Elaine’s gaze seemed to crackle. ‘Over? It’s not over for me. In case you’ve forgotten, your sister, Lauren, was murdered. Just because the charges against you were dropped does not mean that this case can be put to rest. What happened to my baby? I still want answers. If it wasn’t you who killed Lauren, who was it? They’re the police. They need to start all over again.’
Garth frowned at his wife. ‘Couldn’t you have let Dory have this one day?’
Elaine sniffed. ‘I thought you, of all people, would understand.’
‘You were right to call us,’ said Detective Spagnola. ‘We are officially reopening this case. We’ve been over the file, and we need to question again all the people we talked to three years ago.’
Chris Ennis stood up abruptly. ‘Well, I guess the party’s over.’ He turned to Joy and Therese. ‘We may as well head back upstairs.’ Following his lead, Joy and Therese stood up to go.
Detective Langford frowned at him. ‘You live in this building?’
Chris nodded. ‘My wife and my daughter and I.’
‘And your name is . . .’
‘Christopher Ennis. And this is my wife, Joy. And my daughter, Therese.’
Detective Langford consulted a list he had on a clipboard. ‘Mr Ennis. You were living here when Lauren Colson was murdered.’
‘Yes, we were,’ said Chris. ‘But we answered all these questions when it happened. We really have nothing new to offer. None of us were home at the time it happened.’
‘Why don’t you just sit back down for a minute,’ said Detective Langford.
‘Why do we have to stay?’ Therese asked her mother.
‘Look,’ said the detective. ‘Obviously somebody messed up when they were questioning witnesses and suspects, and now we need to re-question friends, family, anybody who was in the building or had access to the building. What about you, ma’am?’ he asked, turning to Alex.
‘What about me?’
‘Name?’
‘Alex Woods.’
‘You a friend of the victim’s? Or the family?’
Alex knew better than to give him the long version. ‘I never met the Colsons until a few weeks ago. I never knew Lauren Colson at all.’
‘Me neither,’ said Seth. ‘Seth Paige. I just gave Dory a ride here today.’
Dory glared at him. ‘Thanks a lot, Seth. We’re not even friends?’
‘I didn’t mean it like that, Dory,’ he said. ‘I only meant for their purposes.’
The detective consulted his list. ‘You two can leave,’ he said.
‘Thanks,’ said Seth. He turned to Alex, as if to ask her if she was coming. Alex was looking at Dory.
‘I’m sorry this had to happen right now,’ she said.
Dory shook her head. ‘Lauren. It’s like she’s still here.’
‘Are you staying with your parents or coming back to my house tonight?’ Alex asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Dory irritably.
‘Well, if you want me to I can bring your stuff to town tomorrow. But you still need to pick up the dog.’
Dory looked at Alex and shook her head. ‘You said you liked animals. What a joke. You’re too selfish. I can’t imagine you ever having a dog of your own.’
‘Dory,’ Garth warned her. ‘Where did you get the dog?’
‘My old customer. Regina Magill. She brought him out there.’
‘We’ll get Regina to take the dog off your hands,’ said Garth. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘I’ll decide what happens to my dog,’ Dory said.
‘Fine,’ said Alex grimly. ‘I’ll wait to hear from you.’
Out on the street Seth said, ‘Can I give you a lift? I’m parked right at the end of the block.’
Alex hesitated. Then she said, ‘OK.’
She followed him to his car and clambered into the front seat, grateful when the heat began to rise. She couldn’t stop shivering. As Seth maneuvered the car out of the space, Alex closed her eyes and tipped her head back, exhausted after the sleepless night before and the upheavals of the day. Before she knew it, she was asleep. She opened her eyes again when the car jerked to a halt in her driveway.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t much company.’
‘Doesn’t matter. You were tired,’ he said.
‘I was,’ she replied. ‘Well, thank you.’ She opened the car door.
‘I think I better go in with you,’ he said.
‘Why? Don’t be silly.’
‘Remus might be in an ornery mood.’
As if Remus had heard what Seth said, he began to bark frantically from inside the house.
‘What can you do?’ Alex asked doubtfully.
‘I’m a dog whisperer,’ he said.
‘Right.’
‘Just wait,’ he said, getting out of the driver’s side.
Alex didn’t want to admit it, but she was glad he was coming in with her. She followed him up the shoveled walk to the front door, opened it and let him precede her into the house. Remus barked like he was possessed by the devil, the shrill noise echoing up the stairwell.
Seth began murmuring and, in a short time, Remus was quiet. Seth straightened up and turned to Alex.
‘Ahem,’ he said. ‘What did I tell you?’
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to hand it to you.’
Seth hesitated in the doorway.
‘Can you stay for something to drink?’ she asked.
‘I can’t stay long,’ he said. ‘I have to pack.’
Alex shrugged. ‘Beer?’
Seth nodded and followed her into the kitchen. Remus, his nails clacking on the floor, brought up the rear.
Alex got them each a drink and they sat down at the kitchen table.
‘Nice party at the Colsons, eh?’ he asked.
She laughed in spite of herself. ‘That was horrible. Poor Dory.’
‘She brings it on herself,’ he said.
‘Maybe,’ Alex admitted. ‘But her mother just won’t cut her any slack.’
‘There’s worse things than losing your mother, I guess,’ he said.
Alex raised her glass and clinked it with his beer bottle. ‘True,’ she said.
They sat in silence for a moment, each contemplating their own losses. Then Alex said, ‘So, is it Friday you’re leaving?’
‘Actually, I’m leaving tonight,’ he said.
‘Tonight?’
‘Yeah, I’m not flying. I’m going to drive out. Obviously it’s going to take a lot longer to get out there, so I’ll just do five or six hours tonight and then I’ll stop somewhere and pick it up tomorrow.’
‘Guess you’re in a hurry to get going,’ she said.
‘The sooner I go, the sooner I get back.’
Alex looked up at him and frowned. ‘Get back?’
‘I’m going back to resign from my position. I’m driving the SUV so that I can clear out my place and bring back my stuff.’
Alex felt her heart leap in her chest. ‘What are you talking about? You’re coming back here?’
Seth nodded. ‘This thing with my dad was kind of a wake-up call. You know, I’m pretty fond of that old guy, and I can see that his health isn’t all that it might be. And he’s the only parent I’ve got left. I guess talking to you made me hyper-aware of that this vacation. And there’s Janet and the kids. They’re my family. It’s important to be around them. I’m tired of living so far away.’
‘So you’re just quitting your job and moving home?’
‘You make me sound like a slacker,’ he teased her.
Alex blushed.
‘No. Remember the other day on the train when I told you I was having lunch with my old advisor? He’s been trying to get me to come back and teach in his department at the university for several years now. This time I told him I was ready to do it. It’s semester break so I figured I better make the leap before the new semester started.’
Alex stared at him. ‘You’re really moving back here?’
<
br /> ‘Yep,’ he said. He was quiet for a moment. ‘What do you think?’
Alex could not meet his gaze. ‘I’m . . . really glad,’ she said.
‘Good.’ Seth smiled, then extended his hand across the table. ‘Because my family isn’t the only reason I want to come back here,’ he said.
Alex could feel the warmth of his gaze on her. She hesitated before reaching out and putting her hand in his. She felt as if her hand was going to burst into flame. ‘It isn’t?’
Seth shook his head. ‘Nope.’
They sat like that for a moment, both tongue-tied. Then Seth let go of her hand and stood up. ‘So as much as I’d like to stay here and discuss this with you, I’ve got to get a move on. It’s a long drive.’
Alex stood up, smiling, and walked with him to the front door. ‘I’m so happy you’re coming back,’ she said.
Seth leaned towards her, as he had on Christmas Day, but this time he kissed her on the lips. Alex almost gasped from the surprise. She answered the question in his kiss with her own, and they were soon entwined in each other’s arms.
Alex could have stood that way all night, reveling in the reality of what she had only imagined – holding him, and being held, but suddenly Remus began to bark and the front door opened. Alex and Seth reluctantly surfaced from their kisses and turned, feeling intoxicated, still clinging to one another, and looked in the doorway.
Dory stood there, staring at them. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘What a surprise.’
Alex pulled away from Seth and tugged down on her suit jacket. ‘Dory. Hi.’
‘What do you know?’ she said, pushing past them in the vestibule. ‘Don’t let me interrupt. I just came to get my things like you asked me.’ She started up the stairs, every step heavy.
‘I think I better go,’ Seth whispered.
Alex nodded and they kissed again, quickly. ‘Have a safe trip,’ she said. ‘Drive carefully. Hurry back.’ She followed him to the doorway.
‘’Bye, Dory,’ he called out from the foot of the stairs. There was no reply.
Out in front of the house, Garth Colson’s black truck sat idling. Alex could see someone at the wheel though she couldn’t swear that it was Garth. Seth stole one more kiss from her before he jogged out to the car in the driveway.
She waved as he pulled out and drove down the street. Then she went back inside. Dory was coming down the staircase, awkwardly hefting the polka dot suitcase and a couple of tote bags.
‘I can’t take the dog,’ she said abruptly. ‘My mother still won’t have a dog in the house. You’ll have to keep him here until Regina gets back.’
‘Dory, you don’t have to leave,’ said Alex. ‘You can stay here.’ She hadn’t expected those words to pop out of her own mouth, but suddenly her heart was so light that she couldn’t begrudge Dory anything. In fact, she felt positively inclined to be generous to this difficult sister.
‘Oh, don’t worry about me. I want to leave,’ said Dory. ‘I didn’t realize what you were up to.’
‘What do you mean?’ Alex asked uneasily.
‘You said you didn’t have a boyfriend. But obviously, you do.’
‘Really, no, I didn’t,’ said Alex. ‘We just . . . started . . .’
‘Maybe it was because you could see that I was just getting to know him. You didn’t want that, did you? Him liking me, and not you. I guess I really didn’t have much of a chance, did I?’
Alex sighed. ‘Dory, that is not what happened at all.’
Dory gazed at her. ‘Don’t tell me that’s not what happened. Don’t lie to my face. I have eyes.’ She hauled her things to the door and started out.
‘Do you need a hand?’ Alex asked.
‘From you?’ Dory asked. ‘No. I don’t need anything from you.’
‘Dory, don’t,’ said Alex. But she might as well have been talking to the wind. Dory had stepped off the front porch step into the darkness and was gone.
TWENTY-ONE
Alex ate a grilled cheese sandwich, ran a bubble bath and submerged herself. And the whole time, her heart felt like it was going to burst with happiness. Seth, she thought. She had felt the attraction to him from that first night at Laney Thompson’s party, but it hadn’t seemed possible. He lived in Chicago and, for all she knew, was involved with someone else. He was six years older, and she told herself that he probably still saw her as one of the little kids from the neighborhood. And yet she had felt breathless each and every time she saw him. And now, to know that he felt the same way . . . That it was real! That he was coming back here to live. That they were going to start a relationship. It wasn’t a feeling you had that often in life. That glorious tipping sensation when you were first falling in love. Yes, she thought. Falling in love.
She dried off from her bath, put on her oversized T-shirt and bathrobe, and whirled in her bedroom, hugging herself. For maybe the first time since she had set foot in this house after the accident, she felt happy. Hopeful. Alive. And they knew it. She felt sure that they knew it. She could feel her parents’ love for her like a glow around her, and she almost felt, impossible though it was, that they had had a hand in it. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered to the silence in the house which now seemed not depressing, but benign. And even though she knew rationally that this could not have been the case, she still said, ‘Thank you for Seth.’
She went downstairs and tried to read, to calm herself down, but it was no use. For a little while she thought about Dory. She couldn’t help feeling vaguely guilty about Dory’s disappointment over Seth. She felt that Alex had deceived her. It would be difficult to convince Dory that there was nothing between her and Seth until this very night. But it wasn’t up to Alex to persuade Dory of that, she reminded herself. It wasn’t as if Seth had led Dory on. Alex knew better. He’d just been nice. Alex wasn’t sure that Dory knew the difference.
Alex thought about Elaine calling the police to come and interrupt the celebration of Dory being officially cleared in the case of her sister’s murder. It was almost as if she could not bear the idea that Dory wasn’t guilty. Why? Alex wondered. How could a mother feel that way? She should have been delighted that Dory was no longer a suspect. Instead it seemed as if her only aim was to remind Dory that she did not believe her, did not trust her. And all that Dory wanted, it seemed, was to be welcomed back into her mother’s affections.
Maybe, Alex thought, she wasn’t being fair to Elaine. After all, someone murdered her daughter, right there in her own home, and Dory had pleaded guilty. Could she really be blamed for believing in her guilt? And now there was no one to blame, but Lauren was still dead. That pain would never go away and Elaine would probably never be at peace until she knew who had killed her. So, who was Lauren’s killer? Alex wondered. Maybe the police were not looking far enough for the murderer. They seemed to be focusing on the people in Boston but Lauren had lived far away, in Branson, Missouri. Could it have been someone from her life in Branson who wanted her dead? Or maybe a crazy fan. Everybody had read about them. Maybe someone followed her to Boston from her other life.
Thinking about Lauren’s murder reminded her of that CD that Seth had bought for her at the second-hand bookstore. To be sure that Dory didn’t see her with it, Alex had slipped it into a drawer in the dining room that same day and not looked at it since. She went into the dining room, opened the drawer and pulled it out. Back in the living room she popped the CD into the sound system and sat down to listen. The first track was some coy number about a biker at a bar. Alex listened to a few bars and skipped over it. The second track was the title song, ‘Love You Only’ set to the wailing accompaniment of an electric fiddle. The plaintiveness in Lauren’s voice was unmistakable. Alex unfolded the liner notes and read along with the lyrics.
No one knows or understands me
No one thinks I’ve done enough
No one’s close, or ever can be.
No one wants to know it’s rough.
Mama tells me to do more
Or m
y moment will be lost
Says I’m gonna end up poor.
I say what’s it gonna cost?
Lost my passion and my youth,
All I’m left is tired and lonely,
And I’ve finally faced the truth.
I’m condemned to love you only.
As a rule, Alex hated country music. It always sounded whiny and sentimental to her ears. But once in a while a country song could capture her with its sincerity, and she found herself replaying ‘Love You Only’ several times.
Maybe it was because she knew something about this singer. She knew the mama in Lauren’s life, and wondered if the song was autobiographical, or if she had written the lyrics in the persona of a fictional character. It was tempting to read it as autobiographical, and she certainly felt a jolt of recognition when Lauren described her mother as demanding and difficult to satisfy.
Alex had assumed, from the start, that Lauren had been lavished with love and attention while Dory was neglected. But, when she thought about it, Elaine was the same person, even if she treated her daughters differently. Perhaps she had overlooked Dory, but maybe her great love for Lauren had taken the form of pushing her unmercifully, and never being satisfied with the results. No wonder Lauren was lonely.
Clearly she had suffered from a love affair gone bad. Was it someone from Branson? Alex wondered if the police had looked into Lauren’s personal life there at all. Probably not, since Dory presented them with the ideal suspect. Maybe I’ll mention that to Dory, Alex thought. Or to Elaine. The sooner someone else was arrested for Lauren’s murder, the sooner Dory might be truly forgiven by her mother.
For a moment Alex felt her sister’s sadness and lamented it. She looked over at Remus, who was resting quietly on the bed which Dory had bought for him. ‘We can’t abandon her, Remus,’ she said. ‘We have to try to help her.’ Surprisingly she realized that she actually meant it. She and Dory were not done with one another. They were still sisters and Alex was not going to give up on her, even if she had installed the worst dog ever in Alex’s home. ‘I mean you,’ Alex said to the dog who was curled up on the bed, snoring.
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