A cell phone rang and Elise jumped, pulled it from her knitting bag, and spying the number on the screen, scuttled out to the hallway to find some privacy as she answered in hushed tones. She glanced furtively over her shoulder, as if she’d been caught in some kind of crime.
That was the thing with Elise. She always acted as if she had something to hide and much of her life was secret, which wasn’t unusual in this group. The call was short and she hurried back inside to reclaim her seat. “Sorry,” she said. “Ashton.”
Tanisha turned her back to the young woman and rolled her eyes. Ashton was, as Elise had said in a moment of candor, the love of her life. But in the few comments Elise had made about him, Ashton seemed obsessive and controlling. Once Elise had received a call from him that prompted her to jump up and leave in the middle of the session. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I just . . . I just have to go. Ashton needs some cold medication . . . he’s not feeling well . . . I have to go.” She’d nearly run from the room.
“That is such bullshit,” Tanisha had said.
Brianna had shook her head as there were supposed to be no judgments in the group.
“You know it. I know it. Even he knows it,” Tanisha had added, hooking a thumb toward Desmond. “That guy she’s with, he’s a control freak.”
Elise had missed the next meeting, but had shown up ever since, never saying a word about her abrupt departure. She simply acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. However, one time when Tanisha had asked how Ashton was, Elise had flinched. Her knitting needles lost their rhythm. “What do you mean? He’s fine.”
“Got over that cold or flu, did he?” Tanisha had asked as if she were truly interested, all the time ignoring Brianna’s stern glance.
“The flu?” Elise seemed perplexed, then got it. “Oh. Sorry. No. He didn’t have the flu or . . . or a cold. No. It was . . . was a rash. He just needed some . . . some cream. We were out.” She’d smiled quickly, an embarrassed grin that hadn’t touched her eyes and faded quickly at her obvious lie.
Now, Enrique scowled and cocked his left wrist, then tapped it repeatedly, even though he didn’t wear a watch. His eyebrows arched as he tried to silently encourage Brianna to get on with it.
Brianna didn’t understand what Enrique expected from the group, but she told herself if he didn’t need the support, he wouldn’t show up each week, which he did, faithfully. As he waited for his turn to speak, his leg bounced nervously, and he stayed attentive, like a racehorse ready to explode through the gate at the starting bell. Some of the members kept to themselves, but not Enrique. Nor, for that matter, did Tanisha, who was ready to tell the entire group about the failings of her family and current boyfriend. Tanisha and Enrique were definitely the firecrackers in the group.
Brianna was about to begin when Jenkins Olander strode into the room. Jenkins was a breath of fresh air. Unlike the other members, he offered a broad grin and lifted a hand in greeting as he made his way to the coffee machine. “How are you?” he asked Brianna, and gave a hug.
“Been better,” she said as he broke off the quick embrace.
“Seriously? Ouch. I’m sorry.” Jenkins pulled a face. “I hope it’s not bad news.” In his midtwenties, Jenkins was blond, with a trimmed beard and quick sense of humor. Gay and in a long-term relationship, he had a job he liked and a supportive family. Still, he couldn’t put behind him the fact that his twin brother had died from a rare form of cancer that even a bone marrow transfer from his identical twin hadn’t been able to destroy.
Before Brianna could explain, Selma appeared, dressed in the same clothes she’d been wearing earlier in the day, her face devoid of makeup. Her hair hung limp in the ponytail, strands falling around her face and behind her glasses. Her eyes seemed to have sunken into her skull.
Obviously her daughters were still missing.
“Selma,” Brianna said, walking to the doorway to greet her.
“You talked with the detective?” Selma asked.
“Yes, I did.” Somehow Brianna had to put a positive spin on her meeting with Bentz. “I hope I lit a fire under him.”
“But you don’t know.”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow. For sure.”
Selma looked about to fall down. “I don’t know what I’m doing here,” she admitted. “I should be home, in case Zoe or Chloe show up. They might come for their car. . . .”
“You have your cell. Come on. How about a cup of coffee?”
Tanisha, who had overheard the conversation, was on it, reaching for a cup. “Regular?” she asked.
“I don’t care.”
Brianna met Tanisha’s gaze. “Let’s go with decaf, and then I think we’d better get started.”
“About time,” Enrique remarked with a pissy expression as he glared at the clock mounted to one side of the stage.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning.” Jenkins lifted an eyebrow and gave Enrique a stare as he stirred Equal into his coffee.
Brianna hated to defend him, but said, “Enrique’s right. We should get started.” The fact that Roger and Latrice hadn’t shown wasn’t that much of a surprise. Neither of them was all that tight with the group. “I guess if anyone else comes, they’ll catch up.”
“Shit, man, are you waiting for Roger?” Enrique snorted his disgust. “You can’t count on that dude. He’s whacked!”
“Well, aren’t we all, to some degree?” Jenkins threw back at him. “Wow. Way to be judgmental, Rico.”
“It’s Enrique.”
“Whatever.” Jenkins’s smile stretched a bit. He loved toying with the hothead.
Brianna warned, “Play nice.”
“Oh, ouch. I’m not the touchy one.” Jenkins took a sip from his cup, made a face, and said, “You know, we really oughta get some real cream here. This chemical garbage doesn’t cut it.”
“Organic?” Lincoln joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Tanisha wasn’t amused. She glared at Jenkins. “Fine. From now on, the cream and sugar and whatever anyone wants, that’s your job.” She pointed a glossy-tipped finger at the middle of Jenkins’s chest. “And while you’re at it, maybe some of that foo-foo flavoring. Hazelnut, or vanilla, or whatever other crap you all are into.”
“Wow. Seems to be an epidemic of irritation around here.”
“Excuse me?” Tanisha demanded hotly, but Jenkins backed off and found his seat.
“Take it down a notch,” Brianna suggested to Tanisha, and patted the air in a “calm down” motion. “This is supposed to be a support group.”
“Humph. With numb nuts?” Tanisha’s eyes narrowed on Jenkins.
“Hey!” Brianna shook her head. This could escalate no further. “We’re not in second grade. Okay?”
With an effort Tanisha tamped down her temper. “Yeah, I know. I’m just edgy. Lack of sleep.”
Reining things in, Brianna focused on Selma. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“No, but . . . why not? I can’t just sit in the apartment.”
“Okay, then maybe you should be first tonight. Come on.” She guided Selma into a chair and took the seat next to her.
Although Tanisha left the steaming cup of decaf on a small table beside her, Selma didn’t seem to notice. She clasped her hands between her knees and hung her head for a few seconds. Then when she finally pulled herself together enough so that she could talk, she took a deep breath. “This isn’t about Sandra,” she said, mentioning the twin sister she’d lost fourteen years earlier. “It’s about my daughters, Zoe and Chloe.” Her voice cracked on their names. “They’re missing.”
CHAPTER 11
“I don’t need much,” Edward said from somewhere on the other end of the phone connection, most likely the Texas hill country, where he’d been born and raised and had brought up his sons until moving to the farm outside of New Orleans.
Jase imagined his father, thin as a rail, lines marring his face, the scents of smoke and stale whiskey clingin
g to a graying beard that needed to be trimmed and jeans that hadn’t seen the inside of a washing machine for several weeks. Once a lean, tough ranch hand whose craggy face and sexy smile had caused more than his share of female hearts to skip a beat, Edward Bridges was now a ghost of his former Marlboro Man self. “You know, I just could use enough to get me through to the first of the month when I get my check.” Ed’s words were slurred as he wheedled his way through the pitch, which was always the case when he called to ask his son for money.
“Dad,” Jase said, leaning against the wall of his apartment and glancing to the living room where the slider door was cracked a bit, the night air slipping inside. “We’ve been through this all before.”
“I know, I know, but just hear me out. It’s been rough around here for the past couple o’ weeks. Landlord’s threatening to throw me on the street.” Ed laughed then, the chuckle rolling into a cough aggravated by forty years of cigarettes. “I’m just talkin’ a couple o’ hundred. Maybe three. You know I’ll pay ya back.”
That, Jase didn’t know. He had no idea how much he’d loaned his old man over the years. But in a way, it was payback to a father who had, in his dysfunctional manner, stood by his two sons when their mother had taken off after the loss of a third child, the brother Jase had never known.
Prescott had given up on the man who, as far as he was concerned, had done such a piss-poor job of single parenting. As for their mother, Marian Selby Bridges, child-bride and runaway wife? Neither Jase nor Prescott had ever heard from her. Neither man knew if she was dead or alive, and neither cared. At least she wasn’t calling and begging for money.
At that thought, Jase cringed.
“The old man’s playing you for a patsy,” Prescott had advised a few years back. Prescott had never bought into their father’s “poor me” act, and Edward Bridges’s series of girlfriends who called themselves “Auntie Maureen” or “Auntie Raydeen” or “Auntie Lou” to Edward’s sons had left a sour taste in both boys’ mouths. It wasn’t much of a wonder that Prescott had moved out and married Lena Hendrix, a woman with a firm set of values and a commitment to God, country, and, once she was wed, her husband.
Prescott had offered advice about handling their dad over the years. “You’re enabling him, bro,” Prescott had said during one memorable phone call. Jase had been in his truck, having just met with his father and, yes, “loaning” the old man a couple of hundred bucks. Again. Prescott had called as Jase was driving through the slanting rain to his apartment. At a red light, Jase waited while a man walking a huge dog crossed the street. His cell had been jammed against his ear listening to his brother. Prescott had said, “Stop. Okay?” Jase didn’t respond as the wipers slapped off the fat drops and the streetlight shimmered scarlet against the pavement. “Just don’t give him the cash. He’ll quit calling. Trust me. That’s what I did and he finally took the hint. Hell, I can’t take care of a wife and two kids and Dad, too.”
Jase hadn’t argued. He’d known his brother was right, but he’d never had the heart to completely write off his father. Not then. Not now. Not when he felt responsible to the father who’d raised him.
Times had been hard. Jase had grown up rough and tumble as his father had followed the work, moving from town to town, ranch to ranch until Edward with his affinity for the bottle and dragging two trouble-making boys had worn out their welcome. Along the way Jase had learned how to build a fence, round up strays, and buck hay, all the while attending three different elementary schools. He’d also discovered how to fight and when to run. Eventually, with a little luck, a lot of work, and an inheritance from his grandmother, he’d been able to make his way through college and law school. Scholarships and a federal loan or two had helped. He’d also found out that sitting in an office twelve hours a day doing legal research wasn’t in his DNA. A year after he’d taken a job with DeWitt, Montgomery and Horowitz, he’d quit and pursued freelance journalism, which had been his minor as an undergrad.
Ridiculously, because of his father’s own struggles Jase felt more than a little guilty about his accomplishments, something Edward had sensed and preyed upon.
As he was now.
“The way I figure it,” his father was saying, “I took care of you and your brother for all those years after your mother took off. And then you two kids inherit a shitload of money from your grandma, enough so you can get yourself through school and Prescott can pay for a goddamned BMW, a fuckin’ engagement ring with a rock the size of Gibraltar, and a damned wedding in the Bahamas. Talk about pissin’ it away!” He snorted in disgust. “You two kids ended up with the house and ranch, too.” Now he sounded bitter. He’d inherited his mother’s twenty-year-old Cadillac and a few thousand dollars, a hand slap from the grave. “So now, son, you and your brother?” Ed said. “You owe me.”
“That’s not the way it works,” Jase said, though he did get it. Their father’s portion of the inheritance had been small, and Ed had blown through it within a year.
“Look, Jase, I’m in a bind here. You know I hate to ask, but I got no choice. My back’s in a corner.”
“Okay, so I send you the money. What happens next month?”
“Hell, next month won’t be a problem. I got a side job that’ll pay out and by then my checks from the government will be comin’ steady-like, so I’ll be good.”
He shouldn’t do it. Jase knew he should stay strong. But suddenly he remembered his old man with a shovel, Edward’s hands so dirty you couldn’t see his nails as he stood beneath the spreading branches of that single tree visible from the living room of the house where Jase and Prescott had grown up, the house that it seemed he might soon own.
“I’ll pay ya back, son, I promise.” A pause. Heavy with portent. “I know things,” he said around a cough.
Now it was Jase’s turn to be silent, but his fingers clenched tightly over his phone and his shoulder muscles tightened.
He heard a lighter click and then a long intake of breath. “I’d hate to tell the family’s dirty little secret, but . . .” A long sigh. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
Jase thought about his own reputation, how he’d battled to lose the stink of the poor, tough kid who’d been at odds with the law, maybe even society when he thought about it. His jaw slid to one side as he considered Prescott, now playing the part of a religious man, a pillar in his church, a husband and father.
Trinity and Caleb’s innocent faces came to mind.
They didn’t deserve this. Jase had lived with the threat of his whole life unraveling, but he couldn’t face his niece and nephew carrying that burden with them. They knew nothing of their family’s secrets and shadowy past. It was best to keep it that way.
“You’re resorting to blackmail now?” Jase said, and heard his father take another deep intake of breath, remembered how the tip of Edward’s Camel glowed fiery red as he’d stood in the doorway of the farmhouse, staring into the night while rain had peppered the tin roof of the porch and gurgled down the gutters.
His father replied, “As I said, ‘A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.’”
“Bullshit, Dad.”
Another pause. Another drag on the cigarette. Would Jase’s old man really do it? Actually go to the authorities, bring up a decades’ old crime? Or was Ed just blowing smoke? That was the problem with the past, it never really was over and gone. Long-dead misdeeds, buried and forgotten, had a tendency to rise up and sting you.
“I ain’t kiddin’, son.”
Jase felt as if he were being squeezed in his grandfather’s old vise, the one in the barn. Slowly and deliberately his father was turning the handle, making the jaws dig farther and farther into his flesh.
He caved.
Hated himself for it.
“Fine, Dad,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ll send the check.” God, he was weak. He should have called the old man’s bluff. “It’ll go out tomorrow, but it’s the last time.”
“’Course
it is, but I was hopin’ you might be able to wire it, y’know. Through Western Union. It’s faster. Or I’ll come get it.”
“I’m sending a check. That’s it.” He hesitated, then added, “And I’ve recorded this conversation. I’ve got an app that does that. So, when you call next month, I’m going to play it back to you.”
“What? For the love of Christ! I swear it. Aren’t you listening? You won’t need to, Jase,” Edward insisted. “And you’ll get your money back, you’ll see.” Ed hung up then. Mission accomplished.
Jase clicked his phone off and closed his eyes. He leaned his head against the wall and then banged it a couple of times, groaning. The problem was unending. His father had a love affair with the bottle; that was the long and short of it. And though he’d get sober and stay that way for months at a time, even landing jobs, Ed always broke down. Something or someone set him off, and he was soon cozying up to Jack Daniels or Jim Beam all over again.
Never once had he considered rehab. Jase had tried to get him into treatment, but after Ed’s flat-out refusals to enter any kind of program, Jase had eventually given up. His grandmother’s old adage came to mind: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Especially if it’s a stubborn old mule!”
Edward Bridges had the stubborn part down pat.
And so Jase enabled him, a bit at a time. Sporadically his father called, always about something else, but the bottom line was that Ed ended up pleading for money and making Jase feel like a heel for putting the old man through it.
Jase glanced outside to his deck that ran the length of his one-bedroom unit situated three stories above the street. A moth was beating itself up near the window where, on the inside, a lamp was glowing. “I feel ya, pal,” he said. His whole damned family needed counseling, but it wasn’t going to happen. At least not tonight.
Ignoring his own sudden need for a beer, he pushed himself away from the wall and walked into the living room, where he flopped onto the couch with his laptop. His flat-screen mounted over the fireplace showed highlights of the week’s sports events on ESPN, the sound muted. He clicked onto the Internet through the newspaper’s server and started his search for information on the 21 Killer.