by Brenda Novak
“But this one would answer directly to us, independent of your defense. It can’t hurt to have an extra pair of eyes on the job. Maybe he’ll find something your attorney won’t.”
“Maybe.” Ava’s image appeared in Luke’s mind—the wide mouth, the intelligent eyes, the blush that rose to her cheeks at various moments during their conversation. “I wish I could hire the woman I just met.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I doubt she’d do it. She works for a victims’ charity, and I’m not technically considered a victim.”
“Charities always need money. Tell her we’ll make a generous donation.”
“That might not be the only problem.”
“What other problem could there be?”
“I don’t think she likes me.” And he hadn’t done a lot to change that. She’d assumed the worst, so he’d behaved like a conceited asshole, just as she’d expected. Probably not the smartest move he could’ve made, but the frustration and anger he’d been feeling were taking their toll.
“Everyone likes you, Luke.”
A grin spread across his face. This was the reason God had created mothers. “A completely unbiased opinion, I’m sure.”
“Give her a call,” she prodded. “The worst she can say is no.”
He’d already asked for Ava’s help. But he hadn’t offered to donate. Would it make a difference?
“We’ve never hired a private investigator before,” his mother went on. “Who knows what we might get? We could end up with someone who’s a total waste of money. This woman is local, she’s familiar with the case, she believes Kalyna is lying—”
“And she’s good at what she does,” he finished.
“Exactly. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”
“I’ll think about it.” He wasn’t sure he had the nerve to contact Ava again. Are you really that attracted to me? Because I’m not having the same problem. Had he actually said that? He was never rude to a woman. And then there was the comment he’d made about his penis…That one was definitely over the top.
“Okay, you think about it,” his mother said. “And if you don’t want to call her, your father will.”
“Mom,” he warned. “You have to let me handle this.”
“But I have a good feeling about it, Luke. We were just discussing this before you called, so it’s serendipitous that you’ve mentioned someone who’d be ideal. Anyway, let’s discuss it some more tomorrow. If I don’t get our movie started now, it’ll be too late.”
“No problem.” He said goodbye, then he considered calling Ava to see if he could enlist her help. The fact that she’d started out on Kalyna’s side and then switched over to his would speak volumes. That in itself would lend him credibility, wouldn’t it?
Positive that it would, he went so far as to scroll through his call list and highlight her number. But too many things he’d said echoed back to him. You can talk to any of the women I’ve dated. They’ll all tell you I’m an amazing lover.
God, what had gotten into him? He wasn’t going to call her. He hoped he never had to face her again.
She was dropping the case. Maybe he should just leave well enough alone.
15
Nearly three hundred and fifty dollars wasn’t a bad take. And because she’d made a quick trip to the Quick Stop next door and insisted on charging for a condom if her partner was set on using one, only two of the men had bothered. That meant she had a good chance of getting pregnant. What more could it take? At least one of those guys had to be virile enough. And Tati was none the wiser. It was all Kalyna could do not to laugh in her sister’s face. How stupid could she be?
Tati had come outside looking for Kalyna once, but someone in line waylaid her until Kalyna could straighten her clothes. At that point, Kalyna had acted as if she’d just stepped out for a smoke and some conversation, and because there were so many men with her, Tati never questioned it.
After that close call, the guys who’d already been outside kept Tati busy, flattering her with compliments, games of darts and invitations to dance, and she didn’t bother to check again.
“What are you smiling about?” Tati asked. They were in Kalyna’s car, but Tati was driving. Tati had only had one beer; Kalyna could barely stand.
“I had fun tonight,” she said.
“I did, too.” Tati smiled shyly. “Those guys were nice, weren’t they?”
Kalyna thought of her bulging wallet. “Very.”
Tati stopped at a red light. “Guess what?”
“What?”
“Danny asked for my number.” Excitement lit her face. “And I hope he calls. I really like him.”
Kalyna noticed the flush on her sister’s cheeks. “Which one was Danny?”
“The cute one with the red hair.”
“I don’t remember him,” Kalyna lied, but she did. He hadn’t come out back. None of the other guys knew him well enough to invite him. But she’d taken him into the women’s restroom once she’d seen his interest in her sister. He’d said he didn’t want to have sex with her, but after they shared a few lines of coke she’d gotten from another guy in lieu of payment, he’d been eager enough.
“How could you miss him?” Tati asked. “He was the best-looking guy there. And he danced with me a few times.”
Kalyna adjusted her seat belt, which was so confining she couldn’t get comfortable. “I remember now.”
“He was hot, don’t you think?”
“Not so much. I wouldn’t go out with him if I were you.”
She scowled. “Why not?”
“He’s not your type.”
“How do you know? You spent all your time outside, smoking.”
Oh, well. If Tati wouldn’t listen, she’d have to settle for Kalyna’s leftovers. Kalyna imagined seeing Danny with her sister at Christmas dinner, both of them knowing what they’d done, and her smile grew wider. Maybe they’d do it again. Maybe he’d be the father of her baby. “Suit yourself,” she said, and slid lower in her seat to stop her head from spinning.
The light turned green, and Tati gave the car some gas. “Since when did you start smoking, anyway?”
“I don’t smoke. Not really. Just when I’m drinking and having a good time. And even then, only occasionally.”
“I wish you wouldn’t. It’s not healthy.”
Her sister was worried because she’d smoked a few cigarettes? Tati’s complete naivete made Kalyna giggle.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. You’re…sweet, you know that?”
Obviously pleased, Tati squeezed Kalyna’s hand as if she’d meant it as a compliment. “I’m glad we got to go out tonight. This is the first time I feel we’ve really connected since you came home.”
“I’m glad, too. The way things were going, I was afraid we wouldn’t have any fun.”
Tati glanced at her. “I love you. You know that, don’t you?”
The gravity in her voice pierced through Kalyna’s buzz, and suddenly the memory of the game she’d played at the bar wasn’t quite so enjoyable. She remembered laughing at Tati’s ignorance while the men stood in line, and wished she hadn’t done it. At least with Danny.
“Of course you do. I love you, too.” She turned to the window so her sister couldn’t see her face. “That’s why I don’t want you to go out with that Dan guy.”
They were close to the mortuary. “What are you talking about?”
“I hesitated to say this before, because I didn’t want to disappoint you, but he came on to me, too.”
Her sister deflated like a balloon. Even her shoulders slumped. “Oh,” she said. “I didn’t notice.”
“I don’t think he wanted you to know. That’s why he shut up the second he realized I was around.”
Tati pulled into the driveway and parked off to one side. “I should’ve known,” she mumbled.
“Known what?”
“That someone cute wouldn’t want me.”
“Don’t tal
k like that. You just need to lose a little weight. And there are other men out there,” Kalyna said. “What’s the big deal with this one?”
“There’s no big deal.” Tati managed to pull herself together, but Kalyna was pretty sure there were tears in her eyes when she got out.
Because it was the Fourth of July weekend, Mother’s Country Kitchen Café was even more packed than usual, but Ava didn’t mind the bustle. She, Skye and Sheridan had been meeting here for breakfast on the first Saturday of every month since she’d been promoted to full-fledged director. She enjoyed getting away with them for a few hours. It gave them all a chance to go over their cases and make decisions for the organization without the interruptions that typically occurred at the office.
“So what do you think?” Skye asked as the waitress who’d filled their coffee cups walked away. “Should we hire Jane?”
Ava waited for Sheridan’s response. She didn’t have the seniority they did. She’d first met Skye when she showed up in response to an ad in the Sacramento Bee. Shortly after her mother had gone to prison, TLS had offered a free seminar for victims and their families. Little did Ava know when she attended that it would result in an entirely new vocation for her, but it had. Bored with her job as a bank teller, she’d started to volunteer at TLS—and that was when she’d gone back to school three nights a week to get a masters in criminal justice.
She’d graduated last spring but was still the new kid on the block and careful not to come across as too presumptuous or pushy.
“I guess it’s okay, if that’s what you want to do,” Sheridan said.
Ava put down the spoon she’d been using to stir her coffee. She didn’t want to be the sole dissenting voice. She knew what Jane Burke meant to Skye. But she had some concerns about bringing her on staff. “I’m not sure it’s our best move.”
Skye glanced up at her. She sat next to Ava wearing a pair of khaki shorts, a simple white tank and little white loafers—nothing fancy and yet she looked as glamorous as any model. “Why not? Maybe Jane doesn’t have a police background or a degree like yours, but she could work alongside me until she’s trained.” She took the last bite of the multigrain pancakes she’d ordered. “You had no experience with criminal investigations when you started, and look at you now.”
“The only real prerequisite is a genuine desire to help,” Sheridan concurred. “The rest can be learned.”
“I’m not saying Jane needs a degree,” Ava told them. “But she was married to a serial killer who all but ruined her life before he attacked and nearly murdered her. That kind of experience could warp a person, make it difficult to remain objective, that’s all.”
Skye turned her orange juice glass around several times. “Oliver Burke nearly murdered me, too. Twice. Does that mean I’m too warped to do my job?”
Ava flushed. Sometimes she spoke her mind before considering all the implications. “What happened to you is different. You didn’t live with him. You didn’t trust him the way she did. She believed him while he was in prison and still tried to make her marriage work when he got out. She’s the mother of his child. Talk about betrayal! What Jane went through has to have left some deep scars, and they might make her prone to see only one side of a situation.”
“You’re afraid she won’t be fair?” Skye clarified.
“It’s more that I’m afraid her experiences will affect her judgment.” Ava’s thoughts reverted to her meeting with Luke Trussell and her decision to drop the Harter case. She felt sure she was doing the right thing, but if he hadn’t come forward and given her the chance to see what he was like, she might’ve stayed in Kalyna’s corner simply because of her experience with Bella. “Not every situation is as it appears,” she said. “Sometimes people lie.”
Skye shoved the hair that’d fallen from her ponytail out of her eyes. “The victims don’t lie nearly as much as the offenders.”
“But some victims aren’t victims at all,” Ava countered. “They’re master manipulators.”
Sheridan scowled. “That’s got to be a very small percentage, Ava.”
“Even one is too many. We don’t want to punish the innocent. Ever.”
“Where is this coming from?” Skye asked.
Ava smoothed the front of her sleeveless black dress. “A woman came into my office on Monday claiming she’d been raped a month ago. She showed me pictures of herself bruised and battered, and she was accusing a man whose semen had been collected with a rape kit. At first, it seemed like a cut-and-dried case. As she sat in my office sobbing, I wanted to cry with her. I was indignant, filled with a righteous anger, eager to help her obtain justice.”
“Probably more than eager because of what happened to Bella,” Skye said.
Ava flinched. “Exactly. But when I had Jonathan do the research, I learned that the accused has more credibility than the accuser.”
Sheridan slipped a credit card onto the table. “Even people with credibility commit crimes, Ava.”
“I almost missed the truth because I was so busy trying to make up for…the situation with Bella. We’re shaped by what we experience, that’s all I’m saying.”
Skye slid the syrup back into its place near the laminated menus. “I wasn’t aware that you knew Jane.”
“I don’t but I talked to her when you brought her to the office.”
“Last week?”
“Yes. I got the impression she wants to work at The Last Stand to vent the anger she feels toward her late husband and any other men she thinks are like him. She was telling me she’s learned so much, that she knows what to look for, how to read behavior others might not notice.” Ava shook her head. “No one can tell the difference between a good person and an evil person, not every time. Especially someone like Jane, who has reason to doubt even the people closest to her. I think she would’ve missed something like this.”
“We all have scars, Ava. They’re what keep us motivated.” Sheridan adjusted the strap on the blouse she was wearing with a loose, flowing skirt and sandals. “We can’t be perfectly objective because we deal with every case from our own perspective. I don’t see how we can avoid that.”
“We can if we recognize our prejudices.” The waitress stopped to pick up the check, and Skye gave her a polite smile before continuing. “I understand that you’re rattled by the fact that you were almost taken in. It’s disconcerting to realize how easily we can be duped—and that there are people out there who would try to take advantage of our good intentions. But I highly doubt Jane would be any more susceptible to going after the wrong person than the rest of us. She’s come a long way in the time I’ve known her. And—” she toyed with a plastic cream container, then tossed it back in the bowl that held the rest “—oh, shoot, I guess what I’m trying to say is that…she needs this. It’s been almost four years since Oliver died, and she’s still struggling to get past it. And now the salon where she’s been cutting hair is closing down…” Skye appealed to them with a frank expression. “She’ll be without work.”
So this wasn’t really about doing what was best for the charity; it was about helping another victim. If Ava had known that, she wouldn’t have bothered expressing her reservations. “You couldn’t have led with that?”
Skye shrugged sheepishly. “I wanted you to agree without my having to ask it as a favor.”
“She can learn, just as we have, that not every victim who walks through the door is someone we can support,” Sheridan said.
Ava tried not to be irritated. She wanted to help as many people as possible, but they had to consider the practicality of each decision. “Can we afford another full-time employee?”
The waitress returned with the credit slip. “It’ll be tough,” Sheridan admitted as she signed the bill. “There’s never enough money for everything we’d like to do, but we can use an extra set of hands. We’ve been buried for months.”
“Jane plans on pitching in with the fundraising, too,” Skye said. “I’ve already prepped her for th
at.”
Ava still felt negative about it, but if she was the only one of the three, she was outvoted, anyway. “Okay, I’m willing to give it a try.”
Skye squeezed her arm. “Thanks.”
After saying goodbye, Ava sat in her car and watched her two partners drive out of the lot. She’d intended to head to the office, as usual. She worked more Saturdays than she took off. But that suddenly seemed excessive. It was a holiday weekend. Why wasn’t she celebrating Independence Day like everyone else?
Because she had no one to celebrate with. Her father had gone camping in Yosemite with Carly, his young wife. No matter how hard she tried to get closer to him, their relationship never improved because Carly stood between them. Her mother was in prison. Skye and Sheridan were hurrying home to their husbands. Jonathan hadn’t mentioned his plans, but she was sure they included Zoë and her daughter. And Geoffrey was in the Bay Area seeing his two kids. Even the Myerses and Greenleys weren’t back from their fishing excursion as planned. They’d left her a message saying they’d met up with another group and decided to stay an extra week. The joys of being retired….
She sighed. The day stretched before her with absolutely nothing except work to fill it. But work was usually enough. What was wrong with her today? Why was she feeling so dissatisfied?
She found herself thinking of Luke Trussell again. She couldn’t seem to put him out of her mind. She was moaning and talking dirty to me, telling me she’d never touched a man who was bigger and thicker than I am. He’d been trying to exact a bit of revenge when he’d made that statement. So why was it the line that kept coming back to her?
It’s obviously been too long since I’ve been with a man. And Luke Trussell’s blatant sexuality had affected her more deeply than she wanted to admit. She was only thirty-one. It was natural that her body would try to assert its needs, especially when she encountered a man as attractive as he was.
Part of her wished she could call Geoffrey and tell him she was ready to be intimate again. Maybe if she started sleeping with him she’d be able to forget Trussell. But she hadn’t found that kind of relationship satisfying before and doubted that would change. Besides, she knew it wasn’t Geoffrey she’d be seeing when she was in bed with him—and that hardly seemed fair.