Scared To Death (Live to Tell #2)(91)

Good Lord, the whole world is awake to see her come home. She carefully slips the gun back into her pocket and waves from the driver’s seat as she passes people she knows. People who saw the hearse come to remove the body after that deadly stairway accident last fall; people who later came to her door with casseroles and sympathetic hugs for the sole survivor of the Montgomery family.

“We’re so sorry,” they all said. “We’re here if you need us.”

But La La doesn’t need them.

She needs only one person—and he’s here right now, waiting for her.



Elsa watches Detective Gibbs, a no-nonsense African-American man with graying temples and kind brown eyes—the one who seems to be in charge here—hang up his phone.

“Mrs. Cavalon, I know I’ve asked you this already”—he crouches in front of her, resting his hand on the arm of the sofa—“but is there anyone…anyone at all…who might want to hurt your daughter?”

“Just Marin Quinn, but—” She shakes her head. “She’s the one, the one who called us.”

But Elsa has played her message over and over since they realized Renny had been abducted.

It was so easy, given their situation, to interpret Marin Quinn’s message as an admission of guilt.

Elsa is no longer convinced.

I need to talk to you…Over the phone or in person, whatever…I, um, understand if you’d rather not talk to me after…after all this. But I hope you will. I’m sorry.

After all this.

After her husband was arrested for his role in Jeremy’s kidnapping and murder?

Yes. It makes sense now.

But Elsa is even more frightened to think that she isn’t the one behind Renny’s disappearance.

Temporarily insane or not, Marin Quinn is still a mother. A grieving mother. She could still be harmless.

“We’ve got someone over at the Quinn place now,” Detective Gibbs is saying. “She’s there—at her apartment in Manhattan.”

Elsa nods, unsurprised “The only other person—people—I can think of are Renny’s birth parents.”

“They’ve also checked out. He’s in jail again on drug charges. She’s in a mental health facility.”

Elsa shakes her head, imagining what would have become of Renny had she been left in their custody.

Then it hits her—Renny wouldn’t be wherever she is now.

No.

No, I can’t blame myself. Not this time.



La La left home this morning not long after Jeremy arrived, having driven up from New York.

She’d wanted him to catch the shuttle with her, but he’s afraid to fly.

He’s afraid of a lot of things.

Poor Jeremy.

All these years, she’s hated him, and yet…

The day he showed up on her doorstep, it was love at first sight. She fell for him before she even realized his identity. He had such kind eyes, and a warm smile, and he looked at her as though he really cared…

“Don’t you know who he is?” her mother had screamed at her when she came home to find him there.

Of course La La knew who he was. He’d told her.

Told her everything. Begged her to forgive him for what he’d done to her.

How could she not forgive him? He was a victim, too.

He understood, unlike anyone else. He knew what it was like to feel like a lost soul, to have your life shattered.

“He’s the one who did this to you!”

Candace Montgomery was incredulous that she’d even let Jeremy past the door. She had no idea, of course, that he’d gotten much further than that. By the time she got home, they’d already fallen into La La’s bed.

“How can you even look at him? He ruined your life!”

“Well, now he’s here to save it, okay?” La La shot back. She knew she had to do something. Her mother was going to ruin things with Jeremy.

I tried to fight it. Really, I did.

But in the end, it was no use. It took precious little effort to shut her up. Just one swift and mighty shove, and over she went, tumbling down the steps…

That was it.

La La was left alone.

Alone with Jeremy. He was all she had, and she was all he had. That’s how she wants it to be. That’s how it is.

They take care of each other. Tell each other everything.

That’s how she found out about all the horrible things that had happened to him.

The more he poured out his anguished memories, the more furious La La became. Her heart broke for the frightened little boy who still lived inside this beautiful man, the lost child who had been replaced by Renata and Caroline and Annie…

Replaced, as if he’d never even mattered.

He confessed that he dreamed of meeting them—the family he’d lost.

“I’ll help you,” La La promised. She meant it.

Jeremy didn’t even realize that there should be retribution for what they’d done to him—and thus, to her.

But La La knew. And she’s going to make them all pay. For his sake, and for her own.

She presses the automatic opener, raising the middle door of the three-car attached garage. She pulls the Mercedes in, parks, and closes the door behind them.

“Home sweet home,” she informs the kid. “You can get up now.”