Prodigal Son

by Danielle Steel

  “I have to go back to school soon,” Bill said pensively. “Why don’t the two of you come with me? I only have a month left of the term before summer vacation. Maybe we could go somewhere in Europe. It would be good to get Lisa away, and then she can’t see him. She can go to school in London in the fall. It might be better for her.”

  “I’m not sure she’ll think so,” Maggie said, looking worried. She herself hadn’t traveled in years. She would have loved to, but Michael had told her she wasn’t healthy enough and it was too risky. Now the whole world had opened up to her, and when she thought about it that night, she liked the idea. They all needed a change of scenery, to get away from the awful stories about Michael in the paper. It hung over them like a storm cloud. And they had been told that Michael wouldn’t go to trial until December or January while the D.A. and his lawyer prepared the case. Getting out of Ware sounded like a wonderful idea to Maggie. All she had to do now was sell it to Lisa, or maybe she just had to tell her they were going. She was removing her for her own good, whether she liked it or not, as far from her father as they could get.

  She told Bill about it in the morning. He was planning to leave the following week to finish classes and exams before the end of the semester. And he had six weeks off over the summer. Maggie was thinking she could rent a house somewhere, in Italy or the South of France.

  She called Peter and talked to him about it, and he liked the idea for her too. He couldn’t think of anything worse than her continuing to live in the house where she’d been an invalid for twenty years, and lived with a man who had tried to kill her, little by little, every day. He endorsed the plan immediately.

  “What can I do to help?” He was always kind to her, and he had very little to do now. Their whole life had been taken up by the investigation and their discoveries about Michael for the past month. Peter was also acutely aware that his sons were arriving soon, and he was no longer sure if he wanted them there, in a town where his brother was the local scandal and was all over the papers every day. It worried him, and no matter how nice the lake was, he didn’t think it would be good for the boys to be the object of scrutiny and whispers. He had been trying to figure out somewhere else for them to go. But he thought it was important now for Maggie to get out of town, and even more so for Lisa to get away from her father, whether she wanted to or not.

  “All I have to do is pack,” Maggie said practically. “I don’t have to be here till the trial, whenever that is. And I like Bill’s idea to put Lisa in school in London in the fall. I can figure it out when we get there.” If she wanted to leave with Bill, she had a week to get ready, and she thought she could do it. She e-mailed Claridge’s, where her parents used to stay, and made reservations for her and Lisa. She had gone there with them several times when she was in college. Bill had his own studio apartment. And they would be together. Suddenly, the world was opening up. Maggie thought about seeing Michael before she left, and then decided against it. His silence said it all. And she knew he was guilty. She no longer had any doubt. And the way he was manipulating their daughter confirmed it, and how desperate he was.

  Predictably, Lisa went berserk when her mother told her they were going to London with Bill. And Lisa was adamant that she didn’t want to spend the summer in Europe, much less go to school there.

  “We can’t stay here,” Maggie said sadly. “We’re going to be besieged by the press. Every time there’s a new story about your father, they’ll be all over us.”

  “I’m not going to abandon him,” Lisa shouted at her mother, and finally Maggie lost her temper, which was something she rarely did, especially with her children, or even Michael.

  “He abandoned us! He tried to kill me!” she said with such force that it frightened Lisa.

  “No, he didn’t!” Lisa shouted back in tears. She was fighting for denial, and her mother knew it would be agony for her when she finally let it go, and she wasn’t ready to do that. Michael had pulled her in too close, and for too long. But her mother was determined to free her. Her psychological well-being and survival depended on it, if she was to recover from her father’s emotional abuse and influence. He was a criminal to his soul, and a destroyer of people, not just with poisons but with his very, very sick, twisted mind.

  “Lisa, at some point you have to face this,” her mother said gently. “I loved your father too. But he’s guilty of terrible crimes. We need to get away to get some perspective, and it will be good for us to be together in London.”

  “I won’t go,” she said, looking like a petulant five-year-old as she crossed her arms.

  “You have no choice,” her mother said clearly. “This is what we’re doing.” And as she said it, she realized that there was more to it for Lisa. She had not only lost her father, but she had lost her “job,” her “position” as his almost-wife, that he had created for her in order to shut Maggie out and make her feel useless. Now it was Lisa who felt she had no role. She had forgotten how to be a sixteen-year-old kid, and Maggie had let it happen because she was always so sick. They had a lot to make up for, and a long way to go to get back to a normal life.

  Maggie packed for both of them in the next week. And it wrenched her heart when Lisa begged her to let her see her father one last time. Against her better judgment, she finally gave in, but this time Maggie went with her. She didn’t go in to see him, she sat in the waiting room while Lisa went in for a visit. Jack Nelson saw her and came to sit with Maggie. He had been in Northampton to file some papers. Suddenly the entire room became subdued because he was there.

  “I don’t think this is good for her,” he said in an undervoice, and Maggie agreed with him. Who Michael was really frightened him now.

  “Neither do I, but she wanted to say goodbye. We’re leaving for London tomorrow.” He was relieved to hear it. Their life in Ware, as it had been, was over forever. The damage couldn’t be repaired. People all over town were mourning their lost doctor, the saint they had known, and others were mourning lost parents, whom he had killed. Demon or saint, he was both. But this was no longer a healthy place for his wife and daughter to be. He was glad that Maggie knew it.

  She was surprised when Lisa came out of the visiting area a few minutes later. She could have stayed for ten minutes, but she didn’t. She only stayed for two or three. And she was crying. Jack told Maggie somberly that he would be in touch with her about progress on the case and to be sure and leave her numbers. She promised to do so, and then escorted Lisa out of the building. She looked shattered.

  “What happened?” Maggie asked her as they stood in the sunlight. Lisa’s eyes looked glazed with grief.

  “I told him we were leaving, and he said I’m just like you and Bill, liars and cheats and people who don’t stand by the people they say they love. He just hung up the phone and walked away. I pounded on the window, and he wouldn’t even look back.” Maggie pulled Lisa into her arms then as she sobbed, but Maggie was relieved. By rejecting his daughter, Michael had freed her. He had thrown her away, and now she could heal. They all could. Lisa said not a word on the way home, and when she went upstairs, she finished packing her last few items in her suitcase. Maggie knew she had done the right thing. Letting Lisa see her father one last time had given her daughter a glimpse of who he really was. A man who rejected and killed and destroyed and had no idea how to love. He hadn’t loved Lisa or Maggie, he had controlled them.

  Lisa came downstairs to have dinner with Peter and her brother that night, for the first time in a month. She didn’t speak to either of them, but she sat quietly and listened, still looking very shaken, but no longer hostile. Peter drove in from the lake to join them. He told them how much he was going to miss them, but he was glad they were getting away. Peter wanted to leave soon too. His time in Ware was over. He had come because he had nowhere else to go. It had been a time of healing, but now there was nothing for him here. He had given his mother’s journals to Jack Nelson as evidence. He didn’t want to read them again. It was over
. All of it. It was the end of innocence for them all.

  Chapter 18

  It was lonely for Peter at the lake, once Maggie and her children were gone. The weather was beautiful, and he had gotten the house ready for the boys, who were due in a week, but he still had mixed feelings about having them come here, since Michael’s arrest. A pall had been cast over it now for Peter, but he couldn’t think of where else to take them. He had wanted to show them where he spent his boyhood summers, but that seemed grotesque now since his brother had turned out to be as dangerous as he’d always believed him. In fact, worse.

  He was sitting on the deck one afternoon, reading, when Jack Nelson called him. He hadn’t expected the call and was surprised to hear him.

  “I have bad news,” Jack said in a serious voice.

  “Now what?” He was sure it had to do with his brother. These days, bad news only related to him, and there had been a lot of it recently.

  “Your parents,” Jack said, and Peter understood immediately. “They both show traces of the same substance as the other people we exhumed. I assume he used the same drug on them.” He had killed them. They were dying anyway, but it was a terrible feeling knowing that his brother had killed their parents. Peter felt sick when he heard it, and then thanked Jack and hung up. It was the last straw for him. He was ready to leave. It was time. Too much had happened here now. All he wanted was to get out.

  He spent that night trying to figure out where to take the boys, and came up with an idea that he liked. Maggie was in London for two more weeks before they left for Italy. She had rented a house in Tuscany for a month. But before that, he could take the boys to London for a week, and maybe spend another week or two with them in Europe. It was more money than he had wanted to spend, but he needed a breather now. And his children had never met Maggie and their cousins. And Maggie was their aunt after all. Lisa was only two years older than Ryan, and Bill would be fun for the boys, although he was older. And it would only be for a week, then he and his boys could travel around Europe. He liked the idea of going to Spain with them, and it wouldn’t be too expensive, if they stayed at small hotels and ate at neighborhood restaurants.

  He called Maggie in London the next morning and told her, and she loved the idea. She said she wanted to meet Ben and Ryan. He called the boys that afternoon. He hadn’t told them about their uncle’s arrest yet, but he had hinted at family issues that he would tell them about when they came.

  “Well, we’ve had a change of plans,” Peter announced when he talked to Ryan. “Things have been a little dicey here. I was going to tell you about it when you got here.” He told them a slightly cleaned-up version of Michael’s arrest and his crimes, without going into too much detail.

  “That sounds really scary, Dad,” Ryan said, sounding impressed. “Do you think Uncle Michael will go to prison?” he asked in a subdued tone.

  “Yes, I do. For a long time.” Hopefully forever. Michael deserved it for what he’d done. He hadn’t told Ryan that his twin brother had killed the grandparents he had never known. That was just too much at his age. He could tell him when he grew up. Peter hadn’t digested it yet himself, although he had told Maggie when he talked to her. Nothing surprised either of them anymore. Michael had become a stranger to them all. The husband she had known and loved had never existed. All the while, he had been killing his elderly patients, manipulating money out of them, and poisoning her, after killing his own parents. His crimes were heinous, and it seemed like a miracle to them both that Maggie was still alive.

  “So what do you think?” Peter asked his oldest son, who liked the plan.

  “London sounds like fun, Dad. And maybe we can go fishing in Spain.” He had been looking forward to the lake, but he was a good sport, and three weeks in Europe sounded great to him, and to Ben too when they told him. He liked the idea of meeting his cousins, although he was sorry Bill was so old. Peter assured them they would like them both. And he hoped that Lisa was in better shape than when she left. She had been through a lot.

  Peter said he would meet them in London, and he spoke to Alana after that to arrange to have her put them on a plane from L.A., and he would fly over the night before. She sounded businesslike and impersonal on the phone. He promised to get the boys back to her three weeks later in Southhampton. And after that, he was going to come back to the lake and put the house on the market. He was done. He didn’t want to own anything there anymore. He was going to look for a small apartment in New York, and start beating on doors again for a job. He was hoping things would loosen up by the fall.

  Peter spent a quiet night before he left, and sent Jack Nelson an e-mail about how he could be reached if anything came up. He hoped nothing would. Michael was accused of eleven murders now.

  Peter watched the sun come up over the lake. There was going to be a regatta that day. As he stood there, he thought about the times he had gone fishing with Michael recently, and the times they had swum out to the raft as boys. It was all part of history now, a history he wanted to put away.

  He drove to Boston in his truck, and left it at the airport. He flew to London and checked into the hotel he had stayed at before, when he first met Bill, and he called Maggie that night. She invited him to dinner with Ben and Ryan the next day. They were staying at Claridge’s, which was a grand hotel and fun for Ben and Ryan to see. Ben had already said that he wanted to see the changing of the guard and the stables at Buckingham Palace, and Ryan wanted to go to the Tower of London and see the rooms where they had tortured people. And the wax museum would be fun. It was going to be a nice holiday for them.

  “How’s it going?” he asked Maggie when they talked. “How do you feel?” She had gotten stronger every day. Without the paraquat in her system that Michael had been administering along with all the tranquilizers and sleeping pills, she was feeling great. “How’s Lisa doing?” he asked with concern.

  “She’s struggling. She still can’t believe what Michael did to her. He really confused her in the cruelest way possible in order to control her.” And he had for a long time. He had turned her against her mother and brother, and even Peter, before he let go. But she was young, and she had her mother and brother now. “It’s still hard for her. We went to look at schools yesterday.”

  “How does she feel about that?” Peter asked her.

  “Not great. But I think it will be good for her. I’m not going back to Ware, except for the trial. I’ve decided to sell the house. I want to rent an apartment here.” She never wanted to see the house again where she had been an invalid for so long and almost been killed by her husband.

  “I want to sell the house on the lake too.” She wasn’t surprised. “I’m going to move back to New York.” A lot had changed for both of them, and particularly for him in the past eight months. But her life was changing too.

  And he was thrilled to see Ben and Ryan the next day. Ben threw himself into his father’s arms, and Ryan was beaming from ear to ear. They both commented that he had lost weight—the last months had taken a toll. He took them back to the hotel, and they showered and put on clean clothes for dinner, and then took a cab to Claridge’s to meet Maggie, Lisa, and Bill. They were waiting for them in the lobby in jeans and T-shirts, and Maggie had made a reservation at a restaurant nearby recommended by the concierge.

  “What’s wrong with her leg?” Ben asked his father in a stage whisper, when he saw Maggie limp as they walked outside.

  “I fell skating on a pond a long time ago,” Maggie turned to explain to him with a smile. She had no trouble talking about it now.

  “That must have hurt,” Ben said sympathetically.

  “It did. I bumped my head and was out cold for five months,” she said as she took his hand in hers, and Ryan and Lisa talked about the bands they liked. Ryan had been to concerts given by most of them, and Lisa was impressed. Bill walked along with the adults and chatted with Peter about his exams. He was writing a paper about the demise of Lehman Brothers.

 
The six of them had a good time at the restaurant. Lisa was more talkative than she’d been in months, and Ben entertained them as he always did. Ryan and Lisa seemed to have struck up an easy friendship, and Maggie and Peter looked across the table at each other, proud of their kids, and Peter couldn’t help thinking how far they’d all come. Maggie was thinking that too. And what a miracle it was that she’d survived.

  Lisa was telling Ryan about the house they’d rented in Italy, that they’d found on the Internet, and Peter and Bill were talking about Spain. Bill had been there several times since he’d moved to Europe. And Peter invited Lisa to go with them to see the Tower of London and the changing of the guard the next day. He asked Maggie if she wanted to come along. He wasn’t sure if she was up to it, but she said she was game. And after that they walked Maggie and her brood back to Claridge’s and then took a cab back to their hotel. The boys were exhausted after the long plane trip, and they were sound asleep in their hotel room, as Peter tucked himself into bed. It was wonderful to be with his children again. Suddenly life felt normal to him, for the first time in a long time.

  They met up with Maggie and Lisa the next day, and took a double-decker bus to the Tower of London. The kids loved the ghoulish exhibits and the explanations of what had gone on there. And Maggie and Lisa loved the jewels.

  They were all in great spirits when they went to lunch. It had been a perfect morning. They were planning to go to the stables at Buckingham Palace after that.

  They were finishing dessert when Ben commented that he liked his mother’s boyfriend Bruce, and his older brother shot him a dark look.

  “That’s okay,” Peter was quick to reassure them. “I’m happy if he’s nice to you guys.”

  “He is,” Ben said simply with ice cream on his chin. “I like his Ferrari and his dog.” They all laughed at that, and Peter noticed that Lisa had gotten quiet. She still seemed to go in and out of being sociable, and she was chattier with his boys than with him. She was lost in thought for the rest of the afternoon, and Maggie noticed it too. She asked her if she was okay when they went back to the hotel. The two families were dining separately that night, but had promised to get together the next day. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it, and the cousins were having a good time together. It was working out better than they had all hoped. It was easy and fun and relaxed, which was exactly what they all needed.