Part 12 (1/2)
”No reason not to call, but why would they care? It's not evidence that he was murdered, and they don't care if he committed suicide.”
”The insurance company does.” Jill thought of the implications. ”But if it's suicide, and I start raising questions, I could do the kids out of their benefits.”
”Right.” Katie looked over, her brow wrinkling with new concern. ”Can I ask you a question? Why do you care?”
Jill smiled, but Katie wasn't kidding this time.
”Who cares why or how William died?”
Jill answered, ”I told you, Abby thinks it was murder.”
”I'm asking why you care.”
”I don't care, I'm just exploring it.”
”It sure looks like you care. You're running around to drugstores and researching licenses online.”
Jill realized she was right. She valued so many things about Katie, and her honesty, above all. ”Okay, good point. I care because of Abby. She believes it was murder and she's going to try to figure out who did it. She reached out to me, after so long.” Jill knew it now, she felt it inside. ”I care because Abby does, and I can help her. She needs to get her life back on track, and she won't do that as long as her father's death is a question mark.”
Katie shrugged. ”Okay.”
Jill smiled. ”That easy?”
”It was such a good speech.”
”So glad we had this little talk. Do you think I'm wrong to help Abby?”
”I don't judge you, honey. I understand why you'd want to help, and why you feel you have to.”
”Sam doesn't.”
”He didn't know her, and he's not a mother.”
”He's a father.”
”It's not the same. Sorry to be politically incorrect, but it's true.” Katie ate a piece of blackened pancake. ”Paul is a great father, but he got to take the kids out while I stayed behind, and I guarantee, he'll read the computer magazines while they pick out their books. He won't sit with them, helping them pick one like I would, and he won't worry if they get out of his sight. Men don't worry like we do, but we know, things go wrong.”
”True.” Jill saw it in her practice, when a child's eye got injured by a paintball gun, or an arm sliced with a fis.h.i.+ng knife. She knew things went wrong, and some made wounds you couldn't suture.
”My real worry is my G.o.dchild. Megan.” Katie's features softened. ”You're talking about Abby's loss, but Megan lost a father, too, and William's death comes at a bad time for her, with you about to get married. And now Abby's back in the picture. Even if Megan's happy about it, it's a change. Megan's got a lot going on, for a kid.”
”You're right.” Jill felt a guilty pang. ”It's like the King is dead, long live the King.”
”Exactly.”
”I guess I haven't been paying enough attention to Megan, with Abby so needy.”
”It's understandable. Like my mother says, you give to the kid who needs it the most.”
”What if they all need it the most?”
”Margarita time.”
Jill smiled. ”Sam wants to get out of the kid business.”
Kate scoffed. ”Gimme a break. Moms never get out of the kid business. Last time I checked, motherhood had no expiration date.”
Jill laughed. ”How'd you get so smart?”
Katie smiled. ”Hanging around you, except for the padiddle part. First off, can I just say, I hate all car games?”
”Do you think the black SUV is following me? Or Abby?”
”No, that's totally paranoid. Don't worry about it.”
”But what if the driver is the man in the black ballcap?”
”The man in the ballcap had the worst disguise ever, and anyone who would follow you in a padiddle is the worst stalker ever.” Katie snorted. ”Come to think of it, maybe it is the same guy, but he sucks.”
”If he killed William, he doesn't.”
”Tell me about it.” Katie raised an eyebrow. ”If he killed William, he deserves a medal.”
Chapter Sixteen.
Jill pulled into her driveway and cut the ignition in the dark. She hadn't seen any padiddle on the way home, and she was starting to think Katie was right about her being paranoid. She got out of the car, breathing in the cool night air, damp from all the rain. She closed the door behind her, looking down at the end of the street where she'd seen the black SUV.
What SUV? I parked around the corner.
Jill thought a minute. She had first seen the SUV in front of the Bakers' house, but they didn't own an SUV, so on impulse, she walked down the street to the Bakers'. The lights were on inside the house, a Dutch colonial, and a flickering TV shone through the curtains in their living room, so she walked to the front door and knocked. It was answered in a minute by Janet Baker, an older woman with a round, sweet face.
”h.e.l.lo, Janet,” Jill said. ”Sorry to bother you.”
”It's okay.” Janet smiled, pleasantly. ”What brings you here?”
”Last night, during the rainstorm, did you have a visitor who drives a black SUV? I saw one pull away from the front of your house.”
Janet frowned, shaking her head. ”Why, no. We were home alone. Just us.”
”Do you know if the DiLorios did, or the Jacksons?”
”I have no idea.”
”Thanks. Sorry to keep you. Goodnight.” Jill backed off the steps, wondering, then put it out of her mind. It had to be nothing. She walked back down the street to her car, retrieved the box with William's files and laptop, then closed the door and went into the house, juggling her house keys, purse, and the box to open the door, which was when her cell phone started ringing, with Megan's ringtone.
”Arg.” Jill clambered into the house to the sound of Lady Gaga, plunked the box on the console table, and slid her phone from her purse, pressing ANSWER. ”Honey, aren't you home?”