The Fallout

With our bodies in the warm water and the cool drizzle hitting our faces, we swam around for a while. Finally, I just floated on my back, looking up at the sky. The rain clouds finally cleared a bit, revealing patches of a few, bright stars. As I lay there, suspended in the warm water, I couldn’t hear anything, only see.

  How many times had I floated in this pool? Hundreds?

  I’m not sure I’d ever felt peace like I felt that moment.

  Nothing mattered.

  It didn’t matter what Eddy had done when we were gone or what he was going to do now. We’d made it out. We’d made it back. It was going to be okay. It was. I would figure out whatever I needed to figure out.

  Something tugged at my foot and I stood up in the pool. Tony was standing there, a weird look on his face.

  “What?”

  He pointed toward the front gate, in the direction we’d walked up the street. The glow of flashing red and blue lights was visible. He said, “I think we need to go.”

  We quickly got out.

  Dripping wet, I went to the pool house, relieved to find a stack of towels. I grabbed two for myself, two for him, and we dried ourselves off and got dressed. I draped the towels over one of the lawn chairs, wondering what the security staff would think the next time they checked.

  We went to the front gate and Tony punched in the code. We slipped out the gate and he closed it, then we stood in the shadows. A police car was parked next to the Camaro, lights flashing as the officer stood there talking on his radio.

  Tony swore under his breath.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I can’t deal with the cops right now.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You stole the car.” I wasn’t asking.

  Tony looked at me and rolled his eyes. “No, I didn’t. It’s just…”

  “What?”

  “It’s complicated.” He sighed. “Trust me. We do not want to walk over there right now. We need to go.” He grabbed my sleeve and yanked, pulling me up the street the opposite way. We moved slowly, trying to stay in the shadows of the trees until we reached the first corner. As soon as we turned it, we sprinted, racing down the street.

  “Where are we going?” I said, breathing hard as we ran.

  “We need a bus.” Tony turned and ran down the street to the left and I followed.

  We went several more blocks before we hit a street with a bus stop. We stood inside the shelter, doubled over from the sprinting, and just panted for a moment. I asked, “Can I get back home on the bus?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. We may have to switch a few times, though.” He looked at me. “I’ll get you there, don’t worry.”

  A bus showed up a short time later, and Tony paid for both of us. Good thing, because I had no money with me. We were the only ones on that bus. We had just gotten off it to wait for a connecting bus when Tony’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and held up a finger. “Be right back.” He stepped away for a minute and I heard him say, “Yeah, boss.” He listened for a moment and then said, “Part of the plan. I’ll get everything back where it belongs.”

  His tone was low and I couldn’t really hear anything else. Boss? Maybe that car had been stolen and he was supposed to deliver it. Or maybe there were drugs in the trunk. My heart began to pound. Maybe my gut feeling had been right about him. I was glad Eddy wasn’t with him … But Eddy was with him. At least, Tony thought I was Eddy.

  Maybe, for Eddy’s sake, I should end it. Their friendship. Pick a fight so Tony would never show up at the house again.

  Tony hung up and came back over to the bus stop.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “Just this guy I do stuff for. He doesn’t always agree with how I get things done.” He shrugged.

  “Oh,” I said. Could I do it? End their friendship right then and there?

  But Eddy would wonder why Tony didn’t call. And he’d end up calling and then figure it all out. He’d end up being mad at me. Not a chance I wanted to take. Plus, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, Tony was fun. And I could picture the three of us hanging out. So I asked, “Illegal stuff?”

  Tony laughed. He laughed so hard he bent over and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. “Oh, my God.”

  “What’s so funny?” I asked,

  He stood back up, still chuckling. “It may be slightly outside the law of certain things, but no. Not illegal.”

  “I have no idea what that means.” I laughed. “I don’t think I want to know.”

  He smiled. “Probably a good idea.” A bus pulled onto the street and came toward us. He pointed. “That one will get us back to Mercer.”

  I said, “You don’t have to go with me. I can do it.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’d probably stay up all night wondering if you made it or not.”

  I frowned. “No, you wouldn’t.”

  “No, I probably wouldn’t.” He laughed and smacked me on the arm with the back of his hand. “It sounded sincere, though, didn’t it?”

  I laughed and shoved him. “Yeah, it did.”

  The bus squeaked to a stop and Tony handed me some money.

  “Thanks. I’ll pay you back next time you come over.”

  He said, “I know you will.”

  I stepped on the bus and lifted a hand. “See ya.”

  “Later, Eli.”

  The door shut behind me.

  Eli.

  I turned back around. Through the clear doors of the bus, I saw Tony standing there, hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face. He lifted one hand to me as the bus pulled away.

  I sunk down into a seat, still looking back at him.

  Did Tony know it was me the whole time? I wondered what gave me away. And I wondered what I was going to tell Eddy when he found out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I had quite a jog from where the bus left me off, so by the time I climbed over the fence and snuck back into the house, I was wiped out. I managed to make it into the house and up to my room without anyone knowing I’d left. At least, I thought so.

  When I woke in the morning, sun was streaming in my window and my clock read ten after ten. I quickly threw on some sweats and grabbed Eddy’s hoodie and shoes I’d worn the night before. He wasn’t in his room, luckily, and I threw them in his closet. He tended to be a bit messy, so he probably wouldn’t notice. I wondered whether Tony would tell him about our outing.

  Maybe he already had.

  I heard the little kids yelling and laughing in the playroom, but I passed by and headed for the kitchen. Eddy and Lexie were both there, eating strawberries. I told Eddy, “You look better.”

  He said, “I feel better.”

  I poured myself a cup of coffee.

  Lexie looked at me. “You slept late.”

  I shrugged. “Stayed up late reading.”

  Gram came in with a stack of mail, which she set on the counter. “For no one knowing where we live, we sure get a lot of junk mail.”

  I pulled the stack toward me and started leafing through one at a time. Every envelope and catalog was addressed to Gram, or at least Gram’s real first name and her grandmother’s maiden name.

  “Junk.” I tossed an envelope aside. “Junk.” I tossed that one at Eddy’s face. “Junk.” I threw that one up in the air and it landed on the floor.

  Gram narrowed her eyes at me. “Recycle those when you’re finished picking them up.” She left.

  I was just about to toss the next envelope in the air when I saw the name Yanakakis on the front. I looked closer. Alexandra Yanakakis. I glanced at the return address. The information about Lexie’s birth parents.

  Eddy and Lexie had begun to argue about whether the little kids would enjoy going to a mall, so they didn’t see me slip that envelope into my lap as I kept sorting the rest.

  Eddy stood up and put the empty strawberry bowl by the sink. “Want to shoot some hoops?”

  Happy for the invite, I nodded, probably a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, after I eat som
ething. I’ll meet you out there.”

  “Cool.” He went upstairs.

  I lifted the envelope out of my lap. “Lex. It came.”

  “What came?”

  I handed it to her. Her eyes widened as she read the return address. “This is it?”

  I nodded. “Want me to open it?”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t know if I’m ready.”

  “Okay. I’m here if you need me.”

  A corner of her mouth turned up. “I know. Thanks.” Lexie stood. “I’m gonna go up to my room and open it.” She lifted the envelope higher and squinted at it. “Maybe.”

  I put on some sneakers and went to join Eddy outside. We played one-on-one for a while, until we were both sweating and panting, and needed water. Back in the kitchen, Mom was talking to someone on the phone. She must have just been exercising because her face was red, her temples were sweaty, and her T-shirt was damp. “They’re my properties to do with as I want. It’s not the company’s decision.”

  Eddy got two glasses out of the cupboard and handed one to me. I filled it with the sprayer in the sink and handed it to him. I’d just started to fill up the other one when Mom finally noticed us. She told the person on the other end, “We’ll discuss this later.” She hung up and smiled at us. “How was your game?”

  “I won,” I said.

  Eddy smacked me in the chest. “Did not.”

  “Really?” I aimed the sprayer at him.

  He held up a palm at me. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  I sprayed at him, just enough to get his shirt a bit wet.

  “You did not just do that.” He stepped toward me and I sprayed him more, laughing as he tried to get the sprayer from me.

  “Boys!” Mom looked like she was trying not to laugh as she admonished us. “Els will have a fit if you get the kitchen all wet.”

  “Sorry,” I said. Then I spritzed her in the face. “Oops.”

  She sputtered and blinked, then started to laugh. “Eli!” She widened her eyes at Eddy. “Are you going to let him get away with that?”

  Eddy grabbed my arm and tried to twist the sprayer around at my face. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold on to it, and he turned it on, soaking my shirt. I yelled, “Mom! Help!”

  “Eddy!” she said. “Give me the stupid thing.”

  Eddy handed it to her.

  “This is ridiculous.” Then, laughing, she took aim and let both of us have it full blast, as we yelled and tried to block the spray with our hands.

  “Clea!” Gram stepped in the kitchen.

  Mom stopped spraying and let her arm drop to her side.

  “The floor is soaked.” Gram crossed her arms and glared at all of us.

  Mom pointed at us. “They started it.”

  Eddy and I looked at each other and grinned. “Right, Mom,” he said. “Gram? Did you see either of us with the sprayer?”

  Gram didn’t look like she was going to believe anything that any of us had to say. “All I know is you’d better get this place dried before Els sees it.”

  Mom laughed as she put the sprayer back in the sink. She told us, “Get some towels. I’ll help you clean up.”

  I said, “That’s the least you can do since you started it.”

  She rolled her eyes at me.

  Eddy came back with a stack of towels and the three of us got down on our hands and knees and started wiping up the water. Eddy stopped and looked at me. “That was fun. Like old times.”

  “Yeah.” I grinned, glad that he noticed I could still be fun.

  When we’d finished, Eddy took the towels to the laundry room. Mom was making some tea, so I asked her, “Who was on the phone?”

  She said, “I want to sell the Colorado house.”

  Eddy had just returned. “Why?”

  She didn’t look at either of us. “I don’t think we need all our properties. It’s too hard for all of us to go anywhere. I think we should sell and think about getting new ones that no one knows about.”

  I guess I understood that logic. Fresh start and all. But still. “I’d like to see the Colorado house before you sell it. I mean, it’s been so long.”

  Eddy said, “Me too.”

  Mom said, “It’s so hard to travel with all the kids right now. I don’t think I could deal with it.”

  Eddy looked at me. “What if just Eli and I went?”

  Mom started to shake her head, but I said, “Yeah, why not? There’s staff there, right?” Staff paid nearly as well to be discreet as they were to be efficient caretakers.

  Mom nodded.

  “And we can take the jet,” added Eddy. “It’s not like we’re unsupervised at any point.”

  Mom stopped wiping and sat back on her heels, looking at the two of us.

  “Please, Mom? Since we’re not doing school yet?”

  She scratched her head. “I don’t know. What if—”

  “What if what?” asked Eddy. “No one can get into the place when we’re there.” He looked at me. “We’ll just go for a couple days, right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Just to see the place again.”

  Mom sighed. “I suppose.”

  Eddy grinned.

  I went upstairs to get out of my wet clothes and shower. As I headed toward my room, I walked past Lexie’s. And I heard her crying.

  I knocked. “Lex?”

  “Go away.” Her voice was muffled.

  I twisted the knob and it turned, so I pushed open the door.

  “I said go away!” Lexie was on her bed, clutching a pillow, her face and eyes red. “I don’t want to talk.”

  I shut the door and stepped inside. “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head and dropped her face into her pillow, sobbing.

  I went and sat beside her, then set my hand on her back. She knew it was a long shot, which might not work. Softly, I said, “Hey. We’ll find your birth parents some other way.”

  She croaked out a no, then pointed at her desk.

  I went and sat in her swivel chair. Her computer was on, and a balled-up piece of paper lay near the keyboard. I opened it and smoothed it out until I could read the letter from the state adoption offices. I scanned it until I found what I needed. Lexie’s birth mother’s first name and occupation.

  The first name was Laudine. “That’s unique,” I said. “We should be able to find her. What does she—” My gaze went to the next line. The one where the occupation was listed. The line held one word:

  Inmate.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  My intake of breath was so quick it almost sounded like a whistle. I whispered, “Seriously? She’s in jail?”

  Lexie was still crying into her pillow, so I turned to the computer and jiggled the mouse enough to wake up the screen. The Washington State Department of Corrections website popped up, along with the heading Find an Offender. The search results consisted of a listing of prisoners with the last name of Cobb. There were a few men with that last name, but no women. And no one named Laudine.

  Had she been released? Is that why Lexie was upset?

  I clicked on the next window. It was a death notice. Three years before, Laudine Cobb had developed an infection and died in prison. I leaned back in the chair. But then I noticed several other windows open, so I clicked on one of them. Yahoo search engine, with the search results from the words Washington+ inmate+ Laudine.

  Hundreds of entries came up. One that Lexie had clicked on was from the local NBC affiliate with the headline CROWD ATTENDS LAUDINE COBB SENTENCING. I scanned the news article from over eighteen years before.

  “Convicted murderer Laudine Cobb, 29, was sentenced to life in prison plus 65 years for the murder of her two children.”

  I gasped and looked over at Lexie. That was why she was upset. Not that Laudine Cobb was dead, but that she’d been … a murderer.

  I kept reading.

  One rainy night, Laudine Cobb called 911, said someone had broken into their house, shot her in the leg and shot her tw
o children, both of whom died on the way to the hospital. Her tearful pleas from her hospital bed, to find whoever was responsible, made the national news. Prosecutors spent months checking her story and finally found enough evidence to convict her of the crime. She had shot herself in the leg to solidify her story. I checked the dates.

  I said to Lexie, “Are you sure this is her? She was in prison when you were born.”

  Lexie rolled off the bed, and came over to me. Her eyes and face were red, glistening with tears. There were other windows open and she clicked on one of them. The article, dated several months after the first, was short. The first line read: “Under heavy security, convicted murderer Laudine Cobb gave birth at St. John’s Hospital in Gig Harbor.”

  I stopped reading and glanced back at the date. Lexie’s birthday.

  Lexie said, “She was pregnant with me when she went in. Father unknown.”

  I grasped her arm. “You don’t know this is her. You don’t know this is your birth mother.”

  Lexie asked, “Did you see the photo yet?”

  I shook my head.

  She reached down and moved the mouse, clicking on another window. There was a posed photograph of a woman and two children. It was small, so I leaned in to look more closely.

  The woman had bleached blond hair. She was pretty. Not as pretty as Lexie, but she looked a lot like her. Enough to be her mother?

  Most definitely.

  Lexie sighed. “Still think it’s a coincidence?” She sunk down onto the carpet beside the chair.

  “This doesn’t mean anything.” I said.

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Doesn’t mean anything? My birth mother was a murderer! How does that not mean anything?”

  “No one has to know,” I said. “No one does know.”

  Her face crumpled and she started to cry again. “Did Mom and Dad know? Did they know they had a murderer’s baby?”

  I slid off the chair and sat next to her on the floor, putting my arm around her shoulders. She leaned into me. “Did they know?”

  I said, “You heard Mom go on and on about that night. About the next year, waiting until the adoption went through. They had a baby. An innocent baby.”

  Lexie sat up. “What if I’m not innocent?” She pointed to the computer. “I looked it up. She was psychotic. She was narcissistic and histrionic. I looked those up. Psychopathy can be inherited.”