by Marta Perry
Jason seemed to be measuring the distance with his eye. “I’m not sure I’d want to hike all that way.”
“But you have to!” Kev wailed. “Everyone goes to the falls.”
“Of course you have to see the falls, especially if you’re going to be living here.” Deidre took a slightly malicious pleasure in needling him. “After all, you can’t very well claim you’re a resident of Echo Falls if you haven’t.”
“We’ll go for our hike and picnic pretty soon, won’t we, Mommy? We do that as soon as the weather gets warm enough. We see the falls, and we take our lunch in knapsacks, and sometimes we eat at the old mill.” His expression lit up. “I know! You can come with us. I’ll show you everything. He can, can’t he, Mommy?”
She’d always loved Kevin’s open nature and his friendliness, but at the moment she could do with a little restraint.
Jason was eyeing her, and his smile told her that he was very aware of her discomfort. She’d certainly fallen into her own trap, hadn’t she? She had no intention of taking Jason on a family outing, but she couldn’t very well say so. Not with Kevin right there, looking at her appealingly.
“Mommy, can’t he?” Kev clearly expected her to jump right in with an invitation. And Jason... What did Jason expect, giving her that sardonic look?
“If he wants to, of course he’s welcome, Kev. But Mr. Glassman might have something else to do. And anyway, we haven’t decided when we’re going yet.” She darted a look at Jason, knowing he was enjoying the entire fiasco. “I’ll let you know when we decide,” she added.
But she was sure of one thing: she’d pick a time when it would be impossible for Jason to go with them on their family trek to the falls.
* * *
JASON WATCHED DEIDRE’S expressive face. Did she realize that her thoughts were written there so clearly? She obviously didn’t want to ask him along on the proposed picnic, but her old-fashioned manners wouldn’t let her come right out with it. Well, she didn’t need to worry. Hiking through bug-infested woods to look at a waterfall, no matter how high, wasn’t on his agenda.
With one of those quicksilver movements of his, Kevin darted off toward the swing set, with Benjamin following at a steady trot. They made an interesting pair—Kevin fast, agile and talkative, and the Amish boy steady, solid and silent. But the silent part might be because Jason was a stranger, he supposed.
Jason half expected Deidre to make an equally quick departure, but she glanced at him, frowning a little.
“Do you know anything about when Dixie...Dixie’s body, that is, will be released for burial?”
The question wasn’t one he’d even considered. “No, but I’m sure I can find out for you. Why?”
“I’d like to know before I start making arrangements with the funeral home.”
Now he was the one frowning. “You? Why are you making the arrangements? Her family...”
Deidre was shaking her head before he finished. “There’s only her mother, and she doesn’t live in the area. When I spoke with her, she asked me to take care of things here.”
He studied her face, sensing her reluctance. “Is that some unwritten rule of small-town life that I don’t know about? Someone gets herself killed in your house, so you become responsible for the funeral?”
“And clearing her apartment. And dealing with disposing Dixie’s belongings.” Deidre looked frustrated at the thought. “But her mother insists she can’t handle it, so she passed the job on to me.”
“I’d say pass it right back again.” Ridiculous to be feeling protective of Deidre—to be thinking that she’d been through so much herself that she shouldn’t have to take on this burden, as well.
“Easier said than done. You don’t know Lillian.” Deidre brushed back a strand of silky hair that the breeze had tossed in her face. “Anyway, I was Dixie’s closest friend here. I’ll handle it. I did tell Lillian she’d have to grant me power of attorney. That’s right, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Limited power of attorney will allow you to do what needs to be done. If you’re set on it, I’ll have a word with the coroner’s office and let you know what I find out.”
“Good. Be sure to chalk up the billable hours.” She smiled at his surprised look. “That’s what Frank used to say when people would come up to him at parties expecting free legal advice.”
“Anything I can do for you comes under the heading of professional courtesy.” The knowledge that he was acting for the judge behind her back made it difficult to sound light. “Does it bother you...that I seem to have taken over Frank’s place at the office?”
“Not really.” Her clear blue eyes didn’t show any regret. “The office wasn’t as important as it might have been to Frank if it had been his own practice.”
He thought he could interpret that without much trouble. The past few days had shown him how much the judge liked to run even the smallest things. He could imagine that he’d have had high standards where Frank was concerned. The Frank he remembered had seemed to relish the freedom law school had offered. He’d talked about breaking free of the family firm, about heading for the city, the way so many classmates had done. But he’d chosen to come back to Echo Falls instead. Because of Deidre? Maybe so.
Before he could say something that would probably not sit well with Deidre, a vehicle pulled into the driveway and came to a sputtering halt by the detached garage. Vehicle—he guessed that was the right word. It was an elderly pickup, the color of which was difficult to determine, since there was evidence of repeated attempts to repaint. The primary component was rust.
The individual who ambled toward them was about as odd-looking as the truck—fairly short and stocky, with dirty-blond hair straggling to his shoulders, he wore a pair of stained bib overalls with what was probably someone’s discarded dress shirt. As he drew closer, Jason noticed that his round face was oddly unlined and expressionless, like that of a doll that had been freshly painted, making it impossible to guess his age.
“Billy, hi.” Deidre was smiling. Kevin stopped climbing the sliding board long enough to wave.
The man came to a halt in front of them... He stared at Jason for a moment, not blinking. It was oddly unnerving.
“I didn’t expect you today, Billy.” Deidre drew his attention away gently. “Did you come to work on the porch steps?”
Billy shook his head. “Who’s he?” He jerked a nod toward Jason.
“This is Jason Glassman. He’s working in the judge’s office now. Jason, this is Billy Kline. He’s been helping me with some odd jobs around the house.”
Billy ignored the introduction, just as he ignored the hand Jason held out. “Brought something for Kev. ’Cause he was in the hospital.” He drew a small object wrapped in a faded bandanna from his pocket.
“One of your animals?” Deidre’s eyes lit. “He’ll love it, I know. Kev, come here,” she called. “Billy has a present for you.”
Kev slid off the end of the board and galloped toward them, slowing to a trot at a frowning look from his mother, with Benjy following along behind. “Hey, Billy. Did you make me something?”
Jason was beginning to get curious about the contents of the bandanna. Both Deidre and Kevin acted as if it were something special, but he... The thought went astray when Kevin pulled the bandanna away, revealing a carved wooden bird.
Not just a bird. It was a hawk, wings spread in flight. Even though it was crudely carved, it still managed to give an impression of strength and freedom. Looking at it, he could almost imagine it taking off from the boy’s palm.
“Wow, that’s really something,” he said. He glanced at Billy, but he was following Benjy and Kevin as they went swooping the hawk through the air, so he turned to Deidre instead. “Does he do many of those carvings?”
“Not as many as I’d like. I could sell any number of them for
him, but Billy says he just makes them for people he knows. And since he doesn’t know the people who might order them, he’s not interested.”
She didn’t seem to find anything strange in that attitude. “You’d think, to look at him, that he’d be glad of the money.”
Deidre shook her head, smiling a little. “Billy does all right. He couldn’t hold down a regular job, but he’s a good worker when he puts his mind to it.”
“I take it he’s somebody else you’ve known all your life.” Was there anyone in this town who wasn’t an old friend or relation of hers?
“Pretty much,” she admitted. “He’s about my age, and he used to hang around on the fringes of school activities even after he dropped out.” Deidre’s blue eyes seemed to darken with concern. “He was very fond of Dixie, and I’ve been worried about how he’s taking her death.”
Jase’s attention sharpened at the words. “Was she fond of him, too?”
“I’ve thought sometimes...” She hesitated, as if not sure she should go on.
“You’ve thought what?” he prompted. Didn’t she realize that someone she knew was very probably a murderer?
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Since Dixie came back to town, she’d ask him to do things for her. Nothing big—just the sort of chores I pay him for. But she...”
He got it now. She didn’t want to criticize her dead friend. “She didn’t pay him, is that it?”
“He wanted to help her. They were old friends.”
He could hear the defensive note in her voice, even if she wasn’t aware of it. Before he could press her on it, Billy came back. He focused on Deidre, once again ignoring Jase’s presence.
“Do they know yet? Did they catch him?”
“Not yet.” Her voice was gentle. “But I’m sure they’ll find the person who hurt Dixie.”
Billy shook his head, and his hands tightened into fists. Jase was uneasily aware of the muscles under the faded shirt.
“They have to!” His voice rose. “It’s not right. Dixie...” Suddenly he was crying—great gasping sobs that shook his whole body.
Deidre patted his shoulder. “I know. I miss her, too. She was our good friend, right? Ever since we were kids. Remember how you gave her the pretty stone you found in the creek? She really loved it.”
Something about the low, loving voice seemed to get through to Billy. He nodded, knuckling his eyes. “She did, yeah.”
“We’ll always have a place in our hearts for her, but I don’t think she’d want to see you crying, would she?”
Billy scrubbed at his face with his hands. “She’d say only babies cried. She’d say she was too tough to cry. But she wasn’t. She...”
For an instant he seemed to shudder on the brink of another outburst. But he turned and almost ran back to his truck.
“Poor Billy.” Deidre watched the truck pull out, brushing against the thick clump of rhododendrons at the end of the drive. “I was afraid he’d take it hard.”
Jase studied her face. “Just what kind of relationship did he have with Dixie?”
“What are you implying?” She glared at him. “They were friends since they were kids, that’s all.”
“Right, I know.” Her naïveté irked him into saying more than he should. “You and Dixie and Billy and Frank and whoever else—all friends since you were kids. But kids grow up. Maybe it’s time you took a look at who those kids turned into. Billy might have the mind of a child, but he’s a grown man. You need to wake up and stop trusting everybody.”
Deidre seemed to turn to ice. “I don’t have any reason not to trust them.”
The implication being that she knew them but she didn’t know Jase. Which left him without a leg to stand on, because if she did know him, then she’d know that he was the last person in the world she should trust.
* * *
BY THE TIME Deidre was fixing supper, she’d managed to exile Jason from her thoughts at least a dozen times. Too bad he refused to stay gone.
The idea that he could think someone like Billy could possibly have harmed Dixie... It was ridiculous. She’d known him all her life—
She stopped. So what if she trusted people? Wasn’t that better than going around constantly on the alert? Echo Falls had its share of troubles, but by and large, it was a good place to live. A safe place, most of the time, despite what had happened to Dixie. She wouldn’t let that tragedy make her either cynical or fearful.
Maybe Jason’s life had taught him not to trust. If so, there was nothing she could do about it. Besides...
The doorbell rang, and she wiped her hands on the dish towel and hurried toward the front hall to find her mother-in-law waiting on the porch.
“Sylvia, how nice to see you.”
She made an attempt to give Sylvia her usual kiss, but her mother-in-law’s arms were filled with several large bags and the kiss landed somewhere short of her cheek. Still, it was close enough to catch a faint whiff of alcohol and to note the haphazard placement of blush and lipstick on Sylvia’s thin face.
With her ash-blond hair carefully arranged and her casually expensive clothes, at a glance Sylvia looked younger than her years. It was her ravaged face beneath the makeup that betrayed her.
This was not one of her good days, apparently. Which made it all the more surprising that Sylvia seemed to be alone. The judge was careful about allowing her to drive.
“Did you drive yourself over?” She hoped not.
“Franklin locked the garage door on my car. He said I shouldn’t be driving. Silly. It would serve him right if I broke the lock and drove off.”
“You wouldn’t want to cause any damage.” Her mother-in-law seemed unusually belligerent today. “How did you get here?”
“Madge brought me. She wanted to come in, and I just told her she could go right on to the pharmacy and pick up some things. Always spying on me.” Sylvia’s voice fell to a discontented murmur, and she seemed to lose track of what she was saying.
Madge Hepple, the family housekeeper, was rather nosy, but looking after Sylvia had to be a thankless and sometimes impossible job. The judge would undoubtedly blame Madge if Sylvia had gotten hold of something to drink.
Heart sinking, Deidre put her arm around Sylvia’s waist to lead her into the living room. “It’s nice to see you, anyway. Have you been shopping?” She helped Sylvia put the bags on the floor and settled her on the sofa.
“Shopping? Oh, the bags, you mean. Presents, for Kevin. Poor little Kevin.” Sylvia’s eyes filled with tears. “Poor baby. I wanted to come to the hospital, you know I did, but Franklin said...said it would be too upsetting. I’m sorry. I should have come anyway, I know.” The tears spilled over.
“It’s fine, Sylvia, really. There was nothing you could do there.” She patted the thin restless hands that twisted in Sylvia’s lap. It seemed to be her time for comforting the weeping. First Lillian, then Billy and now Sylvia. “It’s much better for you to come now that he’s feeling well again. I’ll call him.”
Kevin should have heard his grandmother’s arrival. Going to the bottom of the stairs, she called up to him. “Kevin? Come down, please. Grandma is here to see you.”
Kevin appeared at the stop of the stairs, and at his mother’s nod, he came down docilely enough. He was wary of Sylvia’s moods, and Deidre couldn’t blame him for hesitating. He was too young to understand the reasons for them.
He reached her, and Deidre put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Go and give Grandma a kiss. She brought something for you.” She feared it sounded as if she were bribing him, but whatever worked to smooth the relationship was worth it.
Kevin crossed the room with a little more spring to his step. “Hi, Grandma. How are you?” he added, mindful of his manners.
“My poor little boy.” Sylvia hugged him close. “
Poor boy.”
Kevin wiggled himself free. “I’m all better now. Honest.”
Sylvia mopped her eyes. “So you are. I was so worried about you. I kept thinking what would I do if I lost—”
“Why don’t you show Kevin what you brought?” Deidre interrupted ruthlessly. She wasn’t going to have Sylvia planting the idea in Kevin’s head that he might have died.
“Yes, of course.” Sylvia rummaged through the bags. “The man at the store said these were just right for a boy Kevin’s age. I hope you like them.”
Kev was already pulling the elaborate building set with all its accessories from the bags, and his expression surely told her the answer to that question. His grin nearly split his face. With the parcel that had arrived this morning from her mother and stepfather, Kevin was getting as many presents as he did on his birthday.
“It’s the whole set. Look, Mommy, the whole set with all the extra pieces. Wow. It’s all for me?”
“All for you, sweet boy.” Sylvia patted his cheek, obviously gratified by his reaction. “You deserve it after everything you went through.”
“He’s fine now,” Deidre pointed out. “It’s best not to dwell on it, don’t you think?”
That seemed to get through to Sylvia. “Of course, of course. I know just what you mean. I won’t say another word about it.”
Deidre knew better than to rely on that, but at least for the moment she could smile.
Kevin was already ripping the box open, intent on getting at the pieces as fast as possible, and bits of cellophane and cardboard fluttered across the floor like confetti, with each new piece that was unearthed being greeted with shouts of happiness.
Deidre didn’t miss the way Sylvia pressed her fingers to her forehead. She couldn’t tolerate much in the way of boyish enthusiasm. That fact was among the many things the judge seemed to ignore in his determination to have her and Kevin move in with them. Or maybe Kevin wasn’t supposed to be a normal little boy in that house.
“Kev, take those into the dining room and set it up there, okay? We need to be able to walk in here.”