Fathers and Sons (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Carolyn McSparren

  “Maybe he wouldn’t let me actually be convicted.”

  “He wouldn’t have allowed you to spend five minutes in jail, young man, and if you weren’t so angry at him, you’d know that was true.” But was it? He’d ducked out on the truth at least once before. If Waneath’s death had been an accident, might he have been afraid to come forward, afraid of the scandal?

  No, she couldn’t believe it of David.

  What she could believe was that he and Waneath had had an affair. She’d been a beautiful woman, much more mature than her years. David was an extraordinarily handsome and charismatic man, as she had reason to know. Maybe it started simply as two people who missed Jason. Things could get out of hand quickly, especially if Waneath pushed it.

  The main thing was that David might have lied about his relationship with the girl.

  Big surprise.

  She stood up.

  “Go home, Jason, before somebody recognizes your car and starts a bunch of gossip we don’t need.”

  “What are you going to do?” Jason asked.

  “I’m going to find your daddy and ask him if he killed Waneath.”

  “You can’t!” Jason squawked. He surged to his feet. “Listen, you said you could maybe plea-bargain for me. Could you maybe get me parole if I plead guilty to manslaughter?”

  “I doubt the people of Athena would be amenable to parole and no jail time for killing another human being.”

  “I can’t let you send my daddy to prison.”

  “Nobody’s sending anybody to prison. But I am going to talk to him and clear this up once and for all. For pity’s sake, Jason, he’s baffled because of your attitude and you’re scared to talk to him. What kind of family do you people run anyway?”

  “The kind where everybody keeps his mouth shut and minds his own business,” he said angrily. “And as my lawyer, I order you not to talk to my father.”

  “Good try.”

  Jason stepped in front of the door. David had said Jason was too small to play football, but at the moment he looked capable of taking on an entire defensive line. “I can’t let you do that,” he said.

  She stood her ground. “Move, Jason.”

  “No.”

  “Listen. Arnold is coming over here to pick me up for breakfast any minute now. He’s more than capable of handling you, even if I’m not.”

  His shoulders sagged, and suddenly he looked about twelve, very tired, very frightened and very confused.

  She patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure your father has a perfectly good alibi for the night of Waneath’s death. You have to give him a chance to explain.” She moved him gently away from the door so that she could open it. “Go home. Let Neva answer the phone. Take a nap, watch a movie, eat something. I promise I’ll call you after I’ve talked to your dad.”

  He began to cry again, and this time she put her arms around him. In a moment, he hugged her back. She patted him and wished she’d had more experience in mothering. She had no idea how to handle him.

  After what seemed like a long time, but was actually probably no more than a minute, he snuffled and looked at her. “Everybody thinks I’m such a jerk, you know, for leaving her.” His face crumpled again. “I loved her, I really did. I miss her so much.”

  She nodded. “I know,” she said quietly. “Go home. Try not to worry. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  She watched him drive off and turn toward Long Pond.

  Then she began to shake.

  Had David lied to her again? Had he done the same thing he’d done in the past—simply not told her the entire truth? Old habits died hard.

  In actuality, he was free; Waneath was free. The disparity in their ages was not much greater than the difference between hers and Alec Mullholland’s. If she ignored the fact that Waneath was ostensibly his son’s girlfriend, then David was well within his rights, if not his right mind, to get involved with the little gold digger.

  David had a history of getting women pregnant. Maybe he’d expected Waneath to be on the Pill. His and Kate’s generation didn’t talk quite so openly about birth control as Jason’s did.

  But irrational though it was, she felt betrayed all over again, not only as a woman but as a lawyer. She always said she expected clients to lie, but this seemed gratuitous. Unless, God help them all, he actually was responsible for Waneath’s death. How could she handle that knowledge? She couldn’t cover up a killing, even for David.

  She called Arnold’s room, and when he answered, she said, “Sony, I won’t be able to have breakfast with you. I’ve got someplace to go.”

  He said muzzily, “Wha...?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Have coffee, eat. Get yourself into your right mind. I’ll either see you at the café, or I’ll catch you here later.”

  “Where?”

  “I promise to leave my cell phone plugged into the car. Bye.” She hung up on Arnold’s second “wha?”

  She showered and dressed hurriedly, all the while trying to keep her mind from racing ahead. It wasn’t easy. David made a kind of grim sense as the father of Waneath’s baby. He taught at the college she’d attended. Had he really gone down that list of professors so casually, knowing all the time that he was the man she sought?

  He’s an actor, she kept repeating under her breath.

  DAVID HEARD tires crunch on the gravel in front of his house and walked to the front door with his first cup of coffee in his hand. He looked out the window, recognized his car and felt his heart lift.

  He opened his front door before she reached it, picked up the Athena Weekly Sun from his front steps and held it folded in his hand while he waited for her to come to him. He knew he was smiling like a lunatic, but he couldn’t help his feelings. He hoped she’d spent as lousy a night as he had, and was here because she couldn’t wait a moment longer to throw herself into his arms, ready for a long leisurely morning of making love as they used to do on weekends in New York.

  He held out his arms to her, but she sidestepped him and stalked past him into the house. Not the actions of a woman come to make love. “Kate?” he asked.

  She dropped her handbag beside the fireplace and turned to face him. Even in the dim light from his reading lamp he could see the set of her jaw. She was breathing hard.

  “What is it?” he asked, and went to her.

  She put her hands up in front of her like a shield. “Stay on your side of the room, okay?”

  “What’s the matter?” His blood chilled. “Jason. Is anything the matter with Jason?”

  “You could say that,” she said. “You could say tha there’s twenty years of secrets and lies and mistrust the matter with him.” She raised her hands to her temples a though fending off a headache. “I was crazy to think you’o changed.”

  His frustration began to make him angry. “What are you talking about?”

  “How come you neglected to tell me that Waneath wa carrying your baby?”

  He gaped at her. Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t this He shook his head. “She wasn’t.”

  “Are you denying that you had an affair with her afte Jason left for Pepperdine in September?”

  “Hell, yes, I’m denying it! Are you nuts? Why would do that?”

  “She was a beautiful woman. Lonely. You saw eacl other at college. Nothing odd about Jason’s daddy com forting his girlfriend.”

  “Kate, I saw her in the cafeteria three or four times Joined her for dinner once or twice. We talked about Jason and how much we missed him.”

  “Oh, really. You didn’t mention those little dinner par ties before.”

  “I didn’t think they were important. I felt sorry for her.’

  “Sorry enough to take her to bed?”

  “No!”

  “Well, David, that’s what she told Jason right after he refused to marry her. Right before she walked off to find you to tell you that you were about to become a father fo the second time.”

  “Say what?” He felt his
heart pounding in his chest. Hi skin felt hot, as though he were suddenly sick with a fevei He had to sit down. He felt behind him for the wing chai and sank into it. His mouth turned dry in an instant. He swallowed, trying to get enough moisture to speak.

  She stalked back and forth in front of the windows with her arms crossed on her chest. He saw suddenly what a formidable litigator she must be.

  “Waneath had no reason to lie,” Kate continued. “She didn’t expect to die that night. She was annoyed at Jason all right, but what she told him could easily be proved or disproved. She was telling the truth.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t pretend to know why she lied, but she did. I promise you, Kate, I never slept with the girl.”

  “And is there any reason why I should accept your version? Do you have an unblemished reputation for honesty in these matters?”

  He surged to his feet. “Yes, I do, dammit!”

  “Then why, when your son drove over here that night to talk to you about Waneath’s allegations, were you not here? Where exactly did you spend the remainder of that night? Do you have an alibi? Or did you just happen to pick up Waneath on the side of the road where Jason dumped her?”

  “Lord God in heaven,” David whispered. “He thinks I killed her.”

  “Damn straight. Killed her, dumped her and brought me in to get him off so you don’t have to confess to save him. He asked me to explore a plea bargain for him. He’s willing to go to jail to save you.”

  He shook his head. “That’s crazy.”

  “Oh, you haven’t heard the best part.” She walked over and took the newspaper from his limp hand, unfolded it and held it in front of him.

  He looked at the headline and the accompanying picture. “Holy hell!”

  “Wedding announcements and recipes?” she said sweetly.

  “How did they find out?”

  “Some housewife-turned-reporter ran across my full name somewhere, no doubt. Who cares? Jason knows I’m your ex-wife, and by now so does Dub and the entire state of Mississippi.”

  “Kate, I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, there’s more.” She wadded up the paper in her hand and paced. “After your giant-size son tried to run me down in the motel parking lot this morning, he explained to me in great detail how I’m planning to get him sent away to Parchman for life to revenge myself on Melba for stealing you away from me.”

  She threw the newspaper at the couch. It slid onto the floor. Kate ignored it and stormed over to stare out the window.

  David stared at her. “That’s...that’s...” The idea that Kate would do something that Machiavellian was beyond ludicrous. When the laughter began to bubble up inside him, he wondered for a moment whether men got hysterics.

  Kate whirled, her face set, her shoulders heaving with fury.

  He was instantly sober.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “I know,” he said. And promptly burst out laughing.

  “Oh, Kate, the idea that you’d get Jason sent off to prison. I’m sorry. I know this is serious. Maybe it’s so damn serious that if I don’t laugh I’m going to howl. Surely to God you don’t believe him?”

  “About getting him sent to prison, of course not. As for the rest of it...”

  He surged up out of his chair and went to her. He took her by the shoulders and spun her to face him. “If I had done it, do you think I’d have let Jason be arrested?”

  “Where were you that night?”

  He let her go and went to the refrigerator. “I need a drink.”

  “It’s eight-thirty in the morning.”

  “Milk, orange juice, more coffee—something. My mouth feels too dry to speak.”

  “You need to stall long enough to think of a good alibi is what you need.”

  He shook his head, reached into the refrigerator, pulled out a carton of milk and took a long swig straight from the container. He continued to drink for a moment, then flipped the plastic top and set the carton back into the refrigerator, shut the door carefully, turned to the counter and leaned on it with both hands. “This has knocked me for a loop.”

  “Obviously. Where were you?”

  “If you’re asking whether I have an alibi, the answer is no. Never occurred to me I’d need one. I definitely was not with another woman.”

  “You weren’t home. Car was gone, house was dark.”

  “I was restless. I knew Jason was out partying, and I was worried about him. I drove down to the joint to see if I could spot his car, but he wasn’t there.”

  “Did you speak to any of his friends? Hear about the fight?”

  “No, I kept a very low profile. I knew he’d be mad as hell if he caught me bulldogging him. I didn’t get out of the car, I just cruised by. His car wasn’t there.”

  “You didn’t pass him on the road?”

  He shook his head. “No. It was a beautiful night. Full moon. I just drove for a couple of hours.”

  “Oh, come on!” Kate said. “You drove around aimlessly in the middle of the night? You can do better than that.”

  “The truth? Celibacy sucks. I’m sick to death of cold showers. The nights can get very long, and frankly, the only woman who haunts my dreams was at that moment handling a lawsuit in California.”

  “I’m supposed to believe that?”

  “Since the crops are in, I don’t go to bed bone tired. I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Did you stop anywhere? For coffee, maybe? A soft drink? Gasoline?”

  “I had a full tank of gasoline. I drove all the way to the outskirts of Jackson and back. Didn’t get home until one, two o’clock in the morning.”

  “Did you drive by the levee where they found Waneath’s body?”

  He shook his head. “I took the back roads.”

  “Anyone see you?”

  “No one I knew or could recognize. No one who recognized me. Do you believe me?”

  “I have no idea.” She turned away.

  He felt a terrible surge of loss, as though after all these years the final thread binding them together had snapped. “You’ll never be able to trust me completely, will you?”

  She glared back silently.

  “But so far as Waneath’s baby goes, you’ll have proof of that when the DNA test comes in. That’ll prove I wasn’t the father.”

  “Perhaps it will, perhaps it won’t.”

  “What?”

  “You and Jason share a good deal of DNA. Your patterns could be markedly similar.”

  “So I could always be under suspicion?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then all I can tell you is that it’s not true. I don’t know why she told Jason that, except maybe she was so damn mad at him that she hit out with the most hurtful words she could. Maybe she planned to force his hand that way. I did not sleep with her. I give you my word.”

  “And we all know what that’s worth.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way. Sorrier than you’ll ever know,” David said. He grabbed his jacket off a hook beside the back door. “But now I have to find my son.”

  “Can you make him believe you?” Kate asked.

  He stopped with one sleeve on and one off. “When I haven’t convinced you, you mean?”

  She shrugged.

  He pulled the jacket on the rest of the way. “Either twenty years ago you married a man capable of killing a woman and leaving her by the side of the road, or I’ve changed so much in those twenty years that I have become that man. Or a third possibility—I’m innocent. You work it out. And when you come up with an answer, let me know. In the meantime, I’m going to my son.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  KATE STOOD rooted to the floor of David’s living room and watched him slam the front door behind him. A moment later she heard his truck start and the whine of gravel.

  She’d gotten what she wanted all right. No chance of getting back together with David now even for an evening’s sexual dalliance. By telling him she didn’t believe him, she’d as good as called him a
killer.

  Lovely.

  The problem was that she did believe him. All that anger that she hadn’t realized still existed had come from someplace deep within her. She’d wanted to hurt him. After twenty years his betrayal still rankled. She wanted to see him bleed, and she’d gone about it with the same singleminded determination she used against hostile witnesses.

  She sank onto the sofa and automatically began reassembling the Athena newspaper. She glanced at the story again, then tossed the paper aside. Time enough to read it later, when she could think straight.

  Assuming that time ever came.

  She closed her eyes and dug the heels of her hands into them as though to keep them from falling out of her skull.

  She and Waneath weren’t that different. Kate had looked on marriage to David as a career in and of itself. Marriage wasn’t a career. It was a relationship between two fallible people who brought emotional baggage with them.

  The trick was to fit all the disparate bits and pieces into the relationship. Tough to manage, especially since neither partner had a clue how much stuff was being dragged along. Hang-ups simply leaped out of closets and crawled from under beds at inopportune moments.

  Kate had wanted to hurt David in the worst possible way. Waneath had wanted to hurt Jason. Telling him that David was the father of her unborn child was the nastiest thing Waneath could have said. She probably didn’t think any further than the moment. She was furious and scared.

  David was right. He was fundamentally decent, whatever mistakes he’d made. He wouldn’t have killed Waneath. He’d have been more likely to offer her marriage if he really were the father of her child. That’s what he’d done the last time.

  But wouldn’t it be jim-dandy to have legal confirmation to back up Kate’s instincts?

  She pulled herself to her feet. With luck Arnold would still be at the motel and ready for breakfast. Suddenly she was hungry and as tired as if she hadn’t slept a wink.

  Halfway to the front door, she jumped when the telephone rang. She stared at it, wondering whether it was David trying to get in touch with her. She hesitated to pick up his telephone. Let the answering machine pick up, then if it were David, she could interrupt.