Shauna rubbed her forehead. That had played out even worse than she’d imagined. She and Marilyn had never had so much as a spat in all these years. Should she use her key and go in anyway? She shook her head and went to her truck. Maybe if Shauna gave her some time to cool down, Marilyn would be more reasonable tomorrow.
Did she even want to go back to Zach’s yet? She’d rather wait until the TV had fallen silent. She sighed and started the truck. This was going to be her life for a little while. All she could do was pray the sheriff found the people who did this right away so she could expel Zach from her life.
The sound of the video game left Zach feeling a little bereft. He’d misjudged how hard it would be to face the constant reminder that his best friend was dead. Alex was practically asleep sitting up when Zach put him to bed, and the clock by the fireplace had just chimed nine times when headlights swept past the big front windows.
He wiped suddenly damp hands on his jeans as the dogs ran to the front door, stubby tails wagging. Was Shauna going to pack up and leave? It was one reason he hadn’t gone to bed. Marilyn just might have succeeded in derailing this idea, and he had no alternate plan to keep Shauna safe.
The bigger question was, why was it his job to keep her safe when she clearly didn’t want him around? The look on her face across the table over dinner had curdled the pizza in his stomach. Pursed lips, hooded eyes that didn’t meet his gaze, and curt answers to any questions. It was going to be a long, hard few days here. Or however long it took. What if they didn’t find the killer right away? This could drag on in a very painful way.
The lock clicked, and he dropped into a chair by the fireplace and tried to appear nonchalant. She stepped inside and loved on the dogs, who were going crazy with excitement, though they didn’t bark. They only barked when they didn’t recognize someone. They’d taken the arrival of the cat better than Weasley had taken their interest. The cat hadn’t come out from under the couch all night until it was bedtime. He now slept curled on the foot of Alex’s bed.
The light from the chandelier gleamed on her dark hair. She had always been gorgeous, but grief had pulled her strong features into sharp planes and angles that translated into dramatic beauty. She wouldn’t appreciate him saying something like that, though.
He’d always thought Jack was a lucky guy. Not that he’d ever told his friend that. Jack had met Shauna in a coffee shop after she got out of the navy. She was twenty-seven, and Jack was twenty-eight. They married, and a year later Alex was born, and their life seemed set for perfection.
Until Zach’s rashness had ruined it all.
Her expression enigmatic, Shauna glanced his way as she shed her denim jacket. “Alex is in bed?” The dogs followed her to the sofa.
“Yeah, he was about to drop where he sat so I read him The Blessings Jar and tucked him in. He was out before I turned off the light.” He rose and scooped the bowl of popcorn kernels off the coffee table. “Sorry, I should have cleaned up.” He dumped the kernels in the trash, then put the bowl in the dishwasher before he turned back toward her. “How’d it go with Marilyn?”
“Worse than you can imagine. She locked me out of the house.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she twisted around to adjust the afghan that had fallen off the back of the sofa. She’d made it for him for Christmas in a happier time. “She’s always been a mom to me, so it was hard to take.” She sat on the sofa, and Apollo settled at her feet.
“I’m sorry. I could try to talk to her, but I know how well that would go over.”
She shuddered and gave a forced laugh. “I wouldn’t even want to be within firing distance.” Her green eyes looked enormous in her pale face. “She wanted us to move in with her, exactly as I predicted. When I pointed out she couldn’t keep us safe, she stalked off.”
“So you’re not moving back to your house?”
She grabbed a pencil, then wound her hair up on top of her head and stuck it in the wad of locks to hold it. “I don’t have much choice, do I? I can’t say I’m happy about it. It’s harder to be around you than I anticipated.” She pointed to a picture of him at age sixteen BASE jumping with his dad. “Jack took that picture. It’s a reminder of how you always egged him on to bigger dangers.”
She was right. His fingers curled into his palms. “You’re not the only one suffering. I hear Jack’s laugh over your shoulder and look up. I can almost catch a glimpse of him tossing a pillow at me. I miss him too.” He cleared his suddenly husky throat. “I loved him too, Shauna. You can’t really doubt that.”
Artemis, the smaller of his two rottweilers, came to nose at his hand, and Zach petted him. “I’m okay, boy.”
Shauna’s chest heaved as she exhaled, and she went to poke at the fire, dying to embers. The scent of smoke intensified in the room, and it made him think of all the camping trips he’d taken with Jack. The entire day had been almost more than he could take. “Maybe I should go to my room and leave you alone. I know this isn’t easy.” He started for the hall.
“Wait. I’m sorry I’m such a bear. I know you loved him.”
He thrust his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “All I want to do is keep you and Alex safe. This will be over soon.”
Those green eyes were like sea glass, clear and pure, as she stared back at him. A sudden urge to cup her face in his hands startled him, and he took an involuntary step back. “Um, you hungry? There’s a little pizza left. I think I’ll warm up a piece.”
“No, thanks. I don’t think I could eat.” She followed him into the kitchen and settled on one of the bar stools at the island.
He threw a piece of pizza on a paper plate and tossed it in the microwave. He wasn’t sure what to talk about. Was Jack off-limits? It was probably dangerous ground, though the desire to talk about him, to remember, rose in a flood.
The microwave dinged, and he pulled out the steaming pizza and bit into it so he didn’t have to say anything. The house never used to be silent when the three of them were together.
As the silence continued, he swallowed, then joined her at the island. “How’s your dad? You mentioned he’s still drinking. You see him much?”
“I make an obligatory visit every two weeks. He’s gotten worse since Jack died. I’ll have to talk to him about that necklace, but I’m afraid it’s going to send him into a weeklong binge.” Her mouth twisted. “The sheriff said I could take another look at it, but I haven’t had a chance to stop at the jail.”
He grinned and felt the tension roll off. “I made copies of all the photos and took pictures of everything else in the box before I delivered it to the sheriff. I even made an impression of the key.”
Her mouth gaped. “You’re serious?”
“Yep. I thought we might need to go over things to figure this out. Your lives are depending on it.”
“I’m shocked! Can I see?”
He nodded and grabbed a box on the breakfast bar. “Here are the pictures, and here’s the one of the necklace. That’s what you want to see, isn’t it?”
She nodded and reached for the photo. “I have to know if this is Mom’s.” She went through the pictures one by one. “I really think this might be hers, Zach.”
“How did she die? You’ve never really said. You were eight, right?”
At first she said nothing and stepped across the kitchen to get water from the refrigerator dispenser. When she turned back around, her fair skin was as pale as the marble counter. “It’s not something I ever talk about. Jack knew, of course, but it was an incredibly painful time in my life.”
“Forget I asked then. Sorry.”
A lock of hair fell from the knot on her head, and she pushed it out of her face. “Maybe I should talk about it. It might not hurt so much when I have to talk to Pop.” She took a sip and eyed him over the rim of her glass. “It’s not a pretty story, Zach.”
“Losing a parent rarely is. It’s probably why Alex is so well adjusted, even after losing Jack. You know what it’s like, and you were able to help him
through it.”
A bit of color came to her cheeks. “You really think he’s doing okay? I’m never sure if I’m doing enough.”
He held her gaze. “You’re an amazing mother, Shauna. The finest I’ve ever seen. Alex is a lucky little boy.”
The column of her neck rippled with the convulsive swallow she made. “Thank you.” Carrying her water, she headed back to the living room. “I think I have to sit down for this.”
Chapter 8
When was the last time she’d allowed herself to remember that horrible day? Shauna couldn’t recall. She sat on the sofa, and Apollo settled at her feet. She sipped the water and stared into the fire, then began to recount the events to Zach.
Mommy, I want to go play.” Shauna tugged her hand out of her mother’s grip and took hold of Connor’s hand. “I’ll look out for Connor.” At eight, it was her responsibility to take care of her baby brother, who was six years younger.
The market had tables, blocks, and other toys in the back corner of the building, right next to the candy department, though Mommy didn’t often buy it for them. She said it would rot their teeth, but Shauna didn’t see how that could be true. The kids at school sometimes had candy bars in their lunch pails, and their teeth all looked fine. She’d even asked to look in her best friend’s mouth once after she had a Snickers bar.
Her mother was the most beautiful person in the world, even with her belly sticking out. Her hair was the color of the night, and she was always smiling. Shauna sometimes put her ear on Mommy’s tummy to see if the new baby would talk to her, but she never heard anything other than her mommy’s tummy gurgling. Little Peanut was supposed to be here anytime, and Shauna was hoping for a baby sister, just because she didn’t have one.
Mommy touched her head. “Okay, stay in the play enclosure. I’ll come fetch you when I’m ready to check out. I have to get a lot of groceries so it might be a little while.”
That was just fine with Shauna. She led Connor through the aisles of canned goods and bags of chips. She stopped by the purple flowers lining the windowsills. Mommy loved lavender, and Shauna had brought her allowance. She touched the lavender, then buried her face in it. She’d buy her some after they played.
She and her brother hopped onto the small plastic teeter-totter. He shrieked with laughter as Shauna bounced down and lifted his small rear end into the air.
But in the next moment, she catapulted off the end. She bounced to her feet. “You pushed too hard.”
But Connor was on the floor too. And the carpet was moving. There was some kind of low rumble that made Shauna want to hide under the small table covered with puzzles. Was it a T rex about to come eat them? She wasn’t supposed to watch scary movies, but she’d seen a little bit of Jurassic Park last week at a friend’s house. The shaking intensified and kept her and Connor on the ground.
She hugged her brother as Connor began to cry. All around the store things crashed to the ground, and people were screaming and calling out to each other. “Mommy!” Her scream sounded like a whisper with the awful noise going on all around.
Then her mother was there. She covered them both with her body. “It’s going to be okay, little ones. Stay still.”
The ceiling started to cave in, and big chunks of wood fell. Shauna peeked past her mother’s arm and saw blue sky above. What was happening? She was too frightened to even cry. Pieces of the ceiling hung over them like some kind of tent, and there were only small tunnels here and there.
Her mother gave a strange oomph sound, then didn’t move. Shauna shook her, but she didn’t respond. Connor was still crying, and Shauna tried to move to hug him, but she was trapped under her mother’s heavy arm.
“Mommy!” She tried again to get her mother to open her eyes, and finally Mommy stirred a little and looked at her. “Mommy, you scared me.”
A little bit of red dribbled from Mommy’s mouth, and she licked it away. “My good girl. Lie still. It’s an earthquake. Someone will come to help us soon.”
An earthquake? Didn’t those only happen in California? But Mommy didn’t seem too scared, so Shauna tried not to cry. The rumbling that seemed to last forever finally stopped. “Can I get up, Mommy?”
Her mother winced as she moved her arm far enough for Shauna to crawl out. She turned and helped her brother up too. The place was a mess, and she heard water running from somewhere. “Let me pull you up, Mommy.”
Her mother’s eyes closed again. “I can’t move, honey. There is something on top of me. We have to wait for someone to come help us.”
“I’ll get help!” Shauna climbed through the tunnels formed by the concrete and fallen beams, sometimes coming to a dead end until she retraced her path and found another way. A man with a green shirt lay motionless on the floor with blood on his head. She was afraid to move closer, and her chest started to feel tight. She had to find help.
She crawled through the tunnels until she found a woman seated in the crumbled concrete with her head cradled in her arms. Shauna touched her wrist. “My mommy is trapped. Can you help her?”
The woman had blonde hair and looked friendly, and she put her hand on Shauna’s arm. “Where is she, honey? I’m a paramedic.”
Shauna pointed. “Back in the play area with my little brother. It’s not easy to get there, though. I can show you.”
The woman peered through the tunnel Shauna had exited. “I think the worst of it is over, but there might be aftershocks. We’re trapped here until someone comes.”
Shauna led the way back and only went down the wrong tunnel once before emerging into the small, cramped space where her mother lay with Connor.
Shauna pointed out her mother, who wasn’t moving. “There she is.”
The paramedic lady made her way to Mommy and touched her shoulder. “Let me see if I can move this beam off your legs.”
She grabbed another broken piece of wood and propped it under the big beam on a piece of concrete. Grunting, she pushed on the thing until the big beam rolled off Mommy.
Mommy cried out a little and put her hand to her tummy. “I think the baby’s coming.”
Shauna backed away and reached for Connor’s hand. He didn’t move his fingers. Maybe he was sleeping. It was dark by the time she heard a baby cry. The paramedic lady soothed the baby, then everything fell silent.
Her cheeks wet and her vision blurry, Shauna looked across at Zach’s stricken face. “We were stuck there for hours. I think my mom died as soon as Brenna was born. I named her and held her, but my mother never spoke. The paramedic found some formula and bottles in the debris and managed to feed Brenna. I heard her cry a couple of times. Some aftershocks struck and another beam fell on Connor. I thought he would die before help arrived. He was in terrible pain. My dad found me at the triage center, but he never found Connor and Brenna. I told him they died, but I didn’t know that for sure. I just felt it.”
The grief in her chest was a mountain too big to ever move off her. She wiped at her cheeks. “I can understand why Pop fell headlong into the bottle. I couldn’t do that, though.”
Zach leaned forward. “You lost your entire family that night.”
She grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “So that necklace being found now makes no sense.”
“Was she wearing it when she died?”
“I don’t remember. She hardly ever took it off, so probably.” She moved the cat off her lap and leaped to her feet. “I have to go to bed now. This is too hard.”
He wouldn’t sleep for hours, not with the horrific details of that night still lingering in his brain. Zach went to his room and pulled his laptop from his backpack. Maybe there was an article about the tragedy online. He settled on the side of the bed and scanned through news reports of devastation from the quake with pictures of damaged buildings. The death toll had been thirteen, and he finally found a list, but the only Duval he saw listed was Theresa, Shauna’s mother. The children’s names were missing.
Frowning, he read through the articl
e more closely.
Pandemonium still rages through the small town of Lavender Tides, Washington, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through the community on Tuesday. Numerous buildings were destroyed, including a school and the town grocery store. The children left wandering the streets were of particular concern to authorities who called in Child Protective Services for help. Two days later some parents are still trying to locate their children.
There was more, but he stopped reading and frowned. Lost children? Did they actually find the bodies of Brenna and Connor? It was a delicate question to ask, so maybe he should talk to Shauna’s father. He’d always gotten along well with the older man, at least when he found him sober.
This probably wasn’t something Shauna would appreciate him poking into, but the story was so horrendous he couldn’t let it go. Had anyone tried to locate the paramedic who delivered Brenna and took care of them all? She might be able to shed more light on what happened when the authorities showed up. Connor was injured, so perhaps he really did succumb to injuries, but what about the baby? She had been fed and cared for, so what happened to her?
Maybe Zach was reading too much into it, but the nagging feeling that something was off wouldn’t leave him. He glanced at the time on his phone. It was eleven, and most normal people might be heading for bed, but Lewis Duval, Shauna’s father, was probably sitting in his living room only halfway through his beer stash for the night. Zach found his name in his contacts and placed the call.
“’Lo.” Lewis’s voice was only a little slurred, which was a good sign.
“Hey, Lewis, it’s Zach Bannister. How you doing?”
“Zach.” The older man’s voice grew more alert. “Haven’t heard from you in a while, boy. Doing just fine.”
Lewis lived in a cabin in the Olympic Forest. The place had been falling down around his ears for years, but he did what he had to do, and no one could budge him from the place his grandfather had built. At one time it had been a vacation retreat for the family, and from what Zach remembered of the story Jack had told him, Lewis moved in permanently when Shauna was a kid. The guy seemed to get crazier by the year, probably from the alcohol.