Shauna was only too happy to escape from the sound of Pac-Man. It brought back way too many memories, and even bearding the lioness named Marilyn was preferable to watching Alex playing with Zach.
The salty scent of the sea blew in her open window as she drove to her mother-in-law’s. The quiet drive along the water with the lights of houses glimmering in the dark settled her jitters. She could do this, even though it would be unpleasant. She ran up the windows before she reached the lavender fields. The plants were still in bloom, and the aroma would make her head pound.
The lights were on in the barn and the chicken coop when she pulled into the drive. An incoming text message dinged, and she glanced at it. A friend, Ellie Blackmore, wanted to have lunch, but she turned off the screen. She hadn’t had an outing with a friend since Jack died, and she still wasn’t ready.
She eyed the barn, then got out and headed that way. Marilyn must have gotten to her chores late. Shauna found her mother-in-law in the barn tossing hay to her milk cow, Ellen. She wore a tailored pink shirt over slim gray slacks. She refused to wear jeans, even though Shauna had bought her several for her birthday one year.
Even doing chores, she wore her nice clothes. Though Shauna had never asked Marilyn why she dressed that way, Jack had told Shauna it was part of his mother’s need to control circumstances. Marilyn’s dad had been a high-profile judge who never wore anything but a suit. She’d married Walter, a man just like him, and he’d insisted she present the proper facade to the community. One day she’d dressed in capris in defiance of his decree and had gone for a walk along the beach with Jack. That afternoon Jack’s father choked on a piece of food at a restaurant over lunch and died. Her picture in the capris arriving at the hospital had been on the front page of the paper. According to Jack, she never dressed casually again.
The familiar blend of farmyard smells made Shauna nostalgic. In the early years of her marriage, before Alex came along, she’d spent a lot of time helping Marilyn in the barn. She’d learned a lot about gardening and farm animals. Though, since Jack died, she’d let weeds take over her own small plot of tomatoes and jalapeños.
Marilyn turned to hang the pitchfork on the wall and spotted Shauna by the door. She put her hand to her chest. “Goodness, you about gave me a heart attack. Has something else happened?” She came toward Shauna.
Shauna reached over and plucked a chicken feather from Marilyn’s hair. “Nothing else has happened, but it might. I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Alex, so I came back alone.”
Marilyn lifted a brow and frowned. “Where’s Alex now?”
Here it comes. Shauna wetted her lips. “Well, that’s part of all this. The sheriff thinks it’s possible that whoever killed Lucy and Clarence might hunt for me next. For protection, Zach Bannister has invited us to move into his spare rooms, just until we know Alex and I aren’t in danger.”
Marilyn’s perfectly shaped brows drew together, and her mouth grew pinched. “That’s ridiculous, Shauna. Kick him to the curb and stay here with me. You don’t want to owe that man anything.”
“We’d be no safer with you. You’re in the country as well with no close neighbors. We’d have no protection, and I’d just be putting you in jeopardy as well.”
Marilyn’s scowl deepened. “How can you stand to be around the man who murdered my boy? And to let him be around Alex is worse yet!” She brushed past her and exited the barn.
Shauna followed and pulled the door shut behind her. She hurried to catch up with Marilyn, who was marching toward the house. “I knew you’d be upset, but it seemed to make sense. My dad is never sober enough to be any help. And Zach offered.”
Marilyn swung around with her eyes ablaze. “Of course he did. He’s trying to dump his guilt, but that’s an impossible goal. Nothing he says or does could make up for what he did. Murder. Pure and simple murder.”
Shauna reached toward her, but when Marilyn flinched, she dropped her hand back to her side. “That’s a little harsh. What he did was stupid and foolhardy, but it wasn’t murder. I can see he’s suffered too. He loved Jack. You know he did. They were like brothers.”
“As a kid he was at this house more than he was at his own, and he repaid my kindness by killing my only child.” Marilyn’s voice grew thick with unshed tears. “I can’t even wrap my head around this.” She turned and rushed for the door.
“Don’t tell anyone the real reason we’re there,” Shauna called after her. “I don’t want Alex to be frightened. We can stand a little gossip to protect him.” She hurried toward the porch.
Marilyn slipped inside, and Shauna heard the click of the lock. She shook the doorknob. “Open up, Marilyn. Let’s talk about this.”
There was no reply, but she heard the quick retreat of Marilyn’s feet. Then the living room light went out, and a few moments later, the upstairs bedroom light came on.
Shauna rubbed her forehead. That had played out even worse than she’d imagined. She and Marilyn had never had so much as a spat in all these years. Should she use her key and go in anyway? She shook her head and went to her truck. Maybe if Shauna gave her some time to cool down, Marilyn would be more reasonable tomorrow.
Did she even want to go back to Zach’s yet? She’d rather wait until the TV had fallen silent. She sighed and started the truck. This was going to be her life for a little while. All she could do was pray the sheriff found the people who did this right away so she could expel Zach from her life.
The sound of the video game left Zach feeling a little bereft. He’d misjudged how hard it would be to face the constant reminder that his best friend was dead. Alex was practically asleep sitting up when Zach put him to bed, and the clock by the fireplace had just chimed nine times when headlights swept past the big front windows.
He wiped suddenly damp hands on his jeans as the dogs ran to the front door, stubby tails wagging. Was Shauna going to pack up and leave? It was one reason he hadn’t gone to bed. Marilyn just might have succeeded in derailing this idea, and he had no alternate plan to keep Shauna safe.
The bigger question was, why was it his job to keep her safe when she clearly didn’t want him around? The look on her face across the table over dinner had curdled the pizza in his stomach. Pursed lips, hooded eyes that didn’t meet his gaze, and curt answers to any questions. It was going to be a long, hard few days here. Or however long it took. What if they didn’t find the killer right away? This could drag on in a very painful way.
The lock clicked, and he dropped into a chair by the fireplace and tried to appear nonchalant. She stepped inside and loved on the dogs, who were going crazy with excitement, though they didn’t bark. They only barked when they didn’t recognize someone. They’d taken the arrival of the cat better than Weasley had taken their interest. The cat hadn’t come out from under the couch all night until it was bedtime. He now slept curled on the foot of Alex’s bed.
The light from the chandelier gleamed on her dark hair. She had always been gorgeous, but grief had pulled her strong features into sharp planes and angles that translated into dramatic beauty. She wouldn’t appreciate him saying something like that, though.
He’d always thought Jack was a lucky guy. Not that he’d ever told his friend that. Jack had met Shauna in a coffee shop after she got out of the navy. She was twenty-seven, and Jack was twenty-eight. They married, and a year later Alex was born, and their life seemed set for perfection.
Until Zach’s rashness had ruined it all.
Her expression enigmatic, Shauna glanced his way as she shed her denim jacket. “Alex is in bed?” The dogs followed her to the sofa.
“Yeah, he was about to drop where he sat so I read him The Blessings Jar and tucked him in. He was out before I turned off the light.” He rose and scooped the bowl of popcorn kernels off the coffee table. “Sorry, I should have cleaned up.” He dumped the kernels in the trash, then put the bowl in the dishwasher before he turned back toward her. “How’d it go with Marilyn?”
“Worse than you can imagine. She locked me out of the house.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she twisted around to adjust the afghan that had fallen off the back of the sofa. She’d made it for him for Christmas in a happier time. “She’s always been a mom to me, so it was hard to take.” She sat on the sofa, and Apollo settled at her feet.
“I’m sorry. I could try to talk to her, but I know how well that would go over.”
She shuddered and gave a forced laugh. “I wouldn’t even want to be within firing distance.” Her green eyes looked enormous in her pale face. “She wanted us to move in with her, exactly as I predicted. When I pointed out she couldn’t keep us safe, she stalked off.”
“So you’re not moving back to your house?”
She grabbed a pencil, then wound her hair up on top of her head and stuck it in the wad of locks to hold it. “I don’t have much choice, do I? I can’t say I’m happy about it. It’s harder to be around you than I anticipated.” She pointed to a picture of him at age sixteen BASE jumping with his dad. “Jack took that picture. It’s a reminder of how you always egged him on to bigger dangers.”
She was right. His fingers curled into his palms. “You’re not the only one suffering. I hear Jack’s laugh over your shoulder and look up. I can almost catch a glimpse of him tossing a pillow at me. I miss him too.” He cleared his suddenly husky throat. “I loved him too, Shauna. You can’t really doubt that.”
Artemis, the smaller of his two rottweilers, came to nose at his hand, and Zach petted him. “I’m okay, boy.”
Shauna’s chest heaved as she exhaled, and she went to poke at the fire, dying to embers. The scent of smoke intensified in the room, and it made him think of all the camping trips he’d taken with Jack. The entire day had been almost more than he could take. “Maybe I should go to my room and leave you alone. I know this isn’t easy.” He started for the hall.
“Wait. I’m sorry I’m such a bear. I know you loved him.”
He thrust his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “All I want to do is keep you and Alex safe. This will be over soon.”
Those green eyes were like sea glass, clear and pure, as she stared back at him. A sudden urge to cup her face in his hands startled him, and he took an involuntary step back. “Um, you hungry? There’s a little pizza left. I think I’ll warm up a piece.”
“No, thanks. I don’t think I could eat.” She followed him into the kitchen and settled on one of the bar stools at the island.
He threw a piece of pizza on a paper plate and tossed it in the microwave. He wasn’t sure what to talk about. Was Jack off-limits? It was probably dangerous ground, though the desire to talk about him, to remember, rose in a flood.
The microwave dinged, and he pulled out the steaming pizza and bit into it so he didn’t have to say anything. The house never used to be silent when the three of them were together.
As the silence continued, he swallowed, then joined her at the island. “How’s your dad? You mentioned he’s still drinking. You see him much?”
“I make an obligatory visit every two weeks. He’s gotten worse since Jack died. I’ll have to talk to him about that necklace, but I’m afraid it’s going to send him into a weeklong binge.” Her mouth twisted. “The sheriff said I could take another look at it, but I haven’t had a chance to stop at the jail.”
He grinned and felt the tension roll off. “I made copies of all the photos and took pictures of everything else in the box before I delivered it to the sheriff. I even made an impression of the key.”
Her mouth gaped. “You’re serious?”
“Yep. I thought we might need to go over things to figure this out. Your lives are depending on it.”
“I’m shocked! Can I see?”
He nodded and grabbed a box on the breakfast bar. “Here are the pictures, and here’s the one of the necklace. That’s what you want to see, isn’t it?”
She nodded and reached for the photo. “I have to know if this is Mom’s.” She went through the pictures one by one. “I really think this might be hers, Zach.”
“How did she die? You’ve never really said. You were eight, right?”
At first she said nothing and stepped across the kitchen to get water from the refrigerator dispenser. When she turned back around, her fair skin was as pale as the marble counter. “It’s not something I ever talk about. Jack knew, of course, but it was an incredibly painful time in my life.”
“Forget I asked then. Sorry.”
A lock of hair fell from the knot on her head, and she pushed it out of her face. “Maybe I should talk about it. It might not hurt so much when I have to talk to Pop.” She took a sip and eyed him over the rim of her glass. “It’s not a pretty story, Zach.”
“Losing a parent rarely is. It’s probably why Alex is so well adjusted, even after losing Jack. You know what it’s like, and you were able to help him through it.”
A bit of color came to her cheeks. “You really think he’s doing okay? I’m never sure if I’m doing enough.”
He held her gaze. “You’re an amazing mother, Shauna. The finest I’ve ever seen. Alex is a lucky little boy.”
The column of her neck rippled with the convulsive swallow she made. “Thank you.” Carrying her water, she headed back to the living room. “I think I have to sit down for this.”