He glanced up at the fly bridge where my dad captained the boat. “Turned out it wasn’t just your dad and me golfing on Thursday. He’d also invited DC’s chief medical examiner and the head of Howard University Hospital’s pathology department.”
Little black spots burst in my vision like I’d been staring at reflections off the water too long. I closed my eyes, but they only turned into colored opposites. I forced them open again. “He made you an offer. My dad.”
Mark nodded. “He said he wanted me to see the kind of connections he has so I’d know that I could take my career in whatever direction I wanted if I chose not to take the toxicology research position. He’d make sure I got whatever job I wanted in the area.”
The choice words that swam to the front of my mind were ones I rarely contemplated saying. None of them, as my grandmother would have said, were fit for a lady.
Mark’s grip tightened on my hand. “He also said that one day you’d regret leaving DC and the type of life you could have had here if you worked at their firm as a partner.”
That was the first I’d ever heard about me becoming a partner in their firm. Theoretically, that’s what they’d always intended, but I’d assumed that when they saw how inept I was in front of a jury, they’d changed their plans. Either way, it was another case of my parents planning my future without ever consulting me.
I didn’t blame Mark for wondering if what my dad said about me was true. Mark had known me for less than a year. My dad had known me my whole life. It’d be natural for Mark to wonder if my dad knew me better.
My dad could get into people’s heads and twist their minds around until they believed everything he told them. His forceful personality, logical-sounding arguments, and charisma worked on people in his everyday life just as much as they worked on jury members when he wanted them to.
This had to stop. My dad wasn’t a man who understood the word no, but it was time he learned. “It sounds like my dad and I need to have a talk.”
I tried to stand but only made it to my knees. Mark kept hold of my hand. “Not today. Your mom took today off of work the same as your dad, and I think she’s enjoying having you back.”
I slumped back to the deck. As much as I wanted to toss my dad over the side into the Chesapeake, my mom hadn’t been to blame this time. When she suggested Mark for the research position, she’d given us an option, and she hadn’t bribed and blackmailed like my dad. It wouldn’t be right to ruin this day for her. It took a lot to get her away from work, even on a Saturday, and I had to believe she’d done it out of love for me.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, jerking me out of my mulling. I twitched. I’d gotten used to all the dead zones in Fair Haven. I hadn’t expected to get cell phone reception out here.
My caller display flashed a picture of Ahanti. That was weird. She knew we were out on the water today, and she should be at work trying to catch up on the clients she’d had to reschedule earlier this week.
My mouth went dry. The only reason I could think of for her to be calling me was that her stalker had done something new.
I tapped the answer icon.
“Nicole?” her voice wobbled. “It wasn’t Cary.”
Crap. Sometimes it wasn’t nice to be right. “What happened?”
“I’m at the police station.”
Too many questions ran through my mind to pick one. Had he left something disturbing enough that she’d felt the need to take it in immediately? How did she know it hadn’t come from Cary? Why had she gone to the station rather than calling the police to come to her?
She sounded more frazzled than would result from another card.
“Why are you at the police station? Are you okay?”
“Geoff’s here too. They wouldn’t let me talk to him.”
Double crap. I did not like the direction this was headed.
I glanced back. The bow of the boat wasn’t technically set up for passengers to ride on. I’d just always liked it, and it was flat enough to be safe. But getting up here required a narrow path and two hands to hold the railing. I couldn’t make it back to the actual deck with one hand without risking dumping myself into the water. If I went overboard, it’d only delay our return even more.
Please ask my dad to turn around, I mouthed to Mark.
My dad wouldn’t normally change his plans, but I was wagering he’d be very accommodating to Mark right now, given that he wanted to woo him to the dark side.
I shifted my phone to the other ear. “Ahanti, I need you to start over. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“Cary’s dead.”
For the second time today, I thought about using a word stronger than crap. There was only one reason the police would have brought both Ahanti and Geoff down to the station for that.
They thought one of them had killed him.
10
By the time my dad docked the boat and we made the almost four-hour drive from Hampton Roads back to the city, it was well past supper—a fact my dad had been sure to point out to me, along with how the police would have given them both a meal and then collected their trash to take a sneaky DNA sample.
I’d told him that neither Ahanti nor Geoff had killed Cary and so it wouldn’t matter.
The look he’d given me had clearly said I was too naïve and needed to stop trusting people so much.
For my mom’s sake, I kept my response to myself. One thing I wasn’t was naïve. No one could see as many bodies as I had in the past year and remain naïve. But, to my dad, trusting anyone other than your spouse—and sometimes even trusting them—made a person naïve.
Sufficed to say, the drive back was a quiet one except for the stilted conversation my mom and Mark attempted for the first hour.
Halfway there, I got a text from Mandy, asking if she should throw the nylon leashes out. They were a menace and a danger. They could probably saw wood. My response that they weren’t a menace where I’d left them behind my dog food bag might have been a little harsher than the situation warranted. I had a niggling suspicion they’d be gone by the time I got home anyway.
When my dad stopped the car in front of the hotel, my mom swiveled in her seat to face me in the back. “I have an outfit in the trunk that I picked up from the dry cleaners yesterday. Did you want me to join you?”
The muscles in my whole upper body tensed like she’d thrown something at me.
She’s not saying you’re incapable, the little voice of reason in my head said. She’s offering because there’s two of them and one of you.
