The Perfect Couple

by Brenda Novak

  “Did he fly?” she asked Jonathan as he shifted the transmission into Park.

  A frown of confusion made grooves in Jonathan’s forehead. “He told me he drove.”

  They didn’t have the chance to say more. Franky was watching them. Zoe figured it was time to see if he was sincere about the reward. With a deep breath, she got out of the Mercedes.

  Franky didn’t walk toward her. He was standing beside a large brown sack while holding a smaller one and seemed afraid to move for fear he’d scare her off. He kept his focus on Jonathan, as if he found it too difficult to look at her. Every once in a while his gaze would slide her way, but the moment he saw her looking at him, his eyes would dart back to Jonathan, and his face would go red.

  Before they could greet him, he pulled a big wad of cash from the smaller sack. “I’ve got the money,” he announced.

  He held the bag and the money out to Jonathan, but Jonathan didn’t take it. “Where’d you get that?”

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t do nothin’ illegal.” He fanned through some of the bills. “It was a clean deal. It’s all good.”

  “Then tell me where you got it,” Jonathan said.

  Franky gestured to the taxi driver, asking him not to leave. “My grandpa had a collection of really old coins. Some of ’em dated back to the Civil War. It was really cool, something we used to look at together. He left it to me when he died. Along with his truck,” he added.

  “You sold the collection?” Zoe asked.

  “I had my grandmother pawn the coins and wire me the money while I took the truck to Cars for Cash.” His voice turned apologetic. “I’m still a little shy of the ten thousand you wanted. But this is close. Nine thousand two hundred and forty dollars,” he said. “I had to keep a hundred and sixty to fly home.”

  Zoe couldn’t believe it. He’d sold his two most precious possessions, the only things he owned of any value, to provide the reward money?

  “Here you go,” he said when Jonathan still made no move to take the sack.

  Obviously, he wanted to hand over the money and go. Being in her presence was too uncomfortable for him. But Jonathan didn’t make it easy. He jerked his head at Zoe. “It’s not for me. Give it to her.”

  It was still quite obvious that Franky didn’t even want to meet her eyes. But he was so happy to be able to offer her this gift that he shuffled closer and, staring down at the pavement, held it out to her. “I hope you find your daughter,” he mumbled.

  Tears blurred Zoe’s vision as her hand closed around the sack. Nine thousand, two hundred and forty dollars. He’d kept only enough to get home. “Thank you,” she said.

  He nodded, then lifted up the bigger sack. “My grandmother sent you this. If you don’t want it, that’s okay. It’s just…some banana bread and other stuff she made.”

  Their hands brushed as Zoe accepted it. His skin was dry and rough, a typical blue-collar man’s hand, but the contact confirmed what she’d come to believe in San Diego—he was as human as she was. After all the time she’d feared him, that realization put the man who’d hurt her in perspective for good. So did the tears filling his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I hope someday you can forgive me.”

  Apparently, he didn’t expect her to do it now. Lowering his head, he turned and got into the cab. But before he could drive off, Zoe flagged down the driver, reached into her purse and gave Franky the picture of Sam she’d used to make the flyer.

  “This is for me?”

  “For you and your grandmother. I—” Zoe had to clear her throat twice to speak past the emotion that threatened to choke her. “I appreciate your sacrifice.”

  His mouth curved in a bittersweet smile as he looked at the picture. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

  “I think so.” She extended her hand, and he shook it. Then the taxi drove off.

  * * *

  Tiffany couldn’t sit still. Watching her mother-in-law agonize over Paddy’s disappearance was absolute torture. How could Colin tolerate it? She had no idea, but he didn’t seem to be having any trouble. Sitting at the kitchen table, he’d polished off a big piece of cake and was currently scraping the last of the frosting from his plate.

  “Where could he be?” Sheryl stood between them and directed this question at Colin, a question she’d already asked at least five times. It was a shock to see her, stoic even when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, this upset.

  “He’ll show up,” Colin said.

  Sheryl’s puffy face made her look like a caricature of her usual self. With her hair dyed an unlikely shade of red and teased into a stiff globe, and makeup thick enough to be reminiscent of onetime TV personality Tammy Faye Baker, she wasn’t particularly attractive in the first place. But she was a fair person and tried hard to please those she loved. “How come you’re not worried?” she asked. “He’s never done anything like this before.”

  “To you.” Colin’s fork clinked as he put it down and pushed his plate into the center of the table. “He left my mom all the time. Once he took off for three weeks and went to Vegas. I think he was planning to divorce her, but, in the end, he didn’t go through with it.”

  The pucker of Sheryl’s mouth grew more pronounced as she struggled to cope with the hurt. “But we weren’t having any problems. Why would he leave me?”

  “Maybe he wasn’t as fulfilled as you thought.” Stretching out, Colin crossed his legs at the ankles. “Maybe he wanted his freedom. Or he met someone else. That happens more often than anyone would like to believe.”

  “You think he ran off with another woman?”

  Tiffany winced at the tremor in Sheryl’s voice. She wanted to interrupt, put a stop to Colin’s gibes, but didn’t dare.

  “You said you found his car at the pool hall,” he said.

  “But the bartender told me he never came in last night.”

  “Exactly. Doesn’t that give you some idea of what happened?”

  “What?” she said helplessly.

  “He met someone there.” He sniffed. But that sniff wasn’t due to tears. It was all the coke he snorted. It caused sinus problems and sometimes a bloody nose. “I’m guessing it was a lady friend. They left his car and took hers.”

  “No, he loved me,” Sheryl said with a sob, but Tiffany could tell she was tempted to believe the scenario, simply because there was no plausible explanation. People had affairs much more often than they went missing or got murdered.

  “I’m not so sure,” Colin went on. “I don’t mean to rub salt in the wound, but you sort of asked for it.”

  Sheryl’s eyebrows drew together as she wiped her eyes. “I did?”

  “You can be a real nag, Sheryl. If you want him back, you’re going to have to work on that.”

  Covering her face, Sheryl broke into sobs, and Tiffany’s restraint snapped. She couldn’t take any more. Wasn’t what Colin had done bad enough? Sheryl would never see Paddy again, and she’d never know why. Did Colin have to make the situation worse by giving her reason to blame herself?

  Maybe Colin didn’t like his stepmom, but Tiffany did. Sheryl was a good wife, a good mom. “That’s not it,” she said.

  She’d spoken quietly, but the fact that she’d spoken at all drew their attention.

  Sheryl lowered her hands. “What’d you say?”

  Tiffany refused to meet Colin’s penetrating gaze. She knew he’d make her pay for contradicting him, but just then she hated him almost as much as she loved him. “Whatever happened, it’s not your fault.”

  The hope of obtaining some relief brought Sheryl over to the couch. “You don’t think it could be another woman?”

  “Absolutely not. Paddy loved you too much. He’d never leave you because no one else could give him more,” she said with conviction.

  Tiffany wasn’t good at demonstrating love to other females. She’d always been shy and awkward, probably because her mother had spurned every advance. But a moment later, her step mother-in-l
aw had sunk down next to her and was crying on her shoulder—and it wasn’t stiff or uncomfortable. It felt perfectly natural because Tiffany shared Sheryl’s grief. She wanted Paddy to come home, too; she didn’t want him to be dead.

  When she looked up, she found Colin glaring at her, but she didn’t cower as she normally did. She was glad she’d intervened. If he wanted her to lure Zoe to the cabin, he could trade her a little kindness for Sheryl.

  “But what else could it be?” Sheryl’s words were muffled because she’d spoken into Tiffany’s shoulder.

  “Tiffany doesn’t know,” Colin said. “She doesn’t know jackshit.”

  “And you do?” Tiffany wasn’t sure what had made her say it. She’d gone too far already. But the relief on Sheryl’s face when she pulled back made Tiffany’s small defiance worth it. “Some stranger must’ve tricked him into…into going somewhere with him,” she ventured. “You know…out to jump a dead battery or…or over to some house to check out a gun for sale. You know how much Paddy liked to hunt. The promise of a good gun would convince him to go anywhere. Then he was probably hurt and robbed.”

  Sheryl quickly agreed. “That’s possible.”

  Colin took his own plate to the sink for a change. “Maybe that person was Glen,” he said. “Has anyone checked to see where he was last night?”

  The mere suggestion that Sheryl’s son might’ve hurt her husband made Sheryl blanch. “Glen would never hurt Paddy. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Glen hated Paddy,” Colin said. “And you know what his temper is like.”

  “No. Glen didn’t do anything. Paddy will come back. He’s probably lying injured somewhere, dazed. Someone will find him and help him come home.”

  “Right,” Colin said. “Well, call us the minute he walks through the door. I have some work to catch up on before I go to the office in the morning.”

  Colin jerked his head toward the door, letting Tiffany know it was time to leave, and the bravado she’d felt just minutes earlier evaporated. Soon she’d be in the car with him alone. And then they’d be inside their upper-middle-class home, in their seemingly peaceful neighborhood, located in the newest part of one of the safest suburbs in Sacramento.

  And she already knew that anything could happen behind that perfect facade.

  * * *

  “So now you’re Sheryl’s best friend?” Colin asked as he drove them home.

  Tiffany didn’t answer. She stared straight ahead as if she expected a severe punishment. She deserved one—another session with the collar and whip, at least. But there was still a hint of defiance in the lines of her body, and that made Colin less angry than worried. He’d taken for granted that Tiffany would side with him regardless of what he said or did, support him in anything. She had in the past, hadn’t she? She’d let him kidnap and torture four kids.

  Yet, after going along with that, she’d just taken a stand against him. Because of Paddy. She could forgive him for the pets. She’d never liked that part of their life together, but she was willing to tolerate it because it wasn’t personal. She didn’t expect Colin to care about kids he didn’t know, kids neither of them had any attachment to. But she did expect him to care about Paddy. That he could kill his own father so easily and feel no remorse frightened her.

  Deep inside him, it frightened Colin, too. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t feel what other people felt; it made him wonder if his mother had been right about him. He’d spent his entire life trying to prove to her and the rest of the world that he was as bright as anyone, as capable as anyone, as productive as anyone. And yet he couldn’t really care if he didn’t.

  Tiffany understood that lack of caring now. She finally saw what his mother had recognized when he was young, what his father had refused to believe until the very end. And Colin knew where it would lead. She’d begin to doubt his love for her, and that was the one bond that kept her with him.

  “Are you going to answer me?” he asked.

  She adjusted her seat belt. “I just feel sorry for her, that’s all.”

  “And you think I don’t?”

  She turned toward him. “You didn’t act like it.”

  He could almost read the questions in her mind as she studied him. “Because this isn’t easy for me, either.” Reaching over, he took her hand.

  She jerked in surprise, as if the pleading quality in his voice couldn’t be trusted and she expected him to hurt her in some way. But he merely ran his fingers over her soft skin.

  “Do you think I really want to face the truth?” he asked. “Paddy was my father, Tiff. I’ll never get to see him again—and I’m responsible for that.” He tried to conjure up a few tears, but it was no use. They weren’t there. He hoped the tortured expression on his face would be convincing enough. “I mean, I’m not inhuman. Sure it’s painful for Sheryl. She’ll miss Paddy. So will you. I feel terrible about that. But neither of you will have to live with what I have to live with, right?”

  She frowned at their entwined hands. “You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “We’ve been over this. I didn’t have any choice. Would you rather have lost him—or me? That’s what it came down to. He would’ve turned us in, Tiff. We would’ve gone to prison. I did it to protect you, to protect us both.”

  She blinked repeatedly. “This has been such a horrible week.”

  “I know. I haven’t been myself. Especially today. I’m sorry. I just…I don’t want to deal with the pain of what happened to Paddy. I don’t want to accept it. It’s easier to be flip and…and angry that it had to happen at all.”

  “I can understand that,” she said, softening.

  “How would you feel if you were me?” he asked.

  She grimaced.

  “Exactly. I’m in hell, so if I seem hard-hearted, please allow me a little denial.”

  Giving him a sympathetic look, she took his hand and kissed it. “We’ll be okay,” she said. “Somehow, we’ll get through this.”

  The terrible tightness that’d made it difficult to breathe since they’d gotten in the car began to ease. “I’m so lucky I have you. You can get me through any tragedy.”

  “That’s what a wife’s for.”

  “For better and for worse.”

  She rubbed his hand against her cheek. “That’s right.”

  He felt something. He hoped it was more than relief. “I have a present for you.”

  “You do?”

  “For Mother’s Day and to make up for…Zoe and Paddy.”

  Her mood visibly improved. She even squeezed his hand for reassurance. “What is it?”

  “Remember that diamond ring you wanted?”

  Her eyes widened. “Yes?”

  “I’m going to buy it for you.”

  “You are?” she breathed.

  “Yep. Tonight.”

  “But it’s five thousand dollars, Colin! We can’t spend that kind of money.”

  “Hey, you married a successful attorney, babe. I can afford to buy my wife an expensive present now and then.”

  “But it’ll have to go on credit.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Soon I’ll be making a lot more than I’m making now.”

  Her smile grew wider than he’d seen it in a long time, and the pain in his chest went away altogether. He had her right back where he wanted her; she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Everyone at work will be so jealous.”

  “They should know you’re special.” He put down the top of his convertible and smiled as the warm afternoon breeze ruffled his hair. It made him feel carefree. And why not feel that way? Nothing had significantly changed. Paddy was gone, but they could live without him. They had it all.

  But then a call came in on his cell—and because the only person he wanted to hear from was sitting beside him, he felt a strong reluctance to even check it.

  “Is that your phone?” Tiffany asked when he made no move to retrieve it from his pocket.

  “Yeah.” With a sigh, he brought it into t
he light.

  “Who is it?” The tone of her voice suggested she’d already noticed the change in his expression.

  “I don’t recognize the number, but…”

  “What?”

  “It’s long-distance, with a Los Angeles area code.”

  “Then it’s got to be your mother.”

  That was his guess, too. The last time Paddy had talked to Colin’s sister, Courtney had been living down south. It was a no-brainer that Tina wouldn’t be far away. They’d stuck together all along.

  Tiffany bit her lip. “Do you think she expected you to call her today?”

  “I doubt it. I haven’t called her in years.”

  “Then what does she want?”

  He wasn’t sure, but he knew, whatever her reason, her call wasn’t a good thing. The very last time he’d seen her, he’d been a senior in high school and had still been living with Paddy. She’d come to visit and had blamed him for slashing her tires while she was there. She’d screamed at him, called him the spawn of Satan.

  He had been the one to ruin her tires, but she shouldn’t have been so quick to accuse him. She should’ve had some doubt, or at least some desire to believe him.

  “We’ll see.” He hit the Talk button just before it went to voice mail. “Hello?”

  “Colin?”

  It was his mother, all right. “What do you want?” he said.

  “I want you to tell me where your father is.”

  The tension was back, clawing at his gut. She’d always known about him. That was why he hated her so much. When he looked into her face, he saw his true self staring back at him. “Who told you about Dad?”

  “Sheryl called me. She wanted to know if he went back to me. Can you believe that? After all this time?”

  Colin cringed because he’d probably caused that call. “She’s jumping to conclusions,” he said. “Dad’s taken off, but he’ll come home. He always came home before, right?”

  “He was happy with Sheryl. He wouldn’t leave.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, then. He didn’t check in with me. I have no idea where he is.”

  “I think you might. He tried to call me last night. I wasn’t there, but he left a message, said he needed to talk to me about something very important. He said it had to do with you.”