The Silent Sister(52)

Lifting my bare feet to the chair, I wrapped my arms around my shins and turned away from the empty cabinets. Danny inserted the boot disk into the computer and I watched the reflection of the screen light up his pale eyes, mesmerized. Christine was right; he was gorgeous. I remembered what Jeannie had said about keeping Lisa’s violin for one of our children. Could Danny ever have a child? A healthy family life? I wanted that for him so much. As much as I wanted it for myself.

“I’m in,” he said, after another few minutes had passed.

“Hooray!” I clapped my hands together. “Oh, Danny, thank you.”

“What do you want the new password to be?” he asked, his fingers still on the keyboard.

The first word I thought of was Lisa, and I quickly moved it as far to the back of my mind as it would go. “Just … anything,” I said. “It’s only for a couple of days. How about New Bern?”

“Weak as hell,” he said, but he typed it in. “You’ve got newbern. No caps, no spaces. You need to see anything on here right now?”

I shook my head. “I’ll do it tomorrow.” I smiled. “That’s my new slogan. Why do something today if I can put it off till tomorrow? I’m driving Christine and Jeannie crazy.”

He didn’t respond as he hooked the computer up to the external hard drive. “Just let this stuff copy over,” he said, hitting a couple of keys. “It’ll take a few hours. Then you should check the drive to make sure everything came over smoothly before you wipe this sucker clean.”

“Great,” I said.

“I’m out of here,” he said, standing up. “You want to distract the pit bull downstairs so I can leave?”

“I need to talk to you about something else first.” I stayed in my seat, trying to get my courage up. “A few things related to the Kyles.”

“What about them?”

“Sit down again, okay?”

He resisted a moment, his eyes burning into mine, and I was relieved when he gave in and sat down.

“Well, first of all,” I said, lowering my feet to the floor, “they told me that Daddy promised the RV park to them. That he was planning to give it to them.”

“So give it to them.” He shrugged. “What are we going to do with it?”

“It’s valuable land, Danny,” I said. “You may not care about the money, but frankly, I do. It’s for our futures. And there’s more,” I added quickly before he could get his temper up. “I know Lisa’s not your favorite subject, but we need to talk about this.”

“I don’t care what you do with her violin,” he said, his gaze darting in the direction of the five violins still propped against the wall.

“That’s not what I was going to talk about,” I said. “Tom Kyle thinks she didn’t kill herself.”

Danny scoffed. “How would he know?”

“He read somewhere that there were two sets of footprints by Lisa’s car. You know, where she put the kayak into the river?” Danny frowned and I wasn’t sure if he was following me. “Do you remember her friend Matty?” I asked. “A boy?”

“Vaguely.” He stretched his neck to the left and right, as if I might be boring him.

“Well, I keep wondering … Maybe she didn’t kill herself,” I said. “Maybe Matty helped her get away.”

He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Wouldn’t that just fit?” he asked. “Everything always went her way. She could kill that guy and stroll away, free as a bird. She’s probably sitting in Tahiti sipping a martini right now. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I don’t know what to think,” I said. “I read every one of those newspaper articles Daddy had in that box and there was no mention of two sets of footprints, so—”

“So, Kyle is yanking your chain.” He leaned across the corner of the desk to get closer to me. “He’s a son of a bitch, Riles. I’m serious. You shouldn’t give him the time of day.”

“But why?” I asked. “Why would he say that?” I wanted it to be true. I wanted Lisa to have escaped. To be alive.

“Because he’s an *. Don’t let him under your skin.”

“The thing is,” I said, “if there’s any chance she didn’t kill herself, no matter how small, I think we should pursue it.” I ran my fingertips over the frayed fabric on the arm of the chair. “I mean, I know she probably did it, but what if she didn’t?” I looked at him. “What if we have a sister out there?”

“Listen,” he said. “If she’s alive, all that means is that we have a sister who intentionally left her family behind,” he said. “And that includes us.”

I nodded to let him know I heard him. My voice was caught in my throat.

“It wouldn’t be like she’s lost and wants to be found,” he said. “Even if she missed us, her whole reason for faking suicide would be to avoid prison. And if we found her, that’s where she’d end up.”

I honestly hadn’t thought of that. Stupid of me. All I’d thought about was the slim chance of having a sister again. “That’s not what I want,” I said.

I was sure he didn’t hear me. He looked thoughtful, staring at the dark screen on the monitor. “And that’s where she belongs,” he said finally. He lifted his gaze to me. “Damn,” he said. “It’d be nice to see her finally pay for what she did.”