Mind Games, page 10
“No, ma’am.” Musk took the glass she offered. “We flew down to the regional airport.”
“A good hour’s drive from there, isn’t it? We’ve got some…” She paused, breathed out. “Some chocolate pecan pie a neighbor brought by.”
“We’re fine,” Howard assured her. “We’ll try not to take much of your time. We understand you’re the children’s legal guardian.”
“That’s right.”
“And the executor of their estate.”
“Yes.”
“Would you mind telling us when that was decided?”
“Oh, well, Cora and John had wills made right after Thea came along, and asked me if I’d agree to it.”
“You’re a widow, Ms. Lannigan.”
“Yes, I lost my husband eighteen years ago come November eighteenth.”
“Your son-in-law has parents.”
Musk let that statement lay. Before Lucy responded, Rem did. “They don’t like us.”
“Rem—”
“Well, Grammie, you say tell the truth even when it hurts, and they don’t like us.”
He hooked his sneakers around the stool, shrugged.
“They never came to see us, and they didn’t send me anything for my birthday, and the last time we went out there—I didn’t tell anybody—but I heard them say Thea was going to turn out just like her mother, how she’d never be a lady, and I’d just be a ruffian.
“I had to look that up, and that’s a lie! And when Grammie called her to talk about what happened, she said she was going to take Dad, just Dad, out there to bury, away from Mom, and how she was going to put us in boarding school. Grammie got mad, madder than I’ve seen her ever, and said she wouldn’t do any of that, and if they tried, she’d cover their reputations with poop. But she didn’t say ‘poop.’”
“Rem! That’s enough.” But the light in Lucy’s eyes spoke of humor and admiration. “The detectives didn’t come all this way to hear that.”
“Actually,” Howard said, “it answers the question.”
“First Grammie said we had to talk to her, and him, too, because they lost their son, and they’re our grandparents. But after that, she said we didn’t have to. We didn’t want to anyway, did we, Thea?”
Thea just shook her head, kept her head down.
“The relationship between your son-in-law, daughter, and his parents was adversarial?”
With weary in her eyes, Lucy looked at Musk. “I wouldn’t say adversarial. There wasn’t anything there. Cora and John loved each other, deeply. They loved their children, and they built a fine life together. That didn’t matter to John’s parents. He chose something and someone they didn’t want, and that mattered more.”
“As I understand it, Thea, you and your brother come to stay here for a couple weeks every summer?”
“Yes, sir.” She didn’t look at Musk.
“That’s something you want to do?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Even though you’ve got a swimming pool and friends back home? Video games, and a big-screen TV? What do you like doing here for two weeks?”
When Thea looked up, her eyes were deep and blue, and met Musk’s dead on. “We milk Molly and Aster, and feed the ladies. We go for walks in the hills, and make soaps and candles, and homemade ice cream. We sit out and look at the stars. I’m going to learn how to make an apple stack cake. Grammie always made one for my dad because it was his favorite. Grammie plays music, and she’s teaching Rem how to play the banjo because he wants to.”
“Sounds like a lot of fun,” Howard commented.
“It’s our favorite two weeks of the year,” Rem put in. “Well, maybe next to Christmas, but Grammie comes for Christmas.”
Musk went back to Thea. “Was there any trouble at home before you left to come down?”
“No.”
“You described Ray Riggs in detail to the police artist.” Musk added the easy smile. “It really helped us find him. Where had you seen him before?”
“When he cut the hole in the sliders and came into the house.”
“But you were here when that happened, weren’t you?”
“Yes. I was dreaming. I didn’t see his face when he cut the hole. I saw it after he shot them, I saw it in the mirror when he picked up Mom’s anniversary watch. When he looked in it,” she continued, her gaze steady on Musk’s. “When he got scared because he felt somebody was looking at him. Before he went down and took my picture off the wall because a part of him knew it was me, and he wanted to hurt me like he did Mom and Dad.”
“Now, that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
Still easy, still smiling.
“How you saw him in the mirror when you weren’t there. How you knew just what he took from the scene, how you knew just what he did.”
Lucy put a hand on Thea’s shoulder. “Are you calling this child a liar?”
“Ms. Lannigan, there’s no doubt Ray Riggs murdered John and Cora Fox. We want to make sure he pays for that. We want to make sure he spends the rest of his life in prison.”
“And you’ve said he would,” Lucy countered.
“We know he murdered your daughter and son-in-law. It’s important we have all the facts, to be certain he acted alone.”
Alarm leeched color from Lucy’s face. “You think he might’ve had an accomplice?”
“I’m wondering if Thea might have seen Riggs before, may have spoken with him. If that’s not the case, well, I have to consider the fact you’re now the legal guardian of two minors with substantial trusts. Executor of a substantial estate who has considerable influence over those children.
“I have to wonder if you met with Ray Riggs, made an arrangement. You told Thea what to say, and she’s saying it.”
Alarm flipped to rage.
“You would sit here, in my kitchen, in front of these children, and accuse me of conspiring to have my own child murdered in her bed? Have John murdered? Use this girl that way?”
“Facts, Ms. Lannigan.”
In his line of work, Musk knew temper often served as a trip wire. So he pushed.
“If you didn’t have part in it, this girl—and twelve can be an age where a girl resents her parents—gave details she could only know if she was there. She wasn’t there, so the next logical conclusion is she took out that resentment using Riggs.”
Lucy got slowly to her feet. “How dare you? How dare you speak to and about this beautiful, grieving child this way? Sit here, smiling at her when you have that blackness in your mind and heart?”
“I’m doing my job, and my job is to get full justice for John and Cora Fox.”
“They have to go, Grammie.” With his hands fisted at his sides, Rem jumped off the stool. “They have to get the hell out of here right now!”
“Yes, they do. Get out of my house, and don’t you ever come around these children again. Don’t you talk about justice when you’ve sliced a knife in these children’s hearts.”
“We can go, but if you’re sticking with dreams, we’ll come back, and we’ll talk to Riggs again, get the truth out of him. We’ll come back with Child Services.”
“You got divorced last year, and you’re still sad about it.” Her eyes trained on Musk, Thea spoke quietly. “Mostly because you don’t get to see the twins—Rogan and Logan, they’re eight—as much as before. People call you Phil, or Musk, but when your mom was mad, she called you Philip Henry Musk. You broke your arm when you were eleven. You were riding your bike too fast and hit a root coming through the sidewalk, and flew right off and broke your arm. This one.”
She rubbed a hand on her left arm, then looked at Howard.
“You’re Chuck and your wife is Lissa. Kevin’s six and Cody’s three—you have their pictures in your wallet, and you’re starting to think you and Lissa should have one more, try for a girl. You’re mad at him right now, at Detective Musk. You didn’t want to come down here. You didn’t like the way he let his stubbornness and his anger push him to handle it this way. Riggs’ll rot in prison. You can’t explain what I told the sheriff, but everything else told you there’s nothing here to … to tie us to it.”
She looked back at Musk. “I’m not mad at you for it. Grammie, Rem, don’t be so mad. He saw them after, in bed. They were holding hands.” Her voice trembled now, tears swirled with it. “He saw how they were holding hands with bloody pillows over their faces, and that went in him, it went deep. And you said to Detective Howard…”
She closed her wet eyes, and let it come. “‘We’re going to find the fucker who did this, Chuck. If it takes the rest of our lives, we’re going to find this fucker and take him down.’”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Shut up, Phil. I mean it, shut up.” Howard leaned toward Thea. “Thea, I’m going to apologize to you, to your grandmother, to your brother as sincerely as I know how. I’m sorry for what you had to see that night. I’m sorry for what and who you lost. I’m sorry we put you through this.”
“He really does want justice for them, so I’m not mad. But…”
She turned to Musk again, who sat, his face pale and stunned. “My grandmother loved our parents as much as we did. She was a mother to my dad when his never was. She’s changing her life to keep us because they asked her to, because she loves us.
“Don’t you ever, ever say bad things about my grandmother again.”
Musk started to speak, then held up a hand to stop his partner from cutting him off. “Give me a break, Chuck. I’m sorry. I’ve never had an experience of anything like this. I don’t believe—didn’t believe … I’m sorry.”
“Thea’s accepted your apologies, so we will, too. Now I’d like you to show yourselves out.”
When they rose to leave, Thea took another breath. “Detective Howard? Be careful on the blue stairs. I don’t know what it means, but be careful on the blue stairs.”
A little chilled, he nodded.
Outside, Musk rubbed his hands over his face. “I need a drink. A serious drink.”
“We’ll get one at the airport.”
At the car, Musk looked over the hood at his partner. “Something about them holding hands like that got to me, Chuck. I couldn’t let it go.”
“Let it go now, Phil. Case closed.”
In the kitchen, Lucy pressed a kiss to the top of Thea’s head. “I’m so proud of you, Thea, and you, Rem, of the way you stood up.”
“They scared me, I think. And I didn’t want them to be here. I didn’t want to talk to them, to talk about it all again. So I tried not to think, and I could see … just knew things about them. Because the more they talked, the more I got upset and tried not to think.”
She closed her eyes. “I’ve got a headache, Grammie.”
“I know. I’m going to give you something to help with that. Do you want to lie down awhile?”
“Can I just go outside and sit on the porch?”
“I’ll go with you, Thea. I’ll be quiet, promise.” Tears, from anger and grief, still stood in Rem’s eyes. “I’ll go with you.”
“I had to say those things I knew about them so they knew we weren’t lying. But when I started to know some, I couldn’t stop. Even when it started to hurt, I couldn’t stop.”
“I’ll help you with that, too. I think you’re beyond my gifts, darling, but I can help you. You go sit awhile, and, Rem, until Thea wants to talk, you keep that promise.”
“I will.”
The cool basil tea helped the headache. When Rem said he could feed the animals all by himself, Thea sat with Lucy.
“You have a strong gift, darling.”
“Why does it have to hurt?”
“There’s always a price, I guess, but there are ways to lower that price. Like there are ways not to see or know until you need to or want to. Today, you needed to, so it came over you, and you weren’t ready for the strength of it.”
“Did Mom have it?”
“I think she did, but she gave it back. She pushed it out, and she had a right to.”
“I don’t want to give it back.”
“Neither did I. But I stopped using all of it to keep the peace.”
“For Mom.”
Lucy smiled a little as she nodded. “She was my baby girl, my firstborn.”
“She didn’t want to be different. Not that way.”
“I think that’s true. And it scared her to think she might know things she didn’t want to know. Or I might.”
“It doesn’t scare me like that, Grammie.”
“That’s good. It’s something you respect, even though some people will steer clear of you for it, or say hard things. Something you don’t ever use to play tricks or hurt somebody.”
“I wanted the detective to stop saying those things, thinking those things.”
“I got too mad,” Lucy admitted. “I wanted them out and gone, so I didn’t do what I should’ve to show them what was what.”
She rubbed Thea’s shoulder. “But you did. You were clearing your mind, working not to think about what they talked about, wanted us to talk about. A clear mind can help it come right through. Getting upset, scared, that’s another way. But the best, the clearest, the one that hurts less? Is just opening up to it. Like, all right then, come on in!”
“Like just opening a door—sort of?”
“That’s just it. When we sleep, we’re open, so the dreams come. If you don’t want them to come, you can close them out. Most of the time.”
“How?”
“It sounds silly, but certain herbs under the pillow, or a charm bag over the bed. A phrase you say three times running, certain scents you breathe in before sleep. Your gift doesn’t want to hurt you, Thea. It’s part of you. So you work with that part of you.”
She lifted Thea’s hand, kissed it. “We’ll practice. Now look at that boy, doing the chores so we can sit here like ladies of luxury. Ruffian? My great-aunt Maggie’s ass.”
When Thea giggled, Lucy laughed with her. “She’s got a big one. There’s the phone.” Lucy held up a finger, closed her eyes. “It’s Waylon.” Then winked at Thea.
“I’ve still got it.”
* * *
Even with the packing up into the U-Haul truck, the traveling, Thea’s uncles arrived before noon the next day.
Seeing them brought Thea twin pangs. Happiness in seeing them, sorrow in the why of it.
Waylon lifted her right up, held her tight. He had some scruff on his face and smelled a little of the cigarettes he was always trying to quit.
He looked really tired, and so did Caleb when he held her face in his hands and kissed her.
They hugged Rem, too, and both of them held on to Grammie even longer. Thea saw Waylon’s shoulders shake when he pressed his face down to his mother’s shoulder.
And how her grandmother stroked his hair, scruffy like his face, the way she did Thea’s when she needed comfort.
“You boys come inside now, sit down awhile. You’ve had a long few days. We made some lemonade, and we’ve got plenty to eat.”
“We’ve been sitting, Mama.” Since the dogs whined for it, Caleb gave all three a quick rub. “How about we save the lemonade and food till we unload the truck?”
“Did you get my dad’s drawing board?”
“We sure did.” Waylon shoved sunglasses on wet eyes before he ruffled Rem’s hair.
“Can I have that in my room, Grammie?”
“That’s just fine.”
Thea didn’t know how she felt, not exactly, about carrying boxes of her clothes and things inside. She wanted her things, but it made it all real again.
She’d never go back to the house in Virginia.
“We don’t have to put everything away just right now. Y’all can put the computer stuff in the sewing room. I’ve got it cleared out.”
“That’s your room, Grammie.”
“I don’t do the kind of sewing I once did.” Lucy patted a hand on Thea’s shoulder. “So set everything in there for the time being. I’m thinking I’ll see about having the attic fixed up enough so we can put all that up there, like a game room. But let’s just get it all there for right now.”
In her room, looking at the boxes of clothes, of things, Thea didn’t know where to start.
“This one’s got your name on it, too. I’m going to give those boys credit for packing up right.” Lucy came in, set the box down. “I know this room’s smaller than what you’re used to, but—”
“No, Grammie, it’s not that. You don’t have to change things for me, for Rem. Like your sewing room and the attic.”
“I’m not changing them just for you and Rem. I’m changing some things for us. For the three of us. For Waylon and Caleb when they come to visit. For the families I hope they make one day.”
She sat on the bed, patted the space beside her. “I’ve been living here alone for a time now, so I didn’t need much to change. Things are different now, and it’s time for some changes. I’m telling you, Thea, it helps my heart to make them. It helps my heart because I know in it, your mama and daddy would be pleased with those changes.
“Rem’s in there working with Caleb to set up that PlayStation. You could do it quicker.”
“Maybe.” Then Thea lifted her shoulders. “Yeah, I could.”
“But the doing it’s helping both of them.”
“Because we have to live.”
“That’s right.”
Time, Thea thought, to ask what was most on her mind.
“When are they sending Mom and Dad?”
“Why don’t we go on down, put some food together? We can all talk about it after some lunch. We’ll talk about all of it together.”
Chapter Eight
They ate and talked about Caleb moving to New York, drank lemonade and talked about Waylon’s latest travels.
When they’d cleared the table, Lucy told her sons they’d more than earned a beer.
“We need to talk about the arrangements I’ve made.” With everyone around the table again, Lucy began. “I can change things, if anyone wants something else or different. I want to make sure I’ve made the right choices. First, Cora and John are coming home here tomorrow.”
“Can we see them?”
Lucy shook her head at Rem. “No, darling. I’m sorry.”
