Overkill(52)

Zach closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and said, “I’ll never be ready to do it, Doug.”

“But it’s as plain as day that you’re leaning that way.”

Zach took another moment before speaking. “Putting aside your religious convictions, and my moral and ethical ambiguities, and even disregarding the privileged sociopath who’s responsible, I’ve started focusing on Rebecca. I think about the indignity that she is subjected to twenty-four seven, three hundred and sixty-five. If we were able to ask her, don’t you think she would beg us to end it without delay?”

Pratt inhaled several times through his nostrils. “You know what I think? I think you want payback for her committing adultery.”

“Doug—”

“You’re tired of paying the bills for her keep at that special hospital. I didn’t ask you to, you know. You volunteered, and now you’re regretting a bad investment.”

“Don’t you see what you’re doing?” Zach said. “You’re angry with me, but you’re taking it out on Rebecca.”

“You were just itching to kill her four years ago, weren’t you?”

Zach ran his fingers through his hair. “Christ.” He looked at Kate with asperity and futility.

Seeing that he was getting to him, Doug picked up steam. “What stopped you from doing it then?”

“My personal conflict. Your feelings. Mary’s.”

“Aw, you didn’t give a crap about our feelings. It was the bad publicity you’d get for snuffing your ex. Come on now. Admit it here in front of Ms. Lennon. The only reason you spared Rebecca’s life then was because you didn’t want to look bad to your adoring fans.”

“Not true,” Zach said softly.

“What’s changed your mind? Huh? What’s different this time around? I don’t think you give a flip about Eban Clarke getting justly punished. I think it’s because you’re a washup and have less to lose now.”

By the time he’d finished, Zach was already on his feet. He said to Kate, “I’ll be outside.” His footsteps thumped over creaking floor planks as he made his way through the house. They heard the front screen door slap shut.

Kate’s cheeks were hot with indignation. She picked up her bag and stood. “That was uncalled for, Mr. Pratt. And beneath you. You have my contact information.”

She started for the door, but then turned back. “Why didn’t you see to it that Zach resign as her agent four years ago?”

“Wasn’t necessary. He cut and ran. Big number twelve turned Rebecca over to Mary and me because he didn’t want a media smear if he told the doctors to let her die.”

“That’s not at all fair, Mr. Pratt. You know that.”

“I was there, you weren’t.”

He bobbed his head as though he’d had his say, and that was all there was to it. But she wasn’t ready to let him get away with denouncing Zach. “What about since then? Why haven’t you insisted on making your guardianship legal?”

“Haven’t needed to. He’s left us alone.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason at all. I think you relish keeping him tethered and miserable.”

He batted the air with his hand. “Think what you want. But the fact is that as long as he stayed up there on his mountain, fine. But now he’s back. He’s meddling. I’m going to talk to my lawyer and see what I have to do. In the meantime, Bridger better not try and get the jump on me.”

“You mean regarding Rebecca? He wouldn’t do that.”

“He sneaked down here to see her, didn’t he? He had a private meeting with Dr. Gilbreath. He tagged along with you.”

Her patience wearing thin, she said, “No, I tagged along with him. He hoped to discuss with you, calmly and reasonably, Eban Clarke’s release and how it might change your perspective.”

“I think you’ve changed his perspective, is what I think.”

“I’ve explained the legal ramifications to him just as I did to you.”

“You’ve twisted his thinking, though. He’s waffling. I can tell. He could go behind my back and take my girl off the feeding tube before I knew about it.”

She could tell that arguing was futile. She pulled her bag onto her shoulder. “Zach told you four years ago that he wouldn’t take any action without your knowledge and consent. He’s kept that promise. Much to his detriment, Mr. Pratt. And to yours. But, mostly, to Rebecca’s.”

Kate left him there sitting in his rocker with his mangy cat and made her way quickly through the house. Zach was sitting in the car, his elbows propped on the lowest arc of the steering wheel, his hands clasped above it. The double fist was pressed against his chin and mouth. He was staring through the windshield and seemed not to notice her until she opened the passenger door and got in.

“I should pity him,” she said. “He’s pathetic. But I can’t feel anything except contempt for an individual who claims to be so grounded in religion, but holds you, anybody, in such rank contempt.”

“Don’t waste your energy being angry with him. I’ve learned the hard way that it only wears you to a nub, not him.”

“No, I’m going to continue being angry. For a while, at least. It made me furious the way he kept goading you about why you didn’t take Rebecca off life support before. When all along it was to spare him and Mary. Questioning your motive is so unfair.”