by Joan Wolf
More silence.
“Yes, I'll be leaving early tomorrow. I should be back in Midville by noon. Do you want me to give you a call when I've arrived?”
He shot me an impatient look.
“Okay, I'll do that. Yes. All right. Goodbye.” He hung up the phone.
“Was he mad that you left without telling him?”
“What was I supposed to do? Call him at three in the morning?”
“I suppose you could have left a message at the police station. Someone is always on duty there.”
“I never even thought of it.”
“Neither did I.”
“Let's forget about the police, Annie. We have more pleasant things to think about.”
I smiled. “What could they be?”
“Let me show you.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Why don't you do that?”
He came over to me and held out his hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet. Then he was kissing me, folding me close against him and kissing me hard. I opened my lips and kissed him back.
It was such heaven, kissing Liam. I could kiss him forever, I thought. After awhile he growled in my ear, “Let's go over to the bed.”
With his arm around my shoulders, he picked me up and placed me on the bed. Then he laid beside me, his mouth hungry on mine, his kiss driving me back hard into the pillow.
He kissed my mouth, my face, my throat. He opened the buttons on my knit shirt and kissed me there. I kissed whatever part of him was available at the moment. Then he said, “Let's get undressed.”
We stripped off our clothes quickly, then we were naked, our bodies pressed along each other's, his hands hard against my spine, his mouth buried in my hair.
“Annie, Annie, Annie.” He repeated my name like a mantra. Then he began to kiss me all over my body. He kissed me until I was trembling, until a hot drenching surge had risen within me and I lifted myself toward him, wanting him, aching for him …
“Liam,” I cried. “Liam.”
For a moment he was poised above me, then I stretched to take him in. He drove in, retreated, then drove in again. He did this until the orgasm ripped through me, causing my whole body to spasm with ecstasy once, then again and again and yet again. My lips opened in a silent scream.
Afterwards, when he lay quiet with his body all along mine, and his head driven into the hollow between my neck and shoulder, I ran my hands over the strong muscles of his shoulders and back, feeling the light sheen of sweat that clung to him. His heart was hammering; I could feel the heavy strokes as I felt the heat of his body and the laboring of his breath.
/ love him so much, I thought. Dear God, don't let anything happen to him. I love him so much.
He kissed my collarbone. “I love you, Annie.”
“And I love you.”
“I feel as if I could eat you up.”
“You don't want to do that. Then there would be nothing left of me for you to make love to.”
He laughed shakily. “That's true.”
“Do you know what I was thinking last night?”
“What?”
“That we could name our first son Peter.”
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I'd like that a lot.”
We made ourselves comfortable against the pillows, my head resting in the cradle of his shoulder, and we talked about our future, about what kind of a farm we might have, about our chances for success in the tough business of horse breeding. Then we made love again. Then we got dressed, stopped by to see Buster, who seemed fine, and went out for dinner.
We went to bed early and, after making love again, went to sleep and woke up at four-thirty to get on the road before rush hour. We were across the George Washington Bridge in no time and didn't stop until we were at the bottom of the Jersey Turnpike, where we stopped at a Bob's Big Boy for breakfast. We made it home in less than six hours.
Liam dropped me off at the house, and I went in and put my overnight case down at the bottom of the stairs and went out to the kitchen for something to drink. The morning's Washington Post was sitting on the kitchen table and I picked it up. Right there, on page one, was the headline: Senator's Son Arrested on Murder Charge.
“Shit!” I said out loud.
I sat down to read the article. It rehashed all of the old stuff about Leslie and emphasized the finding of the medal as the reason for Liam's arrest. “Mr. Wellington identified the medal as his, which led the police to arrest him,” I read.
Damn. Why hadn't Liam kept his mouth shut about that medal?
I finished reading the article and sat there, my head in my hands, feeling heartsick. This should be one of the happiest moments of Liam's life. He had a Triple Crown contender in his barn. And he had to worry about being tried for murder. A murder he did not commit.
The press was going to have a field day with this. All of the racing press would be filled with the story of Someday Soon's owner. It was going to be terrible.
Later that afternoon I walked over to the breeding shed in search of Liam. They were just finishing up a session with Thunderhead and he came out to talk to me while one of the grooms took the stallion back to his paddock.
“Did you see the paper?” I asked.
“Yes. Mary showed it to me. Just what we didn't want.”
“Liam, where are your parents? Don't you think they should rally around you while this is going on?”
“I think they're still in Maine. What's to rally around?”
“I presume there will be a hearing or something.”
“The lawyer will handle that. My mother and father don't need to be here.”
“I should think they'd want to be here.”
“Well, I don't want them, Annie. They'd only be a distraction.”
I stared at him in stunned surprise. I knew the Wellingtons had never been a close family, but if ever there was a time for the family to come together, this was it.
“Liam, I'm sure your mother would want to be with you. Have you talked to them? Do they even know about your arrest?”
“I talked to my father. He knows.”
“And he stayed in Maine?” My voice rose in incredulity.
“Annie.” He sounded impatient. “Let it go. I don't need my parents at my side, believe me. I'm a big boy now.”
The rest of the men were coming out of the breeding shed. I whispered, “I'm so afraid for you, Liam. I'm so afraid.”
He put his arm around me. “Please don't be, Annie. This will be all right. I'm sure it will.”
But I did not have his confidence. I think the thing that frightened me the most was the unshakable feeling that he was not fighting for himself. He just seemed so passive, so ready to let this thing happen to him. It was not like Liam to be this way. I didn't understand what was wrong with him.
“I do have some good news,” Liam said now.
“What?”
“Kevin is going back to Hollywood. We have the house to ourselves.”
This was good news.
“Another reason not to wish for the swift return of my parents,” Liam said.
I hadn't thought of that.
“Can you move in?”
“I hate to leave Mom by herself.”
“If you were going back to your job when you planned you'd have left yesterday.”
“I guess that's true.”
He bent his head and nuzzled my temple. “Move in with me, Annie, darlin’. Please.”
“Okay.” I was so easy.
We were standing there in each other's arms when a police car pulled up.
“Christ,” Liam said. “I forgot to call the police to tell them I was back.”
“Oh Liam!”
The chief himself got out of the car. He was a man of about fifty-five, tall and broad shouldered with a shock of gray hair. He came up to us. “I thought I told you to call me when you got back to the farm.”
“I know, I know,” Liam said. “I'm sorry, Chief. We had a breeding session, and I just pla
in forgot.”
“It's important, Liam. You're out on bail on a murder case.”
I must have made some kind of a sound because both men suddenly looked at me. I said, “Sorry.”
Liam said, “Look, Chief. I have a horse running for the Triple Crown in less than two weeks. I'm not going anywhere.”
“That's probably true, but I have to go by the rules, Liam. I want you to keep me apprised of your movements in the future.”
“Okay, I'll do that.”
I said, “Exactly where was that medal found, Chief Brown?”
He looked at me. He had faded blue eyes. “Now why would you want to know that, Anne?”
“Liam and I used to ride all through those woods. He could easily have lost the medal on one of our rides. Was it on the track that goes by Leslie's gravesite?”
There was a long silence. Then he said, “Yes.”
“Liam and I often rode that path. The medal could have come off at any time.”
There was a long silence. I could feel Liam looking at me.
I said, “I will be happy to testify to that fact in a court of law.”
The chief said heavily, “I'm sure you will, Anne.” He turned to Liam. “You heard what I said.”
“I heard you, Chief.”
We stood together and watched the police car drive away.
Liam said, “That was clever of you, Annie.”
“Well, one of us has to be clever. It seems to me you've been bungling this from the word go. I still don't understand why you confirmed that that medal was yours.”
“It was.”
I let out a frustrated puff of air.
“I know you're annoyed at me, but let it go. With you to take care of me—as well as Kevin's expensive lawyer—everything will be all right.”
It occurred to me that negativity might not be what Liam needed just now. I forced a smile. “I'm sure you're right.”
“So how about you going home, packing up your bags and moving in with me?”
“Give me one more night with Mom.”
He sighed. “Oh, all right. Kevin's not leaving until tomorrow anyway.”
I smiled. “You and I. Together. I can't wait.”
He gave me his best Liam smile, the one that set off bells in my heart. “I can't either.”
I got into my Toyota, backed out of the parking spot, turned, waved and drove away.
CHAPTER 25
I stopped by the big house on my way home to say goodbye to Kevin. He wasn't there, but he pulled up as I was turning away from the door.
“Kevin,” I said. “I've come to say goodbye. Liam told me you were leaving.”
“I'm catching a flight tomorrow morning. Come on in and we'll have a farewell drink together.”
“Okay.”
We went into the kitchen and Kevin poured us both a glass of Chardonnay from the bottle in the refrigerator. We sat at the kitchen table.
“Will you be starting another movie?” I asked.
“Next week.”
“You keep a crazy schedule.”
“At least I'm not operating on colicking horses at three in the morning.”
“Touché.”
“So are you and Liam going to get married?”
“If he isn't convicted of murder.”
“Don't look so bleak, Annie. That isn't likely to happen.”
“That's what he keeps saying. I wish I could be so sure.”
“We'll get him a terrific lawyer. Don't worry.”
“If only Liam hadn't identified that damn medal.”
Kevin said, “You know how proud Liam is. He didn't want to be caught in a lie. Someone was bound to identify the bloody thing as his and he didn't want to look as if he was hiding something, as if he was afraid. So he went ahead and identified it himself. It's just the sort of thing he would do.”
It disturbed me a little that Kevin knew Liam that well.
“How do you think it got there?” I asked him.
“I have no idea.”
“I told Chief Brown that Liam and I used to ride along that path a lot, that it could have fallen off at any time.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
It was certainly true that we had ridden along that path. “A lot” might be pushing it a bit.
Kevin said, “That's the sort of thing a good lawyer can make quite an issue of.”
“Do you think so?”
“Absolutely.”
I took a drink of my wine. “Do you know what I find really strange about all of this, Kevin?”
He smiled faintly. “You appear to find the whole matter of Liam's arrest strange, Anne.”
I waved my hand. “I know. But it's really strange that his mother and father haven't come home. Liam says that they're still in Maine. Isn't that odd?”
Kevin poured himself some more wine. “It's not strange at all. The last thing Uncle Lawrence wants is to find himself in the middle of a murder investigation.”
“But Liam is his son!”
Kevin said slowly and clearly, “Uncle Lawrence does not want to get himself photographed with Liam while Liam is under arrest for murder. It won't look good to the voters.”
“That's outrageous.”
Kevin shrugged. “Maybe, but that's how it is.”
“What about Mrs. Wellington?”
“I wonder if she even knows about the arrest.”
“What?”
“I wouldn't put it past Uncle Lawrence to keep the matter from her. It wouldn't be hard. She doesn't read the newspapers.”
“Why would he do that?”
“So she wouldn't demand that they come riding to Liam's rescue, of course.”
I remembered what Liam had said to me: My father knows.
Liam knew. He knew why his father hadn't come home and he knew that his mother had not been informed. This was terrible.
“I think Senator Wellington is despicable,” I said heatedly.
“He's better than my father,” Kevin said. “At least he gave me a home.”
In all these years, it was the only time I had ever heard Kevin mention his parents.
“Do you ever hear from your parents?” I asked diffidently.
“I heard from my father after my first successful film. He wrote me a letter of congratulation, said he would look me up the next time he was in Los Angeles.”
“What did you do?”
“I wrote back and told him I had no interest in seeing him—ever.”
I thought of all the words I could say about forgiveness, about water under the bridge, about healing the wounds. I said instead, “I don't blame you.”
He said, “My mother died ten years ago from a drug overdose.”
“Oh, Kevin,” I said. “I'm so sorry.”
“Yeah. Wellington was far from perfect, but I was lucky to have it.”
“How come you and Liam never got along?”
He shrugged. “Personalities. Each of us wanted to be top dog, I guess. I felt I had to earn my right to be at Wellington by being the best, and Liam just naturally wanted to be the best because it was his nature. We were in constant competition.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping our wine. Then Kevin asked, “Now it's your turn to tell me something. Why did you pick Liam? I never had a chance with you. It was always Liam. Why?”
“I can't explain it,” I said slowly. “All I know is that from our first pony ride together, we both knew there was a connection between us. At first it was the horses; then it grew to be everything else.”
“It's a very uncommon thing, you know, this … connection … between you and Liam. I envy you both. It must be wonderful to be able to count on another person the way you two do.”
I put my hand over his on the table. “You'll find someone of your own, Kevin.”
He smiled crookedly. “There's only one Anne.”
“You'll find your own Anne.”
He turned his hand so that it was graspi
ng mine. “I don't think so, darling.”
“Sure you will,” I said bracingly. I squeezed his hand then freed mine. “By the way, do you know exactly where in Maine the Wellingtons are staying?”
“I think they're staying with the Osbornes. Why?”
I waved an airy hand. “Oh, I just wondered.”
He fixed me with a piercing blue stare. I smiled. “Whereabout in Maine do the Osbornes live?”
His eyes got bluer. “Anne, don't meddle in this business.”
I opened my own eyes wider. “Whatever can you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. You're thinking of calling Aunt Alyssa and telling her that Liam's been arrested.”
I gave up all pretense of innocence. “Well, I think she has a right to know that her only son—her only child—is in danger of his life! I think it's outrageous that the senator hasn't told her.”
“You don't know that.”
“You just said before that he probably hadn't!”
“I was guessing, for God's sake! Who knows what he's done?”
“Well, I think you've guessed right. I don't think she knows. And I think she should.”
“Liam won't appreciate you getting involved, Anne. If he wanted his mother to know, he would have told her himself.”
“Liam is behaving like an idiot. He needs someone to look after him, and that someone is me.”
“Anne, did it ever occur to you that Liam doesn't want his mother to know? He might not want to stress her. He might be afraid it would push her into another binge of drinking.”
I had to admit that this aspect of the situation had not occurred to me. I frowned.
Kevin went on. “You can't judge other people by what you would want for yourself. You would want to know if your son was in trouble, but maybe it would be too much for Aunt Alyssa. Maybe both Uncle Lawrence and Liam know that.”
Reluctantly, I had to agree that Kevin was making some sense.
I scowled. “I just have this gut feeling, Kevin, that she should be told.”
“She'll have to be told eventually, certainly. But leave the when of it up to the judgment of her husband and her son.”
There was a long silence as he looked at me. Finally I lowered my eyes and sighed. “Oh all right, you win. I won't meddle. For now.”
“That's a good girl.”
I got to my feet. “Well, I have to be getting home.”