Keeping the Peace

by Linda Cunningham

  “Pretty much,” Emmie said.

  “These are old,” said Mia. “I’ll go more current.” She clicked and typed and clicked again. “Okay, these are from, like, last summer. Ooh, here’s a good one. It says, ‘Finally hooked up with Gabe. He is divine. The rest of you people will be seeing pictures of us together soon.’”

  “Who’s that from?”

  “Hmm, let’s see. It’s from LydiaHisLove, and it’s dated June twenty-third. That’s just about when the tour began, I think, so there’s a lot on here around that time. Oh, look, then, Phizzboy writes, ‘Lydia, I don’t believe you. Stick to the truth. You went to a concert. Stop fantasizing.’ Then Lydia replies here, and says, ‘Jealousy never pays off. More details later. I’ll prove it.’ Then, oh, there’s tons more comments.”

  John put his arm around his daughter. “Can you e-mail me that website? The link? I think I’m going to have Cully go over the entire site.”

  “Are there more sites like that?” asked Melanie. She suddenly felt trapped in her printed newspaper. The world was whizzing by her on the Internet, faster than she could keep up.

  “Oh, Dad, there’s tons.”

  “Hey, Chief,” Emmie said brightly, “you don’t have to get Cully to do it. He’ll just get lost. We can do it. Me and Mia. We’ll check out his e-mail on the Ragged Rainbow website, too, if you can get us his password.”

  Mia was furiously typing. “Here. Here’s the website for Ragged Rainbow. Let’s get into his e-mail.”

  “Hey.” John put his big hand over his daughter’s. “You can’t do that. Isn’t that hacking?”

  Emmie giggled. “You forgot who your dad is, Mia.”

  Mia shrugged. “The password is Above the Clouds.”

  “And how would you know that, Miss Hacker?” Emmie asked.

  Mia commanded a superior attitude. “My password is Greensleeves. Above the Clouds is his sister’s horse’s name. It’s always the horse’s name—if there is a horse, that is. Always. Never fails.” She turned to John. “Shall I give it a try, Dad?”

  “I don’t think you better.” He was cautionary. “I’ll ask for his password myself and tell him what we’re doing.”

  “Then we can do the research for you, Chief?” Emmie said eagerly.

  “Yes, you can get started as soon as possible with that other site.”

  Michael jabbed his sister in the upper arm. “I’m going to read your e-mail.”

  “You brat! You read my e-mail anyway. You’ve always known my password. Get out. Dad, make him leave me alone.”

  Melanie broke into the conversation. “You girls go upstairs and get to work on that. Michael, find Peter and do the chores around here before you even think about leaving. You came home for your own convenience, but you get to leave at mine. The world does not revolve around Michael Giamo.” She turned to her husband. “Let’s go talk to Gabriel.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “TALK TO ME ABOUT WHAT?”

  The family, engrossed in the petty conversation of the last few minutes, had not seen Gabriel enter the room. Peter, Michael, Mia, and Emmie scattered to do their respective chores. They knew the point past which they dare not go.

  Melanie stood behind her husband, still seated at the table. As the musician walked through the door, their eyes met. She felt a slow heat rising in her cheeks. He was maddeningly attractive to her. It had been simmering under the surface, but she repressed it no longer. He stood in the morning light as it filtered in through the east-facing windows of the kitchen. Despite the stress of the last twenty-four hours, the energy and promise of youth and strength emanated from him. His thick hair dipped over his forehead, and his eyes, though serious, still had a spark that made her heart leap guiltily when he looked at her. And that was the crux of the matter. Her heart.

  Melanie knew then that she was in some kind of situation, some kind of juxtaposition. It had crept up on her, like a cat on an unwary bird. She was acutely aware, also, that it was not one-sided. There was chemistry, or something, between them. She sensed Gabriel felt it, too. It was dangerous, and she was complicit.

  She looked away, focusing her attention on John. His big face was phlegmatic as he said, “You didn’t tell me you took out a restraining order on a person who was bothering your family.”

  “I didn’t think it was necessary. That was over a month ago. We haven’t been bothered since.”

  Melanie glanced at John, but he betrayed no emotion as he said, “I have to question you. I think it’s time you got yourself a lawyer.”

  Melanie stepped forward and took the young man’s hand in hers before she was quite aware of what she was doing. “Gabriel,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “we’re afraid for your wellbeing. Will you come into the parlor and just talk to John and me? He’ll have to tape it. Will you agree to that?”

  There was a silence as they looked at each other. Finally, Gabriel said, “I don’t need a lawyer.”

  Melanie smiled at him and led him into the back parlor, glancing over her shoulder at her husband.

  “I’ll get the tape recorder,” John said glumly.

  John went up to the bedroom and rummaged around in the drawer of his night table, where he kept a small tape recorder. He wished he could shake this awful, oppressive feeling he had about Gabriel and his wife. It must be that he was tired, he thought. After this present fiasco was over, he would take some time off. Put Becky and Steve Bruno in charge and spend some time with Melanie. He didn’t want his foolish insecurities to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When he went into the front parlor, he found Strand and Melanie sitting close together on the couch. Melanie held both of Gabriel’s hands in hers. John said nothing as he sat down in the big wing chair across from them. Melanie let go of Gabriel’s hands and, straightening up, moved a little way away from him.

  “We’ll forget about the fact that you didn’t tell me this early on,” John said. He snapped the “record” button on the tape recorder. “John Giamo recording testimony of Gabriel Strand. Melanie Giamo present.” Then he set the recorder on the edge of the piano. “Why don’t you just start at the beginning and tell me about the relationship you had with Richard Seeley?”

  “He taught in the same school as my mother. She’s known him a long time, really.”

  “How long?”

  “Probably ten years, all told.”

  “What precipitated you getting a restraining order? Was it stalking?”

  “It was more of an annoyance, actually.”

  “Tell me about it, please.”

  John thought he could see some kind of change in the young man’s face. The heretofore forced nonchalance evaporated. Another emotion struggled to gain control even as it was repressed. Anger? Fear? Belligerence? John leaned back in the chair to watch as well as listen. “Go on,” he prodded.

  Strand wiped his hand over his face and stared at the floor. “Richard Seeley knew my mother from working with her at the school where they taught. She met him way before my father died. Then my father died, and we got through that. Tough, but okay. Fine. And then, a few years later, Seeley’s wife died. Well, that was too bad. My mother really felt for him because she’d been through the same thing.”

  “When did his wife die?”

  Strand blew through his nose as he tried to think back. “I guess, well, we were putting Ragged Rainbow together. I’d just graduated from Berkeley. About five years ago, I guess. Yeah, that was it, because one of the first things he was around for was my sister’s tenth birthday. She’s fifteen now.”

  “Go on.”

  “After that, they started to hang out together.”

  “You mean they dated?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How did you feel about that?”

  “Look, I never liked the guy. He was always derisive about the band. He’d make fun of it, you know, even when we started to get gigs. I always laughed it off because of my mother, but she knew I didn’t think it was funny. I really tried, tho
ugh, because I knew she was so lonely, and he seemed good to my sister. He never had any kids of his own. He helped her with her homework and stuff like that.”

  “How long did Seeley and your mother date?”

  “For about a year. Then Seeley quit his teaching job and became some sort of college placement counselor. He wanted to move in. Or actually, what he really wanted to do was to have her sell her house and then they would buy a house together. She didn’t want to do that. He badgered her about it until it gave me the creeps. Like he had some ulterior motive. She held out, though. She told me she liked him, but not that much. From then on, the relationship was on the rocks. It didn’t last much longer. My mother suggested they take a break from each other, and he agreed. I didn’t think much more about it. My mother was still teaching, but Seeley wasn’t around at all. I was busy with the band. We were starting to open for big acts—stuff like that. Finally, we hit it big with ‘Rusty Heart’ and—” Strand raised his hands and smiled “—here we are.”

  “Hmm,” said John patiently. “When did Seeley show up on the scene again?”

  “Actually, about a year ago. ‘Rusty Heart’ had just gone platinum. I can tell you exactly when it was. I was home on a short hiatus. My agent and the manager were planning the tour. This tour. Anyway, like I said, I was home, at my mom’s house, with her and my sister. We were just sitting around. My mother was making dinner, and my sister and I were hanging in the kitchen, talking.” Strand turned his dark eyes on Melanie. “That was when I promised her a horse. She’d wanted a horse for so long, and I finally had enough money. She knew just which horse she wanted, too. Above the Clouds.”

  John coughed. “We were talking about Seeley.”

  “Sorry.” Strand looked down at the floor. “We were all there, and the phone rang. My mother picked it up and said something like, ‘Oh, Richard. How are you?’ Something like that. When she got off the phone, she said she’d invited him to dinner. That didn’t make my sister or me very happy, but she was so thrilled about the horse and I was so thrilled to be able to do it for her that we just let it go.”

  “So he came to dinner?”

  “Yes. Yes, he did. And you know what? From the minute he walked into the house, he seemed changed.”

  “Changed? How so?”

  “Belligerent. Like he had a chip on his shoulder. He’d always been kind of a jerk, but he hardly spoke to my sister, even when she told him about the horse. He was always pretty nice to her before, but now it was like he didn’t have any time for her. He kept asking my mother all kinds of questions, like whether she going to move now that the band was doing so well. And he asked me, since I bought my sister a horse, was I going to buy my mother a car? Stuff like that. And the weirdest thing was that he brought her a present.”

  “A present? What was it?” asked Melanie.

  “It was an expensive bracelet. One of those wide ones. A cuff, I guess you call it. It was more than I figured he should be spending. Random.”

  “Did your mother keep the bracelet?”

  “No. She told him it wouldn’t be right, that it would make her feel uncomfortable. Anyway, he stayed for dinner, but it was a weird evening.

  “After that, he called my mother a couple of times, but she wouldn’t go out with him. I think it kind of pissed him off. One time, I answered the phone, and when I told him she wasn’t there, he said he wished he could make the money I did by not working. I kind of freaked out on him and told him I worked all the time, sometimes all night long. And I wrote the songs, too, and that’s not easy. Then he said that he knew my mother was there, which she really wasn’t, and to tell her to give him a call when she could break away from her kids.”

  “Were you aware of any personal problems he was having at the time?” asked John.

  Strand shook his head. “No. Not a clue about his personal life. And since he’d quit his job at the high school, my mother didn’t know much about what he was doing, either, except it was supposed to be some counselor job. So, everything was quiet for a couple of months. It was a great couple of months for us because album sales went through the roof. Then, in March, my business manager told me I could buy a house. I freaked, man, I tell you. I couldn’t believe it. When he told me how much I could spend, I freaked again. All of us in the band were, like, unbelievable, man. My mom and sister and I had the best time buying a house. My mom wanted a place where she could garden. And my sister wanted a pool and a place closer to where she kept her horse. We found a really nice house in Beverly Hills, with the right zip code, too.”

  “And where was Seeley through all this?”

  “Well, I don’t know. That’s the weird thing. He had stopped calling my mother after those initial attempts to get back with her. Then, on the exact day we moved into the new house, I swear, the first call we got on the phone—on the landline—was Seeley. I don’t even know how he got the phone number.”

  “Did he ask for your mother?”

  Strand held up his finger, to make the point. “Here’s the thing,” he said, “that made it creepy. The caller ID gave me an unfamiliar cell phone number, and I thought it might be one of my band guys calling from some other phone. So I answered it and said hello. Richard Seeley said, without any introduction or anything, ‘I know where the new house is; it’s real nice. Tell your mother I said it was real nice. She’s lucky her kid could buy her a house.’ Then he hung up. I thought that was strange, and I told my mother. She just shrugged and said it seemed to her that the last time we saw Seeley, he had changed somehow.”

  “Meaning…?”

  “After that phone call, he started calling every day. He didn’t say anything threatening, but he would just ramble on to whoever answered the phone—me, my sister, my mother. I thought he was drinking or taking some sort of drugs. We got the landline number changed, and we all got new cell phones. Everything was quiet for about a week. Then, I had a gig in Seattle. We flew up there that day, did the gig, and we were supposed to stay overnight for an appearance on a local morning show. Well, really early in the morning, I get this call from my sister. She sounded upset, and when I asked what was wrong, she said she had gotten up early, before my mother, about five o’clock, and looked out her window, and she saw Richard Seeley in the street. Just standing there, looking at the house.”

  “At that hour? Was she sure it was him?”

  “That’s what I asked her, but she said, yes, it was him. I was really spooked, so I let Mike, my bass player, take the rest of the guys on the show, and I blew home as fast as I could get there. My mother had already called Richard to tell him that his behavior was unacceptable and to please leave us alone. I was angry that she had talked to him at all.”

  “Did he say anything to her?”

  “He said something like she needed a life of her own instead of living off her son. He said that just because I had made a lot of money, I wanted to control her and my sister. Then my mother asked if he was in some sort of trouble. He said he missed her and just wanted to get back together. Then he hung up. After that, the weird stuff wouldn’t let up.”

  “What weird stuff?”

  “He kept leaving flowers outside the gate. Sometimes, he would ring the bell on the gate, and when my mother answered the intercom, he would say he just wanted her to know he was thinking of her. He followed her in his car a couple of times too, like to the grocery store or when she dropped my sister off at school. He went to the stable where we board my sister’s horse, saying that he just wanted to leave a note for my sister. The girls at the barn didn’t think anything of it, so they let him leave the note.”

  “What did the note say?”

  “It didn’t make any sense. It was a rambling letter asking why my mother had retired and that my sister and my mother had better get out from under my control, that he would help them. It said something about how he was sick of being ignored. Everyone ignored him. Stuff like that. I can’t remember all of it, but that’s when I went to the police.”
r />   “Was there anything threatening in the letter?”

  “Not directly, no, but it was still sinister.”

  Melanie finally spoke. “It sounds like some sort of displaced anger to me. Like he was blaming you for your mother not going out with him. Or something worse, like mental illness.”

  “I think he wanted in on the financial gains, too,” Strand said bitterly. “He was probably sorry he was such an asshole to me. Or that he had pushed my mother to sell her house.” The musician sighed. “Who knows? Anyway, we got a restraining order.”

  “Were there any repercussions from that?”

  “He made some sort of statement. That’s what you saw in the tabloid, but other than that, no, there didn’t seem to be. We haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

  John stretched his legs out in front of him and shut off the tape recorder. He stood and looked out the window at the snow. The clock in the hallway struck nine. The chief felt like he hadn’t slept for a week. He said, “I’m going to take a shower and get back to the office. We’ve got to find out where this Richard Seeley person is right now, before he has time to cover his tracks.”

  “You think it was him who killed Bruce?” Strand asked.

  “I don’t know, but we have to act on every lead. You haven’t helped matters, Strand. It certainly sounds like he had a grudge against you, and depending on the depth of his obsession, who knows? Whether you like it or not, you’ve brought a lot of trouble to my town, and I’m not happy about it.” John turned to leave the room. He was beginning to let his personal feelings influence his professional behavior. Besides, the lure of hot water was calling him.

  “What’ll I do?” Strand asked after him.

  John looked back from the doorway. “You stay right here,” he said wryly. “Stay here with my wife.” Then he paused. “Actually, I do have something you need to do. I’d like a transcript of your personal e-mail. I need to see these threats we were talking about. Mou—Mia’s on her laptop now, going over some of these message boards or whatever you call them for me, trying to find suspicious comments. Go see her. She can print it out for you, too. We can trace people through e-mail and do it pretty fast. Will you do it?”