by Tom Savage
And she alone could provide him with it.
Margaret opened the front door of the house in Glen Cove and turned to say good-bye to Dr. Stein. This was his third visit since her return from St. Thomas, and she was grateful for his interest and his advice. With his help, the whole thing just might, once and for all, be relegated to the past.
He smiled at her and went out, ignoring the lone news van that remained, days after all the others had left, at the curb in front of the house. Margaret watched, grimly amused, as the reporter and the cameraman leaning against the van looked over at the doctor and then turned away. Him again, their expressions seemed to say. She shook her head: as long as they remained in the street and didn’t attempt to enter her property, there was nothing she could legally do about it. She could only hope that as time passed and other scandals sprang up to overshadow hers, they would eventually lose interest and go away.
As the doctor got into his Volvo and drove away, another car pulled up behind the van. A stocky, handsome young man with curly black hair jumped out and went around to the passenger side. He opened the door and proceeded to help someone else get out.
Robin Trask.
She shook her head slowly from side to side, smiling to herself as he took the crutches and made his slow, awkward way up to the door. The other man got back in the car and drove away. Clever, she thought. He’s thinking that now, with his friend gone, I can’t refuse him entrance.
A single flashbulb popped as the photographer got a shot of them together in the doorway. She stepped aside to let him pass and closed the door.
They did not speak. They stood there facing each other, she leaning back against the door and he leaning heavily on the crutches. He still had the cast, she noticed, but the bandage on his forehead was gone. Good.
She asked no questions; there would be time for questions later. She walked past him and led the way across the darkened living room and out into the dazzling sunlight, to the garden. To her roses, and the young goddess waiting.
She watched as he cautiously approached the wheelchair and stood before it. Her niece looked up, wincing at the discomfort of the bandages and the sling on her left arm. Then, to his amazement, the young woman rose slowly, painfully to her feet. Margaret nodded, satisfied: this was the third time in two days she’d gotten out of the chair. Soon, when the stitches were removed and the scars on her forehead and neck and chest mended, she wouldn’t need the chair at all. Margaret glanced at the girl’s bandages and closed her eyes, remembering in horror how close, how very close the final cut had come to piercing her heart. Only the gunshot had prevented it.
Then she opened her eyes. She watched the two young people regard each other, he with his cast and crutches and she with her sling and wheelchair. This, Margaret thought, is not going to be easy. For either of them. She knows so little of love, and less of trust. He’s going to have to get used to that. He’ll have to be very patient, very understanding. I hope he’s up to it. They have such a long way, so very far, to go.
Just before she turned around to go back into the house, Margaret heard them finally speak.
“Hello,” he said, staring at the girl before him. “My name is Robin Trask. Who are you?”
The young woman studied him silently through large, pale blue eyes, her pale blond hair glistening in the sun. Then, it seemed to Margaret, her grave expression lifted briefly, replaced for a moment by a hint of a smile. A beginning: the first tentative step on the journey. She would have to travel slowly, for the way was unfamiliar.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I haven’t decided yet.”
TOM SAVAGE is the author of four suspense novels: Precipice, Valentine, The Inheritance, and Scavenger. He wrote two detective novels under the name T. J. Phillips, Dance of the Mongoose and Woman in the Dark. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and anthologies edited by Lawrence Block, Harlan Coben, and Michael Connelly. His bestselling novel, Valentine, was made into a Warner Bros. film. Raised in the Virgin Islands, he lives in New York City, where he worked for many years at Murder Ink, the world's first mystery bookstore. www.tomsavagebooks.com.