The Boy from the Woods(79)
“Sorry, I have to go. I might not be long if you want to wait or…”
“No, that’s okay. I told Laila I’d come by.”
He stood. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, no problem. I’ll get an Uber.”
“Okay, thanks.” He threw two twenties down on the table. “I’ll call you later.”
“An emergency?” Hester asked.
“It’s just a car accident on Mountain Road. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
Oren hurried for the door as a squad car pulled up to the front. He didn’t look back and see what he’d left behind. Hester just sat there. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The blood had frozen in her veins. Her lungs stopped. She could hear her pulse, her heartbeat growing impossibly loud until it was the only sound she could hear.
“It’s just a car accident on Mountain Road…”
Like it happened all the time. Like it was no big deal.
A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. She could feel more tears building, a guttural cry rising in her throat that would need to be released soon. Time was growing short. Hester found her legs. She managed to stand and stumble toward the bathroom. When she was inside, she closed the door, locked it, and muffled her scream with her hand.
Hester couldn’t say how long she stayed there. No one knocked on the door or any of that, so she imagined only a minute or two passed. No more. She got herself together. She looked in the mirror, splashed water on her face, and saw David’s ghost in the reflection.
“It’s just a car accident on Mountain Road…”
She wondered where Oren had been that night when he got the call. Was he at work, in a squad car, at Tony’s like tonight—or was he at home with Cheryl? Did he get woken up in bed and Cheryl turned to him and asked if something was wrong and then maybe Oren shook his head and kissed her gently and told her to go back to sleep, murmuring…
“It’s just a car accident on Mountain Road…”
This all made sense now. Hester considered herself neither pessimist nor optimist, but she knew somehow that this couldn’t work, that the happy bubble she’d been in with Oren last night had to be too fragile not to burst. Now she understood. Oren had been there that tragic night. Like it or not, he was entangled in the worst moment of her life—and there was no way to change that. She would see Oren, maybe kiss him, maybe hold him, and she would always be transported back to that horrible night.
How could any relationship survive that?
She dried her face with a paper towel, took out her phone, and clicked for an Uber. Eight minutes away. Hester took a few more deep breaths and another look in the mirror. She looked old—like an old woman—which she was. It sucked to look in the mirror and see it sometimes. The harsh light of this stupid pizzeria bathroom amplified every wrinkle.
Her phone buzzed. She checked the number and saw it was Allison Grant, her producer. Hester said, “What’s up?”
“You near a television?”
“I can get to one. Why?”
“Someone leaked a tape of Rusty Eggers.”
Hester felt her back straighten. “Bad?”
“Very. There is no way Rusty Eggers survives this.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Rusty Eggers watched on the TV in his penthouse.
Gavin stood behind him. Rusty’s two top aides—Jan Schnall, onetime chief of staff to South Carolina’s Republican governor, and Lia Capasso, a campaign manager for two Democratic senators—sat on the couch taking notes. The crawl on the bottom of the screen unimaginatively screamed in red caps:
BREAKING NEWS: SHOCKING RUSTY EGGERS VIDEO
Anchorman Scott Gallett: “The video is believed to be ten years old, from season one of The Rusty Show…”
“They got that part right, at least,” Rusty said.
“The young woman is Kandi Pate, the young star of the hit kid comedy Amazing Darcy, who did three guest appearances on The Rusty Show that season. At the time of this taping, she would have been sixteen or seventeen years old while Rusty Eggers would have been in his midforties. Again we caution: This story is breaking. While the video appears to be authentic, we have not yet independently authenticated—”
“Not that that will slow the jackals down,” Rusty said.
Gavin noticed that Rusty seemed remarkably calm. His two aides did not.
On the video, Rusty Eggers has his arm around Kandi Pate on a couch. Kandi seems to cringe at his touch.
Rusty Eggers: Most guys your age don’t know what they’re doing. Sexually, I mean. You know what I’m saying?
Kandi Pate: Uh-huh, my agent is waiting downstairs.
Rusty: I don’t think your agent is doing right by you.
Kandi: (nervous laugh) She’s gotten me this far.
Rusty: Kiddie roles. You’re a full-grown woman now. And so talented.
Kandi: Thank you.
Rusty: Why don’t you come by my hotel room tonight and we can talk more about it?
Kandi: Tonight? I’m not sure—
And then Rusty Eggers kisses her hard on the mouth.
“Look!” Rusty gestured to the screen. “She’s not exactly fighting back, is she?”