chair and slammed him hard against the kitchen wall. Kevin’s drawing of a waterfall fell to the floor. The glass in the frame shattered.

  “That’s not going to happen,” Sean said.

  Connor blinked into his younger brother’s eyes, shocked out of his own despair by the stark fear he sensed behind Sean’s fury. He tried to put his arms around his brother. “Hey. Sean. Chill. It’s not—”

  “Don’t you dare say that to me! Not after two months of hell when you were in the coma. I almost lost you, Con. I can’t go through it again. Not after losing Kevin.”

  “OK, Sean,” he soothed. “Let me loose. Relax.”

  “You are not crazy!” Sean’s fist pressed painfully hard against Connor’s windpipe. “You are just a depressed, melodramatic dickhead!”

  “OK!” Connor yelled. “Whatever you say. I’m a dickhead. Stop strangling me. I don’t want to have to hit you.”

  “Yeah, like you could get in a punch at me, in the state you’re in. Listen, Con. Get this straight. Nobody’s going to lock you up. Because if anybody tries to hurt you, I will kill them.”

  The bone-deep sincerity in Sean’s voice chilled him. Connor dug his hands into his brother’s spiky blond hair and cradled his head.

  “No, Sean. You’re not going to kill anybody, so don’t talk like that. Calm down.” He used the same mellow, hypnotic tone he and Davy had used to talk Sean down from his freak-outs back when Sean had been a hyper little kid bouncing off the walls. “You’re flying off the handle, buddy. You can’t do this anymore. You’re a grown-up now.”