Good Girl Bad (15)
“Good girl, thank you,” Rebecca says now, turning her attention back to an impressive array of ingredients on the bench. She’s humming to herself, cheerful, consumed with the task at hand.
The Happy Family Dance.
Even Leroy is in a good mood. He wanders into the kitchen, whistling, and pulls Rebecca to him with a grin, kissing her on the lips, one hand creeping down to feel her ass. She swats his hand away.
“Afternoon, girls,” he says, smiling over at Gen, then Tabby. “How was school?”
“Fine, thank you,” Gen says, distracted. Beth and her daughters are an annoyance, but it’s Tabby’s strange little speech that she’s thinking about. But she’s yanked out of her thoughts by Tabby’s reply.
Panic rises in her chest in step with Tabby’s words. As soon as she hears the first one, the tone of it, she’s hurled into confusion. What is Tabby doing? Wasn’t she just in a perfectly good mood, even if she was making strange noises about being gone?
“Better than being fucking here,” is what Tabby says, and flounces off to her room, and it’s so out of character, it’s not how they manage this, it’s not how this family works, why would she do this?
Everything in the kitchen seems to slow down. Even Tabby’s door slamming down the hall is extended, drawn out, the noise rising in Gen’s ears long after the door is firmly shut. Rebecca’s face slams shut too, a tight little expression all that remains, but Leroy is back next to her immediately, his voice soothing, his arm quick to wrap around his wife. From the outside, anyone would think he was comforting her, lamenting the rudeness of her daughter.
Only Genevieve can see that he is actually holding her back.
13
Tuesday
“I was at the house Sunday night.”
Nate’s heart is hammering in his chest. He keeps his eyes fixed on the road.
He’s driving with Rebecca, choosing places that Leroy or Tabby frequent, looking, honestly, for God knows what. Leroy’s car. An idea. A clue.
Genevieve refused to come. Nate was surprised that she’d stay in the house by herself, but she was adamant, and he can hardly blame her. Spending time with Nate and Rebecca together has not been a comfortable experience in a long, long while.
“What?”
Nate can feel Rebecca staring at him, her mind ticking over, trying to place this piece of information somewhere useful.
“I heard something. Look, I don’t really know what I was thinking. Or what I heard. But…” His words trail off. On Sunday night, he’d felt foolish. Now, with Tabby and Leroy missing, he knows he needs to come clean to Rebecca, but he feels defensive and worried. Might he have been the last person to see Leroy? And if he was sort of, maybe, spying on him…where does that fit in a missing persons investigation?
“The girls were with me on Wednesday night. And I ordered pizza. And when I came back in, they obviously hadn’t heard me. So I’m standing in the hallway taking my coat off, juggling bloody boots and pizza boxes, and I can hear some sort of argument. And you know they never argue, they’re so sweet together. And I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I was just shocked, you know? So I just froze. It was so unexpected. They seemed fine when I went out, just normal, you know? And I only heard a few words before I called out. But then those words just really bothered me, and I thought about them all week, and my mind was going a bit crazy, you know—”
“Just spit it out, Nate! What did you hear?” Rebecca is exasperated, but also on edge, and Nate’s words are tumbling over each other, his palms clammy. He doesn’t know if he should be telling Rebecca this or not.
“Tabby was hissing at Gen, like low and angry. She said ‘Mind your own fucking business.’ And Gen sounded really upset, she said, ‘He’s way too old for you, Tabby! It’s disgusting! How could you do that to…’ And God, I wish I hadn’t called out. I wish I heard who Tabby is supposed to be doing this bad thing to. But I felt like it was not appropriate to be listening. But now she’s gone and—”
“For fuck’s sake, Nate! Since when have you been all high and mighty about being appropriate? And you assumed the old guy is Leroy, of course.” Rebecca is rigid with anger, her teeth clamped together between words so hard that Nate thinks it must be making her jaw ache. He steals glances at her, taking deep slow breaths, trying to calm himself.
“There was one incident, Rebecca. One fucking incident in forty years where I was inappropriate. Isn’t it time you let that go? Especially since—” Here he stops himself though. Now is not the time to get into that. They’ve never seen eye to eye on that particular topic, and it’s not worth arguing about now.
“So why were you at the house? Did you really think you’d see something inappropriate in my front garden? Even if the ‘too old’ man is my husband—which it’s not—what exactly did you think you’d spy on Sunday night?”
“Well, actually. I just tried to ask the girls casually, you know, what they were up to for the weekend. Didn’t let on I’d heard anything.” Here Rebecca rolls her eyes, but Nate ignores her. He was sure he’d pulled it off. Casual inquiries, no ulterior motive. “And Tabby said she was catching up with a friend on Sunday night. And Gen looked really upset when she said that. And I just thought I might see where she came home from. Which direction. If anyone dropped her off. If she seemed especially happy, or something. Anything, really. And yes, if you must know, if Leroy arrived home ten minutes later or something suspicious like that. I know you think it’s stupid, but she’s been weird all year. And you’re so caught up in—”