Songbird's Call

by Herron, Rachael

  No. She pictured Colin’s face, that wide, serious jaw, the way his eyes lit when he looked at her, belying the severity of his features.

  She would have folded and he’d have learned she’d broken the only promise she’d ever made him, which would make it likely to be the last promise he’d ever ask her to make.

  A stupid, small, ridiculous image swam through her mind’s eye. Colin, on his knees, a ring in a black box held between them.

  I’m an idiot.

  She wasn’t worthy of promises asked for.

  Molly should have told him.

  As she’d walked to the back door of the café, she’d caught sight of her sister in the bar through the side window. Through the old, wavy glass, she’d seen Adele laugh at something a customer had said and then put one hand on Nate’s waist.

  If anyone had hurt Adele and kept it from Molly? Just the thought of it drew heat into her arms and hands. Molly, who couldn’t remember having a violent thought since the time she’d thrown a Barbie doll right at Lana’s head for stealing the last of her Halloween candy, felt fierce, hot fury course through her. If Nate (darling, sweet, quiet Nate) had hit Adele? She’d claw his eyes out. No one could hurt one of them without having to answer to the others. Even Lana – who Molly hadn’t spoken to in a month or more, who hadn’t talked to Adele in, what, almost a year – would come running if she knew one of them needed her.

  Adele was the fixer.

  Molly was the voice.

  Lana was the artist.

  They’d all had their roles, yes, but their number-one role, above all else, had been sister. She shoved a few more pieces of newsprint into the belly of the stove, and pulled out her cell phone.

  Lana answered after six rings. She sounded sleepy. “Tell me you’re calling because you’re finally figuring out that you hate Darling Bay.”

  “What would you do if I told you Nate was hurting Adele?”

  A thick silence filled the connection between them. Then a rustling. “I’m on my way. I’ll get the next flight. Shit goddamn motherfuck shit. I’ll kill him.”

  Something caught in the back of Molly’s throat – a combination of a sob and a laugh – and she spoke around it. “I was just testing you.”

  “What?”

  “He didn’t hurt her. He worships the ground she walks on.”

  “You ass. Why would you do that?” Fury was clear in Lana’s voice, and Molly figured she had thirty seconds or less before Lana hung up on her.

  “I just wanted to know what you’d do.”

  “Jesus Christ.” A pause and another rustle. Suspicion lit her next words. “Is someone hurting you?”

  “No!”

  “You swear to me?”

  “Yes.”

  “On Mama’s grave?”

  It was as solemn a thing as the girls had between them. “On her grave. I swear. I’m fine. A friend of mine here has an abusive partner.”

  “So you help her kill him.”

  “I’m seriously not into murder, I gotta tell you.” It was so good to hear her sister’s voice. It felt like drinking cold water after waking up too hot under the covers. “And I have to tell you, I’m dating the sheriff, so it wouldn’t look that good.”

  “You’re what? As in a lawman? Like with a gun and everything?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I dated one of those once. Except by dating I mean slept with twice. Two very excellent nights of not sleeping. I got to strap on his gun once. Have you done that yet?”

  “Lana!”

  “Because I have to say, it feels good to have that much power right next to your –”

  “I cancelled on him tonight because his sister is the friend I’m helping, and oh, God, it’s too confusing to go into. Just come here.”

  “No.”

  “But I miss you.”

  “No.” Lana’s voice was fainter, as if they were literally getting farther apart as the seconds ticked by.

  “But Adele misses you.”

  A snort was the only answer.

  “Fly home.” It’s what Uncle Hugh had always said to them, it’s what Adele had said to Molly almost every time they talked when Adele had been trying to convince her to come to Darling Bay.

  “Oh, screw you.”

  Molly knew it was Lana’s way of expressing love. “Where are you, anyway?”

  “Chicago. Then to Toronto. Got a gig opening for a new kid.”

  Lana was better than opening gigs. “It’s the grand opening of the café on Thursday night. I wish you could see it. It looks like it used to when we were kids, only even better.”

  “You’re really staying there? This is seriously what you’re doing now?”

  Lana’s unhappiness was clear, even if the line was getting fuzzier. “Yeah. I got a loan that says I’m staying here for the rest of my natural-born life, anyway.” She meant it lightly, but wings of panic beat in her chest as she said it.

  What if she’d blown it with Colin? What if he found out that she’d helped Nikki hide her abuse from him? What if she lost the thing that was blooming between them? The thing that made her heart soar?

  She looked into the still low flames of the wood stove.

  A café would have to be good enough.

  Funny. It didn’t feel as if it would be.

  “Eh. No one ever said you had to pay a loan back, did they?”

  Molly laughed. “That’s exactly what they said when I signed the paperwork.”

  “If you want to run, just let me know. I’m pretty good at hiding.”

  “I know you are.” Molly wrapped her fingers more tightly around the phone, and she shoved another piece of newsprint into the stove. She swallowed a gasp. Colin’s face looked at her from the curled edge. He was shaking a Boy Scout’s hand, handing him some kind of medal.

  “Hey, I have to go, okay? I have sound check in ten.”

  “I love you. Be safe.” The scout’s image had already curled and burned. Colin’s face scorched at its edge. She grabbed for the paper but the kindling was finally catching and it was burning too hot, too fast.

  “Yeah.” A click.

  Molly blew on the tips of her fingers. The kitchen door made its scraping noise behind her. Then there was a roar. “What did you do?”

  She spun, dropping her phone on the tiled floor.

  “You promised me.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Molly looked stricken. And, frankly, terrified.

  Colin felt a searing pang of regret for scaring her so badly and then he remembered what she’d done. “You don’t remember that promise at all?”

  “I do.” She didn’t bend to pick up her phone, and it lay on the floor between them, mute.

  God help him, he wanted to kick it right into the wall. He wanted to hear her phone (the one on which she’d texted him to cancel because she’d betrayed his trust) shatter – he wanted to see it fly into little pieces.

  But he could kick something later. Now was for figuring out what the hell had happened, how he’d gotten cut out of the whole thing.

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s safe.” Molly tugged her shirt lower so that it covered her belly. Her cheeks were pink, probably from standing as close as she was to the wood-fired oven, and she looked prettier than she had any right to.

  This was the worst thing ever.

  No, scratch that. What had happened this afternoon was the worst thing. (And in his cop mind, he knew it wasn’t. It wasn’t. The worst thing hadn’t happened, and he’d do well to remember that, but he’d seen the worst too many times, and it couldn’t happen to Nikki. No way in hell.)

  “Is she with Veronica?” The way Molly stared at him told him he’d scored a direct hit. “Good. That’s fine. I’ll go see her there.”

  “Don’t.” Her voice was small but clear.

  “Oh, yeah? You want to tell me why? Oh, wait, I forgot, you have all the information. I don’t. I would love for you to give me some of it. Jesus.”

&nbs
p; Molly closed her eyes.

  He’d frightened her.

  That voice that had just come out of his body – he knew that voice. It was the one he’d heard almost every day growing up.

  But he didn’t apologize.

  Also a trick of his father’s. He’d just wait and she’d eventually have to say something.

  Sure enough, Molly opened her eyes and laced her fingers together at her stomach. “She doesn’t want your help.”

  “She doesn’t get a say in that. I’m the goddamned sheriff.”

  Again, his father’s voice came out of his mouth. Colin felt a burning pain in his gut. So, what, it took the sister he loved most of all to make him into the man he hated more than anyone?

  Fine.

  The skin around Molly’s eyes was white. “Yeah, well, you’re not the boss of her.”

  “Are you five years old right now? Oh, wait, I forgot, you are the boss of her. That’s right. Okay, boss, tell me what happened.”

  He watched her inhale. And then, to his surprise, she just said, “No.”

  Colin blinked. “What?”

  “I’m sorry, but no. You’ll have to ask her.” Her voice gathered strength. “She can tell you herself. If she wants to.”

  Colin was known for getting what he wanted from people. Good people talked to him because they liked him. They trusted him. Bad guys talked to him because he didn’t give them a choice. When he’d been partnered with Shelley Dinario, she’d called it his Black Look of Doom. No one’s immune to it. You could make a mob boss cry. They’d laughed. There were no mob bosses in Darling Bay. It wasn’t even a town a mob boss would visit on vacation. Colin had to make two-bit thugs talk about stealing from the locked cabinet at the church. He made kids cry after they stole and wrecked their dads” tractors. Every once in a while, he got to arrest someone for hurting someone else, and even more infrequently, he got to arrest someone for spousal abuse. Every time he did, he thought of his mother.

  Every single time, he did it for her.

  “You knew I suspected it.”

  “Yeah.”

  Molly was supposed to be quivering. He’d never felt the Black Look of Doom more clearly on his face. His whole body was doom.

  But she was just looking at him, her expression guarded, steady.

  “Answer me.”

  She turned her back on him, shoving metal tongs into the stove, stirring the mess she’d made.

  “Molly,” he warned.

  She spun. “Or what? You’ll hit me?”

  Colin lost his breath as clearly as if she’d sailed a fist into his gut. “Are you saying that because that’s what he did to her? Tell me, goddammit.”

  “I’m saying that because that’s what your dad did. Where do you think she gets the idea that it’s okay to be with someone like him? This is the way Nikki’s choosing to play it. She gets to make the rules.”

  “So she lies to a sworn officer of the law?”

  “She only lied about where it happened. Nothing else.”

  “You know what that means if it goes to court? And hear me when I say this, it is going to court. It means that everything is in question. If she lies under oath and gets caught, the judge’ll throw the whole thing out.”

  Molly touched her lips. He saw her swallow.

  “Then she won’t lie.”

  “Says the expert?” He was being mean. Deliberately. He hated himself for it. But he was so angry at her.

  “She’ll tell the truth – that she didn’t want you involved. That’s the only reason she went to a different county.”

  That’s what Sheriff Battles had said, too. Colin had been at his desk when he’d got the phone call. The only thing on his mind had been going over a funding projection for the next fiscal year and getting home in time to take a shower before his date with Molly.

  Then Sweetie Swensen had told him he had a call on hold from Kalamas. He’d known Randy Battles for fifteen years. The man had been on his oral-board interview back in the day. Randy and his father used to share war stories, until Chuck had thought Randy was eyeing Colin’s mother and had ordered him to stay away from his family.

  Every time Colin and Randy had worked together on task forces, every time they’d sat together at fundraisers, that particular day had never come up.

  It wasn’t uncommon for Sweetie to tell him Randy was on hold. He’d been happy to pick up the call. “What’s up, buddy?”

  “I’m sorry to make this call, Colin, but I think I have to.”

  Colin had leaned backwards, and kicked his legs up onto his desk. “I got a hot date tonight. Hopefully this won’t take long?”

  “Might. It’s about your sister. She’s fine, but she got hurt by that boyfriend of hers. Made a report. Said it happened here, but videotapes of the premises” back parking lot say it didn’t. You want a copy of the report?”

  “She went to a different county?”

  “My deputy tried to make the jurisdiction stick for her. Apparently he has a few stars left in his eyes. But my records clerk sent it up to me with a query, and I knew you’d need it.”

  “Send it over.” Colin had pulled his legs back and put them carefully on the floor under his desk, even though he couldn’t feel them at all.

  He’d read the report closely. Slowly.

  He’d stood up and touched his office wall. Once his father, drunk at work, had punched a hole through it, right here. The plaster had been repaired, but if Colin ran his fingers along it, he could still feel where it was raised.

  He’d wanted to do the same thing.

  Molly had cancelled on him. He understood then why.

  And besides Todd Meyers, whom he’d happily shoot in the kneecap, he’d never been angrier at anyone in his life.

  Now, as smoke filtered out of the crappy wood stove behind her, he said, “You know why I’m here.”

  “Because I helped her.”

  “No.” The truth was he was glad that his sister had someone to talk to.

  But Molly had someone to talk to, also.

  Him.

  “Because I didn’t tell you, I know.” Molly didn’t sound sorry at all. “We could go around this for hours, but that doesn’t sound fun. I didn’t tell you because she didn’t want me to. It’s as easy as that.”

  “He ran, you know.”

  Molly frowned. “What?”

  “He must have a tie to someone in the department there. Which, I should point out, he doesn’t have at my department. So he heard about the warrant, and he’s in the wind.”

  “They didn’t get him?”

  “They being Kalamas? No, they didn’t. I will, though.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “Can I do that?” Colin felt a red pressure behind his eyes. “Hell, yes. I’d do it for any of my citizens. And I’d do it for my sister if he’d hurt her while they were in France or Istanbul. Mars. Anywhere. Molly, she’s my sister.”

  “I know.” Now she looked miserable. “I get that. I promise. If I understand anything, it’s about sisters. But Nikki didn’t want you –” She cut herself off and covered her lips with her fingers again.

  “What the hell aren’t you saying?”

  She picked up a piece of newsprint and started tearing it into strips. She didn’t look at him.

  “Molly.”

  “It’s fine. I can take it.”

  “What?”

  “She was worried that you would…that you might hurt him.”

  “What?”

  “You know, like your dad did. With that guy, the deputy he thought was seeing your mom.”

  His sister had told Molly about that?

  Nikki had been worried like that? She’d thought he had that potential hiding inside him? Once, a long time ago, he’d made a stupid bar bet with a fellow deputy that he could keep his hand in a bowl of ice water longer than his friend could. It was true – it turned out he could (only longer than Julio by a few seconds, but still, he’d won) though the pain had been more inte
nse than he could have imagined. Sharp splinters of pain, shoved up under his fingernails, shards of agony under his skin.

  Knowing Nikki thought – really thought – he could turn into their father felt like that. Two hands full of unbearable, shocking pain. And knowing that Molly maybe believed it, too, felt like his whole body had been dropped into an icy lake while wearing a concrete belt.

  Molly went on, as if he were still a regular person with a heartbeat, with reason. “I know you can’t be mad at her. And you can’t find Todd to be mad at him. You have to be angry with someone, and it’s fine if I have to be that person.”

  Colin finally caught half a breath through the pain. “Oh. Really? You think that’s my problem here?” He ground his curled fingers into the metal edge of the middle island. “Get this. The Meyers are all from Kalamas County. Todd’s brother got popped on domestic violence charges two years ago. The photos were clear, bruises all over his wife’s body. But their cousin is the county ID tech. The evidence was misplaced, and by that I mean erased off the server.”

  Molly’s mouth dropped open.

  Colin knew his voice was dangerous. He could feel it. “And another cousin? You’re gonna love this one. He’s the DA. The damn District Attorney, do you believe that? The Meyers family doesn’t go up on charges in Kalamas County. The DA never thinks there’s enough evidence to put them to trial. Ever. I suppose if one was up for murder, he might have to prosecute. Maybe we’ll find out when Todd kills my sister, huh?”

  Molly appeared frozen. Her eyes were horrified.

  Colin kept his voice low. He didn’t want to hurt her – he had never wanted to hurt a woman. Ever. He was not his father. But he wanted her to remember his words. “You’re the one who helped Todd get away with it. If she gets hurt worse, it will be on you. Completely on you.”

  “I didn’t know. Colin, I had no idea.”

  He coughed. The smoke was getting thick. The oven still didn’t work, wasn’t fixed. He could close her down right now. Her eyes darted to the flickering kindling that was still sputtering. Two weeks, that’s how long a violation-with-hazard called for. She’d have to get it fixed, and get approval. Her grand opening wouldn’t happen.