CHAPTER 35

Monday, May 1

10:15 P.M.

HOME OF GILES FLETCHER

LAS PIERNAS

SO soon?” Roy asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Giles said sympathetically. Roy had been agitated for the last hour or so. Giles congratulated himself again for excluding Nelson from this meeting. The two of them would have worked each other into a ridiculous state of anxiety.

“Couldn’t it wait a few days? Perhaps on Saturday?”

“Many more of your neighbors will be home on Saturday, Roy. If something goes wrong, we really don’t want to attract attention.”

Roy looked toward Dex in appeal.

“Will it help your resolve to know that she asked me to help her leave you?” Dex asked.

Roy dropped his gaze.

“She confided that she wasn’t made to live shut up in the house all the time,” Dex went on. “She assured me she wouldn’t try to take the children away from you, but it seemed to me that was just another way of saying she was eager to be free of her responsibilities. She hopes the children will be allowed to go to our school, to socialize. She thought it would be safe to let them do so if she wasn’t in the picture.” He paused. “She feels certain the Fletcher family will help her reestablish herself in her new life. She wants us to offer…how did she put it? Oh yes, ‘money to ensure that she stays silent.’”

“One must give her credit,” Giles said, “for not pussyfooting around.”

Roy covered his face with his hands. No one said anything else for long moments. When he looked up again, he said, “Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I mean, just let her divorce me. She’s Carrie’s mother, for God’s sake-”

“Roy,” Giles said gently, “none of us were raised by our birth mothers. This family, more than any other, knows that good parents are more important to a child than biological relationships. Have you forgotten why we dared to take matters into our own hands to create your family? It was for the sake of those children. They needed us. Needed our intervention.”

“Yes, but they were so young then! They accepted change more easily. This will be so hard on them. I was against the idea of divorce before, but compared to the other alternatives…And even if Victoria says she doesn’t want responsibilities, I know she loves the children. She wouldn’t do anything to cause them problems. We could wait a while to make it official, until no one was watching for her. Or even help her establish a new identity.”

“And you think this plan of yours would be easier on your children? To know she’s intentionally abandoned them? To see her once in a while and let her influence their thinking? To abandon them again and again, each time a visit ends? Alienate them from this family?”

“It might not happen that way,” Roy said, dropping his gaze to the floor.

Dex said, “You’ve spent years trying to rescue her, haven’t you, Roy?”

Roy looked up at him.

“You saved her from the low-life scum she was living with when you met her,” Dex said. “You helped her to become free of alcohol and drugs. You wanted children, but she had become infertile. You were ready to adopt, but she must first have her own child. You changed your whole life so that she could be reunited with Carrie.”

“Yes,” said Roy. After a moment he added, “I do see her faults. She can be…difficult. I suppose that’s why I’ve…why I’ve strayed. But I never meant that to lead to something like this.”

“It’s not your fault, Roy,” Dex said. “It’s hers. She was as ready to stray as you were, but you don’t want to abandon the children and blackmail the family in the bargain.”

“No. But there has to be some other way to deal with this.”

Giles exchanged a quick glance with Dex, then said, “This should be your decision, Roy. No matter what you decide to do about Victoria, though, you must take the children away for a while.”

“Because of the newspaper reporter.”

“Yes.” Giles looked again to Dex. “Tell him about Ms. Kelly.”

Dex said, “I was…busy for part of the day, as you know. As I was over the weekend.”

Roy winced.

“Later,” Dex went on, “Giles asked me to try to learn what Ms. Kelly was working on, but that’s not as easy as it seems. Newspapers are always concerned that someone is trying to publish a news item before they do, or steal a story from them, so no one discusses what they are working on. I called Ms. Kelly’s office, just to see if she was in, thinking I might follow her from the Express when she left. But her outgoing voice mail said she would be out of the office all day.”

“So?”

“As you know, she recently wrote a story on missing children. She worked with your wife-when your wife was known as Bonnie Creci-and may be able to recognize that Victoria Fletcher and Bonnie Creci are the same person. Ms. Kelly was at the scene where police were digging up the remains of your son Aaron’s birth father-the man who supposedly abducted Aaron in a custody dispute two years ago. She arrived at Sheila’s house just after Sheila died. Within hours, she had uncovered a great deal of Sheila’s history. Caleb, who apparently didn’t know her until last week, dined at her home two nights in a row. Her husband has alerted Ben Sheridan to the fact that Anna Stover is our cousin. Do I need to go on listing reasons why we may want to know what she’s up to these days, and why she may be a threat to your family?”

“No,” Roy said. “No.” He put his head back in his hands. As if asking the floor, he murmured, “So where was she today?”

“We don’t know,” Giles said. “Dex followed her for a brief time this afternoon, from police headquarters, but he was spotted almost immediately. Her husband is a homicide detective, as you know.”

“Yes.”

“Did you notify your clients?” Dex asked.

“Yes,” Roy said, his voice flat. Beaten, Giles thought. He’s giving in.

“And?” Dex prodded.

“No one expects me back for at least three weeks.”

“Good,” Giles said. “And now, you remember what you’re to do tomorrow?”

He sat up straight. “You agree with me, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“About the divorce. Separation. Whatever it ends up being.”

“Yes, as I said, it’s your decision.”

“In that case, plans will change a little.” He held up the prepaid cell phone Giles had supplied. “You’ll call me at home on this phone at about ten o’clock and tell me to come over to Dad’s house. I’ll bring Victoria and the kids there in our SUV and leave my work van behind at the house. You’ll have a new SUV in Dad’s driveway, packed with everything we’ll need for the trip to the mountains ready and waiting. Once we’re in the mountains, you’ll call me to let me know what to do from there.”

“Hmm. That’s not quite what we said, and I think it would be best if we didn’t change that aspect of the plans,” Giles said. “It would be much better if you left with the children, but not Victoria. She can follow you a little later.”

“But-”

“Think this through, Roy. We need to work out details of the divorce with Victoria before she knows where you and the children are, or she really has us in a terrible bargaining position. When it comes down to making sure she won’t take advantage of the family, I think it would be best for you to leave that to us, don’t you agree?”

He stared at them. Giles wondered if he would object, but in the end he said, “I’ll trust you to do what’s best, Giles.”

“I’m honored by that,” Giles said. “Now, let’s send you home. Do you need anything to help you sleep?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Dex, why don’t you give him something just in case he changes his mind?”

Dex moved to a cabinet in a nearby bathroom and came back with a bottle of sedatives.

Roy looked at the label. “This says these are for Victoria,” he said in surprise. “And they’re dated six months ago.”