“I don’t know yet.” He held up a finger when Molly said, “All right, I came back inside the school. I was about to lose it in front of everybody.”
“What’s going on? What’s the to-the-death fight with Roslyn about? Because you didn’t sit at the dinner table last night?”
With misery in her tone, she said, “I didn’t want to tell you this morning.”
“Tell me what?”
“They’re getting married.” On the last word, she began to cry. “She’s marrying that stupid loser. They were going to break it to me last night. That’s why she went mental when I didn’t eat with them. Tonight we’re going out to dinner so I can get to know my new stepdad better.
“I’d rather die. I don’t want to know him better. I don’t want to know him at all. Mom said that tonight’s celebration dinner is a command appearance, and that I had better be pleasant, if I knew what was good for me.”
She sobbed. “Dad, please, please, please let me come to you. I’ll do anything. I promise. Just don’t make me go back home. I can’t stand it. I really can’t.”
There was a lot of adolescent drama behind that plea. Nevertheless, it wrenched his heart and made him gut-sick that his daughter was so unhappy. It also made him furious at Roslyn for being a dictator rather than using a more diplomatic approach to announce her upcoming nuptials.
He tamped down his anger at his ex and spoke softly and earnestly to his daughter. “Molly, ordinarily I would say yes and to hell with what Roslyn thought about your staying with me for a while. But my situation could turn dangerous. I don’t know that it will come to that, but there’s a chance it will, and I won’t put you at risk.
“Give me a few days to smooth things over, and then I’ll have a face-to-face with your mother and see if we can work out an arrangement that allows you to spend a couple of days a week with me. She may be more agreeable to it now that she’s getting married. It would give her more privacy with her groom.”
“Oh, gawd, don’t make me hurl.”
“Can you hold out for a few days while I try and clear up some matters?”
“Do these matters have to do with the program about the Mellin case and Beth Collins?”
He considered lying, then said, “Yes.”
He looked over at Beth, who was losing her valiant battle with the network. For all he knew, in a few days’ time, matters would be much worse than they were now, but he had to give his daughter some explanation for why he couldn’t shelter her right now.
“Remember I told you that Beth’s job is to make sure that everything is accurate and factual?”
“Some of that program isn’t?”
“Since coming down here, she’s discovered that a lot of it isn’t. Until she green-lights the episode, the network should postpone it. Instead, it’s been bumped up a week. She’s been unable to persuade the powers-that-be to hold off. All to say that by poking into the Mellin case again, Beth and I have ruffled feathers. Angry people are coming at us from all sides.”
“You’re worried about me, but what about you? Are you safe?”
“I’m staying at the cabin, and I can take care of myself.”
“What about Beth?”
“She… she’s made of stern stuff, but, yeah, I’m worried about her safety, too. So you can understand why you’re better off with your mom until this blows over. All right?”
After a long silence, she mumbled, “All right.”
“The best you can do for me is to go home. Go to dinner with them and be pleasant. That’ll get Roslyn off your back.”
“It won’t be easy.”
“Life’s not easy, sweetheart. Nothing about it is easy. Now, got the credit card?”
“Yes.”
“Summon the car. Be sure and take a picture of the driver’s ID and text it to me.”
“Daaad.”
“Just do it. And don’t forget to keep checking behind you. Also, text me as soon as you get home and are inside the house. Keep watchful. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Molly, the only reason I’m turning you down about coming to me is because I love you so much.”
“I know, Dad. I know. I love you, too.”
Chapter 30
Carla had been in a high snit ever since her unwelcome visitors had left the clinic. She’d snapped at patients as they’d filled out admission forms, asking the inevitable dozens of questions. She’d been short with coworkers, even the one who’d covered the desk for her while she was fending off Detective Bowie’s bothersome questions.
Now, on her way home from work, she had been stopped at a railroad crossing for a freight train that had to be the longest in railroad history. As she watched the cars roll past at a snail’s pace, she cursed that damned TV show. Its broadcast tomorrow night was going to resurrect the rabid curiosity over Crissy’s disappearance that had lingered like a stench for months following it.
The crime itself, along with her outspokenness against the police department’s failure to solve it, had given her a celebrity status she’d neither anticipated nor desired. After several months of dodging reporters and curious stares, she’d changed jobs and moved away from the mobile home park where memorials left for Crissy had turned into a soggy, unsightly trash heap. Her goal had been to escape the public eye, fade into obscurity, and eventually attain anonymity.
Now that Crisis Point episode would stir it all up, and she would become an object of curiosity and speculation again. She could kick herself for agreeing to give an interview. But she had, and she couldn’t undo it.
Even Beth Collins, who was one of their own, had said her attempts to halt its airing had been in vain. Of course, her concern was the episode’s inaccuracy and how it was going to ruin careers and trash reputations.