Beyond the Shadow of Night(46)
“Now he’s saying he’ll talk, but only to me.”
“Is that a problem?”
“He means alone, with no legal guys or even guards listening in.”
“Oh.”
Another two blocks went by.
“So, did you ask the manager or whoever?”
“Deputy and a couple other guys. They said it was out of the question for us to meet with no guard present.”
“They figured you’d . . . what . . . take revenge on the old guy?”
“Clearly I’m untrustworthy. I even told the sons of bitches they could search me for weapons, cuff my hands to the table legs, whatever the hell they wanted except cover my ears.”
“So that’s the end of it?”
Brad glanced to the side to see Diane shaking her head.
“That’s the end of it for today. I argued, like, forever, and said it was my father who’d been killed and I had to have some closure here.”
“I don’t get it. So what’s happening?”
“They’re going to consider setting up some video surveillance system to keep lookout, to make sure I don’t do anything dumb. If that meets their regulations, they’ll do it tomorrow.”
“Sounds positive.”
“Except for one more sleepless night wondering what the hell happened between him and my father. And even then, that’s only if I’m lucky. It’s so goddamn annoying.”
They pulled up into Brad’s drive.
“Relax a little,” he said. “We’ll cook, watch TV, I could call Emma and David, see if they want to go for a drink—anything to take your mind off things.”
But Diane was already shaking her head. “I want to be alone,” she said.
They got out of the car.
“Alone?” Brad asked.
She rolled her eyes just a touch. “Alone with you.”
Brad put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her. “Listen. After what you’ve been through, you get to have what you want.”
“Ah, yeah, talking of which . . . ah . . . could you drive me back there tomorrow?”
“Hey, you don’t need to ask.”
The next morning, Diane and Brad lay in bed together listening to the morning news on the radio alarm clock. She lay on her side, curled up into a ball as if she were cold, and he lay behind her, his face nuzzling her hair, his hand caressing her arm, his naked chest pressing against her naked back.
“Have you thought about what you’ll be doing?” he said, kissing the crown of her head.
“About what?”
“I mean, like, you’re not going back to your father’s place, are you?”
Diane felt herself shudder at the thought. “I can’t even visit there, let alone live there.”
“So where are you going to live?”
“As soon as I’m done with finding out why that son of a bitch killed my father, I’m going to visit Mother in Baltimore.”
“To stay permanently?”
“I have nowhere else to go.”
An ad jingle so grating that Diane cursed it came on the radio. Brad reached across her, turned it off, then lay on his back.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Diane said.
“Sorry.”
Diane felt his chest warming her back again. “No, I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“Saying I have nowhere else to go.”
“That’s okay.”
She thought she could detect an edge of sourness in his words. She turned her head to look at his face, to see if he had that half-smile of acceptance he always had when he couldn’t be bothered to argue. And yes, it was there.
“Is it really okay?” she said.
He kissed her and they settled back into position. She closed her eyes as he spoke again.
“I’m guessing staying with your mother is only going to be a temporary thing.”
“I’m a mess after what’s happened. I’m not so sure what is and isn’t temporary.”
“I’ve told you, you’re welcome to move in.”
“You have.”
“So . . . in time you might be able to tell me where I stand?”
“At the moment, you stand between me keeping sane and me with my brain turned to jello.”
He let out a half-stifled laugh. “I should get one of those ‘Here to Help’ badges.”
“Don’t ever think I don’t appreciate what you’re doing, Brad.”
“I know. But I’m just thinking that if you feel like that . . .”
“What?”
“Well, you always told me you never got on so well with your mother, so I can’t see that staying with her for any length of time is going to help you.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“How so?”
Diane was silent.
“Come on. You can tell me. Really.”
“No, no. I wasn’t not answering, I was just trying to work it out myself. You see, when we first met, I told you I never really got on with my mother. It’s closer to the truth to say I was never really allowed to get on with her. After the split, I tried to keep the peace between Mother and Father like any good kid would, but that was a lost cause. They asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to live with Mother, so I did, and Father called me regularly and occasionally visited. Then I went to live with him, and he always told people that I changed my mind and decided I wanted to live with him.”