The look she gave him was somewhere between idolatry and horror. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“I know. Which floor are you on?”
“Four.”
Karen punched the button for the elevator and they waited silently, Will holding a greenish-tinted Pam, Cait with mud all over her jeans and her arms tight around Karen’s waist, who looked like the perfect PTA mother, while a few early risers moved around the dorm and stared openly.
“I lost my key,” Pam said as they neared her room. “Brittney told me if I lost it again she wasn’t going to let me in.”
“We’ll see about that.” Will set her down and rapped one knuckle against the door.
Brittney opened the door with a scowl on her face. It melted when she saw Will.
Will smiled. “Good morning. I’m sorry to bother you, but Pam is a little under the weather and we can’t seem to find her key. You don’t mind letting us in, do you?”
“No, no, sure, okay, yeah.” Brittney stared wide-eyed while he pushed the door open.
He eased Pam to the floor and she promptly collapsed onto her bed.
“Are you okay?” Brittney asked. “What happened?”
“She’ll be fine,” Will said. “Listen, I know this is an imposition, but would it be possible if you found somewhere to go for an hour or so? Pam needs her mother right now, and they need some time alone.”
Brittney just nodded dumbly. “Sure, yeah. I can…leave.”
She gathered her clothes and said, “I’ll be down at Emily’s if you need me.”
Pam waved a finger, then said, “As if,” when the door closed behind Brittney.
Karen bustled around the room, taking care of both girls at the same time, calling Terri and Michael to let them know everyone was safe and accounted for. She was in her element, Will thought, taking care of those she loved. He watched for a while, happy for her that everything was okay, that her daughters were safe and she could relax.
Everyone was okay and where they belonged, he thought, leaning a hip Pam’s desk. Pam lay on her bed, Cait sat on the foot of the bed, her arms wrapped around her knees, and Karen moved between the two of them. Seeing her like that it wasn’t difficult at all to imagine them all ten or twelve years ago, Karen feeding them, caring for them as children, getting Pam ready for school and teaching Cait how to tie her shoes.
Cait turned and gave him a go-to-hell look, her eyebrows raised as if silently asking what he was still doing there. He smiled and shrugged. But after a few moments he decided maybe she had a point. The picture fit together nicely, except for the guy sitting on the desk, who was out of place in every conceivable way. Will realized that Brittney wasn’t the only one who needed to find someplace else to be.
“I’m, uh…I’m going to go get a cup of coffee,” he said.
Karen didn’t hear him. Cait just glared and Pam gave a little wave of her finger. “Okay. Thanks.”
He left.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
After a moment of standing awkwardly in the hallway, Will made his way back downstairs to the common area.
What was he doing here? This wasn't his battle. This wasn't even his business. Putting aside Cait's obvious distorted view of age, he knew she had a point when she called him Karen’s midlife crisis, and he’d lost sight of it for a moment. He was the rebound guy who didn't mean anything.
He'd told himself that he came on this trip with Karen because she didn't need to be alone, and that much was true. But he also had to admit that a part of him liked being the knight in shining armor for her, liked it a lot. A part of him was feeling a lot more serious about her than he should be. Especially when it was becoming more and more clear that they moved in two separate worlds.
He was a diversion for her. A pleasant diversion, but that was about it. What they had was hot and good but wouldn't withstand the trial of one furious teenage daughter and one college-aged daughter on the verge of flunking out.
He walked outside and around the dorm, over to a cafeteria that offered stale cinnamon rolls and fresh coffee. He wanted to make sure he gave Karen enough time with her daughters. He sat by a window and watched the campus become busier by small degrees, students in sloppy dress headed toward the library, some in shorts getting together a soccer game, a few joggers.
When he'd been a student here, he was so convinced his life would turn out completely different than it actually had. After law school he'd maybe go to work with Steve, helping people, serving his fellow man, making the world a better place. For a few years, anyway. Hell, he wasn't Mother Teresa. He wanted to make a few bucks, too. So after five or six years he'd open his own office, or maybe go to one of the big firms downtown, in a high rise with a garage where he could park his Benz. He'd marry a smart girl with a career of her own, someone whom he could have great conversations and great sex with. They'd build a nice new house and have a couple of kids and he'd raise them right. They'd know who their father was. They'd know where they came from.
Instead, of course, there had been no law school. No Benz, because by the time he could afford one he didn’t care anymore. No career wife and two kids. He was okay with all of it now; he could see that things had a way of working out for the best. But it would have been a lot easier to take if it had been his decision. And not Michael Way’s.
He looked up to see Cait coming in, her face scrubbed clean and with clean clothes that were a trifle big for her. He guessed she’d borrowed them from Pam. He couldn’t believe how glad he was to see the little smartass. All of his concern hadn’t been just for Karen’s sake. As much as she irritated him, he kind of liked Cait Way.
She looked lost and trying to pretend like she wasn’t, freckled nose pointed in the air and arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She moved over to the counter, and he joined her there.
“Want a stale cinnamon roll?” he asked. “Or some coffee?”
“Do you have any orange juice?” Cait asked the girl behind the counter, ignoring him.
The girl brought the juice and Will sat back down, somewhat surprised when Cait followed him without an argument. She looked steadily out the window as if she had no idea he was there.
He let her brood. It wasn't his fault things weren't going the way she wanted them to.
“This is all your fault, you know,” she said, still not looking at him.
“Yes, of course. I was just thinking the same thing.”
“It is. If you hadn't been there, Dad would have come with Mom and they would have realized that they're better off together.”
“Come on, Cait, how old are you? Twelve?”
“It might have worked.”
“It might have. But I seriously doubt it.”
He let her stew again. Then he said, “You know, you have to face the fact that it really doesn't matter if I'm in the picture or not. If your parents are going to get back together, they will. Believe me, I'm not an important enough factor to figure into any decision your mother will make.”
“Oh yeah? I've seen the way she looks at you. She never looked at my dad like that.”
He tried – and failed miserably – not to be encouraged by that. “Still…you can quit blaming everything on me. I'm not a major player in this. This is between your mom and dad.”
“And Denise, and now the new blonde slut.” She bit her lip and cast a sideways glance at him. “You're probably familiar with breaking the law. Can you tell me how much trouble a person could get into for stealing a bus ticket and a few hundred dollars?”
She looked very serious, so he didn't smile. But it took everything in him not to. “Well, I'd say it would depend on how much the ticket is worth. Stolen property that's valued under a certain amount is a misdemeanor, then it graduates up to felony.” He rested his elbows on the table and faced her gravely. “Do you know how much the ticket was worth?”
“Well, if a person cashed it in it would be about three fifty.”
“Three hundred and fifty dollars? Whoever it bel
onged to wasn't just going across town.”
“No, she was going out of state. Before I took her purse and her bus ticket.”
Will tapped his fingers on the table and asked himself how deep he wanted to get into here. But the “new blonde slut” comment was pretty intriguing.
Oh, what the hell. “Whose purse did you steal?”
“I didn't exactly steal it. It's not like I need a black fur purse with red sequin trim.” She rolled her eyes. “And I didn't take the stuff in it. I just took the bus ticket and the cash and dumped the rest of the stuff in Denise's closet.”
“Denise?” Not the new blonde slut?
“Dad's new girlfriend.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach and looked a little sick. “What is it with you guys, anyway? Are you just big uncontrollable penises with faces and legs and all you can do is go around thinking about the next person you're going to have sex with?”
Will scratched the back of his neck and tried to hide his impatience. He wanted to hear more about the blonde woman he had a sneaking suspicion was Kitty. But he also had a fifteen-year-old girl in front of him who’d been through a lot in the past few days. “Well, some of us are, yeah. But not all of us. So your dad has another girlfriend?”
“Evidently. I went to his condo after school yesterday because everyone kept talking about how my mom was a crack ho and I just couldn’t deal with it anymore, so I sneak to dad's house and there he is in his office with that woman.”
Oh hell, this was dangerous water he was treading into, and he didn't have a lifejacket. But she really needed someone to talk to and Karen was most definitely not the person she needed to do it with. So he said, “You caught them together, then?”
She screwed her features into a horrific face. “Ewww. No.”
He steepled his fingers over his mouth and pushed hard on his upper lip. “Well, good. But why do you think he's…having an affair with her?”
She shrugged, her shoulder blades standing out in relief in her thin frame. “He gave her the bus ticket, and she put it in her purse. They were standing just outside the office in his condo. She said, “Thanks.” And then he said, “You know the right way to thank a man who's giving you a new start in life.” She made a face at him and said, “Ah, man.” Then she dropped her purse on the floor and went into his office and closed the door.” She looked out the window, her face stricken. “Men are so gross.”
Man. No wonder she was such a pain in the ass. She was lost, disillusioned, heart broken. She had enough to deal with, with being almost sixteen and having her whole world fall apart with her parents' divorce. That was enough to make anyone turn into a major pain. Now she had to deal with the fact that her dad was a total jerk-off on top of everything.
He swallowed, and wished Karen was here to keep him from saying the wrong thing. He had no idea what he was doing.
“See, I thought Dad was in love with Denise. I mean, I hate him for leaving my mom and us, but…I thought that if it was really love, and he was really happy with Denise, then that was okay. There was a reason for it. But, if he would have sex with that woman, then he must not love Denise, either.” She rubbed a hand under her eye.
Will swallowed and reached across the table, slightly amazed when she didn't slap his hand away but slipped her hand inside his, instead.
“Hey,” he said softly. “I don't know what your dad's deal is, but all men do some stupid things at some time or other. People make mistakes. Give him a break. Everyone needs a break now and then.”
“I guess.” She sighed and her shoulders slumped. She looked exhausted.
“And something else, if it's any consolation. Your mother had nothing to do with the drugs that were found.”
“Oh, I know. Mom freaks out if I take three aspirin instead of two. She's not the crack ho type, despite what the kids at school say.”
“So the kids at school are calling your mom a crack ho, huh? No wonder you ran away.”
“I wasn't going to, at first. I was just going to dad's house to see if I could live with him, to see if he would let me transfer schools. Because I was so mad at Mom for ruining the rest of my life. But then I didn't really want to live with dad, either, if he's going to have women like that over all the time. And then that woman dropped her purse and it was just lying there and I thought, why not? Why not just hit the road and keep on moving. Don't look back. Work at McDonald's or something and stay a few weeks here, a few weeks there, forget about everyone and all the junk and just get away.” She sipped her orange juice. “I was just going to stop by here to tell Pam.” She shrugged. “I figured I owed her that, you know.”
Will nodded. “So you took the woman’s purse?”
“Well, I was going to take it. I picked it up and took it upstairs. Then I saw the bus ticket and I thought that was really all I needed, the bus ticket and the wad of cash Dad had given her. I mean, if he can give this woman a new start he could give his own daughter one, right? I dumped the stuff on the closet floor.” She lifted her chin. “I tried to put some of it back, but I didn’t get it all and you know what? I don’t even care. To hell with them all. They can arrest me. We’ll just be one big happy family in jail.”
Will tapped his fingers. “What did this woman look like?”
“Long legs, long blonde hair. Slutty clothes. Bad teeth.”
Will nodded, but his stomach lurched. Definitely Kitty. Kitty who had left town late last night owing money and something about a cat and a yellow sister. “Did she say anything else while she was there?”
Cait shook her head. “Not to him. Her phone rang once while she was waiting for him, and she talked to someone on the phone.”
“Do you remember what she said?” Maybe he could get some clue as to where Kitty had gone last night.
She wrinkled her forehead and hunched her shoulders. God, she looked like she was ten years old. He couldn’t believe he was interrogating this poor kid about the woman her father had hired to frame her mother.
“It didn’t make much sense to me. She seemed kind of nervous when she was waiting for Dad, and then the phone rang, and there was a lot of yeah, uh-huh, yeah, I got it, just relax. You know. That kind of thing.”
“’I got it’. I wonder what that was?”
“I don’t know. She looked down in her purse and said I got it. So whatever she was talking about was probably in there.”
“Where were you all this time?”
“In the kitchen. I came in the back door, through the kitchen, and she was hanging out in the front hallway with her slutty short skirt so I waited there and peeked at her through the door.”
“And what kind of stuff did you dump out of her purse? Do you remember?”
She blew at her bangs. “Let’s see. I made sure I put her cigarettes and lighter back, because I figured she’d miss those first, nasty skank. A bunch of paper stuff.”
“Paper stuff?”
“Yeah, you know, receipts and junk.”
“Did you look at any of it?”
“Nah, not really. I stuffed it all back in. There was some cheap little notebook and some other stuff still on the floor, but I was in a hurry.”
“A cheap little notebook? What kind of other stuff?”
“What are you, a detective or something?”
“Yes. And I need you to remember everything you can.” If you want to get Michael off your back, I got something you got to see.
“I’m trying. It was one of those little spiral flip notebooks, you know. It would fit in your shirt pocket.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.” She looked at him like he was stupid.
“And it was still there when you left? On the closet floor?”
“Sure. Behind Denise’s shoes and stuff. That and a roll of film.”
“A roll of film?”
“Chill out. I told you there was a roll of film.”
“No.” He took a deep breath. “I would have remembered a roll of film.” He stood. “Are you t
hrough? I need to talk to your mom.”
“What are you going to tell her?” Her eyes were wide. “I mean, maybe I could just give the money back. I still have most of it. All except fifty bucks for my bus ticket and about five dollars for a sandwich and a Sprite last night.”
Will sat back down. “Can I let you in on a little secret?”
Her eyes grew wide. “Yeah.”
“From your description, I'm thinking that the woman you saw at your dad's house is the same one who planted the drugs that we were arrested for.”
She gasped. “Get out.”
“We've been looking for her. Did your father call her by name?”
Cait wrinkled her forehead. “I can't remember. No, he did call her something. Something cheesy. Like Muffin or – or Kitten or something awful like that.”
“Kitty, maybe?”
“Yeah, that's it!” She leaned forward. “This woman is trying to frame my mother? Why?”
Will took the coward's way out of that one and decided that it was Karen's job to break the news that Michael was actually the one behind it. He simply shrugged. “No idea. But Kitty was at my shop, telling Karen that she knew me – which was a lie – and she left the box on my desk. Then ten minutes later we're being arrested because there’s crack in the box.”
“And then she shows up at my dad's.” She looked like she was about to pull a Nancy Drew on him. “I'll bet she's in love with my dad! And she wants my mom out of the picture.”
He nodded as if he was seriously considering this possibility. “Except…why would she go after Karen, when she's already out of that picture? Why not Denise?”
“I don't know. Maybe she's just not that bright.”
He had to laugh at that. “I think you're on to something there. But whatever her reasons, I think our answer might be in that notebook or that roll of film.”
Cait shrugged. “Just go get it out of Denise’s closet.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure. No problem.” He linked his fingers together and tapped them on the table. He’d just go search through Denise’s closet.
He thought of something else to worry about. “You know your mother better than I do. How freaked out is she going to be that I've told you about this?”
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