Not Even Past (14 page)

Leonard noticed him and excused himself. He joined Martin in the yard.

“Thank you for bringing her here,” Leonard said.

Martin said, “I’m not so sure she wanted to come.”

“How is she doing?” Leonard asked.

Martin crossed his arms and looked up at the sky. “How does she seem in there?”

Leonard shrugged. “Happiest I’ve seen her in six years.”

“How many times have you seen her in the last six years?”

Leonard shook his head.

“I don’t think we can stay long,” Martin said.

“I know.”

The man who was working on his boat started its engine. There was a puff of dark smoke, and it sounded a lot like a lawn mower. The boat sailed toward them, and the driver gave Leonard a wave as he passed. Leonard and Martin both returned it.

“You won’t lose her again, sir.” Sir. Like he was a teenager. He was maybe five years younger than Leonard.

Leonard kicked at a pebble. “I hope not. Let’s go back inside.”

Martin followed him back into the kitchen. William and Jeanne were talking about school and the books William had to read for summer vacation. Jeanne seemed to have kept up on elementary school fiction, because she was able to give William just enough details on the stories to get him excited.

Sarah was on the phone ordering from a pizza parlor.

“Mom,” William said. The kid adjusted quickly. “What happened to my dad?”

Jeanne looked up at Martin again. His knees buckled a little.

“I don’t know, William. Maybe we’ll find out some day.”

“That would be cool,” the boy said. No follow-up questions. The mob would love this kid.

Martin excused himself again. He nodded toward Leonard and went out into the living room. Leonard followed after giving William a noogie.

There was a picture window in the living room that looked out on to their street. Martin gave it a once over and still saw very little out of place. If they stayed here, they’d be endangering the kid.

His
kid. It still sounded weird.

Of course, at this point, if they ran, he didn’t know how far they’d get or—despite his Arizona fantasies—where they would actually go. Leonard tapped Martin on the shoulder.

“I want to know,” Martin said, “how you did it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leonard picked up a framed picture of his family. The three of them were on the beach, in front of the lifeguard stand. Leonard had his arm around Sarah, while Jeanne licked an ice cream cone. The picture was from the eighties and was faded, so the ocean wasn’t deep blue. Leonard placed the frame next to another almost identical picture. This time it wasn’t Jeanne, but William in the forefront of the picture. And instead of an ice cream cone, it was a plastic bottle of water.

“Don’t screw with me, Leonard.” Dispensed with the sir, this time. “I want to know how you faked Jeanne’s death.”

8 Hours Earlier

T
HE CURTAIN
was still drawn, and the doctor was still working. But Jackson’s heart rate had slowed to a more manageable beat.

Kate sat back against the wall of the van, staring at the ceiling. She didn’t speak, and exhaustion hung heavy like a rock in her chest.

Their speed slowed five minutes ago, meaning they’d gotten off the highway. Two hours from Perth Amboy could have meant anything. They could have gone north out of state, or they could be in western New Jersey or even further south. Her phone wasn’t any help. She wasn’t getting any reception. There was probably something to be deduced from that, but it didn’t matter to Kate. What did was Jackson.

And no one was talking to her.

Not that she was pushing the issue. It had taken the better part of these last two hours just to get her emotions under control. She tried screaming at them, asking if he was going to be okay, but she didn’t get any answers. At one point, Stern told her she was distracting the doctor.

The van rattled to a stop, but kept idling. It snapped Kate back to attention, electricity buzzing through her veins.

“He’s stable,” she heard the doctor say.

“Thank god,” she said.

He wasn’t talking to her.

“At least stable enough to get him out of the van. It seems he’s developing a very nasty infection. Lots of antibiotics.”

Stern said, “I will make sure you have what you need.”

“How long until everything is set up inside?”

Kate leaned forward. They weren’t at a hospital? Stern should have been bringing Jackson to the best help available. A private practice, maybe.

The doctor pulled the curtain back. Jackson lay on his back, eyes closed, air mask still covering his mouth and nose. His chest rose and fell steadily. There were two bandages on him, one at his shoulder and another at the side of his chest. A chill ran through her stomach.

She fished out her phone, but still didn’t get reception.

“What are you doing?” Stern asked.

“I’m going to call my dad. Going to tell him everything’s okay.”

Stern shook his head. “You can’t do that.”

Kate looked at her phone. Still no reception.

“You’re right. No bars.”

More head shaking. “Not what I meant.”

Stern stood up and walked around the stretcher. He reached out and put a hand on Kate’s shoulder.

“In less than a month, I will have the most important day of my political career. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“The merger,” she said.

“Right.” Stern took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Kate. Your father means a lot to me, and because of that, so do you. I’m going to make sure Jackson gets well. I promise. But you can’t tell anyone about this. I can’t be seen at the scene of a shootout.”

Kate tilted her head. “Did you call the police?”

“I will be poison. Everything I’ve worked for will be gone, do you understand?”

Kate didn’t respond.

“You called me, Kate. You asked
me
for help. We’re going to take Jackson out of this van, and we’re going to bring to a place where he can get better.”

“Where are we?”

Stern shrugged. “Somewhere safe.”

“He’s my fiancée.”

Stern squeezed her shoulder. “You have to trust me. We’re going to take you home, and—”

“You are not.” Kate shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “You absolutely are not. I’m staying with Jackson.”

“I’m afraid you’ll just get in the way. I promise I’ll keep you posted on his progress.”

The back door to the van opened up. A man in a tank top stood in the street. Kate smelled sea water and heard the rush of waves. Stern got up and went to him. The doctor, the new man, and Stern began to roll Donne’s stretcher out into the street.Their movement kept Kate pinned against the van wall.

She was able to quickly lift her phone and snap a picture of the man in the tank top. Beyond that, she was stuck.

As soon as Jackson was off the van, the back doors slammed shut. Kate leapt up and ran to them. She pushed to open them, but they were locked. There wasn’t an interior switch to push to unlock them.

Kate screamed.

No one responded.

She kept pushing on the doors with no luck.

Five minutes later, she fell to the floor of the van as it peeled out and back on to the street.

T
HEY ATE.

Chicken parm sandwiches and mozzarella sticks for William. Jeanne and Martin took their time eating, trying to enjoy the momentary respite. Sarah and Leonard fussed, going back and forth between bites, trying to get the guest room ready. Martin didn’t want to tell them they weren’t going to stay.

Not yet, anyway.

If William overheard, it might shatter him. The kid had been through enough today. Jeanne finished eating first, and William took her to see his room. Martin wondered if it was instinct, how easily they got along together.

As Martin was wiping the last bit of marinara from the corner of his lip, Leonard came in and pointed toward the back door.

“You wanted me to answer some questions,” he said.

Martin nodded, and they went out to the yard. Leonard tossed a crab trap into the lagoon. The muscles in his forearms strained as he tossed. As the cage splashed into the water, a coughing fit overtook him. Martin stared out at the water until he finished.

“We never catch anything, but it’s fun to try,” Leonard said after he was done gasping for air.

“When I was a kid, we used to catch eels in these cages. Of all the kinds of things you could catch, we caught eels.”

“Did you eat ’em?”

Martin shook his head. “Tossed ’em back.”

“My mom—she was Italian—cooked them up. Everybody caught eels on these lagoons.”

Martin shrugged. “At least you’re catching something.”

They stood in silence for a few moments. A seagull swooped down and snatched something from the surface of the water. He gave his wings a quick flap and was ten feet in the air again, heading off out of sight.

The sky was clear, and a cool breeze followed the gull down the lagoon. It wasn’t a true summer day—one with humidity and unbearable heat. This reminded Martin more of late spring, just before the schools let out. Driving down the highway with the windows open instead of the air-conditioner on. He and Jeanne would get to do that again. Eileen never wanted to.

“How’d you do it?” Martin finally asked.

Leonard nodded while staring in the direction the seagull had gone. “Did you read the police report?”

Martin shook his head. “Car accident is all I know. My chief didn’t want me looking into it. I didn’t really want to. Not the way Jeanne had left. I was hurting enough.”

It sounded more like wallowing than Martin had meant it to. Leonard let it go.

“We burnt her car to a crisp. Only let the license plate survive.”

“You weren’t there that night. You were out pretending to be suicidal to distract Donne.”

Leonard shook his head. “It wasn’t that hard to pretend. My little girl was leaving us.”

“I don’t get it. Who burned the car?”

After rubbing his face, Leonard said, “We lived in Middlesex County a long time. Sarah and I have a lot of friends. We knew a few firefighters who helped out that night.”

“No questions asked?” Martin kicked at a pebble. “I find that tough to believe.”

“I was a computer programmer. Did a lot of work for the town, once wi-fi was in style. Was owed a lot of favors.”

“What about DNA?”

Leonard’s eyes got watery, but the tears did not give way to his cheeks. “We had to cut some of her hair. She lost a tooth.”

“There was a second car.”

“Are you sure you didn’t read the police report?”

“People talk. It was a drunk driving accident.”

“One of the guys we used to light the fire was junking his car anyway. A couple of bottles of Jack, spill some on the front seat, you’re good to go.”

Martin’s gut was churning, and it wasn’t from the chicken parm. This was amateur hour, and he missed it. Too busy caught up in his emotions, too busy hating Jackson Donne for winning and holding on to her. He could have caught up with this and been with her. Helped her.

“It wasn’t a foolproof plan,” he said. “Not even close.”

“It didn’t have to be, we didn’t think. We were grieving parents. We didn’t care about the guy driving the car. We made that clear. We just wanted to remember our daughter.” Leonard exhaled. “The police always have bigger issues. We gave them their out. All we had to do was fool you and Jackson. But Jackson was a drunk, so that wasn’t hard. I’ve been lying to Jackson about a lot of things. Even about you.”

“She didn’t go to Arizona right away, did she?”

Leonard nodded. “We took her to Maryland. She had the baby with a midwife there. Water birth. It was disgusting and scary, but William ended up fine.”

“And you agreed to take him?”

“It wasn’t easy. For any of us. But she was so scared. She had to do this.”

“Why did she have to do it? She mentioned the senator. Stern.”

Leonard looked back at the house. Martin followed his gaze. Sarah was looking through the back door. She nodded at them.

“You’d have to ask my daughter,” Leonard said.

“You know though, don’t you?”

Leonard didn’t answer. He started to walk back toward the house. Martin took a step forward, but movement between their house and the neighbor’s caught his eye. A car had pulled out of the driveway and was rolling down the road. One of the Bakers’ cars.