Lanford frowned.
“It just doesn’t fit with the guy I knew.”
“I saw him in the station. He hates you.”
“That’s because Dan was his friend and he blames me for the fire.”
“Was he that close a friend of Dan’s? It’s been almost two decades, and you’ve been in prison for all those years. It would have to be a very close friendship to incite that much hatred.”
“I don’t know. I assumed this would be easier, less confusing.”
“If Billy did commit this crime eighteen years ago, he has a lot to lose. Or, another option is that Allison might have set the fire to protect her relationship with Billy.”
Lanford had never considered that. It didn’t make sense to him. He’d never been a threat to Allison. Could she have thought he was?
“Oh, Festus!”
Sarah held a hand to her nose. It hit Lanford then. He looked over his shoulder into the back seat where Festus was lying soundly asleep. There was no mistaking the source of the smell, though. Festus had digestive issues this afternoon.
“Couldn’t find a babysitter for him?”
Sarah’s face was still scrunched up. “No, my neighbor is out today. Maybe Festus does have the ability to convince a witness to talk.”
Lanford’s lips twitched. “As in, if they refuse to confess you could hit them with one of his stink bombs?”
Sarah snorted, and her hand moved from her nose to cover her mouth. Her cheeks flushed.
It seemed Sarah was embarrassed by her laugh. She needn’t be. Lanford found it charming.
He found everything about Sarah charming. She was a danger to his peace of mind.
* * *
Billy had a large, showy home. It was in a gated community, but Sarah had brought her badge and that got them through the gates. The grounds were immaculately maintained. Nothing was out of place. After spending the last weeks working on the church gardens, Lanford knew exactly what kind of effort that required.
Billy was doing well financially, at least.
After a moment of staring at the door of the house, the two of them unwilling to exit the car, Sarah reached for her door pull.
There were no vehicles in the driveway.
“She may not be home, or her car may be in the garage. Only one way to find out.”
Lanford was reluctant to move. It had been years, but when he’d last seen Allison, he’d been someone. A troublemaker, true, but he had been in control of his future, as he thought. He’d been confident, independent... Free.
Now he was the guy who’d been in prison for eighteen years. He wondered if she’d regard him with disgust. He wondered if she might have been the one to set the fire.
He forced himself out of the car. Sarah was opening the back door, dragging Festus out.
Lanford looked at the house doubtfully.
Sarah shrugged. “I can’t leave him in the car—it’s too hot.”
Sarah led the way up the sidewalk, Festus and Lanford following reluctantly. At the door, Sarah drew in a breath and pressed the bell. Lanford braced himself. He wondered if Allison would recognize him.
They heard footsteps approaching the other side of the door. They were heavier than Lanford would have expected, and he wondered if Sarah’s information had been at fault. Maybe something had happened, and Billy hadn’t gone to play golf. Maybe his angry visage was what they’d see.
The door pulled open, but it wasn’t Allison or Billy who stood there. It was a kid, a teenager. He stood almost as tall as Lanford. He had dark hair and clear gray eyes. The jolt of recognition almost hurt.
It was as if someone had taken seventeen-year-old Lanford and time-traveled him to the current day.
Lanford stopped breathing. His brain shut down. He could do nothing but stare in shock at this younger version of himself.
Lighter footsteps tripped down the hallway toward them.
“Ri, how often do I tell you not to open the door until—”
Allison, an older, more polished and brittle Allison, appeared behind the boy. She looked at Sarah, and a puzzled expression crossed her face. Then her gaze landed on Lanford.
She turned white. “No...”
Chapter Seventeen
Sarah didn’t need any special training to start putting the puzzle pieces together. There were still questions, but there was no doubt who this boy was.
Lanford’s son.
Allison had wanted to tell Lanford that she was pregnant at the party.
A glance at Lanford beside her showed him frozen in shock. Allison was still white and had a hand on the hallway wall to support herself. The boy, Ri, was also looking confused.
“Allison Robertson? I’m Sarah Winfrey, the sheriff from Balsam Grove. I was hoping to talk to you.”
Allison tore her gaze back to Sarah.
“Um, yes, of course, uh...”
“Do you mind if my dog comes in? It’s too hot to leave him in the car.”
Allison’s gaze sharpened as her mind began to function again.
“Ri, why don’t you take the dog for a walk? If it’s been in the car all the way from Balsam Grove, it would like some exercise. I need to talk to these people.”
The boy’s chin jutted out.
“I was supposed to—”
“If you want to drive your car anywhere this next month, then you’ll take the dog and go for a walk. Now.”
The boy glared at his mom. She held his gaze. His expression turned sulky and then he shrugged.
“Whatever.”
Sarah held out the end of the leash, and the boy took it with barely a glance at her. His attention was on Lanford. Lanford was still standing as if frozen.
“Come on in.” Allison stood aside, anxious to get them in the house.
Sarah could understand why.
Sarah took Lanford’s arm and pushed him forward. She closed the door behind her, with a last glance down the sidewalk.
The boy was dragging Festus along, eyes still on his own front door.
“This way.”
Allison led them to a great room with an expansive kitchen on one side and a comfortable sitting room on the other. She kept shooting glances at Lanford, then glancing away. Lanford wasn’t looking at either of them.
“Have a seat. Can I get you a drink? Iced tea? Water? Beer?”
Lanford shook his head. Sarah sat on a couch and he joined her.
“Just water would be lovely.”
Allison opened a cupboard to bring down glasses, busying herself with ice and water, using the activity to pull herself together.
By the time she brought them their drinks, she almost resembled the composed woman Sarah had seen in the photos online.
“How can I help you?”
Her voice was polite, in control. But there was a nervous tic near her jaw, and her gaze kept flitting over Lanford and leaving again.
“I met your husband briefly at the sheriff’s office in Balsam Grove. He was upset when he saw Lanford. I’ve been looking into the arson case from eighteen years ago, and I had a few questions—”
“What did you call him?” Lanford broke in.
She could hear the tension in his voice. Allison turned to Lanford and wasn’t even pretending any longer to care what Sarah was saying.
“We called him Riordan. Ri for short.”
Lanford swallowed. “What did you do?”
Allison tried to bluster. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Is it why you wanted to talk at the party? Before—before the fire?”
Allison opened her mouth and then closed it, staring at the ceiling.
“I tried to tell you. You were too drunk to listen.”
* * *
Lanford was having an out-of-body experience. He
could see the three of them in that room, but from above. Nothing was real.
Then Allison’s words hit him, bringing him down to earth. The impact was painful.
He’d been drunk and she hadn’t told him she was pregnant... So she’d confessed to someone else.
“Did Dan know? Was that why he called? Is that why he and Dad cut their trip short?”
He wanted her to say no. He needed her to say no. But of course she nodded.
Allison’s eyelashes fluttered, and she reached a finger beneath her eyes to wipe away the moisture.
“I didn’t know what to do. Billy was going to flip. I had no idea how you were going to respond. So I called Dan. He said he’d help, that he’d talk to Billy. And to you.
“I didn’t want to tell you. I mean, it wasn’t like we were going to get married and live happily ever after. But this was your mess, too. I thought Dan could make things work somehow.”
If anyone could have, it would have been Dan. But he finally understood what Dan had meant in that last message, the one Lanford hadn’t heard till after Dan was dead.
This was definitely a life-altering thing. It would have messed up his future. That was, if there hadn’t been the fire, and he hadn’t ruined his future with eighteen years in prison.
He narrowed his gaze. “Billy. When did he find out?”
Allison was twisting her hands in her lap, refusing to meet his gaze.
“At the party. After I left you, I was going to head home and wait for Dan. But Billy was there.
“I’d told him I wasn’t feeling good and was staying home that night. He didn’t believe me, I guess. He’d followed me to the party and saw us together.”
His own memories of that night were blurry, but he remembered kissing Allison, running his hands under her T-shirt, trying to pull it off.
If Billy had been watching, he’d have known exactly what the two of them had been doing while he’d been at school.
Lanford’s guilt weighed down on him, but he fought it back. He’d pay for this, later. Right now, he needed to know what had happened that night.
“I told him I was so sorry, that it didn’t mean anything, it had just happened. I promised him that no one knew, and I’d stop and could he forgive me...
“He was so quiet. He just dragged me back to the car. I wasn’t totally lying. The morning sickness was brutal. I had to stop on the way to his car so I could be sick in a bush.”
“He asked if I was drunk. And I just laughed. I mean, I couldn’t drink anything if I was pregnant, right?
“He slapped me. He’d never... I was shocked. And I said, ‘I’m pregnant.’”
He’d slapped her?
“What did he say?”
Allison met his eyes for a brief moment, then her gaze skittered away again.
“He didn’t say anything. He took me home. Told me to wait.
“That’s what I did. I thought maybe Dan would call.”
Lanford noticed that his fists were clenched, his knuckles white.
“What did Billy do?”
She swallowed. “He came back later. He said you weren’t going to be able to help me with anything—you would be sent to prison. And I was going away till I had the baby.”
Lanford pushed himself to his feet.
“And you didn’t say anything? After the fire?”
Allison shrank into her seat and he forced himself to step back. Forced that burning anger down.
“I couldn’t, not then. He drove me to his family’s summer place. Took my phone and ripped out the phone line there.
“He said he could get my mom fired if I didn’t stay put. That she’d never find another job and my sisters would starve. That he’d ruin my family’s life, tell them I was a whore—”
Sarah flinched at that.
“I was tired, and frightened. And I didn’t know about the fire, not for a long time.”
“Billy came back, about a week later. He said we were getting married. I asked about the baby... He said we’d pretend to adopt it. His dad had connections. He could make everything work, or he could destroy me and my family.”
Lanford couldn’t look at Sarah. He didn’t want to see her face. But now she broke into Allison’s recital.
“Why would Billy adopt Lanford’s child? Did you talk him into it?”
Allison shook her head.
“Billy can’t have children. He hadn’t bothered to tell me until then. He got the mumps one summer and it left him sterile. It’s rare, but it does happen.
“He told his parents that Lanford had slept with a girl in the next town and got her pregnant. And we were adopting the baby because Billy wanted to respect Dan. We called him Riordan. Ri knows he’s adopted, but he doesn’t know I’m his mother.
“Or anything about his father.”
Lanford found himself pacing the room, his brain scrambling to make sense of what Allison was revealing. His mind kept coming back to the boy he’d met earlier in the doorway.
Riordan. His son.
He stopped by the fireplace, leaned a hand on the mantel, struggled to get his temper under control.
Why, God?
If only he hadn’t been so drunk that night. If only Allison hadn’t called Dan. If only he hadn’t messed around with her...
He drew in a long breath, shot up a prayer.
He turned back to Allison.
“Billy set the fire, then? Or was that you? Did you want to kill Dan?”
Allison’s lip trembled.
“It wasn’t me. I didn’t ask Billy what happened. I didn’t want to know. I should have done things differently—I understand that now, but I was trying to protect my family. My son.”
My son. Lanford had the same claim.
Sarah asked Allison for more details. Lanford stopped listening. He needed to deal with the information he already had.
Billy had set the fire. He’d done it to hurt or kill Lanford. It was his fault.
That pain shot deep. He’d always feared this. That somehow, even if he hadn’t lit the fire, hadn’t spread the gasoline, he’d been the one responsible.
He drew in a shuddering breath.
There was nothing he could do now. It was over. Done.
Finished.
He remembered the last moments of Jesus. “It is finished!” he’d said. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
He’d also said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Imagine forgiving someone like that. Could he forgive himself? You’re forgiven.
The words echoed in his head, and he looked around, almost suspecting someone had spoken them.
Only Sarah and Allison were in the room with him.
But some of the weight slid off his shoulders.
Yes, he had more to be forgiven for. But God had promised to forgive it all. It was going to take Lanford some time to accept that, but he knew it was a truth. It was hard to come to terms with it, but he’d suspected it ever since the fire.
It was his fault.
But now he had something else to deal with, something big.
He had a son.
Had Billy been a good dad? Had he taken his anger out on Lanford’s son?
“How is...Riordan?”
He broke into the conversation between the two women. Right now, he was less worried about the fire and proving his innocence. He was more worried about his son.
Allison looked startled.
“He’s fine. Moody, sometimes, but most boys are at that age.”
“Is Billy good to him?”
If he wasn’t, if he hurt him... Lanford wasn’t sure he had enough control for that.
Allison nodded. “I swear, if Billy wasn’t, I would have left him, somehow, done something. I was a stupid girl, and made
a lot of mistakes, but I love Ri. I would never let anyone hurt him.
“Billy’s proud of him. He runs track, like Dan. He’s been offered a scholarship.”
The pain hit Lanford again. Dan had had a scholarship, and he was gone, because of Billy. Because of what Lanford had done to Billy.
Allison might have made her peace with that and been willing to live with Billy getting away with it, but Lanford couldn’t.
“I hope you’re telling the truth.”
Lanford had sworn he wasn’t going to get revenge. But when it came to his son: if Billy had hurt him? He wasn’t sure he could keep that promise. Pastor Harold would need to up his prayers.
Allison broke into his thoughts.
“What are you going to do?”
She looked worried. She had every reason to.
Lanford could upset her life. A paternity test would prove he was the father, and that Allison was the boy’s biological mother. It would upset the facade the family had presented to the world. It would cause scandal and gossip, and they would deserve it.
But he couldn’t do that to his child, not until he was sure it wouldn’t hurt him.
Eighteen years ago, Lanford hadn’t been in any condition to be a good father. He’d been a kid himself. But he was an adult now. He’d learned a lot and graduated from a difficult school.
He’d thought he had no family left. Now he had a son. And he would do what was best for that son, no matter the cost to himself.
It would take him time to figure out what that best was, though.
“I’m not sure.”
Allison crossed her arms over her chest. “You guys don’t understand what Billy’s like.”
“Why don’t you explain?” Sarah’s voice was warm, comforting. It invited confidences.
Allison gave Sarah a hard look.
“We all know he set that fire. So I know what he’s capable of if I upset him. He’s been good, as long as we all behave. If I tried to leave him...”
Allison’s mouth set. She swallowed. “Well, if it was for Ri, I’d try. But he’s proud of his son. Still... I’m positive his parents’ accident wasn’t actually an accident.”
Out of the Ashes Page 15