The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)(58)

The cell phone was out of battery, but when I got home, I would ask Samuel if he could find the right connector to charge it. Samuel was good at that sort of thing, and he wouldn’t tell Kurt about it if I asked him not to. I had no idea what Kurt would say if I told him about any of this, but I didn’t regret what I had done.

A few minutes later, I heard the sounds of Kelly stirring in her room. I went up and gave her a hug.

“I don’t like taking naps,” she said. She frowned at me as if to prove it. “I’m getting too old for so much sleeping.”

“I like naps whenever I get enough time to take them, and I’m a lot older than you are.”

“Really?” said Kelly.

I nodded and took her downstairs to the kitchen. I got her a glass of water and then we sat together on the couch. “Kelly, tell me about Grandpa Alex,” I said.

“He is Daddy’s daddy,” she said. She put a thumb close to her mouth, and then pulled it away with a guilty expression.

“Yes, I know that, sweetheart. What else can you tell me about him? You said that he shouted at your mother sometimes. Do you remember anything else?”

“Once I saw him hit Daddy,” said Kelly quietly.

“What?” I went very still. “When did that happen?”

“When he first came, after Mommy left. He said that Daddy had to learn to be strong.” She wrapped her arms around herself and tucked her head into them.

“Kelly, has he ever hit you?” I asked, ready to take her into my arms and haul her to my own house immediately. I would take her to DCFS and report Alex Helm to them as an abuser and he would never ever see Kelly again.

But Kelly shook her head.

“What about your mother? Did you ever see Grandpa Alex hit her?” Could his father have killed Carrie without Jared’s colluding in it? Could Alex have been behind the phone call I still thought might be fake?

It was horrible to think about. Maybe Jared Helm was as much a victim in all of this as Carrie had been.

“She didn’t let him come over unless Daddy was here,” said Kelly.

But Carrie had left Kelly behind for Alex now.

And what about me? Was I going to leave Kelly with her grandfather when he returned?

I had no legal right to her. I was not her mother, no matter how much I wished I were. I had a family of my own, and I belonged to them, not to her. It was crazy for me to think of doing anything to save Kelly when it would cost my own family dearly.

With those depressing thoughts in my mind, I heard a car drive up outside. Then there were voices, reporters calling out questions to Jared Helm. The only voice I heard respond was his father’s, harsh and low.

Then the door from the garage to the family room opened on the half-level below us.

“Kelly?” said Jared Helm.

“Daddy!” She jumped up off the couch, then hesitated, looking at her grandfather.

“Come give your father a hug,” said Alex Helm.

Kelly moved down the half set of stairs obediently and hugged her father. There was a possessiveness in Alex’s eyes that made me twinge.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“Fine,” said Alex Helm.

Jared Helm met my eyes. “They asked about me dropping her off at the bus station and why we went so early.”

“I told you, they’re trying to get proof you killed her,” said Alex Helm.

Jared flinched at that and stared at Kelly, whose eyes had gone wide. “Don’t say things like that around Kelly,” he said softly.

“She needs to hear the truth, too,” said Alex Helm. “No point in raising a girl who can’t hear the truth.”

The moment I heard his voice, I was ready to slap him again. Did the man have no softer side at all? Was he always a bombastic *? “She’s five years old,” I said. “Maybe some truths could be softened a little for her.”

Alex Helm glared at me. “You are not her parent,” he said.

“And neither are you,” I snipped back.

“I am her grandparent,” he said. “And I think that gives me the power to tell you it is time you were gone.”

I looked at Jared, thinking he must see his father truly now. But Alex had come to help him when the rest of the world had written him off.

“Of course, Dad. You’re right,” Jared muttered, not meeting my eyes. “Thank you for watching Kelly while I was gone, Sister Wallheim. We’ll take care of things from here on out.”

I could make a fuss and confuse Kelly or I could go cleanly. I chose the latter. “Goodbye, sweetie,” I said.

She blew me a kiss. As I walked out, I felt the weight of the cell phone in my pocket, the prize I had wrested from Alex Helm without his knowing about it.

As soon as I was away from the news vans, I started to run, partly in fear and partly in excitement at my successful theft. It has been years since I ran. It felt awkward, and I could feel my breasts thumping against my chest, and my flesh jiggling around me. I should have better shoes to do this, I thought. I should have a better body. But I only had the body that I had worked to get, and it was all the fresh cinnamon rolls that had brought me to this. The cell phone felt heavier than it should have. I slid on one icy patch of sidewalk and nearly fell, but caught myself, took a couple of walking steps, and started running again. I didn’t turn back to see if Alex Helm was watching me from his living-room window.