Paranoid(96)

Rachel said, “It still stings, though.”

“Stings like a bitch and Mercedes Jennings—er, Pope—keeps calling me and wanting me to submit to an interview for that damned paper, but I just won’t.” Melinda was firm.

“Don’t blame you.”

“I think it’s odd that she’s so focused on what happened to Luke,” Melinda confided. “Because he told me once that she didn’t like him.”

“Yeah.” Rachel sighed and shook her head. “She’s one of the few of my friends who wasn’t half in love with him. God, they all fell all over him, like he was God’s gift or something.”

“Maybe he was,” Melinda murmured.

Rachel cringed.

“At least Lila Kostas thought so,” Melinda said bitterly.

Rachel kept her voice low. “At least she gave you a grandson.”

“Yeah, well, there is that.” Melinda’s tone was flat. She’d never been close to Lucas. She’d lost a son. Lucas had lost a father he’d never known. But instead of bonding with her first-born grandson, Melinda had chosen to distance herself from him and his unwed mother, not even sending Lila a note of congratulations when she married Chuck.

Their family was absurdly complicated, Rachel would give her mother that much. At least Lucas had connected to his cousins. Here he was now, laughing and joking with Harper and Dylan.

Rachel hazarded another glance into the kitchen and saw Dylan reaching into the open sack, pulling out a wrapped taco, then wadding the empty sack and throwing it at his older cousin, who caught the incoming ball easily, then hurled it back with some force.

“I guess we’ll muddle through,” Melinda said.

“We have to. By the way, Mom, you said Luke’s dad was released from prison.”

“That’s right.”

“Has he tried to contact you?”

A pause. “Why would you ask that?”

“Just curious. I mean, he was Luke’s father.”

She could almost feel her mother bristle over the connection. “A father in name only. The man’s a beast, Rachel. Someone who talked with his fists. I’m grateful that Luke never knew him. God knows what would have happened.... Oh, Lord . . .”

Yeah, the worst had happened. Luke had died. And Bruce Hollander hadn’t been involved.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Her mother hesitated. “I got a text from him, at least I think it was him. He said it was. I didn’t respond. Blocked the number.”

A text? Rachel’s pulse jumped. “What did he say?”

“It was nothing. Came through on the anniversary of the day Luke died. He identified himself and said he was sorry. Nothing more. I figured he was in some kind of twelve-step program and I was one of the steps.”

“Do you have that number?”

“I deleted it.”

“But could you find it . . . isn’t there something under ‘recently deleted’ on your phone? Or something like that?”

“Maybe, but why? I haven’t had contact with him for over twenty years. There’s just no reason.”

“There might be, Mom,” she said. “I’ve, um, I’ve had a couple weird texts and the first one came in on the anniversary of Luke’s death.”

“What? Oh, that’s horrible. What did it say?”

“ ‘I forgive you.’”

“For what?”

“Didn’t say. But that was it. Both times.” Rachel explained about the two missives she’d received from the unknown person.

“Wow. You know, I don’t know Bruce any longer, but I’m not buying that he’s a changed man. I don’t think twenty years in prison necessarily turns a person around, but that just isn’t his style, or it wasn’t. He wasn’t into subtleties, not when I knew him, when I was married to him. And if it were really him, and he was, you know, reaching out to you like he did to me in whatever program he might be on, why not be up front? Why the cloak-and-dagger stuff? The anonymity. That’s not part of any program I’ve ever heard about and certainly not his style. At least it wasn’t in the past.” She hesitated. “I’ll try to locate that number, though.”

“Good.” If she did, Rachel intended to pass it on to Cade. ASAP. They talked a little more, and when she hung up, she spied Ella Dickerson in her yard, gardening gloves covering her hands as she knelt near a bed of roses, all starting to bud. The kids were still in the kitchen, which smelled of cumin and hot sauce. As she walked down the hall, she saw that Lucas was shoving his phone in his pocket and fiddling with his keys.

“I was just heading home,” he said as she entered.

“Don’t leave on my account.”

He shook his head as he reached for the door. “It’s not that. Mom is kind of nervous these days and I have a final I should be studying for.” To Harper, he said, “See ya,” then cast a glance Dylan’s way and hitched his chin. “We need another game.”

“Yeah.” Dylan nodded, pointing at his cousin. “You’ve got it.”

“I’ll go out with you,” Rachel said as Lucas opened the back door, then to the kids, “Just turn off the alarm for a second. I need to take Reno outside.”