Locust Lane(85)

“No. I mean, what news?”

“It looks like Christopher’s father and Hannah Holt’s stepmother are romantically involved. They’ve been stirring things up.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. We’re pretty sure that Twitter thread about Jack Parrish that you’ve undoubtedly read was cooked up by them in order to deflect blame from Michel’s son.”

“She’d do that to her own daughter? Call her a liar?”

“Stepdaughter. And the answer to your question is yes.”

Patrick had known about this. He’d read it when she was in the endless shower. But he didn’t tell her, even though she’d specifically asked him if there was any news. Gates looked at Penny and raised her eyebrows.

“Okay,” the prosecutor said. “I’d like you to keep this to yourself, but you deserve to know. We’ve opened discussions with Christopher’s attorney about him pleading guilty.”

“You have?” Danielle asked, her voice as small as she’d ever heard it.

“Yes,” Gates replied. “He killed your child, Danielle. Not Jack Parrish or Jack the Ripper or any other Jack. Sure, we looked at him at first, of course we did, but not anymore. The evidence against Mahoun is overwhelming. But even without that … I’ve been doing this a long time. Guilty people, you can just tell. There’s something about them. And with Christopher—I know. He’s guilty of something and I can’t think of what else it might be. It’s eating at him and pretty soon he’s going to confess and then all this craziness will be over.”

Danielle suddenly felt very alone.

“I know it seems unlikely, when you look at him. But he did it. Sweet kids do bad things. He did it and everything else is just chatter.”

“But what happened?”

“I’m still limited in what I can say until the negotiations are over, but it appears that Christopher was angry with Eden after she told him she wasn’t interested in having a sexual relationship with him. An argument broke out. He attacked her, she fell, and…”

“So she wasn’t raped?”

“We don’t have the evidence to charge him with that.”

A strange way to say no, but Danielle knew the woman well enough by now to understand that she would say nothing more.

“As for Patrick Noone, he has issues. His own daughter and the drinking. You see that. You’re a smart woman.”

“But…”

It occurred to Danielle that she had nothing more to say.

“People talk about closure but they don’t really want it,” Gates said. “Most of them, anyway. When my dad died it took my mom a year to record over his voice on the answering machine. Drove my brothers and me crazy but that was just how she kept hold of him.”

“What made her erase it, in the end?”

“The tape broke.” Gates cast off the memory. “I think you’re trying to deal with the fact that once we lock Mahoun away, then Eden’s gone. As long as there’s something else to be done, you can put that day off.”

“He says he still hears his daughter’s voice.”

“I imagine that man hears a lot of things,” Gates said sadly.

Danielle nodded. Gates was right, of course.

“Go home and get some sleep. And then you should get ready to bury your child because pretty soon we’re going to be sending her home to you.”





PATRICK


They said nothing until they’d reached the lobby.

“You’re making a mistake,” Patrick said, breaking the silence.

“So I’d like you to do two things for me,” Procopio said, making a show out of being reasonable. “First, I’d like you stay away from Danielle Perry. The woman is torn up by this and you’re not helping.”

Patrick started to answer him but the detective raised a hand.

“Number two is not optional. You need to stay the hell away from the Parrish house. You go back there and we’re all gonna be in a new place. Are you hearing me?”

Patrick didn’t respond. Procopio held his eye. Despite the suit and the promotion, he was still the same thug he’d been with Gabi.

“We’re going to stand here until you tell me you’re hearing me.”

“I hear you.”

Procopio screwed up his face, no longer bothering to hide his contempt.

“I mean, isn’t there somewhere you need to be?”

He turned and walked through the door without waiting for an answer. Patrick stood still until he became aware of the duty officer watching him. It would be better to wait for Danielle outside.

It was a glorious spring day. Birds, sun, a slight breeze. He tried to remember what it had been like to take pleasure in this. He pictured himself walking along a shaded path in Vermont, putting the pain behind him. There were just so many impossibilities now. The things he couldn’t do were pushing him toward what remained.

Danielle emerged from the building. Although he knew what they’d been telling her, he wasn’t ready for her grim expression.

“What is it?”

But she walked silently past him and got into the passenger seat.

“Christopher Mahoun is going to plead guilty,” she said once he was beside her.