Figure Skating Mystery Series: 5 Books in 1

by Alina Adams

  "Me?" Coop didn't know whether to be angry or condescending. "I encouraged Allie. I was behind her all the way. If anyone knows what it's like to get up at three a.m. to go skating, or to be just sitting around, reading a book, and feel the front of your ankles burst and gush blood, it's me. That's why Allie and I were so tremendous together. We understood where the other was coming from."

  "And did you also understand that while you were having sex, if anything went wrong, Allie's career would be the one to suffer, not yours? Did you both understand that little piece of reality?"

  Coop actually blushed, which was sweet to see, but didn't carry much weight with Ralph. "We tried to be careful. Honestly we did."

  "You made more effort putting guards on your skates to keep them from rusting."

  At that, Bex did have to smirk. She hid it by burying her face in Omri's hair. It was an excellent analogy, both thematically and visually. Even if it meant she'd never be able to look at skate guards in the same way again.

  "You ruined any chance Allie had of ever becoming a World champion," Ralph went back to his original aria. "Even if she'd made up her mind early enough to get rid of the baby — "

  "No," Coop said. "I wouldn't have asked her to — "

  "She still would have had to miss the Worlds. We would have had to make up a reason, I suppose. An injury of some sort, maybe another flare-up of the bruised hip she had a season before — she and Sebastian were training the Killian so hard, he actually left handprints on her skin, and she had to take several weeks off to keep from getting a more serious hematoma. We might have said it happened again." For a moment, Bex could see Ralph slipping into his alternate timeline, the one where Allie's little... problem was still fixable and her precious skating career intact. "But no. No, that wouldn't have done any good in the end. Allie and Sebi were the National champions. If they missed their first Worlds as champs, they'd have dropped too far down in the standings. Heck, they might even have lost the National title next year. Judges hate recurrent injuries. They lose faith in you. Move on to someone else. Someone younger. We had enough of an obstacle with Sebi's age. Even if Allie took only one season off, it would have ruined everything. You," he told Coop, "ruined everything."

  "I loved Allie," Coop reiterated. "Her problem would have been my problem."

  "Would you have skipped Worlds last year to stay home and hold her hand? Huh? Would you have skipped Nationals this year to change diapers? Tell the truth, boy. It doesn't really matter much now."

  "Allie and I would have worked it out. I'm sure of it."

  Ralph snorted. "Sure sounds like a big-ass no to me. How 'bout the rest of you?"

  Though it wasn't Bex's place to judge — she merely reported the facts and left the judging to the folks watching at home — she did have to admit that yeah, it kinda sounded like a big-ass no to her, too.

  It must have sounded like one to Coop, also, because, he admitted, "I don't know what I would have done." Then, somewhat defensively, he added, "Allie never gave me the chance to find out."

  "Oh, that's cute. That's real, real cute. Now you're the victim in all this? Now, you're the one we're supposed to feel sorry for?"

  "I didn't say you should feel sorry for me, I just said that I also—"

  "How do you think it was for Allison, sitting wherever she ended up after she left home? I can only imagine what sort of place a young, pregnant girl with no money ends up — turning the television on and watching you skate at Worlds. How do you think she felt, watching you win your first World medal?"

  Coop didn't reply, so Ralph helped out: "It should have been her! She should have been winning that medal. Instead, she was all alone, no one to turn to, stuck with a baby she didn't want and, worst of all, off the ice!"

  Yes, Bex thought, considering the world this little drama was unfolding in, the latter really would be considered the worst fate of all.

  "Are you surprised she killed herself? What else could she do? She had nothing to look forward to, no future at all." Ralph zeroed in. "Because of you."

  It was the third or fourth time since they'd come in that Ralph had lobbed that particular charge in Coop's direction. And even though he hadn't seen the slightest of twitches in Ho's chin that suggested maybe Allison hadn't committed suicide after all, Coop nevertheless decided he wasn't about to stand for any more accusations.

  He waved his hand dismissively in Ralph's direction, turned decisively around, and approached Bex. He held out his arms and requested, "May I have my son, please?"

  Bex didn't immediately respond. She wasn't sure how she should. For one thing, Bex had been in this very room when Idan Ben-Golan had made the same demand just as compellingly, and been rebuffed for presenting no evidence of paternity. As far as Bex could see, Coop's claim was equally as dubious. The only difference was that Ralph — quite loudly and clearly and violently — believed Coop's assertion over Ben-Golan's, but they didn't decide DNA tests by majority vote.

  Bex didn't want to just hand Omri over indiscriminately. Fortunately, she was spared having to make a decision by Ralph bellowing, "That boy is coming home with me. I'm just getting the paperwork taken care of now. I don't care how many of you sons of bitches come out of the woodwork claiming he's your bastard. He's my grandson, and I'll be taking responsibility for him, thank you very much."

  "That isn't fair," Coop pointed out to Ho, to Bex, to anyone who he thought had jurisdiction. "Ralph isn't even Allison's real father. He's not a blood relative. I am."

  "I adopted Allie. Maybe I'll adopt this little guy, too. What do you think, boy? How do you like that idea?"

  "You have no right!" Some people hated to see a grown man cry. Personally, Bex had a lot more issues with seeing grown men whine. "He's my son. If he's going home with anyone right now, it should be with me."

  "Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? That would just make the sweet-sweetest up-close-and-personal TV profile for the Nationals broadcast, wouldn't it? Brave Champion Juggles Daddyhood and Death Drops! Oh, my eyes are already tearing up just thinking about it. You didn't think I had your number, did you, boy? You didn't think I got what you are really after. It's the publicity. It's always the publicity angle with you. You and that mother of yours are whores for it. You think I didn't figure out why you first started sniffing around Allison? It's because two champs make better copy than one, that's why. Everyone assumes that our boy skaters are fags, so you got to make sure the whole world knows you're different. You have a girlfriend, la dee dah! The skating magazines loved you for that. Hell, even People ran a story, and you know there's no way in hell you'd have gotten that kind of action alone. This whole mess started because you were after the publicity. Well, there's no way in hell I'm letting you use Allie's baby to get more of it."

  "You're insane," Coop said politely.

  "Yes. He is." A voice in the doorway made everyone turn around as Idan Ben-Golan strode in, as graceful as he'd been going out and, if it were possible, even more self-confident. "With all due respect, Mr. Adler, you are insane if you believe that Coop will be using that child for publicity purposes. He has no grounds. The boy is my son, not his."

  Ralph looked like he wanted to snort in disdain again. But Idan Ben-Golan was not a twenty-two-year-old lad wearing skating sweats and struggling to tell his side of a romance gone bad. Idan was (1) a grown man; (2) a grown man who'd been taught to kill other grown men; and (3) a grown man uninterested in being understood or forgiven. Just obeyed. He clearly wasn't about to be intimidated by an irate father, a confused and guilty ex, or a lowly researcher turned babysitter.

  When Idan held out his arms expectantly for Omri, it was all Bex could do not to instantly acquiesce.

  The only person Idan seemed willing to have a semblance of a conversation with was Officer Ho. He said, "I believe this is what you requested of me," and handed Ho an original — stamped and everything — document.

  Bex wasn't the only one curious about what it said. She just had the farthest dis
tance to cross and so was the last to huddle with the group that instantly surrounded it. She craned her head for a complete view.

  The document in question appeared to be a legitimate, State of California birth certificate for a little dude named Omri.

  Listing one Allison Adler, age nineteen, as his mother.

  And Idan Ben-Golan as the father.

  CHAPTER SIX

  If Idan Ben-Golan had been in the room with Bex when Ralph first charged Coop, he might have been a bit more anxious about the cavalier way he thrust his official proof of paternity in Allie's definitely unstable father's face. But as things stood, even though Ralph's face tightened into a knot until he was practically inhaling his lips and his eyes all but smashed into each other above the bridge of his nose as he tried to swallow and digest the document whole, Idan made no move to protect himself from what the rest of them presumed would be an imminent assault.

  Officer Ho seemed so certain one was coming that he took a step closer to Ralph and even put both arms out, in case he needed to block another wild swing. But Idan simply stayed where he was, hands on his hips, eyes glaring impatiently at the crowd inspecting Omri's birth certificate. He willed them to hurry up and grant him his son, the implication being that he was a busy man and there was only so much time he could afford to waste on this nonsense.

  "I should have known," Ralph mumbled. Was this when he would charge again? Judging from the way he moved out of the way to give Ralph a clear shot, Coop certainly thought so. And, in Bex's opinion, he looked rather delighted by the possibility.

  But Ralph, either already spent from his encounter with the last daddy candidate, or finally realizing that if he stood no chance against Coop, taking on Idan was out of the question, just shook his head and repeated, "I should have known. You!"

  There was no way Idan could have misunderstood who the "you" was directed at, but his facial expression refused to flicker.

  Ralph said, "I used to joke that Allie thought you not only hung the moon, you came up with the idea for it in the first place. All I heard day and night was, 'Idan thinks this,' and 'Idan thinks that.' I should have known you had some sick hold on her."

  Idan turned to Officer Ho. He asked, "Is the documentation you hold in your hand adequate for me to take my son?"

  Ralph may have been the one Idan was ignoring, but it was Coop who couldn't take it. Deciding that the role of angry lunatic needed to be played by someone, and if Ralph refused to fill it, Coop might as well give it a shot, he slammed one hand on Idan's shoulder from behind and attempted to spin him around, demanding, "How can you just stand there like that? Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"

  The slow and steady manner with which he pivoted to face Coop was Idan's way of making clear that he was turning of his own volition, rather than in response to being either manhandled or chastised. Without raising his voice he said, "This has nothing to do with you, Coop."

  "Allie was my girlfriend!"

  "That relationship ended almost a year ago."

  "But it was still going on when you and she — "

  "It is over now, Coop. That is the only relevant fact."

  "The baby could be mine," Coop asserted, puffing out his chest as if to suggest that his entire body was filled with viable, virile, manly sperm cells.

  "He isn't."

  "That birth certificate doesn't prove anything."

  "It proves that I am Omri's legal father."

  Ralph asked, "How could you do it?" Unlike the angry accusations he'd lobbed at Coop, Ralph seemed truly puzzled now. "How could you do that to yourself?"

  “To himself?" Officer Ho was completely lost. He glanced at Bex for guidance, and she sighed to indicate that yes, unfortunately, she knew exactly where this was going. Ho would see in a minute.

  Ralph said to Idan, "Allie and Sebi were finally National champions. You'd been waiting for four years for this moment. You were dying to take them to Worlds as the U.S. champs. You knew what that would do for their ranking. You wanted that as much as we all did. We had a plan. National title. World. Olympic Gold. How could you throw that all away by getting Allie pregnant?"

  Ho looked at Bex again, wondering if Ralph was serious. Bex nodded. He was dead serious.

  Idan said, "That is no longer relevant. Ralph, I am truly sorry for your loss. I cared for Allison, too — "

  "What about your wife?" Now that he was in the position of getting to make a self-righteous accusation, Coop was warming up to this whole loud discussion culture. "Did you care for Pandora as much as you did for Allison when you were cheating on her with a teenager?"

  "Calm down, Coop." Idan was using his coaching voice, steady and strong with no options for backtalk.

  "Why should I?"

  "Because," Idan said, "you are making an imbecile of yourself."

  "Oh, yeah? So what's wrong with that?" Coop was un-spooling in front of them, and it was not pleasant to watch. His California surfer-dude, "Whatever, it's all good," demeanor cracked and fell away like an eggshell, exposing a wet, unformed tangle of confusion and blind fury. Coop, Bex realized, could act as if nothing bothered him and he didn't care who was in control as long as he knew that he actually was. The minute that was taken away from him, Coop crumbled. "Are you the only one allowed to make me look like an idiot? Stealing my girl right in front of my face? I bet you thought it was really funny, didn't you?"

  "Coop," Idan wouldn't be baited, "this matter has nothing to do with you."

  "Were you jealous, is that it? Jealous that I was going to be the champion you never could be? Hell, I can get from one end of the rink to the other without falling on my face — that's more than you managed at the Olympics. Were you trying to get back at me by stealing Allie? Did that make you feel like a big man?"

  For Idan, the conversation was definitely over. He turned to Bex and held out his arms again for Omri. "My son," he requested politely.

  "No way, Jose!" Ralph interrupted. "I've got papers right here saying I'm taking that boy home with me."

  Idan informed Officer Ho, "You have no right to grant him guardianship — (a) it is outside of your jurisdiction, and (b) my documentation trumps his. Now that Allison is dead, I am the recognized, legal guardian."

  Now that Allison is dead... Somehow, in all the commotion, they all seemed to have forgotten that. Even Bex, who only a moment ago had been wondering what Ho's cryptic nod in her direction meant, had gotten so caught up in the pissing contest among Coop, Idan, and Ralph that she'd forgotten what set off this melee in the first place. The guilt was not a pleasant sensation. Bex wondered how Idan's memory jog was affecting the men who'd claimed to love her.

  Ralph told Idan, "You killed my daughter. You drove Allie to commit suicide. You think I'm going to reward you by giving up her boy?"

  "I am the legal guardian," Idan repeated. Then he asked Officer Ho, "Would you care to speak to my lawyer about it? He is standing by at his office, waiting for your call."

  "Actually," Ho said, "I think I'd like to do that."

  Idan handed over a card with, Bex presumed, the lawyer's name and number, and added, "After you finish speaking to him, make sure you call the Department of Family Services. He has been on the phone with them as well."

  Not looking happy about receiving orders from a civilian, Ho nevertheless took the card, pulled out his cell phone, and retreated to a quieter corner to make the call.

  That left Idan, Coop, and Ralph to stare at Omri. And, by extension, Bex, because the little guy had fallen asleep curled up against her chest. And she was the only one still awake to encounter their combined gaze.

  Ralph said, "You make sure 24/7 tells the whole story. You make sure the whole world knows what these two did to my little girl." To Coop he said with a smirk, "Let's see how you and your mommy can spin that one for the media." To Idan he said, "Pedophilia's a good reason for deportation back to where you came from, wouldn't you say? Especially when your rich wife doesn't feel like standing up for your
sorry ass."

  "Allison," Idan reminded, "was eighteen years old. No crime was committed."

  "What about a moral crime?" Coop challenged. "How many parents you think are going to send their kids to you for lessons after they find out what you did?"

  "Not every parent," Idan replied pointedly, "withdraws their child away from a winning coach simply because they do not like certain aspects of their personal life."

  "You're going to tell the whole story, aren't you?" Ralph had only one tune to sing where Bex was concerned and like a player piano, he was on infinite loop with it. "When Golden Boy here is out there skating his Long Program live in prime time, you'll make sure Francis and Diana have all the facts."

  Bex was about to reply that she wasn't certain she had all the facts yet, but then remembered that her presence was token. If Bex hadn't been here, the three would have been sniping at each other over any available intermediary, including the chairs.

  "The baby might still be mine," Coop insisted, apropos of nothing.

  "I thought you and Allie were always careful," Ralph said, mocking Coop's tone from before. He managed to capture the equal parts of defensiveness and self-pity perfectly.

  "Accidents happen."

  "You are not Omri's father," Idan said, and Bex feared they were about to launch on another round of "next verse, same as the first."

  Thank God, at that moment Officer Ho returned from the corner, cell phone still in hand, a look of resignation dotting his features.

  "All right," he said. "This is what we're going to do."

  Three faces looked at him expectantly. Bex made the fourth, because while she had enjoyed rocking little Omri to sleep — it made a pleasant change to her usual day and it had been fun to figure out how to calm him while the men ran helpless, not to mention the fact that, as long as she was Official Keeper of Omri, it gave Bex an excuse to eavesdrop on a fight that otherwise would have been none of her business — Bex's arms were getting tired. Ten pounds could be a lot when you had to stand with them for close to a half hour. Not to mention the fact that the little guy was drooling a hole into the center of her shirt that had started out the size of a dime and now was more of a saucer. She was ready to hand the baby dude over. She just needed to know to whom.