The Witness (16 page)

The biggest room in the house, it mixed the thoroughly modern in sleek appliances—the cooktop with indoor grill, the glass-fronted wine cabinet—with the charm of lush pots of herbs, a thriving Meyer lemon tree blooming away. Crystal drops in varying shapes winked in the windows, catching the sun. More sun poured through the skylight in the lofted ceiling, over the bounty of flowers and vines and fruit his mother had painted over the soft yellow.

He could smell fresh bread, and the allure of whatever she stirred on the stove while she sang along with Fergie. She gave Fergie a run for her money, Brooks thought.

As far as he was concerned, his mother could do damn near anything, and everything.

She had her hair, a gold-streaked brown, braided down her back, with silver beads dangling from her ears. Her bare feet tapped to the beat.

A peace symbol tattoo on her right ankle announced her sixties sensibilities.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

She gasped, then turned around with a laugh, eyes warm and brown. “Hi, handsome. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“You can’t hear anything. How many times do I have to tell you kids to keep the music down?”

“It helps the creative process.” But she picked up a remote and muffled Fergie. “What’s up with you?”

“This and that. Where’s Dad?”

“He had a meeting with parents. He’ll be home soon. Stay for dinner?”

“Whatcha got?”

“Minestrone, rosemary bread and a field-greens salad.”

“I’m in.” He opened the fridge, got out a beer, waggled it.

“Well, if you insist.”

“I do.” He got out a second beer, opened them both.

“Now.” She gave him a little poke in the belly. “What’s up? I know your face.”

“You gave it to me.”

“And a fine job I did. You got troubles, sweetie?”

“Not really. Sylbie came by the station this afternoon.”

She took a swallow of beer. “Mmmm.”

“And I know your mmmms. She wanted to hook up tonight.”

“Yet here you are in your mother’s kitchen, opting for minestrone over sex.”

“You make really good minestrone. I lied to her.”

“And you are that rare creature, an honest cop.”

Now he poked her. “You’re just holding on to your flower child’s disdain for authority. Anyway, it’s one thing to lie to a suspect, that’s the job. It’s another just to lie. I don’t like it.”

“I know. Why did you?”

“To avoid a scene, I guess, which is just stupid, as it’s just postponing
it. I don’t want to go back to high school. Been there, done that, got the letter jacket. And she doesn’t want me; she wants somebody. The sex is really good, but nothing else is.”

“So you’re looking for more than sex.” Sunny wiped an imaginary tear away. “My boy’s growing up.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But I do know I don’t want it with Sylbie. I’m hoping for the easy way. Somebody else catches her eye and she loses interest.”

“I thought you didn’t want to go back to high school.”

“Yeah. I know I’ve got to fix it, and I should have when she came in today. Pisses me off that I didn’t. So I will.”

“Good. She’s not a happy woman, Brooks. She equates her worth with her looks and sexuality, and she won’t be happy until she doesn’t. I think she could be happy, and make someone happy, once she realizes she has more to offer. You just remember you can fix the problem, but you can’t fix her.”

“You’re right. I’ll work on it.”

“Now, what else. Something else in there.” She tapped his temple.

“I met, officially, Abigail Lowery today.”

“Oh, now, this is good. This is sit-down-and-relate-every-detail good.” She settled down at the breakfast counter, patted the next stool. “I’ve been dying to pin that one down. What’s she like?”

“At first I’d’ve said rude, abrupt and downright unfriendly, but with a little more exposure, I have to put it down to socially awkward.”

“Poor thing.”

“The poor thing carries a Glock on her hip to the fancy market.”

“A gun? When are people going to realize that going around armed is just asking for—”

She broke off when he tapped a finger to her lips.

“I know how you feel about guns, gun control and what you see as a perversion of the Second Amendment, Sunshine.”

She huffed, shrugged. “It can never be too often repeated. But go on.”

He told her about the market, going out to her place, the dog, the locks. By the time he got to his digging into her licenses, and the number of registered handguns she owned, Sunny decided the story called for a second beer.

“What’s she afraid of?”

“See that? Exactly. That’s what I want to know. And as chief of police around these parts, that’s what I need to know. But to finish up, then Sylbie came in.”

Once he’d told her the rest, her outrage over the guns had subsided, and her focus shifted. “That just breaks my heart.”

“What?”

“Honey, she’s so alone. Of course she’s socially awkward when she’s got herself barricaded up by herself, and against God knows what. She’s not sounding like one of those survivalists or those crazies thinking they’ve gotta load up on the guns and locks for the revolution or the Rapture. You said she does programming, and security business. Maybe she found something or invented something. Now the government’s after her.”

“Why is it always the government, Ma?”

“Because I find it often is, that’s why. She could’ve been a cyber spy or something like that.”

“I love you.”

She slitted her eyes, kicked him lightly in the shin. “Now you’re using those fine words to be amused and patronizing.”

He couldn’t quite disguise the smirk. “Let’s just say she didn’t strike me as the espionage type.”

“Well, they’re not supposed to, are they? They’re supposed to blend.”

“In that case, she’s a crappy spy, because she doesn’t blend.”

“All right, maybe she’s on the run from an abusive boyfriend.”

“I didn’t find anything in her record about filing charges.”

“Some women don’t go to the police. Some just run.”

He thought of Missy and her latest black eye. “And some stay. One
thing I know, the way she’s loaded up and barricaded, whatever she’s hiding from—if that is the case—it’s bad. And if the bad finds her, it finds her here. I’m responsible for here, and whether she likes it or not, for her.”

“I love you.”

“Was that amusement and patronizing?”

“No.” She cupped his face. “That’s just fact.”

A
S
S
UNNY WOUND DOWN THE ROAD TOWARD
A
BIGAIL
L
OW
ery’s cabin, she doubted her son would approve. But she had a habit of doing as she pleased, as long as it didn’t hurt anyone—unless they deserved it. In any case, her son’s visit there the day before gave her the perfect excuse to drop by.

She parked, mentally clucked her tongue at the gas-guzzling SUV.

Still, she approved of the house, the way it nestled right into the landscape. She could see beds were being prepped for spring planting. And the glimpse of a corner of a greenhouse caught her eye and her envy.

It was a fine morning for a visit, she determined, with spring whispering on the air, the leaves a pretty haze of green on the trees, and the hint of wild dogwoods scattered around.

As insurance, she’d baked a huckleberry pie that morning. No one resisted her huckleberry pie.

She got out of her car, went up and knocked on the door.

When it opened a few cautious inches, she beamed out a smile.

“Hi, there. I’m Sunny O’Hara, Brooks’s mama.”

“Yes.”

“I know Brooks came out to see you yesterday, and it made me think I should do the same. I thought, why, that girl’s been here for nearly a year now, and I haven’t paid her a call.”

“Thank you, Ms. O’Hara, but—”

“Sunny. I baked you a huckleberry pie.”

“Oh.”

In her life, Sunny had never seen anyone more baffled by a pie.

“Thank you. That’s very nice of you. I’m afraid I have work, so—”

“Everybody can take a few minutes for pie. Do they call you Abby?”

“No, no, they don’t.”

“Well, Abigail’s a sweet, old-fashioned name. Abigail, I ought to tell you straight off I’m a woman who tends to get her way. You’re going to find it’s easier to just invite me in for a few minutes rather than deal with me coming around until you do. Now, I expect you’ve got a gun on you or nearby. I don’t approve of guns, but I won’t lecture you about it. Yet.”

She shot out another smile, bright as her name. “I don’t have one, or anything else dangerous on me. Except the pie. It’s got a hell of a lot of calories in it, but you’re slim as a willow stem, you can handle some calories.”

“I don’t want to be rude, but—”

“Oh, I imagine you do,” Sunny interrupted, with considerable cheer. “Who could blame you? I’ll make you a deal. You ask me in, have a piece of pie. Then you can be rude, and I won’t take offense.”

Trapped and annoyed, Abigail removed her hand from the gun fixed to the underside of the table by the door.

She didn’t doubt the woman was Brooks Gleason’s mother. She had the same pushy nature disguised as friendliness, the same bone structure.

Saying nothing, Abigail opened the door wider, stepped back.

“There, now, that wasn’t so—oh, what a
gorgeous
dog.” Without a hint of fear, Sunny pushed the pie dish into Abigail’s hands and crouched down. “Oh, hello, big boy.” She looked up. “Can I pet him? We lost our
Thor about six weeks ago. Seventeen when we had to let him go, and blind as a bat.”

“I’m very sorry.”

“Oh, me, too. I cried my heart out. We still have old Chuck. That’s our cat, but it’s not the same. We’re going to get another dog, but I’m just not ready to love like that again. It hurts so when you have to say good-bye.”

Helpless, Abigail clutched the pie.
“Ami,”
she said to the dog. “
Ami,
Bert. You can pet him now.”

Bert submitted to the strokes, even hummed a little at the pleasure. “
Ami?
That’s French. Are you French?”

“No. I speak French.”

“How about that. Bert, you speak French, too? You’re so handsome. He has hazel eyes, a little like Brooks’s. What a good dog you are.”

Her eyes filled, and she sniffled back the tears as she straightened. “Sorry. I’m just not over the loss.”

“Death is difficult.”

“It certainly is.” Sunny flipped back her braid, let out a breath as she glanced around. “You’re very tidy, aren’t you?”

“I … I suppose, yes. I prefer things in order.”

“I guess I like chaos, mostly. Anyway, I can never keep anything tidy for long. I have a painting that would work very well in your living room. It’s what I do. I’m an artist.”

“I see.”

“I paint mainly mythical and mythological studies. Fairies, mermaids, gods and goddesses, dragons, centaurs—that sort of thing.”

“Mythology is fertile ground for artists and storytellers. Ah … did you paint the murals on the house off Shop Street?”

“Yes. That’s our house.”

“It’s very interesting. The work is very good.”

“Thanks. I enjoy it. How about some coffee to go with that pie?”

Abigail stared down at the pie. “Ms. O’Hara.”

“Sunny.”

“Sunny. I’m not good company.”

“Oh, honey, that’s okay. I am.”

However awkward and unsettling it might be, it had to be easier—and more efficient—to simply let the woman have her few minutes. And that would be that.

“I’ll make the coffee.”

She started back toward the kitchen, thinking for the second time in two days she had someone in her house. Still, the woman meant no harm. Unless …

“Did your son ask you to come here?”

“No. In fact, he’s not going to be pleased with me for intruding on you when he finds out. But I—oh! Oh! I love your kitchen. Look at all your counter space. I have this same cooktop—an older model. And you grow your own herbs. So do I. Look at that, we’ve already found something in common. I love to cook. It’s like painting, only you’re mixing herbs and spices and mixing up sauces instead of paints.”

“I think of it as a science. There’s a formula. If you diverge from the formula, you may create something new or slightly different.”

Sunny only smiled. “However you look at it, you wouldn’t have a kitchen like this unless you liked to cook, and were good at it.”

She walked over to look out the window. “I’m envious of your greenhouse. I have a tiny one Loren and I built. We don’t have room for a larger one. Got your lettuce in, I see. Looks like a nice-sized vegetable garden.”

“I grow most of my own vegetables and herbs.”

“So do we. I came here in the seventies with a group of other free spirits. We formed a kind of commune, an artist community, you could say—and grew our own food, wove our own cloths—sold our wares. A lot of us are still here. Old hippies.”

“You were part of the counterculture.”

“I like to think I still am.”

As Abigail brewed the coffee, got out cups and plates, Sunny glanced over to the office area. And raised her eyebrows at the views of the drive, the back area, sides, on the computer screen.

“Isn’t that something? Nobody’s going to sneak up on you, are they? You work on security systems, isn’t that right?”

“I do.”

“There was a time nobody even locked a door at night around here, and if you had a shop and needed to run out, why you’d just leave a note. People could come on in, and just leave the money on the counter if they wanted to buy something before you got back. Sometimes progress and change is a good thing; sometimes it isn’t.”

“It’s better to be secure.”

Socially awkward, Brooks had said. Yet the girl set out nice plates, put milk in a little pitcher, set out sugar, cloth napkins. She knew how to entertain company, even if the company was unexpected and not particularly welcome.

Sunny took a seat at the counter. She imagined Abigail had two stools only because they’d come as a set. Sunny added milk and considerable sugar to her coffee, then patted the second stool.

“Come on and sit. Tell me about Abigail.”

“There isn’t anything to tell.”