Poisonous

by Allison Brennan

  Tommy screamed. “No! No!” He ran to the rail and looked for her. “Bella!”

  The sirens on the Coast Guard ships shrilled.

  “Get away from the edge!” Amanda screamed.

  Tommy hadn’t secured his life vest. It was too small to go around his chest. But either he didn’t notice or didn’t care.

  Bella popped up, her bright orange life vest visible in the murky green water as she rolled up and down with waves that were taller than her. She was pale and terrified and coughing.

  Tommy jumped into the water after Bella.

  “No!” Austin screamed. Tommy couldn’t swim.

  Amanda ran to the edge of the boat. “Tommy, why? Why?”

  Austin opened the box and found a life preserver ring tied to a rope. He secured the rope to the rear pole and held it while he looked for Tommy.

  Tommy hadn’t surfaced.

  Two Coast Guard skiffs sped up to the Bella. Austin almost didn’t notice them. “There!” He threw the ring to where he saw a bright orange spot.

  It was Tommy’s life vest. It had slipped off him.

  Amanda pushed Austin. He slipped and fell and hit his head on the deck. “It’s your fault,” she snarled. “You and your sister. Tommy is my brother. Mine!”

  Her arm came down and he put his arms up to protect himself. Searing pain throbbed through his arm as the knife sliced. Once. Twice. Austin braced for another when suddenly Amanda’s weight was off him.

  He opened his eyes. Amanda was fighting and kicking as two Coast Guard officers pulled her off him and took away the knife.

  Austin crawled to the edge as another officer knelt next to him. “My brother and sister—”

  He looked over the edge. Bella was being wrapped in a blanket on one of the skiffs. “Where’s Tommy? Please, he can’t swim.”

  The officer didn’t say anything, but wrapped a blanket around Austin. There were divers in the water and two of them pulled up Tommy. He wasn’t moving. His eyes were closed and his mouth open.

  The Coast Guard moved fast. They put Tommy on a different boat from Bella, and there were people there to help him.

  “He’s okay, right? He’s going to be okay, right?”

  “Son, you’re bleeding, let’s get you taken care of.”

  “Tell me!”

  “I don’t know, son.”

  * * *

  On the main Coast Guard boat, Jimenez took a sullen Amanda Wallace into custody and separated her from the others. Max had watched little Bella wrapped up and carried below deck by a seaman. She was shaking but alive. Then Max watched as they lifted Tommy up on a stretcher. He had an oxygen mask on his face. They’d performed CPR in the skiff. “Is he okay?” she asked one of the medics as they brought him up.

  “He’s breathing.”

  They took Tommy below deck. A whole crew of medics were on the boat and they would take care of him.

  Bloodied and bruised, Austin was the last on board.

  Max had watched the entire scene play out through binoculars, until their boat was close enough that she didn’t need them. Now she went up to Austin and hugged him. He was shaking, but he clutched at her. “Tommy,” he said.

  “He’s alive.”

  Austin started to cry.

  “Shh. It’s okay. You saved Bella’s life, Austin. Putting that life vest on her saved her life.”

  The medic said, “We need to check him out, miss.”

  “I’d like to go with him.”

  Everyone was protective of Tommy, Max realized—even she had been. Because he was needy. And sweet. And slow. But Austin was a thirteen-year-old boy who was practically raising himself with an absentee father, an absentee stepfather, and a disinterested mother. Who was taking care of him? Who was going to protect Austin?

  Max felt a sudden kinship with him. They had one thing in common: selfish mothers who didn’t give a damn.

  Maybe two things in common. The overwhelming need to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

  “I’m proud of you, Austin,” Max said as they followed the medics below deck. She caught David’s eye. David wasn’t expressive as a rule, but right now he looked both relieved and pained. What they’d witnessed would haunt them both for a long time.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  At the hospital, Bill and Paula Wallace sat across from Jenny Wallace in a private waiting room. They weren’t arguing, but they weren’t talking, either. Grace arrived to inform them that after having been taken into custody, Amanda Wallace was now secured in a juvenile wing of a psychiatric hospital and under suicide watch.

  “We’re still piecing together exactly what happened,” she said, “but Amanda confessed to Austin that she killed Ivy and Travis. Travis helped to lure Ivy to the preserve because he thought he was helping Bailey teach Ivy a lesson. But it was Amanda who tricked him. Your attorney has requested that she be evaluated by a psychiatrist, and that will happen quickly.”

  When the three Wallaces didn’t say anything, Grace continued. “By text, Amanda tricked Austin into coming to the boat. He didn’t know it was she who sent him the message. When he got there, Amanda hit him over the head. He has a concussion. He’ll be in the hospital tonight. He also was cut up pretty badly when he tried to stop Amanda from throwing Bella overboard. If it weren’t for him and Tommy, Bella wouldn’t have made it. The Coast Guard said the life vest that Austin put on her while Amanda was distracted saved her life. Tommy slipped out of his life vest when he jumped into the bay after Amanda threw Bella overboard. He almost didn’t make it.”

  Grace looked from Jenny to Bill, then settled on Paula. “You have two good boys—two young men—who care a lot about each other. Two boys who risked their lives to save their little sister. I sincerely hope the three of you get some family counseling and learn to live with one another because Tommy and Austin showed a hell of a lot more maturity and heroism than any of you.”

  She didn’t wait for a response before walking away.

  * * *

  Austin woke up, startled. It took him a second to remember where he was.

  He looked around in the dim hospital light and saw Tommy in the bed next to him. Tommy was sleeping, his mouth open, snoring lightly. Like Austin, he had an IV in his arm.

  But he was alive.

  Austin thought he’d died. What had Tommy been thinking, jumping in the water? He couldn’t swim. But he did it because he loved Bella.

  Careful not to make any noise, Austin climbed out of bed. He maneuvered his IV around so he could walk, then went down the hall in search of Bella.

  He found his mother sitting in the chair next to Bella’s bed. She was half asleep, but when Austin came in she woke up.

  “Austin. Hello, sweetheart.”

  He didn’t say anything. He had nothing left inside, not for his mother. When the Coast Guard was bandaging his arm, Max had told him to forgive. He’d flat-out asked Max if she had forgiven her mother for abandoning her. She hadn’t answered.

  Max had promised at the beginning that she would never lie to them, and she didn’t start then. Austin appreciated it.

  Maybe it wasn’t all his mother’s fault, but she hadn’t stopped Ivy from being mean. But mostly, she’d hurt Tommy. She thought he wasn’t a good influence, that there was something wrong with him. That he was broken. Imperfect. Was she going to change her opinion overnight? Austin didn’t think so.

  He walked over to Bella.

  “Let her sleep,” his mother said.

  Austin sat on the edge of Bella’s bed. She was so little, so pale. He loved her. He didn’t want her to grow up to be like Ivy. But she wouldn’t—because she had him and Tommy to make sure of it.

  Bella opened her eyes. She saw Austin and smiled. “Hi, Austin.”

  “Hey, squirt.”

  She tried to sit up. “Where’s Tommy?”

  “He’s sleeping.”

  “I wanna see him. We can play cards. Tommy loves cards.”

  “Okay.”


  Their mother looked pained. “I think Bella should rest.”

  “I’m fine, Mommy. I slept a lot. The nice Coast Guard gave me a warm blanket. And a pin. Where’s my pin?” She looked around.

  Austin saw it on the nightstand and handed it to her.

  She beamed. “See? It says ‘United States Coast Guard.’ I want to be in the Coast Guard. I want to learn how to swim and drive a boat and dive in the water and he said they have helicopters. I can fly a helicopter. Do you want to fly a helicopter, Austin?”

  “That would be fun.”

  Bella was back to her old self. Twelve hours ago she was floating in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, and now she was happy and talking.

  “Let’s go see Tommy.”

  Austin turned to his mother, defiant. Tommy deserved to see Bella. Tommy had tried to save her life. He shouldn’t have to say it. He wouldn’t say it. If his mother didn’t know, didn’t believe that now, she never would.

  Paula looked worried, like she was about to lose something important. She already had.

  Austin said, “I’ll bring her back in thirty minutes.”

  They walked down the hall to the room Austin shared with Tommy.

  “Why can’t I be in your room, Austin?”

  “You’re a girl.”

  “That shouldn’t matter.”

  “Boys have their own room and girls have their own room.”

  She stuck out her tongue.

  Austin pushed open the door and they walked over to Tommy. He was still sleeping.

  Bella climbed onto Tommy’s bed and picked up his hand. “Tommy. Tommy. Tommy. Wake up, Tommy.”

  His eyes opened. He stared at Bella as if he didn’t recognize her.

  “I don’t want to get in trouble,” he said, his voice scratchy.

  “Silly, you’re not going to get in trouble! We’re going to play cards. Mommy said I could. Right, Austin?”

  “Right, Bella.”

  “I don’t feel so good,” Tommy said.

  Bella climbed up and laid down next to Tommy. “We don’t have to play cards. We can watch cartoons. You like cartoons.”

  “Okay.”

  Austin turned on the television and sat in the chair next to Tommy and Bella. Bella put her arm around Tommy. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Bella.”

  Tommy looked at Austin with wide eyes. “Am I dreaming?”

  Austin shook his head. “No, you’re not dreaming.”

  The next time Austin looked over, Bella and Tommy were sound asleep.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  SUNDAY

  “Why are you blaming yourself?”

  “You can’t read my mind, David. As well as you might know me, you really don’t.”

  He stared at her, not saying anything.

  “I don’t regret it,” she said. “It was lies that created this mess, and lies that propagated it. I just wish … there could have been another way.”

  “Sometimes only the hard way works.”

  “And where are Tommy and Austin in all of this? Austin had his own agenda, but Tommy was innocent. All he wanted was to be part of his family again. To belong.” She paused. “Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. I’ve never really belonged to any family.”

  “For all her faults, your grandmother loves you greatly,” David said.

  “Yes, but you don’t understand what I mean.” Max took a deep breath. She’d always been open and blunt about her mother and her lack of paternity. She’d always thought she’d been open about her feelings on the matter. But family was complex. It was messy and emotional.

  “After being forced to face some things that happened with my mother,” she said, choosing her words carefully. David was still touchy about the subject of what had happened in June. Touchy wasn’t the right word. He was angry, at himself and at the situation. Nothing she’d said had helped. He’d been hired to protect her, and she’d still gotten hurt. That it wasn’t his fault didn’t register in his brain, and Max had tried to let time fix it.

  “I realized,” Max continued, “that part of my drive stems from the fact that I’m searching for answers for others because I have no answers for myself. I see that, I recognize it. I always knew it deep down, because I made everyone’s tragedies my tragedy. I picked cases I felt I could solve, and even when they weren’t easy, I didn’t let go. I couldn’t. Because if I couldn’t solve the problem, it would remind me that I can’t solve my own problems.

  “And one of those problems is that I don’t belong. I force myself into situations, I dominate people, I push and push for answers until people simply give up fighting me. But that still doesn’t give me a place. I used to think that was okay. A one-woman wrecking ball.”

  “That is certainly not how you view yourself, Max,” David said.

  “Maybe I want to belong somewhere,” she said. “I don’t know anymore. I never thought it mattered, but now … that’s all Tommy wanted. A simple enough wish. Something that should have been easy for those who loved him to give. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jenny loves her son. But she didn’t see he was in pain because she was in her own pain. There’s no doubt that Austin loves his stepbrother, but Austin was so angry with the world he didn’t know how to be at peace. But Tommy’s love was pure. It was real. It only wanted a place to belong, a family to love him back. To protect him. And they all failed him.”

  “Austin is strong.”

  “He is.” Max remembered what she’d thought on the boat. “He’s like me. A survivor. He raised himself. He looks out for everyone else.”

  “Were you that angry as a child?”

  “No, not like Austin. Not angry. But I was cynical. I still am.”

  “You’re worried.”

  “They claim they’re going to get counseling, that they want to be better parents for their children, but I wonder how long that’s going to last.” Max remained skeptical.

  “You solved Ivy’s murder. You can’t fix the Wallace family overnight,” David said.

  “Maybe I did more harm than good.”

  “You don’t believe that.”

  She honestly didn’t know. She tried to imagine not solving the case and it pained her … not knowing was worse. Yet … what if she had picked another case to focus on and not this one?

  “Maxine Revere,” David said sternly, “I’m not a religious man, but I believe in God. I believe that everything happens for a reason. You cannot possibly know what would have happened if you never came to Marin County.”

  She arched her eyebrows. “Maybe you really can read my mind.”

  He grunted. “Consider this—Amanda Wallace is a disturbed young woman. If you hadn’t come to town, she would still have been a disturbed young woman and no one knows who else she may have hurt. She had a bigger plan than killing Ivy. She stalked Madison Cross. She killed Travis Whitman, shot him three times—once in the head when he was already dead. She moved his body to delay authorities finding him. She lured her brother to the boat so he could watch her toss his sister overboard. What else might she have done? She needs help. Now she can get it, and Bella and Austin are safe. The family promised to get help, and you can’t do any more for them now. You have to let it go.”

  * * *

  David dreaded seeing Brittney. But it was Emma’s birthday. For Emma, he would withstand what he expected would be a bitter verbal attack.

  He rang the doorbell. Her house was small but in a nice neighborhood in Mill Valley, on the Corte Madera border. It was only a few blocks from Brittney’s parents, and a couple of miles from David’s dad’s house. Emma was a good kid. She had grandparents who loved her, a mother who—even though flawed—loved her. She was doing well in school, she had a strong sense of right and wrong, and she helped others. He couldn’t be more proud of her.

  He would do anything for his daughter.

  Brittney answered the door. She stared at him as she always did, with a mixture of hatred and pain.

 
“May I come in?”

  “Emma’s not here.”

  He mentally counted to three. He had to control his temper.

  “We’d talked about—”

  “I changed my mind. You violated the custody agreement.”

  “Not intentionally.”

  “You didn’t even inform me. Neither did Emma. You had her lie for you.”

  “I never told Emma to lie.”

  “She didn’t tell me you were at her school.”

  “Did she lie about it?”

  “Lie of omission. Same thing.” She narrowed her eyes. “You know about that, don’t you? You lied to me all the time.”

  “I have apologized repeatedly.”

  “That woman is not a good influence on Emma.”

  It took David a moment to realize Brittney was talking about Max.

  “She doesn’t see Max often,” David said. “May I come in?”

  Still Brittney didn’t let him in. “I’ve decided that you can take Emma to dinner tonight, but not if that woman joins you. I don’t like her, I don’t trust her, and I don’t want my daughter around her.”

  David wanted to argue. He wanted to defend Max. But he had no rights. Every hour Brittney allowed him to be with Emma was at her discretion. Their custody agreement could be changed by court order, and there was no doubt Brittney could find a judge to give her anything she wanted, if she wanted it badly enough.

  Max would be disappointed, but she would understand.

  No, she won’t understand.

  He would have to explain it to her. And in the end, if Max didn’t understand, maybe there was no getting through to her. But she would have to accept that Emma came first, last, and always.

  “All right,” he said.

  “Just like that?”

  “I hope you’ll change your mind because you’re wrong about Max, but I’m not going to risk time with my daughter.”

  “I’m not wrong about her. You can pick Emma up at my mom’s house at five. Bring her back here by nine, it’s a school night.” She paused. “You know, I don’t have to let you see her at all. Your next visit isn’t supposed to be until Thanksgiving.”