Cooper sat back again. “Uncle Rick.”
“Yeah. The way everything blew up—it was just…nuts. And in a way—one I’m not proud of—at the beginning, I thought you were maybe getting a little bit of what you deserved.”
“What?”
“I wished you had come to me, Coop. Wished you had come when you knew it was him.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought we could have helped him. I thought we could have gotten him off the force before he hurt anybody else.”
“You thought we should have kept it quiet, you mean?” Cooper’s spine tingled. Was he seriously sitting here in this motel room having this conversation with his own father?
Dad sighed painfully. “I sat in an ambulance with my brother’s hand in mine, and I promised to look after his boy. I promised to help him grow up to be an honorable man. And then…this. I’d failed. I’d failed at protecting him, just like I’d failed at protecting my own brother. I didn’t know which way was up, son.”
He braced his head in his hands. “I was furious when the reporters showed up, just like they had when Rick’s death was investigated. I was hellishly mad at you for bringing that back into my life, when I thought we could have handled it a different way. At my lowest point, when they turned their sights on you, I actually thought karma was at work.”
“Jesus.” Cooper blew out a breath. Dad had about twenty seconds before he commenced booting his ass out the door.
“But I was dead wrong.”
“Yeah, you’re damn right, you were.”
“I never thought those sights would stay trained on you like they did. I never thought they could possibly make charges stick. I never thought the damn thing could possibly go to trial.”
“Well, it did.”
“I know. I was there every day.”
Cooper paused. He had been. He knew that. Dad had sat in the back row, in an ill-fitting suit he’d previously dragged out only for funerals.
“Yeah? Well, I didn’t know who you were there for, Dad.”
Chapter 28
His father looked up, into his eyes. “I know that. And I’m probably headed straight to hell when I’m done here on this earth, and I deserve that. You’re my son, Cooper. I never should have made you question—anything.”
“Little late for this, Dad. I mean, seriously. I faced trial alone, I had to move two thousand miles away to get some peace, and the only person in this family who has spoken to me since I left is Phoebe. Any chance you’ve given thought to how this has affected her?”
Dad’s eyebrows went up. “If it’s any consolation at all, that girl does not do her suffering silently, so yeah. I have every idea how this has affected her. You can rest assured she has tried to punish me every day for closing that door on you.”
Cooper wanted to say good, but the deep lines in his father’s face stopped him. The man was here to apologize, to ask for forgiveness, and that was not something Conrad Davis did lightly.
Cooper wasn’t sure he’d done it ever.
He cleared his throat, crossing his arms across his chest. “So why are you really here, Dad? Why now? The circus is in full gear again. You might have even been tailed here. Why would you invite that back into your life again?”
“Because this time, I want to help.”
“How?”
Dad was silent for a long moment, then sighed. “I still have a lot of friends on the force.”
“No.”
Dad stopped. “What do you mean—no?”
“No.” Cooper shook his head. “I won’t have you calling in favors and playing bullshit games like Raymond’s doing.”
“You’d rather rot in a cell?”
“You and I both know I won’t live long enough inside to rot anywhere.”
“Then—”
Cooper stood up. “I’m innocent, Dad. I had nothing to do with those girls. I had nothing to do with Raymond. I need to believe that justice will be on my side.”
“Even after what happened last time? You’re willing to risk that?”
“Yeah, I am. Because if my word isn’t good enough, then everything I’ve done here, everything I did on the job, it’s all bullshit. If I don’t have honor, I’ve got nothing. And if you somehow wheel and deal me an acquittal with your buddies, then nobody will ever know the truth. Nobody will ever know my truth.”
Dad sat as still as a gravestone for so long that Cooper started to fear he’d induced a heart attack, but then he saw a slow smile slide up his father’s face.
“What the hell is funny about this?”
“Oh, there is nothing funny about this,” Dad said, nodding. “But what you just said? Those are exactly the words I was hoping to hear. I wanted you to throw my offer back in my face, and I even would have been happy to feel your boot on my ass as I fell out the door.”
Cooper paused, shaking his head to clear it. “What the—I don’t—what?”
“I’m proud of you, son. You did the right thing, when your back was against the wall. You faced this thing down with integrity and honor and the true spine of a man who deserves to wear the badge. And even now, with the future looking murky as hell to you, you wouldn’t even consider a well-intentioned helping hand.”
“I just want to believe in the system, Dad. It’s a system you protected for thirty years. It’s a system Uncle Rick loved even more. If I go down, I want to go down honestly, never questioning my own moves or motives.”
“You’re a good man, Cooper Davis.” Dad’s voice was shaky with emotion as he looked up at Cooper. “You’re a damn good man.”
Cooper didn’t speak—partly because what the hell did you say to that?—but mostly because his throat suddenly felt too small to even get air through.
Finally, he swallowed. “Well, let’s hope I’m a damn free one soon.”
Dad looked out the window as if something had caught his eye, but when Cooper followed his gaze, all he saw was the brick building next door.
“You know your sister went to visit Raymond?”
Cooper sat back down. “Yeah. She told me. You need to put a GPS tracker on that girl. I can’t believe she went there.”
“Well, she’s not the only one on the visitors’ log.”
“How do you know who’s been vis—never mind.” Cooper put up a hand. “I don’t want to know.”
“You do.”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “No, I really don’t.”
“Your mother.”
“My—what?” Cooper felt his jaw fall open. “Mom? Visiting Raymond?”
“Twice a week, all summer long.”
“No.”
Cooper couldn’t fathom it. Couldn’t picture his mother walking into that grimy place, sitting down across from Raymond. Couldn’t picture it any more than he’d been able to put Phoebe there.
“Did you know she was visiting him?”
Dad shook his head. “Hell, no. I thought she was making quilts at the church.”
“Why? Why would she do this?”
Why would she visit him, while barely speaking to me all summer long?
“That’s what I asked myself, a hundred times after I found out, and a hundred more times before I asked her. You know your mother. She’d never make waves. She’d never go against my wishes.”
“That’s not exactly something you should be proud of creating, Dad.”
“I’m not.” Dad stared at him, and Cooper felt a bit of the steel come back into his voice. “And apparently, I didn’t. She went there because she decided it was the best way she could think of to finally get you free of this.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He filed his appeal whiplash-fast after his conviction. And we knew his buddies were up to no good, before new charges even appeared with your name on them. Your mother got it in her head that maybe she could change the direction of things, if she got to him before everybody else did.”
“Well, obviously that backfired, given where we’re at here.
” Cooper swung his arm around the room. “But I’m grateful she tried.”
Dad nodded slowly. “Not so sure it backfired.”
“What do you mean?”
“She came home with a letter yesterday. From Raymond.”
“Okay? What did it say?” Cooper tried to tamp down the spark of hope he felt ignite inside.
Dad reached into the inside pocket of his coat. “It wasn’t addressed to us.”
Cooper watched Dad draw out the envelope, and it was as if time had slowed. He saw the glaring white of it in Dad’s hands, saw the scrawled handwriting he still recognized, though he hadn’t seen Raymond’s writing since they were kids. And he saw his name.
His name, with his rank in front of it.
Was this some sick sport Raymond was playing at now? It wasn’t bad enough that he’d threatened Cooper’s life and freedom once again? Now he had to use Cooper’s own mother to continue this twisted psychological game?
It was a good thing the man was behind bars, or Cooper’d go after him with his own two hands.
“I don’t think I want to read whatever’s in there.” Cooper shook his head when Dad tried to hand him the envelope.
“I think you do.”
“How can you possibly know?”
“Because your mother was with him when he wrote it. She brought him the paper, and the pen, and the envelope.”
Cooper backed up in his chair, his mouth suddenly dry.
What. The. F—
“Open it, Cooper. I wouldn’t have brought it here if it wasn’t good news. I would have come here, I would have said my piece, and I would have laid my apologies at your feet, but I wouldn’t have brought this envelope to you if it didn’t contain your freedom.”
The spark ignited, and Cooper grabbed the envelope, but closed his eyes before opening it. Could the nightmare really be over? Could whatever was in here actually make the case go away? Give him back his life?
Or what was left of it?
He tore it open and pulled out a single sheet of paper crowded with Raymond’s slanted print. He read the words through once, quickly, then went back and read each word again. He took a deep breath as he handed the paper to his father, and for the first time in months, he felt like that breath didn’t actually hurt.
Dad read it quickly, then put the sheet down carefully, without looking at Cooper.
“You think maybe you should call Lionel?”
“Yeah. I should. I—will. But I just need to process this for a minute.”
“It’s a pretty clear confession. And your mother said his attorney was coming in when she was leaving. If he followed through—”
“If is the part that scares me, Dad. It’s a really big if.”
Just then, Cooper’s phone vibrated on the table, making both of them jump. Cooper stood up, jostling papers around until he finally found it, but he paused when he saw the name on the screen.
“It’s Lionel.”
Dad grinned. “Then answer it.”
Cooper turned toward the window, trying not to pace as he tapped the screen. “Hey, Lionel. What’s the news?”
“You sitting down?”
“Nope. I’m pacing like a caged frigging animal.”
“Okay, that works, too. You interested in not pacing anymore?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Well, I’ve got news that’ll help with that. We have a confession.”
“Seriously?” Cooper’s eyes went wide, then connected with Dad’s.
“Signed. Sealed. Delivered. Just got the news five minutes ago.”
“And you waited this long to call?” Cooper ran a hand through his hair. Holy shit. Could it really be true? Was it really over?
“You’re a free man, Cooper. But when somebody comes to you wanting the movie rights to this insane story, I want dibs on the commission, okay?”
“You’ve got it.”
“Come by and see me in the morning, all right? I imagine it’ll hit the press by tomorrow night. We can decide if you want to put out a statement or anything.”
“No statements.”
Lionel chuckled. “Figured. But had to give you the option. We’ll talk tomorrow, all right? Go order yourself a nice lobster dinner or something. Better yet, invite your parents out with you.”
Cooper tipped his head. “Sorry?”
“Guardian angels come in all shapes and sizes, Cooper…and sometimes they’re a little late to the party. But apparently, your father’s been driving your mother to that prison twice a week for three months now. Just thought you’d want to know that.”
Chapter 29
“So you’re in Boston? Seriously?” The next morning, Lexi’s voice sounded like it was in the next room, except that Shelby could hear a horse whinnying in the background. The sound made her long for her little cabin at Whisper Creek, rather than this sprawling, lonely suite on the top floor of yet another hotel in yet another city.
Lexi had been calling twice a week since Shelby’d left Whisper Creek, and it was a friendly lifeline Shelby was starting to depend on, in the chaos of the tour.
“We rolled in overnight from New York, yep.”
“How’s the week been?”
Shelby wrinkled her nose. “It’s—fine. It’s okay.”
“Wow. Is someone pulling out your fingernails while we’re talking?”
“Yes.” Shelby laughed. “One by painful one.”
“Must be hard to know you’re in the same city as Cooper right now.”
“Yeah.” Shelby sighed. “Yeah, it really is.”
“Are you going to try to look him up?”
“I don’t even know how to.” She flopped onto the couch. “He changed his number.”
“You called him?”
Shelby cringed. Apparently she hadn’t mentioned that little detail before. “Um, maybe?”
“And now that you’re completely sober? Still want to see him?”
She laughed. “I wasn’t drinking. Of course I want to see him, Lex. I’m dying here. I’m sitting here in a hotel room that overlooks this entire city, and he’s down there somewhere, but I have no idea how to find him.”
“Have you tried looking him up online?”
“Yes. Do you have any idea how many Cooper Davises there are in the greater Boston area?”
“Nope.”
“A lot. I wouldn’t even know where to start, and my show’s tonight, and then we roll out at midnight. Even if I could spend the day cold-calling every Cooper Davis in the city, I don’t even know what I’d say, if I found the right one.”
“Hm. Let’s see—how about ‘I miss you, I think I might love you, and please run away with me to a secret island in the Caribbean until your case goes away and my tour’s over?’ Would that work?”
Shelby laughed. “Yes. Perfect. I’m sure he’d hop right on a plane with me so I could add aiding and abetting to my résumé.” She rolled her eyes. “It is killing me to know he’s holed up somewhere, facing this case by himself. Also killing me that he changed his number and hasn’t even once gotten in touch.”
“Well, we know why, Shelby. He’s trying to protect you.”
“I know. Maybe.” She sighed. “Honestly, I actually don’t even know anymore. He’s killing me, is what he’s doing. I can get behind the protecting-me piece, but there’s no reason we couldn’t talk privately, right? Or text? Or whatever the socially accepted way to communicate is these days?”
“Would that really be better, if you knew you couldn’t be together? Or just make it more painful?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t.”
“You sure he hasn’t tried?”
Shelby pictured the long, long list of unanswered calls on her phone. No matter how many times she changed numbers, unidentified callers still snuck through—some of them by accident, some of them by hacker intelligence—so if she didn’t recognize the number, she didn’t answer. She figured if a call was legit, the person would leave a message.
�
��Nobody’s left a message. He would have left a message.” She pulled a throw blanket around her shoulders, closing her eyes. “I just kind of—I wish he would find me. I wish…he wanted to.”
“He’s not going to come to you, Shelby. He won’t risk it. He won’t do that to you, no matter how much he wants to.”
“Well, you are just a little ray of sunshine, aren’t you?” Shelby tried to inject a humor she didn’t feel into her voice.
“I’m sorry.” Lexi was silent for a moment, then took a quick breath. “Maybe he’ll come to the concert!”
“Ha. He won’t. We know he won’t, for all the reasons he left me at Whisper Creek in the first place.”
“Well, he may not be the biggest fan of Tara Gibson, but we know he was falling pretty hard for Shelby Quinn.”
“I thought so, but it’s been a month, and we both know he’s got a lot more important things on his mind.”
“Well, maybe Tara can’t find him, but maybe Shelby can figure out a way.”
“Right.” Shelby shook her head miserably, but then she sat up slowly as a perfect, completely ridiculous plan materialized in her head.
How had she not thought of this before?
She jumped up and headed to her laptop, pulling up a map of Boston, smiling as she touched a finger to the spots of green on her screen.
“You know what, Lexi? Maybe Shelby Quinn can figure out a way to find him.”
—
“Coo-ooper.” Phoebe sing-songed as she knocked on his motel room door a couple of hours later. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
He opened the door, then had to brace himself as Phoebe flung herself into his arms.
“Hey, Wonder Woman. Take it easy. You’ll knock me over.”
“I’m excited. Sue me.” She untangled herself, then shut the door behind her. “So it’s true? It’s all true?”
“All true. Just got back from Lionel’s office. I am officially not under investigation.”
“And you can have your job back? And your house? And your life?”
Cooper paused, unsure of how to answer. “Yes to the house. Maybe, to the life. Not sure about the job.”
“But—don’t they have to? Offer you your position back?”
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