Part 20 (1/2)
She felt a deeply buried pain struggle to take hold and fought it down.
”What about Monk's ex-wife?” she asked, s.h.i.+fting her gaze to a sailboattacking into the wind in the mid-lake channel.
”The poor woman's terrified. She only agreed to talk to me off the record andeven then, she only hinted that she suspected Monk.”
”What about the similarities? Both babies left in his care while the mothers were gone. Both dead when the mothers returned.”
”Without hard evidence, even a lousy defense attorney could make a case forcoincidence.”
Riaworried her lower lip and let her eyes go out of focus. ”Somehow we haveto get Brenda to testify.” She was stating the obvious, but it helped cementthings in her mind.
”Agreed. Any idea how to make that happen?”
”One of us will have to convince her.”
”Right. Problem is, she seems to have disappeared. I've been by her place three times in the same number of days, and none of her neighbors have seenher. Her car's not in its s.p.a.ce either.”
”What about Monk?”
”His employer claims he's hauling liquid fertilizer to California. Won't beback for three days. I thought maybe he'd taken the wife with him, but thedispatcher swears it's against company policy.”
”What about Brenda's family?”
”A mother and stepfather in Richmond. Claim they haven't seen her since sheleft the morning of her sixteenth birthday.”
Riaworried her lip some more before admitting, ”I should have tried harder toreach her when she didn't return my call, but I was so caught up in my own stuff that I let it slide.”
”Understandable, sugar.” His voice lightened. ”So how's my nephew adjusting?”
”Better, thank goodness. At least he calls me Mom now, and sometimes hesounds as though he means it. Last night, when I went in to check on him, hehad Trouble tucked under one arm and his old Pooh bear under the other. I think he's starting to remember things, too.”
”That's good, right?”
”According to the therapist Grady talked to in California, yes.”
”Then I'll hold a positive thought.”
”Thanks.”
”For family, anything, sugar.” He cleared his throat. ”What about Jimbo's mom and dad? Are you and my brother still snarling and snapping at each other liketwo puppies in a sack? Or have you finally admitted you belong together?”
Riawatched Grady line up his ball. She had to admit the man had the best set of buns she'd ever seen. Tight and hard, with just enough curve to fill outthe seat of his hacked-off Wranglers. He was also patient to a fault,unfailingly polite and a tireless lover. If given a thousand chances to findthe one man who fit her girlhood dream of Prince Charming, she would stillchoose him. So why couldn't she make herself love him again?
”That's three questions,” she said when she realized she was listening tostatic in her ear. ”Which do you want me to answer?”
”Your call, sugar. I'm easy.” It was apparent to her now that Grady wasn'tthe only Hardin willing to indulge her. It both touched and annoyed her.
”We're not snapping. There's not a chance under the sun that your brothercould be mistaken for a puppy. As for belonging together, neither of us wantsto make another mistake.”
She gazed out at the two males with identical swaggers walking toward her.Both her men needed haircuts. Grady's was almost long enough to make a tinytail. Definitely nonregulation.
”You still talking to my brother?” Grady asked before plucking the gla.s.s fromher hand.
”Yes, why?”
”Need to have a few words with him when you're done.” He drained what wasleft of her tea in two swallows before setting the gla.s.s on the patio railingwith a hard thump.
”We're done,” she told him before adding for Flynn's benefit, ”I'll keeptrying Brenda's number. If I leave enough messages on her machine, she mightget tired of hearing my voice and call me back.”
”Good plan. In the meantime I'll run by her place on my way home tonight. Imight just get lucky.”
”Thanks,” she said before handing Grady the phone.
While Grady ambled toward the house, his voice too low to be overheard,Riawatched an aluminum fis.h.i.+ng boat easing around the point. Seated in the rea.r.s.eat, with one hand on the outboard motor was the same determined fisherman incamouflage vest and orange cap she'd seen fis.h.i.+ng the point before, two orthree days in a row at least. He was certainly patient, trolling back andforth parallel to the sh.o.r.eline, staying just at the edge of the channel aboutfifty feet from the beach.
The second time he'd appeared, Grady had checked him out, swimming out tohang on to the boat with one hand while they'd spoken. Her fears had subsidedwhen he'd returned to a.s.sure her that the guy was a mechanic from Indianapolisvisiting his sister who lived across the lake.
”Guess what, Mom? Grady said he heard from the lady at the marina that a guyfis.h.i.+ng the dam hooked Old Whiskerface but he snapped the line.”
She flipped up the bill of the SWAT cap he'd appropriated as his own. ”Do Isense a heavy-duty fis.h.i.+ng expedition forming here?”
His eyes shone as he dug into the bag of chips he'd left by her chair. ”Gradyhas a neat idea for bait.”
”He does?”
He crunched chips, spraying bits as he rushed on. ”You know that macaronigunk you made for lunch?”
She huffed. ”Watch it, buster,” she protested, her expression fierce. ”I'llhave you know there are people who wouldkill for the recipe for my pastasalad.”
He went white, his hand frozen halfway into the bag. ”I didn't mean it,” hesaid quickly, his voice thin, his gaze darting and nervous. ”Don't be mad,okay? I won't say it again, I promise.”
Ria'sstomach clutched. ”Oh, baby, I was just teasing,” she said quickly. ”You can call everything I cook gunk and it wouldn't bother me.”
”But you said ... I don't want to get killed.”
Oh, G.o.d. Oh, my G.o.d.
”Sweetie, I love you. Your daddy loves you. People who love each other sometimes say the wrong thing. They even hurt each other sometimes, butbecause they love each other, they forgive each other, too.”
”They do?”
”Oh, yes.” Though she wanted to wrap herself around him and hug him close,she kept her hands curled loosely around the chair arms.
”So it's okay if we use your, uh, pasta salad? Well, not all of it. Just theparts that look like bow ties.”
”Of course.”