Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(63)
Although Savanna hadn’t realized it at the time, he had hurt her and the kids—with his extreme narcissism. He’d taken advantage of her, used her to keep his house clean and care for his children while he was out doing God knows what. Essentially, he’d turned her into an emotional slave, someone who had to put up with his mercurial moods, someone who had to walk on eggshells for fear of setting him off, someone who couldn’t expect any forbearance or nurturing in return. It was his selfishness as much as the hard evidence that caused her to doubt him. “I don’t want to argue with you,” she said to Dorothy. “It’s late and I’m tired. I’m sorry you’ve made such a long drive, but I can’t give you any money.”
Dorothy folded her arms. “Then I’m not leaving. I’ll camp right on this damn porch, if I have to.”
Gordon’s mother hadn’t asked to see the kids, hadn’t so much as mentioned them. That made Savanna as heartsick as anything. But Branson and Alia didn’t need her. Indeed, they were better off without her, which was why Savanna almost went back inside for her purse. How much would it take to get rid of Dorothy? Savanna didn’t want Gordon’s mother hanging around, dragging all the negativity she’d had to deal with in Nephi to Silver Springs.
But Savanna knew she couldn’t part with the money that a top-notch defense team would require. When Gordon was first arrested, she’d given Howard Detmer a twenty-thousand-dollar retainer and gotten only half of it back when she let him go two weeks later. “The kind of defense Gordon requires could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, far more than I have. Even if I hired Detmer back, I wouldn’t be able to keep him on for long. He’d run through what little I have in no time, and then how would I get by? How would I feed the kids?”
“Maybe you’d have to work, like I do!”
That statement kindled sufficient anger to help Savanna overcome the intimidation she’d always experienced around Dorothy, who was, like her son, so much more volatile than other people. “I’ve always worked, and I will do so again. But I’m not footing the bill for Gordon’s defense. Throwing a big chunk of money at some fancy lawyer won’t make any difference in the end, especially now that the police think Gordon is guilty of far more.”
Dorothy had opened her mouth to continue arguing, but at this she hesitated. “What are you talking about?”
“Emma Ventnor. That’s what I’m talking about. And who knows how many others.”
Dorothy stumbled back, until she could help support herself with the porch railing. “Who’s Emma?”
“She was a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl who went missing a year ago. Someone wrecked into her car right in the middle of a rainy afternoon. When she pulled over to exchange insurance information, she was kidnapped and hasn’t been seen since.”
Savanna expected Dorothy to respond with the usual heated denials. Her son could never have hurt anyone. He’s innocent. The police are out to frame him just to put someone behind bars and escape the public scrutiny and pressure associated with not having a proper suspect. But those denials didn’t come. Neither did the questions Savanna would’ve expected—first and foremost, why would the police think Gordon had something to do with this girl’s disappearance? They had to have some evidence or reason to believe he might be responsible, but Dorothy didn’t so much as ask where Emma was from.
“What is it?” Savanna asked. “You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Nothing. It’s...nothing. I’m tired, that’s all,” she said, but she didn’t stick around as she’d threatened to do. Without another word, she rushed back to her car, climbed in and drove off—so fast that Savanna nearly yelled to watch out for the bridge. Although the bridge was sturdy, it was still temporary and would be easy to miss in the dark. But yelling would be futile. Dorothy would never be able to hear her.
Once Savanna felt certain her ex-mother-in-law had cleared the creek, she started to relax, but even then she was confused. Her encounter with Dorothy had been so strange. Dorothy had driven all day in order to reach Silver Springs, had come because she was determined to get what she felt Gordon needed and deserved. Instead of standing her ground, however, she’d given up without a fight. That wasn’t like her. Something had changed her mind.
Savanna didn’t get much time to puzzle out what that could be, however. Only seconds later, just before she went inside, she heard a loud boom.
18
The crash that reverberated through Gavin’s house made him think someone had driven into his living room. Jolted awake, he pushed himself up and out of bed and hurried down the hall to find out what the heck was going on. Fortunately, the house seemed to be intact. But as soon as he opened the front door, he saw a white car, which had smashed into the back of his pickup, reverse before racing off with its front bumper dragging.
Throwing the door open wide, he dashed out, hoping to stop whomever it was. But the culprit raced down the gravel road, indifferent to all the bumps and potholes, and swerved onto the highway without so much as pausing to look for oncoming traffic.
Gavin thought he caught the first three digits of the license plate number, but he wasn’t sure they were correct. Not only were there no streetlights where he lived, it was a very dark night and the cloud of dust churned up by the tires made such details hard to see. Besides, it’d happened so fast.