by Beth Byers
“When will he be here?”
“My son’s dad?” Hank asked with a growl. “He isn’t good enough to give us a date.”
Jane flinched a little and then said, “You are J.J.’s dad.”
“Yeah,” Hank said, shooting Jane a nasty look.
“If you call this working on your marriage,” Zee told them as she came back to the booth, “You’re failing. Hank Murdock you cheated on your wife. She cheated on you. You’ve both lied for years. But you actually love each other. Don’t you?”
“So much it hurts more,” Hank said. “I wish I didn’t.”
Jane flinched next to me, but not a sound left her mouth. I wasn’t sure Hank even realized he’d cut her deeply.
“Then you need to remember that as often as you snip at her, you’re giving her more reason to leave you. Sooner or later, you’re going to say something you can’t take back.” Zee’s scowl was directed at Hank, and it was because she—at least—caught Jane’s flinch.
Hank nodded and snapped his mouth shut.
“Oh my,” Jane started and then cursed. She was staring at her phone, and she looked up slowly and said, “He’s here.”
“What now?” Hank asked. His scowl was fully directed at her, but I’d seen concern in his gaze before he remembered he was angry.
“Jordy is here right now.”
“Jordy is here? He didn’t call first? He just showed up?”
Jane nodded. Her hands were shaking dramatically now. She glanced out the window and her jaw dropped. A tall man in a business suit was arguing with another guy on the street. I sort of recognized the other guy as someone who worked at the mechanic shop more confirmed by the blue overalls from the shop than his face.
They were shouting at each other in the street until the mechanic shoved the guy who had fixed Jane’s attention.
“Baby daddy?”
“Sperm donor,” she replied. She looked a little sick to see him in person. Her eyes were fixed on him, but if looks could kill…yeah, he’d be dead.
We watched as the mechanic shoved Jordy. He fell back a few steps and whatever he was shouting had a woman on the sidewalk cover her kid’s ears. The guy said something back and Jordy gestured obscenely before turning and stomping towards the diner door.
The bell over the door rang a moment later. He crossed to us as though his sudden appearance—without an ounce of warning—was somehow normal. I had to admit he was handsome. There was no doubt about that. But he was also losing his hair and had a bit of a beer belly. The way his gaze raked over both Jane and me had me hating him before he spoke. Then he cemented my feelings a moment later.
“You look old,” he told Jane, his gaze flicking over her again. “Lots of lines on your face.”
“It’s been a while,” she told him evenly. “You don’t look the same either.”
“But women age so much worse than men. I bet you aren’t even…” He gestured to Jane’s chest and then said, “perky anymore. Is that all pushup bra?”
“That’s enough of that,” Simon said.
Hank wasn’t without emotion so much as he was just staring at Jane as though he couldn’t believe she’d slept with this guy. I felt the same, but I also knew that Jane had met him in a bar when she was down about Hank being gone for months. The combination of loneliness, depression, and alcohol had led them to where they were today.
“Who the hell are you?” Jordy asked Simon, scowling at him as though he had been the one who had been rude.
I couldn’t even decide how to react about how he’d just referred to Jane’s breasts. Of all the terrible things to say to someone after so many years. I kind of wanted to hurt him—just a little. I was guessing that my face expressed that given how Simon was shooting me all sorts of ‘calm down’ looks.
“Detective Simon Banks, Jane’s cousin,” Simon said. His voice had a snap of anger, and it seemed to just feed Jordy’s attitude.
“You must be the dupe then,” Jordy said to Hank “Did you really believe all this time that J.J. was yours? I mean…come on.” He laughed.
Hank’s jaw tightened.
“So you knew the whole time?” I asked, sliding the question in.
Jordy turned to me and said, “Maybe I did.”
“Maybe you did.” I repeated, my head cocked and I said, “But you didn’t care?”
“I cared,” he laughed, but it was a mean sound.
“Not enough to be part of J.J.’s life,” I said. “You missed every birthday, every holiday, every milestone.”
He didn’t even have the grace to attempt a lie at that point. He just shrugged, grabbed a chair from another table without asking and swung it around.
“I’m thinking that Jane owes me.”
“Owes you?” Hank asked. “For what? For supporting and raising J.J. without your help?”
“For the time she stole from me,” Jordy said smoothly in a practiced way.
“You knew the whole time,” I told him. It was too clear why he was here, and it wasn’t to get to know his child.
“I have big city lawyers and I expect recompense.”
“Jane has excellent lawyers,” I lied, “And you neglected your child for years. You owe over a decade of child support.”
“You think you can win? With who? Your Newport lawyer?” His derision did not match my pocketbook. I knew this was Jane’s problem, but I would be damned if this guy was going to come in here and mess with J.J. for the sheer attempt to get money. I was angry, I could feel my neck flushing, and Simon’s calm face belied the storm behind his eyes.
Jane’s trembling had stilled and I realized that the Mama Bear in her had come out while Hank had was holding back his temper by the sheer force of Simon’s will. Simon’s hand was on Hank’s shoulder, and I could see the pressure that Simon was having to exert to keep Hank from teaching Jordy a very physical lesson.
“I think we can with the Law office of Bates, Banks, and Halbert,” I told him. I had made that name up, but lying wasn’t a crime. It wasn’t like this was a courtroom, and I certainly wasn’t under oath. “They’re the preeminent family law agency in Oregon State. Did you really think Jane would call you to tell you about J.J. and not have a plan in place?”
Jane and Hank were both staring at me with open jaws and Simon elbowed Hank to get him to close his. Thankfully Jordy didn’t notice. He was too busy scowling my way. His gaze was pure evil and fury as I smirked at him.
The things that came out of Jordy’s mouth a second later were too filthy to be acknowledged or repeated. I stood slowly and said, “You’ll sign parental termination paperwork or we’ll sue you for child support. You knew this whole time and you didn’t claim your rights or support your child. You are pretending to be the victim here, but you’re a dirtbag, making an ill thought out play for money.”
“You think you can win? Jane lied about J.J. this whole time and stole his childhood from me.”
“I didn’t know for sure,” Jane said carefully. She was the one lying now and her years of practice came to the forefront as she said, “I didn’t even think it could be a possibility until I noticed a genetic discrepancy. That was when I had J.J tested against Hank. We told you as soon as we knew. Unlike you had guessed and never come forth.”
Jordy’s gaze narrowed. He had to know that at least some of what we were saying was lies, but he couldn’t prove any of it.
“Listen,” I said firmly. “Jane just wants what’s best for J.J. We will fight for that.”
“You’ll never win,” he snarled.
“I know we can,” I lied.
The door to the diner had been opening and closing as we were fighting, and I’d seen more than one head turn and try to eavesdrop. Silver Falls was a small town of year-round locals, and too many of them knew each other’s business. If we had a newspaper, I wouldn’t have been surprised for this to be the front page story.
“What are you doing here?” Someone shrieked and I turned to see Shane crossing the diner. He
r face was a furious red and her eyes were narrowed on Jordy’s face.
“You know why I’m here,” he smirked. “Y’all think you can lie and steal and keep my kids from me, but you’re wrong.”
Which is when gentle, kind, too-quiet Shane leapt at Jordy, claws out.
Chapter 4
“I knew I liked you,” Zee told Shane.
We’d pulled Shane into the backroom and had gotten her to settle down some. The tears and under-her-breath cursing had ended and she was sitting in the booth with a cup of water in front of her. I felt like she might need something stiffer, but I wasn’t sure her power of reasoning should be impaired.
The only reason that Shane didn’t have charges pressed against her was because Simon simply out-waited Jordy’s attempts to press charges and asked uncomfortable questions regarding where he’d been and why he’d left. Did Simon know something about Jordy that I didn’t? Knowing Simon, he’d made some calls that morning after talking to Hank.
If the witness had been any other cop, they’d probably have caved in the face of Jordy’s seemingly justified fury at being attacked. Simon and the rest of us had seen just what this guy was like though, and we weren’t having it. Not with Shane who we liked against Jordy who was clearly a scumbag.
“Who was that?” I demanded of Shane though I knew. I didn’t want a name, I wanted who he was to her.
“Jordy Gregory, you know that. Why were you having lunch with him?” Shane demanded. As she turned on me, the tears of earlier were gone in the fire of white-faced fury.
“Why did you attack him?” I asked.
I used my position as her boss. I could almost see her start to strike out at me, remember who I was to her, and shut her mouth. I wasn’t going to cave even though I was abusing my position. I needed to know exactly why a calm, upstanding woman like Shane would attack Jordy. If for no other reason than because we’d use it against him in court to protect Jane’s son, J.J.
Jane, Hank, J.J.—they were family. Not just by blood though they were since Simon and Jane were cousins, but by choice. Our friendship had stood against all the things we’d been through since I’d come to Silver Falls, and Jane had taken me in from that very first day.
“I…”.
“You might as well tell us,” Zee told her. “We aren’t going to let it go.”
Shane glanced back and forth between Zee and I, and I was sure she was looking for an escape. If she hadn’t worked for me, I guessed she’d have taken off.
“Um…”
“Tell us,” Zee ordered.
“It’s…look…” Shane glanced to the side only to meet Zee’s stern glare and then Shane gave in. “Jordy and my sister were a couple. Back before Addison got cleaned up and married Geoff.”
We waited and Zee cleared her throat, catching Shane’s attention in a glance that was pure command.
“Addison and Jordy were together off and on for years. If he hadn’t left, I doubt Addy would have ever cleaned up. They were toxic. It was like watching a train wreck that would never end. It just got worse and worse. Him leaving was the trigger that pushed Addy into rehab and truly changing her life.”
“So…” Zee glanced at me and then back to Shane, “Jordy and Addison were together?”
Shane nodded. She took a sip of her coffee and had to struggle to get out the reply as if it were painful. “From middle school through when he moved?”
“That would make at least a couple of her kids his, wouldn’t it?” Zee asked running her finger over the table. The question was casual. The implications were not. Did Jane know? I didn’t think so. Did Shane’s sister, Addy, know about J.J.?
I choked on my coffee and then coughed into my elbow as I tried to contain my reaction. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that Jane didn’t know. J.J. was going to have to face having a biological dad along with sisters he’d never known. How would he take it? Would he recover? Kids who had the ideal childhood like he had were more likely to recover than other kids, right?
“Addy has three daughters. Jordyn and Lavender are his. Geoff is the dad of Mailee. But he might as well be the dad of the other girls. He’s certainly the only dad they know.”
I took in a slow breath and met Zee’s gaze.
“He’d never come back to see them?”
Shane snarled, “Are you kidding? Pay for a plane ticket? Pretend he cared? I don’t think so. He hasn’t paid child support. Not once. He never bought a single diaper. He…oh my…” She cut off what sounded like the start of a long string of curses. “Look, Addison is my little sister, and I love her to pieces. I’d have hated him for how he treated her without reservation. But I love those girls more than I love my own life, and he’s treated them like inconvenient warts from the time they were born. Not just as though they weren’t the best thing to happen to them ever but that they were somehow out to get him.”
I pressed my fingertips into my eyes and said, “Why did he leave?”
“Probably to get away from the girls. My sister had started to get even more demanding about child support. It was hard for her. She had stopped helping him so readily. For a long time, he’d just show up, expect her to let him in, and then take her money, her food, and get angry about whatever the baby needed.”
Zee sat down next to Shane, forcing her to scoot deeper into the booth, so she couldn’t just escape.
“Is this why you were so upset this morning?”
Shane nodded. “Jordy says he wants custody and visits and stuff. But the girls don’t know him at all. They aren’t ready for that, and I know Addison doesn’t trust him. Only how are we supposed to stop it? Geoff works at the filling station and Addy cleans houses when the girls are in school. They can’t afford a lawyer. They’re doing the best they can just to scrap by.”
Zee shot me a pointed look and I said, “I think that Simon and I would like to help with that.”
Shane looked at me, frowning.
“We’ll help make sure that your sister has a good lawyer. We don’t want to stand by and see them hurt.”
Shane’s eyes filled with tears again. “I’d say no, but I won’t. Anything to protect my girls. It’s bad enough that Jordy’s stupid cousin comes around looking for him. He keeps Addy on edge. Even though Geoff…the last time…well… I can’t tell you what happened. Y’all spend too much time with cops.”
I glanced at Zee and then told Shane, “No one in town has a more criminal mind that Zee. There isn’t anything you can say that would shock her.”
Shane laughed a little and then said, “Geoff beat the crap out of Jordy’s stupid cousin the last time he came around. He seemed surprised. The stupid idiot. That kid is a few cans short of a six pack, as though Addy would protect Jordy from the cousin. If she’d known where Jordy was, she’d have been trying to get child support. But honestly…no one who knew Jordy would’ve expected that from him. Not a piece of work like him.”
Az came to the backroom with a tray that held waffles for me and Zee’s usual scramble. He’d put together one of those basic breakfasts for Shane with eggs, hash browns, bacon, and toast. Then Az faded back into the background, pausing long enough to squeeze Shane’s shoulder and murmur, “It’ll be ok.”
“I’m sorry I attacked your customer,” Shane told me as she stared down at her food. She picked up a fork and used it to shove the scrambled eggs around her plate. “I…first the birds and then getting violent. I won’t be surprised if you fire me.”
“Please,” Zee said before I could answer, “Rose won’t fire you. She’s is a nice boss. She’d probably help you attack that guy.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I might dump a soda on him though.”
“Well,” Zee considered, wrapping her arm around Shane’s shoulders, “We can only expect so much criminal activity from Rose while Simon is around. That doesn’t mean, however, that I won’t be a criminal with you, Shane. Just tell me where and when.”
“Go key his car,” I told t
hem, “I’ll lie to Carver for you and be your alibi. Simon will probably be able to tell I’m lying though.”
Shane calmed down enough to eat the breakfast that Az had brought her, and we talked for a few minutes about the skunk and her nieces until a tear rolled down her cheek again.
“Jordy drives my sister crazy, you know? Addy used drugs whenever he really triggered her. What if he sends her spiraling again? She’s been clean so long and the girls are old enough to know that something is wrong.”
I took Shane’s hand and said, “I don’t think that’ll happen. You can’t forget that your sister didn’t have Geoff then and years of having a normal life. No one wants to descend back into the madness, and it isn’t like her family is falling apart.”
“Maybe if Geoff left her or she lost one of her girls,” Zee said with her usual mean frankness. “Drug users who don’t develop different coping techniques might go back to drugs if they have a major life trauma and don’t have support. That isn’t where your sister is. Have faith in her, in her love for her kids, and her husband. And you. She knows you’re on her side. How could she not?”
Shane nodded her head and said, “You guys…I…thank you.”
Zee squeezed Shane and then said, “We need to get rid of this guy. Jordy left once, he can leave again.”
Shane sighed as she said, “I wish. He just disappeared last time. Knowing him, he was running from something he’d done. If only we could make him do something horrible again.”
“Something that would drive even a guy like him away? That’s a good question.”
“You know those movies,” I said suddenly, watching them frown at me since of course they didn’t know what I was talking about. “You know. The scary ones were some outsider shows up in a small town and the sheriff threatens them? We need Carver to do that. Then the sheriff could just run off the bag guy…”
“Yeah?” Zee asked, squinting at me. She scoffed a little and said, “Carver? Please.”