The Silent Sister(94)
The music on his laptop wasn’t loud, but it was very familiar to me after listening to it nonstop for most of the day. Danny’s computer was on the counter, and the Web site photograph of Jasha Trace was on the screen. The picture of Lisa and the group stared me in the face as I walked inside.
“Okay.” I surrendered, standing with my back against the door. “What’s going on?”
He sat down at the kitchen table. “Good ol’ Verniece,” he said. “She really wants the RV park.”
I swallowed. Damn it. “What are you talking about?” I asked, lowering myself to the bench across the table from him.
“You can lose the innocent act,” he said. “They couldn’t talk you into turning over the park to them, so she tried to get it through me.” He ran his hand over his short blond beard. “I didn’t tell her that (a) I don’t care about the park and (b) I don’t have the legal authority to give it to her without your involvement … although I have to say I was surprised to learn that you had had no problem keeping me out of your dealings with her and Tom.”
“Oh, Danny, I’m sorry.” I felt my whole body sag in defeat. “I was desperate to find out what they knew.”
“And what you didn’t want me to know, right?”
“Do you blame me?” I asked. “You and I have different ideas of what should happen to Lisa. And how did you figure out about—” I pointed to the laptop, where Lisa was in the middle of a fiddle solo. “Jasha Trace? How could you…?”
“I took a look inside our father’s RV,” he said. “Do you believe our old man?” He laughed, but there was nothing funny in the sound. “I always knew he worshiped her, but I’d really underestimated just how much. Anyway, I had to break the lock to get into the trailer. And I think you beat me to it, right?” He waited for me to answer, but I kept my expression stony and blank. “I found a newspaper ad on his table about the concert coming up,” he said. “I saw there was a violinist in the group and she had on a necklace like the one Lisa used to wear. Daddy had all this bluegrass music there, but none of that band, which made me wonder…” He tilted his head, eyes on mine. “Did he have some of their CDs and you took them?”
I hesitated a moment, then nodded.
“I had to pay iTunes eight bucks for this CD.”
“Danny…”
“Once I had her name, it was easy to find out everything else.” He shook his head, and I recognized the hurt look on his face. It was the same expression I saw that morning in the mirror. “She’s made one hell of a life for herself, hasn’t she.”
“Danny.” I folded my hands on the table and leaned toward him. “I’m pleading with you. Please leave her alone.”
“I wasn’t sure how much you’d been able to find out on your own, but the way you’ve been avoiding me the last few days made me think you knew plenty,” he said. “And when I opened the door a few minutes ago and you heard the music … Your face gave you away.”
“Have you talked to Harry about it?” I’d lowered my hands to my lap and was anxiously rubbing them together.
“Not yet.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
He didn’t hesitate. “I’m going to tell Harry he can solve a cold case the night of that concert. He can be a hero, and Lisa will finally get what she has coming to her.”
“Danny”—I was very close to crying—“she’s not hurting anyone.”
I might as well have been speaking Greek. “You don’t seem to get it, Riley,” he said. “Leaving aside all the crap she put our family through, she killed a man. If it was an accident—which I think is bullshit—she’ll finally get to have her day in court. It’ll be complicated by the fact that she ran off, of course, but still. And if you sincerely want to help her, you might line up a good criminal lawyer for her in Virginia.”
“Damn it!” I pounded my fist on the table. “Can you leave it alone? Please! It’s not only Lisa’s life you’re tampering with,” I said. “It’s her children’s. It’s her family’s.”
“Most criminals have families,” he said. “That doesn’t give them a ‘get out of jail free’ card.” He reached out to touch my fist, gently unfolding my curled fingers until they lay flat on the table. The gesture felt tender and it gave me hope. “What is it you want from her, Riles?” he asked quietly.
“I want to meet her,” I said. “That’s all I want. Just to meet her. What I don’t want is to hurt her.”
He withdrew his hand from mine with a sigh. “She killed someone,” he said again, sounding tired. “That’s the bottom line. She killed someone and she has to pay.”
I stood up and walked to the door. “Will you promise me something?” I asked. “Just one thing?”
“What’s that?”
“Think about this awhile longer before you talk to Harry.”
“The concert’s only a couple of days away,” he reminded me.
“I know. But you can wait, can’t you? What difference will it make if you tell him tonight or the day of the concert?” I opened the door. It was dark outside now, and when I turned to look at him, the trailer light illuminated the sharp angles of his face and the translucent blue of his eyes. “It’s important that you think it through before you act,” I said.