She gave me a sad smile. "That isn't exactly what I asked, though. Do you think I'm good enough to make the court happy? I don't want to be the reason you lose Zane. You need each other. You’re family, and not like Michael." She shuddered. "It may be wrong to say so, but I've never liked him."
"Not wrong at all and I've never been overly fond of him myself. You don't get to choose your step brothers though. If I could have, he wouldn't have made the top thousand." Another sip of glorious vanilla coffee. "And yes, I don't see any reason the courts would object to you being our nanny. I think they would applaud it, actually. That I was able to find someone that Zane already knows and loves."
Molly bit her lip. "How much time would I have to be here?" She asked. "Would I still be able to keep my job at the store?"
My heart sank as I shook my head. "Probably not. Being a nanny is pretty much a full-time job. I guess I didn't know you loved it there so much." I tried to keep the disappointment from my voice but most likely failed miserably.
She grimaced. "I don't, but I need the money. I know I wouldn't have rent to pay, and that will help, but I'll still need food and... well, a few other things too." She blushed and I could gather what items she was referring to.
I felt my eyebrows draw together. "You do realize that being a nanny is a paid job, right? The cheapest agency I could find that referred nannies said the starting rate was forty thousand a year. And they required a one-year contract before they'll even agree to refer someone."
Molly's mouth opened. “Forty thousand dollars a year? Plus a free place to stay?” She shook her head. “That can't be right. They were gouging you good.”
"Remember, I said they were the cheapest. The others wanted fifty thousand and up per year." I paused. "I'm willing to sign a contract with you for a year if you are okay with that. I figure in a year, I should be back in full gear. Of course, I'm hoping to be close enough to please the courts within six months. If I had you here helping that might be doable. But even after that, it would be nice to have the help." I got quiet, just now realizing that I just might be in this alone with Becca gone. "Before, I had Becca. I'm not sure I can do this on my own. Though I'd never admit that to the court."
"You could do it," Molly said. "You and Becca were always all about Zane and doing what was best for him." She sighed and grew quiet, drinking the rest of her coffee.
I didn't want to press her. I'd thrown a lot at her that she hadn't been expecting.
Finally, she nodded. "Okay, I'll do it," she said. "If I must quit the store, then you will need to pay me. But if you cover my wages at the store that would be more than enough. In fact, half of what I make there would be good with me. Living here is a definite upgrade from where I was before last night."
"Now that part isn't negotiable, Molly," I said. "I'm not about to take advantage of you. I'd have to pay an agency forty grand and have to accept a stranger into my home at the same time. If you agree to take the job, then I'll pay you the same as I would pay them." I smiled at her. "You can put what you don't need in a savings account so that maybe you can afford your own place when this is over. And just so you know, food is included too. If you want something we don't usually have on hand, just add it to the grocery list."
She swallowed. "I don't know what to say."
"Say you'll take the job."
"If you really think the courts will be okay with me, I'd love to. But could you make a list of what all you want me to do, so I'll know?"
"We can work that out in the next few days. And truthfully, you'll pretty much have your days free from around eight in the morning till about three in the afternoon. Zane is in all day preschool right now, and he'll start kindergarten next year."
Her eyes finally met mine, and I saw why she had been avoiding my gaze. They were filled with unshed tears. "Thank you, Mr. Shepard. Last night, I really didn't see a way out, and now..." a tear left a damp trail down her cheek.
My hand covered hers on the table. "You'll be helping me keep Zane, Molly. I'm the winner here, but if that helps you too, even better."
She nodded. "I guess we can help each other after all."
My eyes fell to the files on the table, and Molly's followed. "Is it okay if I read in the living room while you and the sheriff are busy? Or would it be better if I left for a while?"
I gave her a sad smile. “This is your home now, so whichever you want to do is fine. If you need something new to read, I have a couple of filled bookcases in my bedroom. Help yourself.”
“I’m good for right now, but thanks.”
She left, and I heard her go up the stairs, then in just a couple of minutes the sounds of her returning. I opened the first file, the one with everyone’s alibis. It made sense to start there.
I retrieved a notebook and pen from the kitchen counter and started to work. First up were my parents who had been at a charity fundraiser that night. Next was Michael who had been out of town at a banking convention. Joan was at home. I, of course, was being rushed to the emergency room where I spent most of the days following as well.
Next up were all her friends. Again, there was a mixture of those who were at home, some alone and therefore with no alibi, and others who could account for their whereabouts that night. A few had even attended the fund raiser my parents had gone to.
Nothing screamed fake to me, and I knew every one of these people and just couldn’t see any of them doing Becca harm. That isn’t to say they might not know something they weren’t divulging though, and I planned to follow up with each of them later.
Then I pulled out the file of Becca’s last day on earth. I had to swallow a few times before opening it. Somehow this one was troubling me far more than the first. I traced Becca’s name on the file cover with suddenly blurry vision and then opened it.
It had happened in early May. Zane had not yet started preschool, and I had still been in the first week of my two-week reserve training. As such, the two of them had been home alone.
According to the file, Becca had taken Zane to the park and for a walk around the neighborhood, stopping to talk to a few of the neighbors along the way. Mr. Childs had taken them inside to show them the rug he was latch hooking for his daughter’s wedding present, and Mrs. Logan had brought out a cookie for Zane.
The next anyone had seen or heard from Becca was around five that evening when she called Molly to ask her to babysit.
I paused. That was news to me. That made Molly one of the last people to see Becca alive. I would definitely be talking to her later.
Then I went back to the first file and started going through the interviews, looking for anything that contradicted the account of Becca's day. Anything off. But the sheriff had been thorough and there was nothing to be found. Not one shred of a clue as to what had happened to her.
Where had she been heading that night? Molly's account didn't say why she was asked to babysit, but surely Becca had given her some reason? But before I could make it to my feet to go ask her, the sheriff's muscular frame filled the kitchen doorway.
I sat back down. "Any luck?" I asked.
He shook his head, then sniffed the air. "Is that vanilla coffee I smell?"
"Yup. Should have offered you a cup earlier. It's fresh, too. Cups are in the cabinet over the pot."
He pulled out a mug and filled it to the brim, added the heavenly creamer, then stopped to take a deep swig. "You're going to have to tell me your secret. No matter how hard I try, my coffee never tastes this good."
"No secret, just good coffee and creamer." I pushed the chair opposite me out with my foot, and he sank down into it.
"You find anything we missed? Any friends or relatives we didn't think to check with?"
"No, you were every bit as thorough as I expected you to be." There was a moment of silence as he sipped his coffee and I put the papers back into their respective files. "So what's the next step?"
He shrugged. "Unfortunately, there really isn't one until someone comes forward with
more information, or..."
"Her body's found," I finished, saying the words Gabe didn't want to speak.
"Yeah. I've interviewed everyone at least twice and followed up a third time with a few of them."
"The file didn't say where she went that night. Did she not tell Molly? Usually, we leave numbers for her when we go out."
A head shake. "Not that night. According to Molly, all Rebecca said was that she had to take care of something."
"Did I hear my name?" I jumped and turned to see Molly standing in the doorway. If she was going to be living here, I'd have to get her a bell to wear.
“We were just talking about the night Ms. Shepard disappeared,” the sheriff told her. “Do you remember how she seemed that night before she left?”
“No, other than she was pissed as hell.”
“She was mad?” I asked. “Who at?”
Molly shrugged. “She wouldn’t tell me. Just that she had to go set someone straight and that she’d be back in a couple of hours.” Her look was filled with compassion. “When she wasn’t home by midnight, I called the Sheriff’s office. By that time, I knew something was really wrong. If she’d just been running late she’d have called.” She hung her head. “I should have called earlier, then they could have started looking before they did.”
“Becca was tutoring you for your GED test, wasn’t she?” I asked, just then remembering that Molly had been at the house more in the week before I left for training.
She nodded. “Yeah. I kind of dropped it after she was gone. It was too hard to do on my own.”
“Well, maybe I can take over her teaching duties for you. With a GED, there should be more job opportunities for you—once you’re finished here, of course.”
“Thanks, that’d be great.”
“Can you think back, was there anyone she was upset with before that night? Anyone that did something to make her mad?” Gabe asked.
She hesitated for a minute before answering. “Becca made me promise not to tell you, but I guess that doesn’t matter now.” Her brows drew together. “Then again, she might still rather I didn’t tell you.”
The sheriff and I exchanged glances. No way was she not going to tell us.
"If someone made Rebecca mad in the weeks before she disappeared, we really need to know about it. Whether she asked you to keep it a secret or not," the sheriff said.
She nodded and sighed.
"Why didn't Becca want me to know?" I was really puzzled. My sister and I hadn't kept secrets from each other. At least that's what I had thought up until now.
"She was afraid you'd do something... stupid. Her words, not mine."
"So, whatever it was, it would have made me mad too." That meant whatever it was, it was personal. Becca had her writing, and I had mine. Besides a business deal wouldn't have caused me to do something stupid. The only time I got angry enough to do something less than intelligent, it generally involved Michael.
"Let me guess," I started, "this involves Michael, doesn't it?"
She nodded, her eyes downcast. “He was spreading rumors and talking to teachers at the school. She had just enrolled Zane for the next school year and one of them called her and told her that Michael had been trying to convince them to sign something that said kids with two parents did better in school.”
I just stared at her. Surely my step brother wasn’t so much of a moron that he had honestly thought he could take Zane away from his birth mother?
“Was he doing anything else that made her upset?”
Molly’s eyes stayed on the table. “He’d seen a lawyer, too. And he called her and said that if she really loved her son, she’d want him to have the best.” Finally, she raised her eyes to mine. “Of course, to him, that meant living with him and his wife.”
"Becca should have told me. She shouldn't have had to deal with that son of a bitch alone."
"She said you'd get real mad and probably end up in jail. Then Michael could use that against her too. She said that might even have been what he wanted."
I took a staggered breath, too angry for words. Knowing my manipulative bastard of a step brother, Becca may have been right.
The sheriff beat me to the file. "According to Mr. and Mrs. Lawson both, your step brother was at a banking convention out of town that night."
"Did you check it out?"
Gabe hesitated. "Not my best work, but yes. He volunteered some credit card receipts that were charged to his Visa in the town of the convention. It was held in Louisville, and that's a two-and-a-half-hour drive any way you take it. The time stamp on them was from six that night to one in the morning. There were enough of them to paint a picture of how he spent his evening."
"And he just volunteered them, you didn't have to ask?"
"Yup. Seemed a bit strange to me, too, but they were on his card and they checked out." His eyes bored into mine. "Do you really think he could have had something to do with your sister's disappearance?"
I took a couple of deep breaths before answering. "There's something you should know about Michael, Sheriff. If there is something he wants, he'll stop at nothing to get it. The trouble with him is that he feels every action he takes is fully justified. Everyone in his path is wrong to obstruct him." I took the last swig of my now cold coffee. "So yeah, I'm thinking Michael may be the only one who knows what happened that night."
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Shallow Grave (Gabe)
Funny, Gabe thought, but when his cell phone started ringing at five o'clock in the morning, the first thing that popped into his mind was 'Thank God, they've found her'. Of course, that could have been due in part to the somewhat disturbing dream the call had awoken him from. Not necessarily a bad dream, but one he wasn't quite willing to accept just yet.
In high school, he'd met Colin a few times. In was inevitable with Gabe and Michael on the same football team and everything. In fact, some days it seemed that Gabe couldn't get out of spitting distance from Mike. It annoyed the hell out of him, but one of the few perks it had was putting him in the occasional path of Colin. Now there was a boy he wouldn't have minding being in spitting distance with. Or even closer, for that matter.
Colin was everything Michael wasn't. Shy, geeky, kind, patient, thoughtful. All the qualities that made a man in Gabe's opinion. Then he had discovered that Colin was even more when he saw the picture on the front page highlighting the new black belts of the local dojo. Turned out Colin was a Karate dynamo. And he liked him even more.
If it hadn't been for his family, Gabe might have acted on that liking. But back then, being a typical teenager, all he had wanted to do was fit it. And fitting in required one to chase girls, and on occasion, catch one or two.
When the experimental catching in his senior year had led to the girl getting pregnant, Gabe believed his fate to be sealed. Luckily, that news had come at the end of the school year. In fact, she told him the day before graduation. Talk about a buzz kill.
Believing in living with honor, Gabe had done the 'right thing'. He had married her. One month after they said their vows, she had a miscarriage. But by then it was too late.
To his family and friends, they appeared to be the perfect married couple. They didn't fight, at least not in public, and they kept all their dirty laundry at home where it belonged.
But he couldn't really change who and what he was at heart and eventually his wife started getting the true picture of him. She didn't leave with screams and incriminations. She left him as they had lived their farce of a marriage. With quiet dignity. He had been grateful beyond words for that.
Another thing he was grateful for was that she had never once questioned that he would have custody of their son. One morning she was there, and that night she wasn't. There was a note in her handwriting about accepting a position with her company out of state, so there was never any question of foul play.
And Gabe was free to be himself. But by then, he was a sheriff's deputy and a pillar of the community. The Sheriff was popular bu
t had already announced his intention to retire at the end of his current elected term. And Gabriel Green wanted that position.
He just wasn't sure the county would elect a gay sheriff. So, he stayed right where he had always been. Firmly in the closet.
His dreams of Colin doing things to him that he had never, in fact, experienced in real life was a bit disturbing to him. That didn't, however, make them nightmares.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and debated for all of five seconds whether to take the time for a shower. In the end, he decided that his men could deal with any stink from yesterday. Besides, it would take him some time to get Matt handed off.
That was the bad part about being the head of law enforcement for the county at the same time as being a single dad. Middle of the night phone calls happened with a certain irregular regularity. The first few had been a challenge.
Then his neighbors had stepped up to the plate. They loved the fact that the sheriff lived right next door. They called him their own personal security force. And Matt got along with their two younger boys too. The system now was to get Matt up just enough to get him over to the house next door and situated on their couch.
They have given him a key and told him that he didn't even have to leave a note. Seeing Matt on the couch when they woke up would be enough. It worked well. Everyone accepted and trusted the straight heterosexual Gabriel Green. He pushed aside the thought that might not be the case if they knew his true sexuality. Who was he to judge what they would think? But he wasn't willing to rock that boat just yet.
It was a short drive to the park with the jogging trails. Technically the park didn't open until seven, but there was positively no enforcement of that rule. A lot of people liked to get their exercise out of the way first thing, and the community respected their wishes.
He saw two county vehicles pulled over to the side of the main park road and he pulled over behind them. Blake, one of his older officers, stepped out from the cover of the trees. "Over here, Gabe."
All About Zane (Travis County Legal Book 1) Page 6