by Joy Fielding
“…stupid that was?” Alec said, finishing her question.
Robin felt a pang of guilt. “Stupid” had been their father’s favorite insult for his son. “It was reckless, Alec,” she said. “What if Sheriff Prescott had seen you…”
“Oh, he saw me.”
“He saw you?”
“You’re doing it again.”
“What the fuck, Alec? What do you mean, he saw you?”
“Okay, okay. Take it down a notch. Look over there.” He pointed down the road.
“What am I looking at? I don’t see anything.”
“Down there. Under that big tree.”
Robin strained to see through the darkness. “I still don’t see…Is that a car?”
“A patrol car, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Sheriff Prescott?”
“Or one of his deputies. He’s been on my tail since I left the house this afternoon.”
“You knew he was watching you when you took Blake’s car?”
“Not right away, no. But we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. Not hard to figure out when you’re being followed.”
Robin sank down onto the grass at the side of the road. “I’m not taking another step until you tell me what’s going on.”
Alec lowered himself to the ground beside her, crossing his legs and tearing at the surrounding grass with his fingers. “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t plan to take your fiancé’s car.”
“Then why did you?”
“I don’t know. I was tired, confused. Being back in that house, seeing the old mudroom, being around Melanie, hearing Landon rocking away. I guess I panicked.”
Robin nodded. Panic was a feeling she understood all too well.
“I saw Blake’s fob on the table by the front door, and next thing I knew, I was behind the wheel—car drives real nice, by the way—and heading for the highway. Until I spotted the patrol car in the rearview mirror and decided that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.”
“But you didn’t come home.”
“This isn’t my home,” he said.
Robin sighed in frustration. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. And I’m sorry about taking Blake’s car and sorry about not contacting you. It was inconsiderate, to say the least.”
“Yes, you’re very good at saying the least. So, that’s it? You just went for a drive?”
He sighed. “I went to Walmart.”
“You went to Walmart?” she repeated, the question out of her mouth before she could stop it.
“I needed some clothes, some fresh underwear, a toothbrush. Stuff like that. Figured I might as well buy them in case I’m here for a while. And if I’m being honest, I was probably hoping to lose that damn deputy, or at least bore the guy to death. I spent hours in that fucking store. I bet I can tell you the price of every damn item on their shelves.”
“Walmart doesn’t stay open all night. Where’d you go after the store closed? To see Dad?”
“Are you kidding?” Alec looked genuinely shocked. He began rubbing his jaw. “That’s the last fucking place I’d go.”
“So where did you go?”
“Well, I was pretty hungry by that point and I gave some thought to coming home. But then I remembered Melanie saying something about hot dogs and beans, and that didn’t appeal to me a whole lot, so I went to this new sushi restaurant over on Aloha Street. You been there yet?”
You went to a sushi restaurant? Robin repeated silently, biting her lower lip to keep from saying it out loud.
“It’s good. I was surprised.” He threw a fistful of grass into the air. It disappeared in the darkness. “Anyway, the patrol car was parked down the street when I got out, and even though I’d pretty much abandoned my plans for the great escape, I still wasn’t ready to come home. So I went to the movies. Saw the new one with Melissa McCarthy. She’s great. Sat through it twice. I actually went out and bought another ticket. Didn’t want the sheriff arresting me for trying to sneak in without paying.”
“I take it they were still waiting for you when you left the theater.”
“They were probably hoping for some kind of high-speed chase up Highway 5. Something to tell their grandkids about. But my heart wasn’t in it, so I just drove around until I figured everyone had gone to bed, then came back. Okay? Satisfied?” He pushed himself to his feet, brushed the grass off the seat of his pants. “Remind me to take my purchases out of the car when we get back to the house.”
Robin clambered to her feet. “Were you really on your way to Canada when the police picked you up?” she asked as they started back toward the house.
“British Columbia’s one of my favorite places,” Alec answered. “Tara and I talked about moving there one day.”
Robin held her breath at the mention of Tara’s name, waiting for him to say more.
“How are you and Melanie getting along these days?” he asked instead.
“Okay, I guess,” she answered. “She hasn’t changed much.”
“People don’t change, Robin. You’re the therapist. You should know that.”
“To be fair…”
“Oh, no, please. Don’t be fair. Our sister’s a cunt and you know it.”
Robin swallowed a gasp at the word “cunt.” It had been Tara’s favorite word for Melanie.
“Tara used to say that Melanie was Dad in a dress,” Alec said. “You know what she needs, don’t you?”
“Please don’t tell me she needs to get laid.”
Alec laughed, inadvertently kicking a pebble at his feet and bending down to scoop it up before throwing it back into the night. “How long do you think it’s been, anyway?”
“I can’t say I’ve ever given the matter any thought.”
“You don’t suppose it could be since she got pregnant with Landon, do you? I mean, you’d get pretty cranky, too, if you hadn’t had sex in almost two decades.”
“I can’t imagine…”
“What? That she has? Or that she hasn’t?”
“Either,” Robin said, turning down their driveway. “Besides, she was like that before she got pregnant.”
“Like what?”
“You know like what.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not nice to call your sister a…”
“…cunt? Go on, you can do it.”
“I won’t.”
“I dare you. I double dare you.”
Robin was laughing now. “You’re crazy.”
The front door opened. Melanie appeared in the doorway, framed by the light of the hall behind her. She was wearing a pair of blue cotton pajamas and an expression of weary exasperation. “What the hell is going on out here?”
“Alec is back,” Robin said, trying to keep the laughter gurgling inside her throat from escaping.
“So I see. Nice of you to come home, Alec. Are you intent on broadcasting your presence to the whole neighborhood?”
“Sorry about that,” Alec said. Then under his breath, “Told you she’s a cunt.”
“Stop it.”
The two of them collapsed in a fresh fit of giggles.
“What’s the matter with you?” Melanie said. “Are you ten years old?”
“Sorry,” Robin managed to spit out as Melanie turned on her heel and disappeared inside the house.
“Way to go, Robin,” Alec said. “Now you’ve made her mad.”
Robin motioned toward Blake’s car. “Don’t forget your stuff.”
Alec used the fob to unlock the rear passenger door of the Lexus. It made a loud squeaking noise, as if in protest. He removed half a dozen large shopping bags from the backseat, handing half of them to Robin as he looked toward Landon’s bedroom. “Looks like we woke him up.”
Robin shook her head. “No. He’s always standing there.”
Alec waved at his nephew. Landon immediately disappeared from view. “Do you think he was there th
e night of the shootings? That he might have seen something?”
Was Alec curious, or was he afraid? Robin couldn’t help wondering. “I don’t know. I tried to talk to him once about it, but no luck.”
“Maybe I’ll give it a try.”
“Alec…” She wanted to ask if he and Tara had crossed paths in San Francisco, if seeing her again had reopened old wounds. Did you do it? she asked with her eyes. Are you guilty?
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.” It was late. She was exhausted. And if she was completely honest with herself, she was afraid of what Alec’s answer might be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The law office of McAllister and Associates was located on the second floor of a red-brick building at the corner of Main and Crittenden, half a block from the bright blue, two-story concrete building that housed Davis Developers. Melanie pulled into a parking space midway between the two, and the three siblings emerged from the front and back seats of the car almost simultaneously.
Robin looked toward her father’s office. “What do you think will happen to Dad’s business if…?” She let the sentence dangle, unfinished.
“…he croaks?” Alec finished for her. “I think you mean when, not if.”
“Guess we’ll worry about that if and when the time comes,” Melanie said, pulling open the outer door of the brick building.
“I think I remember Jeff McAllister,” Alec said as they headed up the steep flight of stairs to the office. “Short guy, right?”
“Tiny. Dad used to say his balls were bigger than he was.”
“The man’s a poet,” Alec said.
Melanie pushed the door open without knocking. “We’re here to see Jeff McAllister,” she announced to the young woman behind an old-fashioned wooden desk. “I’m Melanie Davis. This is my brother, Alec, and my sister, Robin.”
The young woman smiled, revealing two large dimples and a prominent upper gum. “I’ll tell Mr. McAllister you’re here. If you’d care to have a seat…” She indicated the four white plastic chairs, two sitting at right angles to the other two, against ecru-colored walls covered with framed mottoes: It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn, read one. Everyone’s Entitled to at Least One Good Day, began another. This Is Not One of Yours.
Not exactly designed to give one confidence, Robin thought.
“We’ll stand,” Melanie said, perhaps thinking the same thing.
“You’re sure he’s a real lawyer?”
“This isn’t L.A.,” Melanie reminded her.
Robin’s body ached to sit down. She’d spent the balance of last night tossing and turning, worrying about Alec, about their father, about Cassidy, about everything that had happened and everything that might happen, unable to fall back to sleep. As anxious as she was to leave Red Bluff, how could she go anywhere until they knew what had happened? At the very least, she had to know the extent of her brother’s involvement.
Melanie had called Jeff McAllister first thing in the morning, and he’d agreed to see them at one o’clock that afternoon. Blake had a conference call scheduled for two o’clock and hadn’t been able to join them.
“You’ll be fine,” Blake told Robin as they were leaving. “Just remember to breathe.”
Not so easy, she thought now, her eyes traveling to six black-and-white photographs of rodeo scenes hanging on the opposite wall. She took four deep breaths, one immediately following the other.
“Are you going to faint again?” Melanie asked.
“No. Sorry.” Sorry for breathing.
“They’re here,” she heard the receptionist whisper into her phone, not bothering with names.
Seconds later, Jeff McAllister was standing in front of them, his right arm outstretched to shake their hands. He had a grip of steel, as if to make up for his lack of height, but Robin thought he had a nice face. It was round and reassuring. She estimated his age as mid-sixties. He still had all his hair.
“Very nice to meet you,” he said. “We were all so shocked to hear about the shootings. How is your father doing?”
“Not great,” Melanie said. “It appears my brother is in need of legal counsel.”
The receptionist smiled shyly at Alec.
Melanie shot the young woman a look that said, You’ve got to be kidding.
The receptionist immediately began moving papers around on her desk, as if she’d just remembered something important.
“This way, please.” McAllister led them toward the inner offices. His was the last of three and occupied the corner.
“This is as far as you go,” Alec told his sisters when they reached McAllister’s door.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Melanie said, this time out loud. She was still bristling minutes later, as she and Robin sat fidgeting on the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the reception area.
“We could go for a coffee,” Robin suggested.
“Not thirsty.”
“This may take a while.”
“You go, if you want.”
“No. I…”
Melanie’s cell phone rang. She reached inside her purse and brought it to her ear. “Hello?” Her face immediately softened, and she turned away, lowering her chin. “Hi. Yeah, I’m okay. It’s been a little rough.” She stood up, took several steps away from Robin. “Uh-huh. Yeah. That would be great. Okay. Sure. I really appreciate it. Okay. See you later.” She returned to her seat, dropping her phone into her purse and leaning her head back against the wall.
“Who was that?” Robin asked.
“No one.”
“Obviously it was someone.”
“It was just a friend.”
“What friend?” To Robin’s knowledge, her sister didn’t have any friends. It was one of the few things they had in common.
“Just someone I know. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s not a big deal. I’m just curious.”
“There’s nothing to be curious about.”
“Was it a man?” Robin pressed, mindful of the conversation she’d had with Alec the previous night. “Are you seeing someone?”
“Seriously?” Melanie asked. “That’s what you’re concerned about? With everything else that’s going on, you’re asking me if I’m seeing anyone?”
“Are you?” Robin said.
Melanie rolled her eyes toward the recessed ceiling. “No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Why is it ridiculous? You’re still young and attractive.”
“And my son’s still autistic.”
“Which doesn’t mean you can’t have a social life. Come on. There must have been some men over the years.”
“What are you asking me? If I’ve had lovers?”
“Have you?”
Melanie slumped down in her seat, stretching her long legs out in front of her, her denim skirt riding up on her thighs.
“Dad in a dress,” Robin heard her brother say.
“There’ve been a few,” Melanie surprised her by admitting.
“Really? Who?”
“Seriously?” Melanie said again.
“Anybody I know?”
There was such a long pause that Robin assumed Melanie either hadn’t heard her or was deliberately ignoring the question. “You remember Steve Clark?” she asked just as Robin had given up hope of a response and was reconsidering going out for that cup of coffee.
“Steve Clark?” Robin flipped the name over on her tongue. “You mean that fat kid with the bad complexion who used to follow you around in high school?”
“He lost weight and his skin cleared up. He actually looks pretty good now.”
“You’re sleeping with him?”
“Not anymore, no. This was years ago. He married Pamela Haggar. You remember her?”
Robin shook her head.
“She was fat, too. Still is, actually. They have three kids, a boy and twin girls, all under the age of five.”
“Who else?” Robin asked. “You said that was years ag
o.”
“Oh, God. Let’s see.” Melanie sighed, although she was clearly warming to her subject. “Mark Best…Surely you remember him.”
Robin narrowed her eyes, a picture taking shape in her mind. “Tall, dark hair, green eyes? Played basketball?”
“That’s the one.”
“Was he? The best, I mean?”
Melanie chuckled. “Sadly he was not.” She shook her head. “No. That honor would have to go to Ronnie Simon.” She nodded, agreeing with her own assessment. “Yep. He was something else.”
“I don’t think I know him.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You were long gone when they moved here.”
“They?”
“He and his wife and kids.”
“He was married?”
“Still is.”
“Did you know?”
“Of course.”
“Was that him just now, on the phone?”
“No. That was months ago.”
“What happened?”
“What usually happens. It ended. And don’t you dare get all judgmental. Like you’ve never had an affair with a married man?”
Robin shook her head. She remembered the damage her father’s multiple affairs had done to her family, and she had made a solemn vow that she would never knowingly sleep with a married man.
“Can I get you ladies anything? Something to drink, perhaps?” the receptionist asked.
“No, thank you,” the women said together.
“Were you in love with him?” Robin ventured after several seconds.
“With who? Ronnie Simon? Don’t be insane.”
Another moment of silence.
“Have you ever been in love?” Robin asked.
“As if I have time for that nonsense.”
“Love isn’t nonsense.”
“It isn’t?”
“What about Landon’s father?”
“That jerk? Biggest mistake of my life.”
“Do you ever hear from him?”
“Never. Are we done with the interrogation yet?”
“I didn’t think it was an interrogation.”
“What would you call it?” Melanie asked.
“A conversation?” Robin asked in return. She’d actually been enjoying the last few minutes.