Broken (16 page)

And what about the dead girl? Sara was as bad as Hare. She had completely ignored Allison Spooner, treating her death as yet another springboard for attacking Lena. People around town who knew Allison were starting to talk. Tessa had been on the phone most of the afternoon and had the whole story for Sara by the time she got back from downtown. Allison was petite and cheery, the sort of girl with good country manners and a bright smile for strangers. She had worked at the diner during lunch and over the weekends. She must have a family somewhere, a mother and father who had just gotten the worst news a parent could ever hear. Surely they were on their way to Grant County right now, heavy hearts sinking further with every mile.

There were footsteps on the stairs behind her—Cathy, judging by the light tread. Sara heard her mother pause on the landing, then head toward the kitchen.

Sara let out a breath of air she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“Sweetpea?” Eddie called from upstairs. He was listening to his old records, something he did when he was feeling melancholy.

“I’m all right, Daddy.” She waited for the squeaking floorboards to signal he was going back to his room. They took an awful long time.

She closed her eyes again. Her father put on some Bruce Springsteen, the needle skipping on the vinyl record as he found the right place. She could hear her mother moving around the kitchen. Plates and pans banged. Hare said something that must have been funny, because Tessa’s laugh rang through the house.

Sara stared out at the street, rubbing her arms to fight the chill that had come over her. This was silly, she knew, to stand at the door waiting for a man who might not even come. As much as Sara did not
want to admit it, she wanted more than information from Will. He was from her Atlanta life. He was a reminder that there was something else waiting for her.

And thank God he was finally here.

For the second time that day, Sara watched Will hide the various electronics in his Porsche. It seemed to take longer this time, or maybe she was more impatient. Finally, he got out of the car. He held the file she had given him over his head to shield himself from the rain as he ran up the driveway.

She started to open the door, then reconsidered. She didn’t want him to think she’d been standing here waiting for him. Then again, if she was trying to be covert, she probably shouldn’t have been staring at him through the window.

“Idiot,” she muttered, opening the door.

“Hi.” He shook the rain out of his hair, taking advantage of the cover of the front porch.

“You want me to—” She reached for the wet file in his hand. Sara suppressed a groan of disappointment. It was soaked through. Everything would be ruined.

“Here,” he said, lifting his sweater, untucking his undershirt. Sara saw the pages she’d given him pressed against his bare skin. She also saw what looked like a dark bruise fanning across his abdomen, disappearing into the waist of his jeans.

“What—”

He quickly pulled down his shirt. “Thanks.” He scratched his face, a nervous habit she had forgotten about. “I think we can just throw the folder away.”

She nodded, not knowing what to say. Will seemed at a loss for words, too. They stared at each other until the hall light snapped on.

Cathy stood in the kitchen doorway with her hands on her hips. Eddie came down the stairs. There was a brief moment of the most uncomfortable silence Sara had ever experienced in her life. She felt for the first time what a monumental mess she had made of the day. If she could’ve clicked her heels and gone back to the beginning, she
would still be in Atlanta and her family would have been spared this awful situation. She wanted to melt into the floor.

The silence broke with her father. He held out his hand to Will. “Eddie Linton. Glad we can give you respite from this rain.”

“Will Trent.” Will gave him a firm handshake.

“I’m Cathy,” her mother chimed in, patting Will on the arm. “Goodness, you’re soaked through. Eddie, why don’t you see if you can find him something dry?” For some reason, her father chuckled to himself as he ran up the stairs. Cathy told Will, “Let’s get this sweater off before you catch a chill.”

Will looked as uncomfortable as any man would look if an overly polite sixty-three-year-old woman told him to undress in her foyer. Still, he complied, lifting his sweater over his head. He was wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt underneath. It started to ride up when he lifted his arms and Sara reached out without thinking, holding down the shirt.

Cathy gave her a sharp look that made Sara feel like she’d been caught stealing.

“Mama,” Sara began, feeling a cold sweat coming on. “I really need to talk to you.”

“We’ll have plenty of time later, sweetheart.” Cathy looped her hand through Will’s arm as she led him down the hall. “You’re from Atlanta, my daughter tells me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What part? I have a sister who lives in Buckhead.”

“Uh …” He glanced back at Sara. “Poncey-Highlands, it’s near—”

“I know exactly where that is. You must live close to Sara.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Mother—”

“Later, honey.” Cathy shot her a cat’s smile as she took Will into the dining room. “This is Tessa, my youngest. Hareton Earnshaw is my brother’s boy.”

Hare gave him a look of open appraisal. “My, you’re a tall drink of water.”

“Just ignore him,” Tessa advised as she shook Will’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Will started to sit in the closest chair, and Sara felt her heart drop in panic. Jeffrey’s place.

Cathy was not completely devoid of a soul. “Let’s put you at the head of the table,” she suggested, tugging Will gently in the right direction. “I’ll be right back with your dinner.”

Sara sank down beside Will. She put her hand on his arm. “I am
so
sorry.”

He feigned surprise. “About what?”

“Thank you for pretending, but we don’t have much time before—” Sara jerked her hand away. Her mother was already back with a plate of food.

“I hope you like fried chicken.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Will stared down at the full plate. There was enough food for half the town.

“Sweet tea?” Cathy asked. Sara started to stand, but her mother nodded toward Tessa to fetch a glass. “Tell me how you know my daughter.”

Will held up his finger for a minute so that he could swallow a mouthful of butterbeans. “I met Dr. Linton at the hospital.”

Sara could have kissed him for his odd adherence to formality. She explained, “Mama, Agent Trent’s partner was a patient of mine.”

“Is that right?”

Will nodded, taking a healthy bite of fried chicken. Sara couldn’t tell if he was hungry or just desperate to have a reason not to speak. She chanced a look at Hare. For once in his miserable life, he was choosing to be silent.

“Is your wife in law enforcement, too?”

Will stopped chewing.

“I noticed your ring.”

He looked down at his hand. Cathy kept him trained in her sights. He chewed some more. Finally, he answered, “She’s a private investigator.”

“That must give you two a lot to talk about. Did you meet during the course of one of your investigations?”

He wiped his mouth. “This food is very good.” Tessa put a glass of tea down in front of him. Will took a long drink, and Sara wondered if he was wishing there was something stronger in the glass.

Cathy kept up her subtle pressure. “I wish my daughters had been interested in cooking, but neither one of them took to it.” She paused for a breath. “Tell me, Mr. Trent, where are your people from?”

Sara fought the urge to drop her head into her hands. “Mama, really. It’s none of our—”

“That’s all right.” Will wiped his mouth with his napkin. He told Cathy, “I was raised in state care.”

“Bless your heart.”

Will didn’t seem to know how to answer her. He took another long drink of tea.

Cathy continued, “Mr. Trent, my youngest daughter reminded me that the hotel is closed for renovations. I hope you’ll accept the offer of my home while you’re here?”

Will choked on his tea.

“There’s an apartment over the garage. I’m sorry to say it’s not much, but I wouldn’t feel right making you drive all the way over to Cooperstown in this weather.”

Will wiped the tea off his face. He looked to Sara for help.

She shook her head, helpless to stop the onslaught of her mother’s southern hospitality.

THE LINTON HOME
renovation had not extended to the laundry room. Sara had to go down the stairs into the unfinished part of the basement to get some clean towels for Will. The dryer was still running when she turned on the lights. She checked the towels. They were damp.

Sara turned the dryer back on. She started up the stairs, but
stopped halfway and sat down. She had been acting pretty dimwitted throughout most of the day, but she wasn’t crazy enough to offer herself up to her mother right now.

She rested her chin in her hand. Her cheeks had been beet red from the moment Cathy welcomed Will Trent into the house.

“Sis?” Tessa whispered from the top of the stairs.

“Quiet,” Sara admonished. The last thing she needed was more of her mother’s attention.

Tessa gently pulled the door to. She held one hand under her stomach and grabbed the railing with the other as she descended the stairs. “You all right?”

Sara nodded, helping Tessa sit on the stair above her.

“I can’t believe they didn’t move the laundry room upstairs.”

“Her sanctuary?”

They both laughed. As teenagers, Tessa and Sara had studiously avoided the laundry room for fear of being ordered to help out. They’d both thought they were so clever until they realized their mother was actually enjoying the lack of company.

Sara placed her hand on her sister’s stomach. “Hey, what’s this?”

Tessa grinned. “I think it’s a baby.”

Sara spanned both of her hands across the width. “You’re enormous.”

“I love it,” Tessa whispered. “You wouldn’t believe all the shit I’ve been eating.”

“You must be feeling it kick all the time now.”

“She’s going to be a soccer player.”

“She?” Sara raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just guessing. Lem wants to be surprised.”

“We could go to the clinic tomorrow.” Elliot Felteau had bought Sara’s practice, but she still owned the building. “I can just pretend I’m doing something landlord-y over by the ultrasound machine.”

“I want to be surprised, too. Besides, I think you have enough on your plate right now.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Mother.”

Tessa chuckled. “My God, that was epic. What a shakedown!”

“I can’t believe how awful she was.”

“You kind of sprung him on her.”

“I thought …” Sara shook her head. What
had
she been thinking? “Hare wasn’t any help.”

“He’s taking this harder than you think.”

“I doubt that.”

“Tommy used to cut his grass, too.” Tessa shrugged. “You know how Hare is. He’s been through a lot.”

Hare had lost many friends as well as his longtime lover to AIDS, but Sara thought she was the only person in her family who remembered that his casual attitude had predated the epidemic. “I hope he didn’t embarrass Will.”

“Will took care of himself just fine.”

Sara shook her head as she thought about the mess she had made. “I’m sorry, Tess. I didn’t mean to bring all of this to your doorstep.”

“What’s ‘all this’?”

She thought about the question. “A vendetta,” she admitted. “I think I’ve finally found a way to get Lena.”

“Oh, honey, will it make a difference?”

Sara felt tears in her eyes. She didn’t fight them this time. Tessa had seen her in much worse shape before. “I don’t know. I just want …” She paused for breath. “I want her to be sorry for what she did.”

“Don’t you think she’s sorry?” Tessa tread carefully. “As awful as she is, she loved Jeffrey. She worshipped him.”

“No. She’s not sorry. She won’t even accept that she’s the reason Jeffrey died.”

“You can’t really think that she knew that bastard boyfriend of hers was going to kill Jeffrey.”

“It’s not what she
wanted
to happen,” Sara admitted. “But it’s what she
let
happen. Jeffrey would’ve never even known that the man existed but for Lena. She put him in our life. If someone throws a grenade, you don’t say they’re innocent because they never considered that it’d actually blow up.”

“Let’s not talk about her anymore.” Tessa wrapped her arm around Sara’s shoulder. “All that matters is that Jeffrey loved you.”

Sara could only nod. This was the one truth in her life. She had known without a doubt that Jeffrey had loved her.

Tessa surprised her. “Will’s nice.”

Sara’s laugh didn’t sound very convincing, even to her own ears. “Tess, he’s married.”

“He was looking at you all googly-eyed at the table.”

“That was fear you saw.”

“I think he likes you.”

“I think your hormones are making you see things.”

Tessa leaned back on the stairs. “Just prepare yourself for the first time being awful.” Sara’s look must’ve given her away. Tessa’s mouth dropped. “Oh, my God. Have you already slept with somebody?”

“Shh,” Sara hissed. “Keep your voice down.”

Tessa leaned forward. “Why am I trekking all the way to the only pay phone in Oobie Doobie to call you if you’re not gonna tell me about your sex life?”

Sara waved her away. “There’s nothing to tell. You’re right. It was awful. It was too soon and he never called me again.”

“What about now? Are you seeing anybody?”

Sara thought of the epidemiologist from the CDC. The fact that this was the first time all week that she’d really considered the man said it all. “Not really. I’ve been on a few dates, but … What’s the point?” Sara threw up her hands. “I’m never going to connect with anyone like that again. Jeffrey ruined me for everybody else.”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” Tessa countered. “Don’t deny yourself, Sara. Jeffrey wouldn’t want that.”

“Jeffrey wouldn’t want me to ever touch another man ever again and you know it.”

“You’re probably right.” Still, she said, “I think Will could be good for you.”