“Yeah. That way, you won’t have to go retrieve it tomorrow. I know you’re using the car too.”
“How kind of you,” I say. The feeling of unease that assaulted me the moment I crossed the threshold intensifies. Laura hadn’t stormed off to go get drunk. This much I can vouch for.
“She’s had quite a lot and is sleeping it off,” Frank says. He’s smiling. He has a disheveled look in his normal clothes, not so much a respected authority figure as your typical small-town sexagenarian who looks older than his age and likes to smoke on the porch in good weather.
“And you decided to wait for me,” I say. “Instead of calling Luc.”
He shrugs. “It didn’t look like it was a good idea to leave her alone.”
The place is in chaos. More chaos than there was when I left? I scan the disorder. Laura’s never been too keen on tidying up, so it’s genuinely a little difficult to tell what was like this when I left and what wasn’t. A lamp is on the floor, but intact. My gaze darts to the answering machine, but the light isn’t blinking. In fact, the light isn’t on at all. The machine appears to have been disconnected. I glance quickly at the phone, and then I see it.
The line has been cut.
“I hope she didn’t drive drunk, did she?” I ask, to shift his attention in case he happened to follow my gaze. “Where did you end up finding her?”
“Oh, at Charles’s bar. He had been about to throw her out, so I showed up just in time. It’s my day off, too.”
“I always thought it was curious,” I say, “how she never managed to get a DWI. She doesn’t drink as much nowadays, but I remember, back when I lived here—”
“I guess I always felt bad for her,” Frank says genially. Every word out of his mouth is so damn smooth, so believable, you’d think he’d rehearsed this shit. Pillar of the fucking community, man of the year. “Didn’t want to make her situation worse. And that was when you and Luc were—you know.”
“Well, Luc and I aren’t anymore,” I say. “And haven’t for a long time. And we won’t again. He’s with someone from a good family now.”
“You say that, but I never thought of it this way,” he says. “I’ve always been a believer in not holding anyone’s past, or their origins, against them. I’m all for judging people on their own merits.”
My mind reels. I mustn’t show anything on my face. He doesn’t look like he’d so much as broken a sweat. Laura, I’m convinced, isn’t here. Or not here any longer.
Fear prickles my skin. What’s going on? What on earth did Laura O’Malley ever do to him?
“Well, I’m glad she’s okay,” I say, feeling like an idiot. He has to know I’m on to something. How stupid does he think I am? “Thanks for dropping her off safely. Sorry about your day off.”
“You’re very welcome,” he says, his smile bright and fake. “And I don’t mind. You never have a day off serving your community. And you and I, well, we were practically family at one point.”
Bastard, I think. Where the hell is my mom?
“Of course. I guess you can go home now. Back to your actual family.”
“I’m waiting for my ride. Since I brought her back in her own car and all.”
“Oh.” I gulp, not too visibly, I hope. What I need to do is get out of here. I don’t even need to go that far, just to the next house over, where, hopefully, someone has a working phone I can use. I don’t know yet who I’m going to call or what I’m going to say. I just know I need to get out of here.
“Have a seat,” Frank says genially, pointing at one of the kitchen chairs. “I saw you have coffee in the pantry. Should I make us some?”
“Actually,” I start, suspecting I’m doomed in advance, “I was going to make a little run to the drugstore. I need—” I throw a glance at the bowl on the table. Shit. “Do you happen to have Laura’s car keys?”
To my surprise, he tosses them over. So quickly and without warning that I fail to catch them in midair. They clink pathetically and land on the floor somewhere behind me.
“Oh, no. That was dumb of me,” he says. “You being motorically challenged and all. How is your foot, by the way?”
He makes no attempt to pick up the keys. Neither of us does.
“It’s better,” I say. He’s openly mocking me now, I can tell. He has no intention to let me leave this place.
“Stephanie, I wanted to talk to you about something. Something to do with Laura.”
“What about Laura?”
He has the nerve to look contrite. “I know she’s been having health problems for the last decade and a half…”
“Her cancer,” I say. “Yes, she had cancer. Then she went into remission. And now it came back.”
“Yes,” he says. “You could say that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I’m no longer bothering with the feigned politeness. I glance around me furtively to look for something I could use to defend myself if need be, but I’m not finding a whole lot.
“It came back,” he says, “and I think this time, it’s for good.”
I sit with that for a few seconds.
“What I mean is it’s stage four,” he says. “Stage four means—”
“I know what stage four means,” I interrupt him. I have no idea if he’s lying, but I have a hunch that he’s telling the truth.
“And I think… Laura, well, I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know already when I say Laura’s always had a chip on her shoulder. She blames her misery and her failures on people who had nothing to do with it all, and on this town at large. And with all this stuff with the flood and then the human remains—”
“The child’s body,” I correct him, feeling a vindictive rush.
He glares at me. Now he’s clearly struggling to control his anger. “This body,” he says. “It’s brought out the worst in everyone, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. People talking nonsense and spreading rumors, all in some futile hope for their own moment in the spotlight. Well, Laura is no exception. I know you want to believe her crazy stories because she’s your mother, but Stephanie, you’re a journalist first. You have integrity. Right?”
